While he has completed six Gold Coast Marathons before the 2021 version, Shepparton's Steve Trevaskis has never felt at home as much as he did for his seventh attempt.
That's because the 57-year-old was forced to start and finish this year's race at Victoria Park Lake in Shepparton because of Queensland's recent COVID-19 lockdown, which cancelled the yearly event.
While the three-day, circuit-breaker lockdown ended before the July 4 event, the committee decided to cancel the formal run, leaving Trevaskis with no other option than to make his own course up.
“It was all done in the one hit and had to be done in one attempt,” he said.
“I started at the Shepp lake and did four 10.5 km out and back (loops).
“I had a group from the (Shepparton) runners club with me and they helped pace me.
“Some of the runners with me wanted to run 10 km, others 20 and others 30.
“Sam Daniel didn't compete, but he did the whole 42 km as a training run.
“I stayed on target up until the 25 km then I dropped off.”
Trevaskis said while major marathons had official pacers, the fact he did not have those this time around did not make as big a difference as he thought it might.
However, he said it was the weather that was the biggest difference.
“The biggest difference was the temperature,” he said.
“It was five degrees (celsius) when I started and on the Gold Coast it would have been 14 degrees (celsius).
“I prefer the colder weather to run in.
“Not having a (big crowd) was also a difference."
Trevaskis finished in a time of 5:37.13 and he was happy to cross the finish line in front of family and friends.
“I was happy to finish,” he said.
“Because of my age, 57, I'm starting to slow down.
“This marathon was pretty close to two hours slower than the first one I did in my 20s.
“My body is telling me this was the last one.
“I'm happy with the time and happy to finish, but I can't keep doing them like I used to.”
While his body is telling him to slow down, Trevaskis is keen to test himself in the Shepparton half-marathon on August 22, which is part of the Shepparton Running Festival.
While this was his seventh Gold Coast Marathon, Trevaskis has ran 38 in total at other locations including Shepparton, Melbourne, Canberra, Marysville and Williamstown.
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