Starting at 5:50am on Thursday the 25th of August I set out with the aim to finish the 500km trail in 100hrs. With a whole lot of unknown factors including weather, trail variability and really just not knowing how my body would hold up I felt like this was an achievable goal. This wasn't to be the case as I struggled early with a foot issue that slowed me down and challenged me for the majority of the run. That along with strong head winds, a few wet days and unrelenting terrain made for the most amazing yet challenging run I've ever accomplished. Far more difficult than I had originally thought it was going to be but I absolutely loved every minute of it, even the darker hours where I really had to dig deep to keep on moving. Inevitably the overall time was pushed out to just under 5 and a half days finishing at 5:24pm Tuesday 30th August. Considering the challenges I was faced with and had to overcome I am extremely proud of my end result and finish time.
Along with running to set an FKT I was also raising money and awareness for the Black Dog Institute a mental health organization as it is personally a topic I am passionate about. Overall raising close to five thousand dollars to go towards research and helping those that struggle with mental health illness. I'm extremely passionate about health and fitness and believe it plays a big part of mental strength so I hope by doing these kind of events I can help motivate people to get out and find something they are also passionate about and start a positive change In their lives.
I had a support vehicle for the entire journey that driven by my dad who would meet me at pre designated locations roughly every 20-30kms to supply me with food, water refills and anything else I needed including a bed to lay down on and get a few hours of sleep each night without having to deviate from the trail at all. His support was key to my overall success.
I ran solo for most of the first 2 days then had a few good mates (Luke, Marv, Simon, Vu, Joel and my brother Alex) come out to join me over different sections anywhere from 10-40kms over the 3rd and 4th days then it was back to a solo grind for the final day. I also had some other friends and family come out to support and cheer me on over the last 2 and a half days which was amazing.
Route variation notes: I used the 10 sectioned paper maps you can purchase from the Yorke Peninsula council as my main form of navigation over the Walk The Yorke Trail. The trail is a shared trail so it can also be cycled on a push bike so on these maps there are sections that deviate from the walking sections of beach and trail that are unrideable for those that are on bikes. I wanted to make sure I was doing the most challenging route over the whole trail so I stuck to all of the walking and beach sections through the whole map. The map legend indicates the different sections of trail by color, green for shared trail (walking and riding) orange for walking only sections, red for beach sections (not rideable) and blue for riding when detouring from the unrideable beach and walk sections. To be clear I only followed the green, orange and red trail on the maps.
Overall it was an absolutely incredible journey that I will always remember!