Race date: Sunday 20^th October 2019

Report by Richard Cook

Described as Australia’s toughest half marathon, the Kedumba half takes in 800 metres of elevation loss and then gain, and is definitely a fun day out if you like that kind of thing!

This is a relatively low key event, promoted by the Running Wild Series of events across the Blue Mountains, around 2 hours outside of Sydney, and is a great friendly atmosphere. Around 150 or so intrepid runners toed the start line at 7.30am for the half with the course consisting of an out and back course almost entirely of fire trail gravel road.

Heading down some seriously steep and fast wide trail, this certainly didn’t do your quads any favours at all! After the fast decent and making it to the turn, which consisted of crossing a river, albeit only knee deep, before turning back and preparing yourself for the slog all the way back up. Now it was the calves turn to take a hammering – this is quite brutal, but in a strange way satisfyingly tough! I can strongly recommend poles! I set out with the goal of finishing in under 3 hours, so was super stoked to finish in 2hr 23mins.

First man home: Declan King-Smith in 01:39:09 followed very closely by the first woman Simone Brick in 01:40:31.

The full results are here.