Great North Walk, NSW

[Peter Bakwin]

Joe Ward has the FKT, 49h5m, August 2, 2015.
Jess Baker and Meredith Quinlan have the ladies and overall FKT, 54h54m, March 24, 2012.

The Great North Walk is a 250 km long walking track between Newcastle and Sydney. It was completed in 1988. It is well marked, and traverses a fairly populated area of Australia. A 100 km and 100 mile footrace is head each year along a portion of the GNW.

On long weekend in June 2009, Andrew Vize, Darrel Robins and Terry Coleman traversed the GNW in its entirety between Newcastle and Sydney in 66 hours and 36 minutes. They left the Obelisk in the Newcastle Bicentennial Park at Midnight Friday June 5 and arrived at the Obelisk in Macquarie Place Sydney at 6:36pm on Monday June 8 2009. They were supported by friends and wives along the way, and slept for 3 hours during the trip.

Starting on March 31, 2011, Kirrily Dear, Clare Holland and Allison Lilley established a women's FKT of 81h20m, as reported below.

As reported below, on March 24, 2012, Jess Baker and Meredith Quinlan did the GNW250 in 54h54m, beating Vize, Robins and Coleman's time and setting the women's (and at the time overall) FKT. Their trip report (with photos) is here.

Joe Ward established a new men's FKT of 57h15m on August 1-3, 2014, and then lowered the men's and overall FKT to 49h05m on August 2, 2015 (as reported below).

All of the trips mentioned here have been supported.


Click here for a larger profile image.

[andyhewat]

On March 31, 2011 a team of three ladies set out to complete a continuous traverse of the GNW to celebrate a milestone birthday of one of the 3. They had a support crew and were joined along the way by various local runners for parts of their journey. They were followed online via their Spot tracker by considerably more fellow runners and supporters. They ran from north to south starting at the official track head at Queens Wharf Tower in Newcastle and finishing at the Obelisk in Macquarie Place, Sydney. Details and highlights courtesy of one of their crew, Karl Miller.

Completing the event were:

Kirrily Dear (Organiser and Birthday Girl)
Clare Holland
Allison Lilley

Start Time: Thursday 0500 (At the official start, Queens Wharf)
Finish Time: Sunday 1420 (At Obelisk)

81:20 hrs

The run was organised to celebrate the 40th birthday of Kirrily, with Clare and Allison joining her to share the highs and lows. Mathew O'Shea joined and ran from 146k to the finish with them. Half a dozen other ultrarunners joined and supported for sections as they completed the last 24hrs. The run was supported by Martin Carroll, Karl Miller, Keith Hong, Helen Pretty.

There was a lot of pretty ordinary singing going on to ward off the sleep monsters and some funny incidents along the way:
Trying to sleep for an hour in the middle of the Gosford Motorcycle GP (Pacific H/W, Mooney Mooney Bridge)
Allison meeting her ideal man along the way - A hiking stick collected along the way.
Entertaining the homeless brown bag brigade at Brooklyn, early on Saturday morning, as we set up a CP in the local park.
Then Karl rummaging through the garbage bin at Brooklyn (in front of our homeless friends) to recover all Clare's medical kit that had been thrown out by accident.

[andyhewat]

On Saturday 24th March 2012, Jess Baker & Meredith Quinlan completed the full GNW250 in 54:54. They had crew and pacers over some sections and ran superbly to crush the previous record. Hopefully they will post some comments here about their amazing run.

[Joey Joe Joe]

On Friday 1st August 2014 Joe Ward set out with support crew Kirrily Dear, Brad Smithers and Emma Trask to run from the Obelisk in Macquarie Place to Queens Wharf in Newcastle. The run from South to North was completed in a total time of 57 hours and 15 minutes.

[Joey Joe Joe]

On Sunday morning 2nd August 2015 Joe Ward completed the GNW250 in a new course record of 49:05 ... Great weather and excellent organisation made this possible. Not sure we will have weather that perfect for a while !!

Here's a video of the run youtu.be/FbyMk6YTBH4

Spot tracker and GPS data available shortly