Well it’s official, parts of Australia were the hottest places on the planet yesterday. Here in Sydney, Penrith just fell shy of 48 degrees and in my locale of Sydney we managed nearly 44. So it was a good job the Narrabeen marathon I ran in as part of the Narrabeen All nighter started at 3am! In the main event, congrats to Luca Turrini (134kms) and Alia Karaman (108kms) for their respective wins in the 12 hour event.

If you’ve not run the Narrabeen race, it’s a lovely low-key one to get involved with on an out and back 5km trail that runs by the lake. Especially good for those people who have families too as you have the benefit of being able to run all night when there are no childcare demands on you. The only slight downside is when you get home and have to look after the kids having run for 12 hours. Minor details though 🙂

But it wasn’t all Sydney this and Sydney that. The hot weather played it’s part down in Victoria too, with some less than comfortable conditions at Bogong to Hotham accounting for some runners and certainly a slower times.

Our preview last week suggested some close battles between the ladies and we weren’t left disappointed with a good battle upfront between the top four ladies of Gill Fowler, Kylee Woods, Kathy MacMillan and Nicole Paton. In the end, that’s how the order finished up with Gill taking out the honours for the second year in a row.

Kylee Woods on B2H debut ran strongly for her second place with the very experience Kathy Macmillan claiming third. (times to be confirmed when known)

In the men’s race, it was a battle of the speedster between Ashley Hoffman and Marty Keyes. Ashley came out on top winning in a time of 7hrs 27mins and Marty finishing second. Third place went to Thierry Lamarque who prior to the race put in some pretty hefty training runs, so a very well deserved podium for him.

Congrats if you made the finish line, by all accounts it was a tough old day out there, once again showing that mother nature deserves full respect, not just from the hot conditions, but the mountains too.

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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.