Ultimate test of endurance

By Lachlan Ellis

A Bunding woman has managed to complete almost three-quarters of a gruelling 135-mile race this month, with the event’s organisers admitting the trail was “not intended to be completable”.

Kelly Conroy ran 100 kilometres last year to raise awareness of the Western Victoria Transmission Network Project (WVTNP), but this month she set her sights on Down Under 135, a 135-mile (approximately 220 kilometre) race, through rugged tracks and trails in the Lerderderg and Wombat State Forests.

Starting on Friday 13 May at 8am, Ms Conroy made it an incredible 151 kilometres along the trail over 36 and a half hours, with no sleep, before blisters covering her feet made it impossible for her to continue.

She made it to the final seven out of 29 runners, and was the last woman running. Ms Conroy said it was “pretty cool to be in the final seven, running alongside experienced and talented runners”, and thanked the organisers and volunteers who made the event possible.

“The majority of the time they take you off-track in what you call off-trail…so they’ve pretty much picked a line up a ridgeline or along the side of cliff faces, so we were some of the first people to run that line. They try to find the hardest and most intense places to take you across, that’s what the event’s designed for. It was really crazy,” Ms Conroy told the Moorabool News.

“My watch recorded 151 kilometres, I think it was closer to 145 based on what the course said. Mentally I wasn’t tired or fatigued like I thought I’d be, I actually felt really good. But my feet were just awful, just because of the river crossings, your feet get wet, then dry, then wet again, and go over that brutal terrain…I don’t normally get blisters, but the bottoms of my feet were just covered in them.”

“Ms Conroy said she had to thank her fantastic support crew and pacers as well, and the Melton City Runners too.

“They helped setting up and course marking…the course is huge, it takes them seven days to mark it all. Then for the three days they volunteer their own time, waiting for runners to come through to feed them, help them change clothes, and send them out again.”

To read the full story – Simply click on the following link

 https://issuu.com/themooraboolnews/docs/mn_2022-05-24/20

in the 24 May 2022 edition
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