It was an action-packed weekend just gone with races big and small taking place across many a State. If you want to catch-up on all the results, take a peek to see if any of your mates featured in the honours list this weekend…

The Down Under 135

We’ll begin with a race we previewed last week, the Down Under 135 miler, which by all accounts was an absolute beast of a run. It was a case of slogging it out, even in the first 80kms as the leaders averaged around 4-5km p/h on what has been described as ridiculously technical terrain.

Things sped up a little after the 80km mark, but still the eventual winners (or rather survivors) came home together, Kev Muller and John Salton in a whopping 39 hours and 34 minutes. At one point during the ‘out’ I did wonder if anyone would finish this race, but in the end we had five finishers I believe.

This one sounds like a very tough cookie and probably ranks as one of the hardest ‘runs’ in Australasia now I would say.

The Jabulani Challenge

Taking things down a notch, and the Jabulani Challenge took place on Saturday, a mere 45kms of blissful running in the NSW bush. Following the disappointment of the Mount Solitary cancellation, Mark Green lined up and took out the honours to win in a time of 3hrs 55mins. Roderick Chisholm and Ondrej Pavlu were second and third in times of 3hrs 59mins and 4hrs 7mins respectively.

In the ladies event, Central Coast runner, Melissa Robertson won in a time of 4hrs 47mins with Monika Ludriks (4:54) second and Suzanne Kelly (4:57) third.

Canberra ultra marathon

Yesterday, the Canberra marathon kicked off in wet and windy conditions with Barry Keem winning the 50km ultra in 3:05, Brendan Davies second in 3:10, fine-tuning his preparation for another tilt at Comrades and Jim Ponton third in 3:28.

In the ladies, Betty Bohane won in a time of 3:42, followed by Kaori Hirakawa in 3:49 and Lilian Molesworth in 3:50.

Oxfam Melbourne Trailwalker

And finally down in Victoria again, one of the biggest participant ultras saw team ‘Dog Day Afternoon’ (David Overend, Daniel Langelaan, Stephen Rennick and Daniel Nunan) take the win in a time of 11hrs 25mins. Second overall and first female team was ‘The Sweat Life’, consisting of Samantha Gash, Lucy Bartholomew, Katherine Macmillan and Jo Brischetto in a time of 11hrs 51mins. Finally, in third place was team ‘Foleys List’, consisting of Andy Turner, Brad Fuller, Simon Marcus and Nick Bryant in 12hrs 38mins.

Feature Image Credit: Bin Wong Photography (John Salton and Kev Muller at the DU135)

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Dan

I'm a mediocre runner who can bat above his average when I train hard. A man of extremes, I do enjoy everything life offers and consider it an absolute pleasure just to be able to put one foot in front of the other and let my mind wander somewhere different.