The Great Ocean Road FKT
240km (243km per my Garmin Fenix 7 watch) from Torquay to Allansford Victoria, Australia. 3100m elevation gain.
35 hours 40 minutes 37seconds
Started at 6:10am on Monday 1st December 2025. First day of summer here in Australia.
Finished at 17:50pm on Tuesday 2nd December 2025.
Running the length of the Great Ocean Road (GOR) was a personal challenge to complete this distance in as quick a time as I could. I really struggle with the 100mile races and wanted to do a big run to test my resilience without the pressure of a race. The GOR is an iconic Australian destination that attracts tourists from all over Australia and the world to admire the rugged coast line, spot beautiful fauna and enjoy the unique flora of Australia. I got the idea when we went to Lorne for Amy’s Grand Fondo cycling event in October 2025 so I did some research and could not find any information on if anyone else had completed the run in one go. There was a report of one lady completing the distance over 4 days (60km a day) and I found the run uploaded as an FKT route but there does not seem to be completions submitted as yet. I didn’t set out to do this as an FTK but it would be so awesome to add this to the overall accomplishment of completing the Great Ocean Road on foot.
The weather was typical of this part of Australia with rain on and off and a strong head wind to battle during the first day. The sun came out on the second day and I didn’t do a very good job at putting sunscreen on so have the worst burn on my legs. My feet are trashed and my quads were aching from 70km. Everything you would expect from running this distance, especially on the road.
I’m not a traditional road runner so this really put me out of my comfort zone. I have done quite well in 100km and 100mile trail running events however I wanted to work on building some resilience and adding some tools to my tool box on how to manage the challenges that come with running ultras, particularly 160km and over. Mentally I felt quite good until about 200km. I slowed down a lot from about 100km but mentally felt strong. The body just didn’t have the conditioning to keep going at the pace I started out at. 200km was a real milestone but also hit hard knowing I still had 40km to go on a very battered body. From here, I was breaking the sections down into 2.5km segments and trying not to look at my watch.
My husband supported me along the way. He drove our car and pulled over every 5km to see if I needed any food or fluid. He would have food options laid out on the tailgate of the car so I could choose what I wanted as I ran past. I would try to tell him what I wanted at the next 5km so he could get it ready. It was only my husband who crewed me for the entire journey. The car has a fridge so we stocked up on food, water and fluid prior to running. He stayed closer to me through the night and the final 40km stretch for safety. I had a reflective vest and red flashing light so I was visible to traffic.
The base of my nutrition was Precision carb and electrolyte drink, 100mg caffeine gels and 90g carb gels. I ate other food on top of this such as mash potato, mars bars, custard tart, apricot delights, cheese sandwich, peanut butter sandwich, yoghurt, banana, cereal (Cheerios for breakfast on Tuesday morning), a few sips of a coffee and I’m sure some other things that I cannot remember right now. I drank coke a cola, ginger beer and water in addition to the Precision carb drink. Managing my GI upset is my biggest challenge during these types of runs and this one was no different, stomach ache, nausea and a constant need to go to the toilet really slows me down.
I had a 3 hour stop with 2 hours 45min of broken sleep at about 2am. This was 159km into the run. I do struggle a lot with fatigue and always knew I would need to get some sleep at some point. This was the only sleep I had though. This was the longest stop by far but I had lots of little stops to get food in, change clothes and go to the toilet. If I left the course to use the toilet, I returned to where I left and continued on. The time entered above includes all the stops along the way. I did not pause my watch at all during the FKT attempt. I charged my watch while I slept and charged my phone using a battery pack as I ran along.
The last 30km of the Great Ocean Road was on some rural farm roads which was really tough. The view of the ocean long gone, a mix of hot sun and wind and cars going past at 100km/hr (if not more). Legs and feet in agony so running as best as I could but it was really more of a shuffle. I am very proud (although extremely sore) that I completed the Great Ocean Road run.