AGE GROUP RECORDS FOR WILSON AT INVITATIONAL

Kate Dzienis • July 30, 2022

Contributed by Greg Wilson, AURA member (Kyneton, Vic) & Christy Lambert, AURA member (Romsey, Vic)

AUSTRALIAN 24 HOUR TRACK INVITATIONAL, CANBERRA (ACT), 2-3 July 2022

Christy Lambert’s previous visit to the Australian Institute of Sport’s (AIS) track in Canberra was about 25 years ago. The 17-year-old aspiring 400-metre hurdler completed the grueling event and promptly bounded up into the stands to chat with her support team. Her coach (Olympian Pam Ryan) asked Christy to turn around and look down at the track. Her opponents were all still sprawled on the track in varying stages of exhaustion. This learning experience may well have been to show Christy that she could have put more into the event, but much more likely it was to bring home the depth of Christy’s running endurance.

Fast forward to Saturday, 2 July 2022 and Christy’s second attempt at running for 24 hours, a few months after debuting with victory in the Victorian 24 Hour Championship at Coburg (175km). With a sensible, conservative start Christy was able to overcome the bitterly cold conditions and various health ailments, to achieve 1st Female victory in the Open Event with a new Personal Best of 184.044km.

By remarkable coincidence this was right in the middle of the distances achieved by training partner Greg Wilson on debut at Coburg back in 1992 (181.1km) and Wollongong 1994 (189.9km). This was around the same period that Christy was exuberantly bounding up the AIS grandstand!

The last time Wilson was at the AIS track was in February this year when after a break of 25 years he had a belated attempt at a long standing 100 Mile Australian Age Record held by ‘folk legend’ Cliff Young (Male 65-69 of 22:28:05). Having only one 6 Hour event, due to years of Covid cancellations and a bad injury, it was ‘highly ambitious’ to, at 69, attempt a record that ‘Cliffy’ set in 1988 aged 65!

So it proved, as after 15 hours of running and still 1hr 30m in front of record pace, Wilson retired from the event.

Again moving on to the present and in the same event as Christy, it was time for his first serious attempt at the records in his new M70 age group. It must be said that if aiming to complete a 24 Hour event it is not a good race plan, to attempt a series of records at intermediate distances. Going too hard early is a recipe for much discomfort later. However if you doubt you can even complete the long distance, then it would be foolhardy to bypass records along the way. Hence the plan was to aim for intermediate records, use up the petrol doing so and whatever happens later, was probably going to occur anyway!

Australian M70 Age Group Records set on 2-3 July 2022:

6 Hour 61.9km (was 58.531km John Nuttall 2022)
50 Mile 8:32:39 (was 8:38:23 Harry Davis 2014)
100km 11hr 15m (was 11:42:29 John Nuttall 2022)
12 Hour 106km (was 102km John Nuttall 2022)

Wilson: In March with one 6 Hour under my belt, I went to Canberra at 69 (Sri Chinmoy) with the belated (and cheeky) thought that I could attempt the oldest M65 record on the books (100 Mile Cliff Young 22:28:05 at 65yo). Not really believing. I lasted 15 hours (115km) and went home, though 1hr 30 ahead of record pace.

Once more back in Canberra I was again in my tent at 15 hours. Got back out and finished, along the way surpassing Cliffy’s mark by 1min 38 sec, while not even aware of it, as not on my M70 list!

At the Invitational: By the time I passed the first record I was not feeling great, so had a brief break and resumed at a slower pace. That wasn’t going to achieve an 80km record, so there were 10 laps back down to my early pace, to nab it by 6 mins.

A few slow laps to recover from the effort and then picked up the pace again, prior to a brief break and then settling on 3 laps run/3 laps walk. The calculation was this should be sufficient to attain the 100km/ 12 hour marks. This was the case as I was able to shave over 27 mins off the 100km and accrue an extra 4km for the 12 Hour.

All that effort and we were now only halfway. 8pm on a frigid Canberra night and the next record mark seemed mentally and physically impossible, over 10 hours away!

