REDFERN AND HIS 24HR INVITATIONAL

Contributed by Stephen Redfern, AURA member

Australian 24hr Track Invitational, AIS Canberra, 24-25 July 2020

Okay, it’s been a few days now since the Australian 24hr Track Invitational down at the AIS Track in Canberra and after needing a few days to process my run, I just wanted to put into a few words how it all unfolded for me, and not having it go to plan.

I managed to achieve 140kms after 14hr of running. It wasn’t exactly what I was after and certainly way down on what I have achieved in the past with my other 24hr track races.

To start with, I had decided to retire from the race after 14hr, having my legs starting to feel very sore from about the 8hr mark and way more than they should have at that point into a race. I continued on to the 12hr halfway point and knew that the legs just were not right. 

After remembering once what one of my mentors Martin Fryer said to me about the 12hr mark, I decided to keep running for the next 2 hours up to the 14hr point in the race. My pace had considerably slowed at this point and I was doing everything to just push through the pain and maintain a steady run, but used this 2 hours to really process where I was and how I was feeling.

It was certainly not an easy decision to make, and one I haven’t had to do before, but realised that it was going to be a sensible decision and one I felt I needed to do.

With having an amazing 1st half to 2020, running in the HK4TUC, doing the Quarantine Backyard Ultra, the 360km Iso run around my garage, Creeks to Peaks FKT, along with a few other big runs and lots of training due to being off work for a number of months, I knew that I just had way too many kilometres in the legs and not really having any time off.

My lead into the race felt perfect and also everything else about the run was working the best I have ever had in a 24hr race. 

My training was very focused for the last 2 months on the track run, and I was also able to bring in a new race strategy, improving on my nutrition plan as well, with a special thanks to both Rebekah and Gavin Markey from Tailwind Nutrition Australia who are always there fully supporting me in my adventures and racing. Both of which worked perfectly for me on the day. They were certainly great positives that I will take away with me.

But I guess you can sometimes have what you feel is a perfect race, but then you do have to listen to yourself and make the hard decisions for the better and for long term.

It’s taken me a few days to process this, and am still coming to terms with it, but with some great mentors out there and listening to them, I will rest up from this run and re-focus on what I would like to do looking to the rest of the year and build them back up to some new race goals.

Outside of my run, the race produced some amazing results and congratulations to Joasia Zakrzewski and fellow Trailblazers Joe Ward for taking out the race wins and amazing totals, in what was some trying conditions throughout the night, and to Matty and Katie Eckford for putting on a great event in what has been some really difficult times.

The greatest part of track racing is being able to share the experience with such great friend including Simone Hayes and Luca Turrini and also with Nikki Wynd and John Yoon who were running their race virtually down in Victoria.

Lastly, I can’t sign off without a very heartwarming thank you from my beautiful wife Penny, whose support of my running and knowing how to crew for me so perfectly is just amazing. She stood by me in all the conditions of the weekend flawlessly crewing for me as well as being fully supportive of my decision to stop.

Pictured: Stephen Redfern, far right in the red, at the Australian 24hr Track Invitational at the weekend. Photograph – Supplied/Facebook.