WEEKLY NEWS REPORT 1-09-2020

Salming Bibra Lake RunningWorks Festival, WA
IAU 6hr Virtual Global Solidarity Run, Nationwide
Bright Running Festival, Vic
Kuranda to Port Douglas Ultra, Qld
Antsy for Anstey, SA

Salming Bibra Lake RunningWorks Festival

Stunning weather in Perth accompanied Sunday’s Salming Bibra Lake RunningWorks Festival in Bibra Lake, WA – and the fact it was a fast and flat course made it the perfect environment to score some massive course records.

First to the podium finishers though in the 50km distance which saw, for the women, AURA’s Margie Hadley from Henley Brook secure herself a course record and take 1st Female with a time of 3:52:39. Barbara Fieberg, also an AURA member, from Boulder held on for 2nd Female after completing the distance in 4:33:35. Tina Milambo took 3rd with 5:27:49.

In the men’s 50km event, Wayne Spies took 1st Male and a new course record with 3:11:11; AURA’s Joshua Kuhn from South Bunbury took 2nd Male with a speedy 3:34:35; and Carl Harrison took 3rd with 3:39:03.

Congratulations also to AURA’s Alexis Oosterhoff who completed his 50km with a finish time of 5:29:08.

In the marathon event, top spots for the women went to Kathryn Watt who took 1st Female (2:52:40) and AURA’s very own Jacqueline Kellerman from Burns Beach who claimed 2nd with a finish over the line at 2:56:38. The 3rd Female spot went to Julia Kets (2:59:38).

For the men, it was Thomas Bruins in 1st (2:25:34), Vlad Ixel 2nd (2:31:10) and Keeton Hardwick 3rd (2:37:33).

Well done to all our AURA members who competed in the marathon, including Jon Pendse (2:51:58) and Rob Collins (4hr pacer, 3:58:30).

IAU 6hr Virtual Global Solidarity Run

An AURA team of 9 Aussie women and 9 Aussie men participated in the weekend’s worldwide IAU 6hr Virtual Global Solidarity Run, whereby all runners could decide when to start running across Saturday and Sunday (29-30 August), and where.

Starting with our runners who participated on Saturday, Patrick O’Leary ran from 7:10am and in total covered 55.12kms in his 6 hours along a ‘figure 8’ road course in Victoria Park, Ballarat, Vic.

Joseph Ward was happy with his average pace of 4:30min/km for the 6 hours where he completed 79.67kms. Starting at 6:30am, he ran at the Narrabeen Academy of Sports Athletics Track in NSW, and while participating, thoroughly enjoyed consuming 8 bananas.

Also on Saturday from 5:45am, Heather Hawkins finished up with 56.61kms along a 4km circuit at Centennial Park in Sydney, NSW creating a letter ‘O’ on her GPS map in honour of all women diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

Onto our Sunday 6 hour participants! Stephen Redfern ran at the Barden Ridge Athletics Track (NSW) from 5am where he achieved a measured distance of 74.113km and secured it as a PB.

Matthew Eckford contributed his 6 hours along the Brisbane City river area in Qld doing a variety of loops, out and backs, and bridge crossovers from 7am and did some parts together with Cassie Smith, Barry Loveday and Dan Symonds as well as John Pearson and Mick Thwaites (not officially participating, but both AURA members). Eckford checked off 60.67kms, whilst Smith’s watch unfortunately died at 5:52 however by then she had clocked 32.04km.

Julia Mackay-Koelen ran her first 20kms in a trail race in the hills of Perth, WA and then kept running with her spare time, finishing with 25.60kms.

Due to Stage 4 restrictions in Melbourne, Vic Donna Urquhart ran 400 x 100m loops of her house.

Amelia Griffith, also faced with Stage 4 restrictions in Melbourne, Vic could only participate in one hour of the event so she completed 11.01kms around Princes Park from 8:20am.

Harmony Waite started her 6 hour journey at the trail head of the Kep Track in Bellevue, WA and just kept going east towards her eastern comrades. She successfully finished with a 51km effort.

Kristen Brace in NSW ran with AURA president Ewan Horsburgh and both started at midnight, getting 50kms completed in the lower Blue Mountains with half road-half trail and 1200m vert.

Greg Wilson settled in for his Sunday morning 6 hour run from 7am, starting and finishing at Five Mile Creek Park in Woodend, with three loops of a flat 20.85km loop on bitumen and gravel roads in the rural Macedon Ranges. He finished with a total of 65.59km.

It was superb 6 hour event for Jeremy Rankin in NSW who ran a total of 60.78km from 5:15am and combined it with the virtual Run Against Violence month, spelling out the ‘Run Against Violence’ motto through the suburbs to make an impressive piece of Strava art.

We are still awaiting results from a couple other participants however a more detailed article about each runner will be released later in the month via Ultramag.

*AURA is confident all our members participating complied with COVID-19 exercise restrictions according to their locations.

Bright Running Festival

The Bright Running Festival, which was scheduled for 29 August had to instead go virtual this year due to COVID-19 restrictions; it was doubled as the AURA National 50km Championships. Plans were put in place for ultra and championship competitors to crack on for 16 days (29 August – 13 September) and complete a total of 100kms or do 10 x 10km in 10 straight days with similar instructions for those running 50km. Participants are still racing in this event, with results uploaded continuously on the event’s Facebook page and Strava club thanks to the event’s race director.

Kuranda to Port Douglas Ultra

We are still awaiting official results for the weekend’s Kuranda to Port Douglas 64km Ultra however three AURA runners were registered for the distance at the time of writing – Matthew Salinovich, Sarah Foster and Stephen Lewis.

Antsy for Anstey

As above, we are still awaiting official results for Sunday’s event and are yet to access which AURA members participated.

Coming up
In WA, the long awaited Light Horse Ultra will kick off on 12 September and run across the whole weekend. The event, which was one of the first to be postponed on the AURA calendar due to COVID-19 in 2020, usually ties in with Anzac Day in April. With participants running loops along a 2.5km track at Yellagonga Regional Park in Woodvale, WA this year sees the first time a 24hr option is included. Participants can opt for the 24hr, 12hr, 6hr, 3hr and 1hr. 

On 13 Sept, the Sri Chinmoy Canberra Trail Ultra (100km) will take place in the ACT as will the Barossa Run in Lyndoch, SA (63.3km) and Run the Great Whitsunday Trail in Airlie Beach, Qld with a 57km trail option.

The Butter 24 & 48 has changed its location to St Joseph’s Nudgee College in Boondall, Qld for 24 Sept with entrants ready to tackle a 6hr, 12hr, 24hr and 48hr track – this event will also double as the National 24hr Championships. The college features an international standard athletics track and is a superb venue – likely to produce some standout performances over the weekend.

The last event for September on the AURA listed calendar is the Waterous Trail on Foot aka WTF on 26 Sept in Dwellingup, WA with a 100mi and 50mi option.

Pictured: Margie Hadley taking 1st Female in the Bibra Lake Ultra 50km. Photograph – Jeff Gotcha Running Perth/Facebook.