I walked. Later on when told I would need to run to be in the record ‘ballpark’, I tried running a few. Nope! I was having trouble going in a straight line on the track and knew from my ancient history that it was not a good sign. I managed a good period of 3 laps run/3 laps walk. The problem was this had been devised to maintain record pace and both my walking and running speed had deteriorated badly. ‘Losing my rudder’ after 328 laps I steered it towards my collapsed tent, wrapped myself in a doona and just lay there.

I could hear crew member Frankie lying straight faced to the Race Director saying ‘Don’t worry, it’s all part of the plan.’ Christy was still out there, gamely completing laps, while no doubt feeling as bad as I did. Crucially the thought that this exactly what transpired at 15 hours last time I was in Canberra.

Eventually although with no plan, I stumbled back out to the track (lap 327 took 47min 50s!) and walked…then ran. I can’t remember doing it for 6 hours but I settled into walking the bends and running the straights. Matthew Eckford (RD) asked at one stage if I was aiming for 100 Miles (meaning the record) and I replied, ‘That’s the intention!’ (meaning by the end of 24 hours).

As I came closer to the 22 hour mark, I realised that I was going to finish this thing and that the 100 Mile record was still a possibility. So it transpired:

100 Mile 22:26:27 (was 22:39:55 Deryck Skinner 2005)
24 Hour 170.5km (was 166.33km Deryck Skinner 2005)

I hadn’t paid much attention to what these final two were, as they seemed a most unlikely achievement. With a few laps to go it sunk in that I had already passed the 24 Hour record, so I just walked, smiled, danced around Christy and just made sure I got over 170km, as it was a nice round number.

Pictured: Christy Lambert and Greg Wilson at the 2022 Australian 24 Hour Track Invitational. Photograph – Supplied.

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AUTRA News Report 19-02-2025

By Kate Dzienis • February 19, 2025

The latest in race results, covering Cradle Mountain Run, City Run, Oscars 100 Hut 2 Hut and Yaberoo Trail Ultra.

