Highs & Lows Of The 48Hr with Allicia Heron

Contributed by Allicia Heron, AURA Member (Theodore, ACT)

SRI CHINMOY 48HR TRACK FESTIVAL (AURA 48HR CHAMPIONSHIPS),

AIS ATHLETICS TRACK (CANBERRA), 25-27 March 2022 (1^st Female, 48hr)

I arrived at the track with a car load of ‘stuff’ and thought to myself, ‘Alright, here we go, 48 hours of running..what am I doing?’. However, as soon as I stepped on the blue track, it brought back memories of last year’s race and it somehow calmed every nerve I may have had.

At 10am we began. Starting the race I felt great, and I soon started to execute the plan I had in place and settled into the routine I had planned. Things were going well, and in comparison to last year, I pushed back the sleep to chase the goals I had in mind. At the 24hr mark, I had exceeded my initial goals for the event – securing an Australian qualifier for the Aussie 24hr team.

Fast forward to Saturday afternoon. It was hot. Too hot. I was thrilled when the crew provided me with Zooper Doopers and cups of ice. I had never imagined that a cup of ice would be as amazing as it was! Between the heat, and the increasing fatigue, I could no longer focus and I started questioning everything, so I took my first nap around 30hrs into the event. If I was to continue, I needed to listen to my body, and stop, rest, and let my core temperature settle.

When night fell on the Saturday night, much like last year, the mighty Canberra Raiders were playing in the stadium next door. It was great to have some distraction and noise coming onto the track. There were a few of us doing the Viking clap whilst we were running around, which was a welcome break from the monotony of the field as we all started to struggle, with the exception of the 12hr competitors who didn’t seem like they were approaching the end of their event.

In the early hours of Sunday morning I hit a big low. I needed to stop and reset myself as every second lap (so a total of 800m) I was nauseous. I came in to my crewing area and said I need to stop. I needed 15 minutes, I needed to sleep. So, much to my delight, I sat down on my chair and I went to sleep! I was completely out of it for 15 entire minutes. It was amazing. Waking up was a different story though, I didn’t want to get out of that chair.

All of a sudden I had a coffee and hash brown shoved in my face and was told to drink and eat. A few minutes later, I was back out there, on that blue track…layered up for the first time, and walking a few laps to allow myself to warm up again. To my surprise I felt alive again, and before I knew it, layers were off and I was back to shuffling (in my head though, it was lightning fast running, however I am fully aware it was not). Only 4.5hrs to go!

Shortly after sunrise, as I was continuing my routine of shuffling and walking straights and curves, AURA’s Stephen Redfern surprised me by asking if I knew I was breaking my age category record? I had no idea! This drove me to dig deeper and hold it together for the remaining hours with my 100m runs and 100m walks.

At 46:52:00 I reached the 200 mile mark and this blew my mind – this had been a stretch goal and I still had just over an hour up my sleeve to push things a bit further!

When the countdown finished, I placed my drink bottle (race number marker) on the track and was met by family and crew. I think I cried, it’s a bit of a blur as I began to process what I achieved this weekend.

Pictured: Allicia Heron reaching the 200 mile mark. Photograph – Supplied.