[Music]
This is the Munga-Thirri Simpson Desert and for one day each year it hosts one of the
country's most remote running events.
Runners here have traveled hundreds if not thousands of kilometres to walk run or crawl
25 to 100ks.
If you’re starting at 7 o'clock make your way down here please!
And today I'm joining them to find out why.
[Music] [Applause]
[Music] So the first few k's have been on this rocky gibber terrain and we've just come
to our first sand dune.
Oh wow that is incredible [Music]
Some of the dunes out here rise up to 40 metres and can stretch on for 300 kilometres.
I'll tell you what, today it really feels like it.
I've only got 25 kilometres to do this morning, but dozens of people like French runner Akim
Boughriet had plenty of time overnight to ponder why they'd taken on the 100 kilometre
event.
That's a good question.
Probably a bit crazy.
I've always wanted to run an ultra but I've seen that one in a desert and I was surprised
that there is no other event like that in Australia especially in a non-competitive
way.
Jake Friend traveled 1,400 kilometres to Birdsville from Mackay to run 100 kilometres for the
first time ever.
Um just to learn to endure and just to challenge myself and see if I'm capable there yeah.
I'm really looking forward to these checkpoints that come up once per lap.
They've got flat soft drink chockies, chippies basically everything that an ultra runner
needs to fuel their body.
So I've just hit 15ks and we've traded the sands back for the rocky gibber plains which
is just kilometres and kilometres of this really uneven-shaped tripping hazard rocks.
For many runners like Libby Bell it's the lure of a one-of-a-kind experience that draws
them into the desert.
I'm doing it because I don't think that many people can say that they've been out to the
Simpson Desert and trekked 50km through it, I just think that's so unique.
After nearly five hours trudging through the desert I'm pretty sure I'm standing on my
last sand dune.
At the top of this one I should be able to see The Hub.
There it is, the finish line.
Woo!
Over 100 people braved the desert this year and among the elated finishers was 13-year-old
Clay Bertram from Port Lincoln in South Australia.
Oh I did the 25.
It was uh yeah it was going good at start second dune or second to last dune the heat
got me a little bit so so down tipped a lot of water over my head and yeah got through
got to the end.
Every finisher gets to take home a unique hand-painted mug courtesy of the Wangkangurru
Yarluyandi traditional custodians.
But there's no prizes here for winning and that's just the way that run director Jenna
Brook likes it.
And I know that being out under the big wide outback skies and challenging yourself in
this type of terrain it's so unique and I think it um just allows for a lot of reflection
and the ability to go places that you I guess people didn't think they could go [Music]
[Applause] [Music]