Excitement is brewing as only a couple weeks ago the Australian team was announced for the upcoming 100km World Championships, which will be held this September in Croatia. And if you haven’t read who is on the team yet, it’s an incredibly strong line up of ultra runners; in no particular order, the team consists of Marita Eisler, Brendan Davies, Tash Fraser, Barry Keen, Emilie Tan, Francesco Cianco, Margie Hadley, Dion Finocchiaro, Barb Fieberg, Darryl Hill, Larissa Tichon, Gary Mullins, Corrina Black, and Andy Heyden.
Like a lot of runners, 37-year-old Barry Keem started running with his primary school’s cross country team at the tender age of eight, where he clearly developed a great foundation for ultra running as an adult. But it wasn’t until he reached high school that he started making state cross country and state athletics, later hitting nationals teams and making a natural progression through the sport.
The Wollongong, NSW native found himself the exception to the rule when he continued running through his 20s.
“Most of the guys I grew up with and raced with as a kid all gave it away by the time university came around, and it was probably just a handful that continued with the sport, like I did,” he explains.
“I used to race guys like Ben St Lawrence (Australian 10kms record holder), who is still on the circuit, but there are only a few who have continued, which is a bit of a shame.”
For Keem, running was never a recreational sport; he was, and is, still driven with the passion and the hunger to be competitive – even putting university on hold to just work and run.
He moved from the shorter 5km and 10km races to half marathons, until eventually competing in his first marathon back in 2005 and then getting a taste for ultras with the 45km Six Foot Track (2008).
It wasn’t until 2015 that Keem officially entered his next ultra, the Coburg 100kms event and placed first with a time of 7:13:45 after completing 250 laps of the race track. He then successfully made it to the IAU 100km World Championships in Winschoten, Netherlands and took 25th place in a time of 7:01:50.
In 2016, he made the 100kms World team yet again, and competed in the IAU 100km World Championships held in Spain, finishing in a time of 7:02:47. Since then, he hasn’t stopped, and has found himself racing in 50km and 100km events with amazing results.
“The longer the distance, the better for me at this stage in my life,” he explains.
“I just found that as I got older, my speed wasn’t as good and I wasn’t as nimble for shorter races, and the 100km was the next challenge, the next progression for me.”
Getting onto the 2018 World team for Croatia had Keem feeling elated; although having already been on the team twice previously, he reveals he was quietly confident he would make the team again based on the rankings and his previous performances.
“It was really nice to get confirmation that all my hard work had paid off,” he says.
“For the next 12 weeks, it’s going to be all about the mileage; the last three weeks I’ve done over 200kms each week so I’ll continue to ramp that up, but not by too much.
“I just have to be consistent between now and August, and then back off on the training in the lead up to Croatia, about early September.
“I’ve got no races cemented into my schedule, but I may try to find something I can use as a training race, but stick to a 50km or thereabouts.
“This year’s race in Croatia for the World Championships is going to be amazing, I can’t wait for us all to get over there and show the world what the Aussies are made of.”
Pictured: Barry Keem crossing the finish line in first place at the 2018 Australian Running Festival 50km (Nationals). Photograph – Supplied.
Pictured (centre): Keem claiming first place at the 2016 Wings For Life World Run Melbourne. Photograph – Supplied.
