WildEndurance 2009

As the sun rose into a clear blue sky over the Blue Mountains on Saturday 2nd May, it held the promise of an incredible weekend.  As the darkness receded, all of the campers at Dunphy’s Campground in the Megalong Valley had one thing on their mind… WildEndurance 2009 – this was the second annual running of The Wilderness Society’s WildEndurance team challenge event. 

The early morning atmosphere at the campground grew as more and more teams arrived and soon the place was filled with competitors, support crews, staff and volunteers, and a large Koala, and by the time the starting signal went at 8.05am, 68 teams of more than 300 people crossed the line to set off on one of the greatest challenges they would ever undertake – walking 100km through the Blue Mountains World Heritage park in 48 hours to raise funds for The Wilderness Society.

The course started in the Megalong Valley, climbed up onto Narrowneck ridge, passed beneath the magnificent Katoomba cliffs, around the Three Sisters, back down through the beautiful Jamison valley, along the Andersons and Ingar trails, returning via Wentworth Falls and Echo Point to the finish at Katoomba Oval.

Over 300 people in 68 teams took on the WildEndurance team challenge, walking 100kms in 48hrs through the stunning World Heritage listed Blue Mountains National Park, raising funds to help save our wild places. Photographer: Anna Warr

The teams covered a broad spectrum, with teams of friends, families and colleagues, from financial institutions, to gyms and fitness groups, ranging in age from their 20s to their 60s.  The field included interstate teams from Victoria, Tasmania, Queensland and South Australia, and the little town of Forster on the NSW coast entered 4 teams alone!  A pretty equal balance of male and female competitors with most teams mixed, plus 10 all-female, and 12 all-male teams.  57 teams tackled the full 100km, and 11 teams choose the 50km relay option.

By 11.45 the first team, Sydney Marathon Clinic, had arrived at Checkpoint 1 at Katoomba Oval, where picnic tables jostled for space with the barbeques of Support Crews eagerly awaiting the arrival of their teams, and keeping a close eye on the huge course map that the youngest volunteer, Hannah King, was covering with pins so we could all track the teams’ progress.

By 5.30pm all of the teams had passed through Checkpoint 1, and the temperature dropped considerably as darkness set in – teams started to rug up for a crystal clear, but very crisp night.  Now the focus had moved to Checkpoints 2 and 3 at Queen Victoria Hospital, and many of the Support Crews set up camp here for the night.  As dusk drew in, the lights of the campsites brought a welcome sense of warmth.  Overnight the First Aid crews were kept busy on ‘blister alert’, and the checkpoint staff kept themselves warm by enthusiastically cheering the by now fairly exhausted teams as they emerged out of the darkness into the welcome light of the checkpoints.

At 11.28m, the first team, Taxi - a 50km relay team, crossed the finish line in a very impressive 15 hours 23 minutes.  An hour later the first 100km team, Sydney Marathon Clinic, finished in 16 hours 30 minutes, and third was the first ladies team, Wild Women on Top, in 18 hours 38 minutes – shaving nearly 6 hours off their 2008 time.

As Sunday morning dawned bright and clear, everyone was grateful that the flooding rains that hit Sydney this weekend stayed away from the mountains, and by 10.30pm on Sunday the last team had crossed the finish line and WildEndurance was finished for another year.

Amazingly, of the 68 teams who started the event, 53 teams completed the course with 3 team members or more and, of those, 24 teams got every team member across the line.  A further 8 teams managed to get at least one member to the finish line.

But although the event is finished, the fundraising challenge continues for another couple of weeks and, at the time of writing, these incredible teams have raised $135,000, with The Four Legged Friends… currently leading the fundraising challenge.  You can keep track of the fundraising at www.wildendurance.org.au, as well as reading the event blog, and you can check out the photos of the event at http://www.flickr.com/photos/wildendurance/

Contenders for the quote of the weekend ..."If I see another waterfall I'm going to be sick" or "This must be tougher than climbing Everest" or was it "why do we keep ending up back at Echo Point?" or perhaps “That was the most incredible thing I’ve ever done, and I’m never doing it again!”

A huge thank you to all the Wilderness Society volunteers for giving up their weekend to make the event such a success, and thank you to all the staff who were involved - you are all absolute stars and it was a true team effort. 

We would also like to thank the National Parks and Wildlife Service and Blue Mountains City Council who did so much to make the event possible, Aboriginal Elder Sharron Halls of the Gundungurra nation for her Welcome to Country, Lucas Trihey and all his wonderful first aid crews, AROC Sport for organising the event logistics and finally Mother Nature for providing such a wonderful setting and some amazing weather.