Any ultra run is all about the obstacles – the predictable and the unpredictable; the visible and the invisible; the known, the unknown and the unknowable. The body screaming to stop, pitted against the soul’s incessant whisper: “Go On, Go On!” Physical challenges of fatigue, soreness, tiredness, upset tummies and recurring injuries are compounded by mental phantasms of doubt, fear, worry, insecurity and anxiety; layered over conflicting convulsing emotions then topped with today's serving of life stresses and wrapped in a package of outer weather – in this case, searing heat for a few hours, chased by a bothersome headwind off the lake till everything settled down with nightfall. By which time, the plot lines of the myriad races within a race were inextricably unravelling …

Sri Chinmoy 100km Road Race, AUTRA Australian National 100km Road Championships

The leading placegetters of the Sri Chinmoy 100km Road Race exemplified two growing trends in ultra running worldwide: the rapid rise in overall standing of women and “older” folks. Rhiannon Snipe won the race outright, with two out of the next 3 finishers coming from the Male 50-59 category.

Rhiannon Snipe celebrated her wedding anniversary in style, with husband crewing for her amazing performance. Consistent, calm, concentrated, braving the initial blast of heat and remaining poised and focused through the night, Rhiannon claimed an outstanding overall victory by 27 minutes, winning in 8:40:42. She was over 2 hours ahead of 2nd placed defending champion Lindsay Hamilton’s 11:17:21, with Maia Nagy taking the 3rd podium placing of the AUTRA National Championships in 11:36:35.

Melissa Anderson was fastest among the Women 50-59 with 13:37:56, not far ahead of her main rival in this category, Kirsten Queck who clocked 13:43:17. Pam Muston may have run her slowest 100km in 14:07:33, but showered just as much inspiration as ever, bringing a backbone of courage and grace to the whole field.

Special mention to the cheerful Reesha Sampang, whose dauntless spirit saw her finish 100km in 14:47:06, just 13 minutes inside the cut-off time of 15 hours.

Overall Australian Men’s 100km Road Champion (and 2nd place outright) went to the evergreen Kevin Muller, leading the M50-59 cohort. Despite surrendering his dream of an age group record, Kevin showed the younger men the meaning of guts and perseverance to claim his national title in 9:07:36. Only 2 places further back, Akira Suzuki was next in the M50-59 with a fine run of 9:42:48, while Stuart Hughes took 3rd M50-59 with 10:51:14.

Claiming 3rd place overall, and taking the Male Under 50 crown, James Quaife also took home the AUTRA National Championship 2nd place trophy, courtesy of his 9:34:38. Next home in the Male Under 50 were the impressive Daniel Rak with 10:09:56 and Justin Makhlouf in 10:13:53.

Sri Chinmoy 50km Race

A 50km solo race was a welcome addition to the event this year, bringing another energy and another series of contests to play out in the middle stages of the unfolding 100km story. Being staged for the first time in 2026, winners in all categories of the Sri Chinmoy 50km Road Race are automatically course record holders – at least for one year!

The outright course record holder is now Daniel Oehm, whose victory was never in question as he ran consistently through the early heat and on to an excellent finish of 3:48:06, a good 24 minutes ahead of his chasers. Next home was the consistent and constant Thomas Allen with 4:12:21, ahead of 3rd placed Dan Symonds in 4:21:33.

John Pearson took out the Male 50-59 with his 4th placed overall time of 4:48:33; while Stephen Graham was victorious in the Male 60-69 with 5:58:27; and the evergreen Peter Badowski claim the inaugural M70+ record with his 7:33:21.

The women’s 50km race was won by Nicola Robertson in 5:25:00, ahead of Gretchen Smith’s 5:45:33 and Amy Duff’s 6:11:50 in the Female Under 50. Nevertheless, the outstanding run of the women’s race, claiming 3rd outright, came from Clare Wall, whose astounding 5:53:00 set a mark for the Female 70+ which will likely stand for an aeon. The always-reliable Debbie Maher took out the main Female 50-59 prize with 6:23:01; while Elizabeth Smith claimed the F60-69 top award with 8:25:51.

Sri Chinmoy 100km Road Relays

With the introduction of the 50km solo race this year, the Team of 2 category was discontinued, so all teams were competing together in 3 categories – Open, All-Female and Mixed (for a mixed team, at least 8 of the 20 legs must be completed by a female team member). Teams could – and did – have any number from 2 to 10 members.

Star team of the day (and night) was “Bad Guts Good Legs” (Ana Herceg, April Barrett, Jessica Ronan, Tara and Zoe Melhuish, Elizabeth Zheng, Alice McGushin, Jenniina Katainen, Melissa Oloyede and Kirsty Beattie), who broke the All-Female team record by over 2 and a half hours with their scintillating showing of 7:08:49, and took 3rd place outright among all the teams. En route to their victory, Zoe Melhuish also set a new fastest lap time for women, a scintillating 17:41. 2nd place All-Female team was “Kudos Running Crew” (Grace Falconer, Carol Lander, Keren Nicholson, Madeline Estell, Louisa Hulin, Emily Gates, Hayley Van Arkel, Jari Garrard, Julia Murphy and Katie Lander) with 7:53:43, also well under the old course record; while 3rd place went to “UC Devils CL Group” (Meredith Bone, Emma de Kiefte, Lizzy Salter, Addi Chapman, Gabrielle Millan, Megan and Samantha Bowles, Sarah Haines and Sonia Johnston) with 9:33:35.

“<5:59:20” – an Goulburn grouping of Isaac Hogan, Nathan and Jaemin Frazer, Costas, Jono, Beardy, Ben, Cory, Keeto and Isaac M – also smashed the existing record for Open teams with their spectacular front-running effort of 6:17:40; winning the relay race by over half an hour from the next best Open team, “Kudos Running Crew Open” (Richard Jones, Brendan Hancox, Daniel Carson, Kael Hulin, Matthew Van Arkel, Scott Mulder, Caspian Nicholls, Victor Violante, Nick Symons and Thomas Dempster) in 6:44:08. The Open teams podium was completed by “The Resilient Ones” (Andrew and David Carson, Travis Ey, Taylor Johnson, Simeon Hearnshaw, Melanie Kaasinen, Thomas Jackson and Cameron Walters) coming home in a fine 7:15:07.

The fastest Mixed Team was taken by “Joyful Runners” (Steve and Jackson Michaux, Yoonah and Victoria Cook, Nick Karpetis, Grant McKay, Benjamin Hawkins, Michelle Bray, Andrew Whitehead) in 7:28:22; from 2nd placed “Elevated by Birrigai” (Jack Crowe, Marlo Perry, Emily McLeod, Isla Pawson, Craig Homann, Kristie Broadhead, Phoebe Page, Simon Heinicke, Emily Hill and Cassie Cohen, ) with 7:50:19; ahead of 3rd placed “Sunday Sesh Team 2” (Amelia Chicchio, Ania Smarsz, Alister McInerny, Richie Dantas, Steve Birchall) in 8:06:57.