Race Date: Sunday 2nd June 2019

The Great Nosh Footrace is Australia’s longest running trail run, now in its 45^th year, and contrary to its name, this is not a competitive eating food fest with a bit of running in between. It’s a 16km (or 22km if you are wanting the extra challenge) race around the middle harbour area of Sydney through the national park from Lindfield to Seaforth.

Technically challenging with a fair bit of elevation, it didn’t look too hard on paper. However it was an opportunity to get out and try a race I had never done before and see what it was like. This is a relatively small event with a maximum capacity of 500 entries, and a very friendly atmosphere. A 10 minute walk down to the start line and “self-seeding” rules applied (middle of the pack) – and the hooter sounds and we’re off.

All nice and straight forward for the first few km’s, a mixture of fast wide trails and a few sets of stairs, but nothing too challenging. And all in brand new shoes – the “nothing new on race day” protocol was being pushed to the limit today! Fast forward to the end of the first 6 km and the first water station, all relatively straight forward, and only a twisted ankle and a few blisters to report, all was going well. Plenty of marshals and a really well marked course made the course really enjoyable. A nice 2km road section to navigate due to the national park not allowing access to a bit of trail and then back into some very technical trail – rocks, stairs, rocks, stairs – all making it a touch challenging to get any rhythm, but onwards and very much upwards for the next 5 km!

A few more blisters developing, but that’s all part of the fun before the fast 3km fire trail to the finish – and a personal goal of getting sub 2 hours within sight, but requiring a pretty full on effort to get to the finish line in 1hr 56 mins. Beautiful scenery and really well organized local race with lots of friendly faces makes this one an event I will be back to compete in next year, with some well worn shoes next time around. The winner was Karl Bicevskis in a time of 1 hour 10 mins. The winner of the women’s race was Jo Nevin in 1.22.52.

Striders Results: