It is over 2 months since the Twilight Running festival this year, and I am only just writing about it. No other reason than laziness to be honest. I sit here in front of a roaring fire at a Farm stay holiday near Maidenwell in Queensland and feel the urge to write.
The Twilight festival was to be my first race of 2019, I was taking on the half-marathon distance as a test to see how I was progressing towards the Gold Coast marathon, which is my main event this year. It is the first race since the Blackall100 50k ultra I did last year, which is unusual as in recent years I have entered various trail races early in the year. I also hadn’t run a twilight race since 2014 at Wynnum.
The festival is a twice-yearly event held at St Lucia in April and Wynnum in September. There are a bunch of races held, which cater for everyone. From the 1km dash for the kids to the 5km, 10km and half-marathon events for everyone else. The event starts in the afternoon at around 4pm, with the half-marathon starting at 5pm with a finish of between 6:15pm and 7:30pm or so.
The idea is that the run is held during “twilight” while the sun sets. A great idea in theory, going against the usual races starting early in the morning. For the 5km and 10km races this idea works great as the evening draws in during the races with the sun setting around the finish of the 10km race. The half-marathon however can be tricky, as the first 10km or so have the same setting but the rest of the race ends up being in complete darkness in some parts of the course. The finish at the St Lucia athletics track is great, there is an awesome atmosphere at the end of the race.
This was also the first race where I would be wearing “EPRS” or Everton Park Running Club colours. EPRS was born out of a bunch of likewise thinking guys who knew each other through Mitchelton parkrun or in some cases churches that we belong to in the Brisbane North West area. There’s about 10 to 12 members of EPRS, of all ages. We run regularly together on Sundays for the weekly long run, sometimes on Tuesdays for a track session and mostly catch up on Saturdays for the weekly parkrun. It’s fantastic to have a bunch of great guys to run and share life with, it’s just a shame some of them don’t like trails and hills that much! I am still trying to convince them all to join me at Blackall this year!
Most of us were running the half-marathon and were all roughly together at the start of the race. We all ran different paces and ended up with different times, but knowing the other guys were out there and shouting encouragement as we passed each other was awesome.
The course is 2 laps heading out from outside the athletics track at St Lucia, down Sir William McGregor Drive alongside the Brisbane River past the Eleanor Schonell bridge for just under 2km before turning back towards the bridge. We would then cross over the bridge and head down T. J. Doyle Memorial Drive onto the Brisbane Corso to just after the 5km mark before heading back roughly re-treading our steps. This would mean 4 crossings of the Eleanor Schonell bridge in total, which was going to be very interesting. There wasn’t a massive amount of elevation, but enough of a pinch to make it hurt by the 4th crossing on the way to the finish line.
I started out with Steve, who I run with the most. We are similarly paced so often stick together at least at the early stages of a race. I am always trying to get him to slow down, but nearly always fail. So, I ended up trying to run at his pace, which although was ok for the first 10km or so was a mistake in the second half. The rest of the EPRS guys shot off in front of us and that’s the last we saw of them until after each turnaround.
My plan had been to run at just under 5min/km in order to come in at around 1 hour and 43 mins. This pace would have matched the training paces I had set myself for the upcoming Gold Coast marathon and would have confirmed if I had been on track. One thing I hadn’t done or planned to do was taper, I wasn’t sure if it was a wise decision or not, but it was too late to worry about it now.
The evening was beautiful as we headed onto Sir William McGregor drive, it wasn’t too warm but there was no wind to speak of either. I was feeling great and as per usual set off a little too fast. I just never seem to learn. The first km wasn’t too bad at 4:50min/km, but the second was a little quicker. Calm down I thought, the bridge is coming up and I need to back off. I naturally slowed over the bridge, but as soon as I came off the other side, I sped up again and by the turnaround at 6km I had clocked in a couple of 4:45min kms.
Just before the turnaround on the Corso though, I spotted some friends; Josh and Grace who had come down specially to cheer us all on. It was awesome to see them there and gave me a real boost when I saw them, it might well have contributed to the fast 6th km! They actually stayed for the whole race even when it got completely dark.
Dusk was coming in quick and the sky was a lot darker now heading back towards the dreaded bridge. I was still feeling good though, even though Steve had pulled away from me by this stage. Steve is an amazing runner considering what he is going through, at the time he didn’t realise what exactly, but it didn’t stop him from putting us younger guys to shame. That is Steve’s story to tell but what I admire in him is his courage, commitment to God and the deep love for his family he shows while facing these challenges.
I managed to cross the bridge well and sailed down the other side and headed back towards the athletics track for the halfway mark. I had just passed 10km and had backed off a little. It was pretty much completely dark now, although this part of the course was well lit.
It was at this point right on the turnaround, only 11km into the race that I started feeling decidedly fatigued. It came on really strong and I had to fight to keep my pace up. I’m sure looking back, it was combination of going out a little too fast and the two little sharp climbs up and over the bridge so far, and I still had another two to go. Oddly enough I managed to keep my pace up whilst on the third climb, and managed to start feeling better on the other side for the 14th km. I managed to keep it up for the next km and gave Josh and Grace another wave. It was almost pitch black on the Corso now, the lighting was terrible. I have never been great at running in the evening to be honest.
Just before the last turnaround on the Corso though the fatigue hit again. This time, I backed off whether I wanted to or not. I just could not keep the pace up, and slowed to a 5:03min km. From then on it just got worse, I kept slowing and could not do anything about it. The final bridge climb nearly finished me, and almost ended up walking. I kept going and even though that km was 5:36min I kept going, knowing that I only had just over 1km left. By this stage I had completely lost Steve, he was way ahead of me.
I managed to speed up a little for the last km and finished stronger than I thought I would be considering the fatigue I was feeling. As I ran on to the track for the last 100m, the EPRS guys cheered me through to the finish. They had finished a few minutes before me and were already relaxing at the finish line.
My finish time was 1hour 46mins and 50secs. Not exactly what I had hoped for, but nowhere near as bad as it could have been. It was also a Twilight Festival PB, nearly 4mins quicker than my time at Wynnum 5 years ago.
Overall, it was a good evening out. It was great to do the race with the EPRS guys, who have become firm friends over the last 2 years. I could have been disappointed with the time, but I had to be realistic. I had to reset my expectations for training times and goals for the Gold Coast marathon, but in the end that was the aim of the race.
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