Final 2024 Points Competition Results

By Alexis Oosterhoff • January 30, 2025

Results for the 2024 AUTRA Points Competition have been finalised, and are available on our Points Competition page. Full details of the top 10 (as shared on Facebook during January) are detailed below, and results for all participating AUTRA members can be found in the documents at the above link. It was a real battle throughout the year between our top two finishers, Phil Gore & Kevin "BK" Matthews, with both giving it their it their all at events, and through contributions to the community - volunteering at multiple events, and submitting articles to our monthly newsletter, Ultramag. They finished within 2km of total distance for the year (Phil on 1203.087km, and Kevin on 1205.510km), and it was only Phil's final volunteering effort on 6 Inch Trail Marathon in December that gave him the that very narrow victory. As you'd be aware from previous communications, this marks the end of the Points Competition. With trail running (of all distances) now incorporated into AU T RA's constitution, and after careful consideration of the costs of the competition payouts in it's current form, the committee felt it was time for it's retirement. This marks my seventh and final year of delivering the points competition to membership (2018-2024), after taking on the role from Cheryl Symons. It has brought me great joy in doing so, and I feel like I've had an opportunity to get to know so many of our members through seeing their race (and volunteering) performances over the years! I'm continuing in my role as the AUS/NZL statistician for DUV (from whom we shared the data for the points comp), and you can expect to continue to find your ultra-race result on their site. 1st Place - Phil Gore (WA) - 86 points Phil's achievements this year have included a massive 265.653km (and 2nd place) at the IAU 24h Asia & Oceania Championships, wins at the Red Dirt Backyard Ultra (33 laps), the Australian leg of Big Dog's Backyard World Team Championship (96 laps), and the Soochow/Taipei 24h Ultramarathon (270.826km). He also knocked out an easy (!) 72km at the Light Horse Ultra 24h in between supporting his amazing wife Gemma. Those two 24h wins netted Phil new Oceania 24h Open Male records, IAU Level 1 qualifiers, and pushed him to the top of Australia's 24h trophy board (with only the great Yiannis Kouros having run further). Phil topped-up his points by contributing one article to Ultramag, worked as an Event Director at Herdy's Frontyard Ultra, and volunteered at a further five events through the year. He finished on 86 points. 2nd Place - Kevin Matthews (WA) - 84 points Finishing in 2nd place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Kevin Matthews. He monstered his way through the year with finishes at Australia Day Ultra 100km, Delirious WEST 200mi, 24 laps at Herdy's Frontyard Ultra, 190km at Light Horse Ultra 24h, 23 laps at Birdy's Backyard Ultra, and also completed Feral Pig 100 miler, Sandman 50km and Six Inch 47km. And to top things off, he contributed five articles to Ultramag, and volunteered at five events. BK ran 1205km in Ultramarathon races this year, all of them AUTRA-listed, and surpassed 100 marathon finishes (including 51 Ultramarathons!) Kevin finished the year on 84 points, a massive 34 points ahead of our 3rd place finisher Sue Robertson. 3rd Place - Sue Robertson (WA) - 50 points Finishing in 3rd place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Sue Robertson. Sue completed the Ultra Series 100 miler trilogy of Delirious WEST, Irrational SOUTH and Unreasonable EAST, and rounded out her year with the Sandman 50km and Six Inch 47km races. She received 30 points from the racing at AUTRA-listed events, and was awarded a further 20 points by volunteering across eight events and contributing two articles to Ultramag, for a total of 50 points for the year. Thank you Sue! 4th Place - Margie Hadley (WA) - 47 points Finishing in 4th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Margie Hadley . She was the top-female finisher at both the No Time to Die Frontyard Ultra & Wild Dog Backyard Ultra, 2nd at Birdy's Backyard Ultra, ran 182km at the Australian 24h Track Invitational and placed 3rd at Coast to Kosci. Margie received 47 points in the competition 5th Place - Melissa Robertson (NSW) - 44 points Finishing in 5th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is NSW's Melissa Robertson. Melissa took out 1st place at Irrational SOUTH 200 miler, 2nd place at Lakes Trail Festival 100km, 1st place at Hume & Hovell 100 miler, 3rd place at Rumble in the Jungle and 6th place at Ultra-Trail Kosciuszko 100 miler! She also volunteered at the GNW 50km event, receiving 44 points in the competition! 6th Place - Aaron Young (WA) - 42 points Finishing in 6th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Aaron Young . Aaron finished in 1st place at each of the Ultra Series "Triple Crown" of 200 milers (Delirious WEST, Irrational SOUTH and Unreasonable EAST), 55 laps at Big Dog's Backyard World Team Championship, and rounded his year out with Feral Pig 100 miler. Aaron receives 42 points, just nudging ahead of Maree Connor (who also finished on 42 points) on a count-back 7th Place - Maree Connor (NSW) - 42 points Finishing in 7th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is NSW's Maree Connor. Maree had an outstanding year, achieving 2nd place with 221km (and an IAU Level 1 qualifier) at the IAU 24th Asian and Oceania Championships, 1st place at the Lakes Trail Festival 100km, 1st place with 67km at the Southern Sydney 6h race, and 1st place with 116km at the Narrabeen Allnighter 12h. Maree also competed at Spartathlon race this year (for which she contributed an article to the September Ultramag on her experience), receiving 42 points in the competition. 8th Place - Darren Linney (SA) - 41 points Finishing in 8th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is SA's Darren Linney . Darren completed 34 laps at No Time to Die BYU, 199km at the Adelaide 24h race, and 814km at the Australian 6 Day race, for a total of 1241km raced and 41 points . 9th Place - Tristan Cameron (WA) - 40 points Finishing in 9th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Tristan Cameron. Tristan completed the Ultra Series Triple Crown of 200 mile races (Delirious WEST, Irrational SOUTH and Unreasonable EAST), along with Feral Pig 100 miler, for a total of 1154km raced and 40 points. 10th Place - Jen Millum (WA) - 39 points Finishing in 10th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Jen Millum . Jen finished 1st at all three of the Ultra Series Trilogy of 100 milers (Delirious WEST, Irrational SOUTH and Unreasonable EAST), and was 2nd female with 35 laps at the Wild Dog Backyard Ultra. With a volunteer stint at the Yaberoo Trail Ultra, Jen finished the year with 39 points in the competition. To view the complete list of members who secured points in 2024 click here and then follow through to Points Summary under the 2024 tab. All winners have already been contacted, with cash prizes distributed for 1st - 7th places, and AUTRA Store vouchers sent for 8th, 9th & 10th.