Beerwah at Night Half Marathon: My First 21.1km Trail Race

I wanted a shiny medal. That was it. That was the whole plan.

So I looked up what races were on near me, and Beerwah at Night came up first. Cross-country. Half marathon. In the dark. Apparently, that counted as enough research for Chooky.

Myself, my son and my daughter all signed up to do the Beerwah at Night Half Marathon.

Now hear me out. I had never completed a half marathon before and do you know what Chooky said? Let's not test the waters and see if this inactive 114kg – 250lbs, 157cm – 5 foot 1 body can complete a normal half marathon. No, no. Let's do a freaking cross-country one and let's do it in the dark. Yep, that sounds like smart choices and sane, right?

I love that about myself. I will always give it a go. Not jump out of a perfectly good plane give it a go, but test my ability, explore, complete an adventure, spend time with the family — I'm your girl.

Beerwah at Night 2020 — The First Time

Saturday, first of February 2020, we lined up to start the half marathon at 6pm. With a six-hour cut-off, we had until midnight to complete our first ever 21.1km race. Spoiler, we did it. An “easy” 5 hours, 51 minutes and 57 seconds. I smashed the cut-off time by a massive 8 minutes. Kickass....

Mother and daughter bonding time.

The race itself had 201 competitors, three of them being us. Ethan had decided he wanted to run and did an amazing job, finishing in 86th position. Can we guess who took 201st position?

The poor little bugger had to wait in the dark for his mum and sister for over three hours. Oopsie..... And to put the cherry on top of the icing on the cake, he was also heading to Kapooka for basic training for the Australian Defence Force the very next day. It's safe to say he went into the Army's boot camp a little worse for wear.

Tearri, on the other hand, stayed behind to walk the race with me. Don't get me wrong, we started off so strong walking the fire trails and thought we were going to smash it. Then darkness fell upon us.

Not too long into nightfall, my head torch decided to crap out on me. Good times.... Tearri, being the ever-supportive daughter, gave me hers. She is always that considerate. After about an hour or so, we came across a gentleman on his second lap completing the full marathon and he so kindly gave Tearri his spare head torch. Which I stole also.

The terrain at Beerwah is a mix of dirt trails, loose gravel and uneven ground, with plenty of hills thrown in for good measure. Once the sun goes down, the track feels completely different, with your head torch lighting only the few metres directly in front of you. You have to watch every step, especially for rocks, roots and changes in the trail.

I was slipping and sliding all over the place. I had completely worn the wrong shoes. Not sure what I thought I was getting myself into, but do you think I wore my hiking shoes? No, not even close. I wore my walking Skechers. Smart move Chooky. Smart move.

Tearri even had to push me up a steep hill. It was dark, I was scared and I just couldn't pull my weight up there. I am so thankful for Tearri that night. I would not have made it without her help, support and encouragement.

The worst part of the night was definitely when we both thought we were at the finish, only to be told we had about another 2km to go. We were both done and those last 2km were definitely the hardest. Now, was it because we were already exhausted, done and just wanted off the mountain? Hard to say, but from my recollection it sucked all the life out of me.

Finally, we saw the lights of the finish line. We crossed and had a medal presented to us to say we had completed our first half marathon. Turns out it was the first of many.

But now, looking back at the extremely overweight me who started a new diet every Monday and went to the gym constantly, SHE rocked. I had lost weight and gained it back a million bloody times. I would try. I would fail. Then I would try again.

I am proud of her.......

Ethan – 2:48:09 – 86/201

Tearri – 5:51:40 – 200/201

Chooky – 5:51:57 – 201/201

Four years later, I wanted to know how much that girl had changed.

Ethan was still away with the Army. Tearri's knees had had enough of Beerwah's trails, so she sat this one out. Grundy — knowing full well I wasn't doing this alone in the dark again — volunteered as tribute.

A lot had changed in those four years. 👉 Grundy got cancer and suddenly I couldn't keep being unhealthy and become another person he needed to worry about or look after. I needed to step up and support my man. His cancer made me look at my own life and think, WTF was I doing? I wanted to live a long, healthy life.

Four Years Later — Back to Beerwah

Chooky and Grundy, doing what we did best - having adventures together. 😂🧡

This was a special event for me. Not only was I going back to put another Beerwah at Night to bed, I was doing it with my hubby — and that made it all the more special.

This would be the only event we did together.

I can't believe how much fitter I was. The fact that we ran some of it and I still almost came last. It's the irony of it all really. Thinking heck yeah, look at us. We train a lot. We work out. I got this in the bag. Not to win, I don't train like that, but surely........

Anywho, I kicked my own butt's record by over an hour and a half. I spent a few precious moments with Grundy that I will cherish, and those last 2km kicked both our butts.

I had not over-exaggerated them in my mind for the last four years. Nope. They were still horrendous.

I added two photos of us from that race because honestly, we had a great time and even at the end the cheeky bastard sprinted to beat me by a second. The photographer captured a beautiful moment in time. A segment of our story 30 years in the making.

Grundy sprinting at the finish just to beat me. Of course he did.🧡

No medal, though. Beerwah had stopped handing them out and I was absolutely devastated. What do you mean I just spent four and a half hours of my life physically exhausting myself and where was my shiny participation award? I won't even sign up for a race now without checking there's a medal at the finish line. I earned that goddamn bloody medal.

Jason – 4:16:13 – 183/188

Chooky – 4:16:14 – 184/188

Was I fit enough to do Beerwah at Night in 2020? Absolutely not. Did I do it anyway? Absolutely. Did I let it hold me back? Again, absolutely not.

I look back at that girl now and I feel sorry for her. She struggled so much. She tried so hard and she failed a million times.

But what she didn't fail at was trying.

Even when 👉 parkrun took her over an hour and she was exhausted at the end, she went back the next week and tried again. She never gave up.

And I am so bloody proud of her.

Because 2020 Chooky kept trying long enough for this Chooky to exist.

Come Chase Life With Me

Have you done a night trail run? Did your head torch survive? Tell me in the comments.

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Chooky xx

Embracing the slow. Chasing the now.