Adventure runner Richard Bowles has completed his latest endurance feat, notching a new record for running the 1200km Heysen Trail, in South Australia.
The Melbourne-based runner set out from Parachilna Gorge in the desert north of the state on 4th May, eventually reaching the trail’s spectacular end at Cape Jervis to complete his record run in 14 days, 8 hours and 32 minutes. If done in one stretch (less than 70 or so have) it is usually walked in 50-60 days.
Richard averaged 85 km a day on what was a challenging trail with hundreds of mountain climbs and rough, rocky trail underfoot. His record beats the previous by 20 days.
He ran to promote the work of Red Dust Role Models. Red Dust state it is essential to the social development of Indigenous people in remote communities. Its health promotion strategies improve and transform lives and have a sustainable impact on social, economic and environmental conditions.
Donate funds to the cause at
Check out a few images from the run at: www.facebook.com/UltraRunnerRich
Here’s a taste of Rich’s journey along the Heysen Trail in three parts:
Renowned for running some of the longest marked trails on earth, ultra runner Richard Bowles has announced his next project: to run South Australia’s 1200km-long Heysen Trail.
He followed that with New Zealand’s Te Araroa Trail at another 3,054km; crossing both islands through avalanche zones, ice cold white water rapids and fickle weather that saw him tumble down a mountain side, both runs seeing him become the first to run the entire trail.
“For the first time my followers will not have to wait a day or two for updates, they can follow it as it happens,” says Richard.
Richard says he is keen to meet with the communities through which the trail passes, even when running such huge distances each day.
Two ultra runners have successfully completed a unique challenge to run all the way from the summit of Mount Baw Baw, in Victoria’s east, to the bustle of Bourke Street, in Melbourne’s CBD. Theirs was a 205km effort that took three days to complete, undertaken with a point to prove: that you can run all the way from mountain to mall using only trails and tracks the entire way.
Maintaining the run ethos of staying on trail, the pair took to linking up green corridors including the Dandenong, Eastern Link and Capital trails to eventually make it to the banks of the Yarra River, and on into Bourke Street via Federation Square where curious onlookers barely believed their claim of running into town from 205km away.
“Even the final day from the foothills of the Dandenongs through suburbia and into the CBD, the whole way you would barely know that you were in the city as the green corridors provided plenty of nature to run through,” said Kohlar, who while an experienced trail runner, had not previously run the distances undertaken for the Baw Baw to Bourke Street Challenge in one multiday stretch.
“The highlight for me was the first twenty kilometres of trail out of Mount Baw Baw Alpine Resort, along the Australian Alpine Walking Track. You’re up in the snowgums and then you drop down into tall Eucalypt forests, with big views. Also the last little stretch running past Flinders Street Station to Bourke Street amid all the hustle and bustle – it really brought home the nature of our journey from mountain to mall,” said Kohlar.
Richard Bowles is known for massive run missions including being the first person to run the length of Australia’s Bicentennial National Trail (5330km), the first to run New Zealand’s Te Araroa Trail (3054km) from top to bottom, and the first to run the Israeli National Trail (1009km).
