Thursday 6th of November to Sunday 9th of November 2025
It's been a while since I've written a race report. Kids and the priorities that come with that may play a large part of that - I will get to my Ironman report one day!
For now, my report of the challenging team run we did in the spectacular Gariwerd/Grampians.
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Introduction
The GPT100 event is made up of a number of different races. Mainly. A 50km race from Mount Zero to Halls Gap, a 4 day, staged race from Mount Zero to Dunkeld (100 miles) solo or broken down into teams of 3, and for the extreme Ultramarathoners, doing the 100 miles in one go (i.e. overnight and into the following day).
Those of us that are more sensible chose the staged team race to enjoy the beauty of the Grampians Peak Trail (GPT) in more manageable pieces.
Our team of 3 consisted of me, Naomi and our great friend Jo.
Training
The seed of the GPT100 was planted in me and Naomi 12 months ago when Jo had braved the 2024 version in extreme heat. So extreme in fact that day 3 of the Stage Race was cancelled (not before many of the racers filled the various surrounding hospitals with heatstroke).
While the race restarted for day 4 and the team completed the available stages, Jo did have the feeling that it just wasn't finished. She had to go back.
She joined forces with us in March 2025 and we signed up not long after entries opened for the 2025 event.
Naomi and I had big plans to start our training from at least July. We'd plan to get out on the trails in Adelaide at least twice a month from then. Jo had similar plans, but this is exactly where the challenges started.
Jo had ongoing injury issues she was dealing with and unable to run as much as she would like. Naomi and I started our training plan well by heading to Chambers Gully in Adelaide on the first weekend in July. It lasted that one run. In total, I think we did Chambers Gully twice... Once was when Jo was visiting from Melbourne.
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| Team Training at Chambers Gully in July |
Naomi and I did do a pretty good run together in the Glasshouse mountains in the Queensland heat. Ultimately this gave us the confidence that we could hopefully somehow get by in the GPT.
Without getting to the trails, we aimed to run at least 3 times a week - we got this right sometimes, but mostly it was 1 or 2, and certainly not as far as we should have been running, and not on any terrain that would be considered challenging by any means in the GPT world.
It is worth at this point noting that while we did not train nearly as much as we should have, I do not want to take away anything from any of the competitors that did. Naomi and I still do a lot of incidental training that must have been partly what got us through (riding our bikes to work, and other incidental trips, lifting children etc.). That, and a lot of luck is why we most likely didn't end up injured with the load we put on our bodies.
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| Not a recommended lead up to a large event! |
Anyway, November arrived and with it, the GPT100.
The Leadup
Naomi and I drove over to Halls Gap with Isabelle on the Wednesday morning, arriving late afternoon. Oliver was coming over with his Grandma and Grandpa the following day.
Naomi's parents were already at the caravan park to welcome us and look after Issy so we could settle in and head into the race briefing and check in for our bibs, mandatory gear check (which includes things such as a running pack capable of carrying at least 3L of water, a snake bite bandage, space blanket, thermal top and pants - the forecast was for some cold weather and more).
Jo joined us for the check in after some car trouble on the drive over from Melbourne... This was concerning as were relying on this car without child seats to get our team of 3 plus Jo's parents (our race support crew), Mandy and Rob to each of our race starts and legs.
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| Team NingNangJong in front of the elevation chart pre race. |
The car issues were resolved (we think) and the plan for the next morning was sorted. We'd all be up and in the car by 4:30am to head to Mr Zero for a 6am race start - Naomi to run the first section! Off to bed early for a good, pre-race sleep.
That night, at about midnight, my phone rang. It was Rob. I missed the call. I called him back - no answer. He called again shortly after.
Mandy, Rob and Jo were getting in the car to head home immediately. A personal tragedy had occurred for Jo and her family and she had to head home to be with her husband Alex. Naomi and I of course were shocked, but it was absolutely the right call for Jo and there were no hard feelings.
We spent the next couple of hours feeling quite sick and unable to sleep. We also chatted extensively about what that meant for the morning. We had no race support crew and would need to get ourself to the start, and there were now only 2 of us to run 3 sections on day one - and we had barely trained for the sections we'd chosen!!
It was decided that I would run Sections 1 and 3 and Naomi would take on the toughest individual section of the day, section 2.
The Race
Day 1 (Section 1) - Thursday 6th of November
With not a lot of sleep (but we're somewhat used to that with young kids), Naomi and I were up and about early Thursday morning at 4:30am.
Naomi's Mum, Sue came over to take over the Isabelle duties so we could head off.
We'd packed our race packs the night before for our intended sections so there was a bit of frantic thinking what more we might need for the changes. We found some comfort in the thought that we were probably under prepared anyway - probably not a safe way to go about things in the Grampians...
We arrived at Mount Zero along with all the Stage Race runners as well as those that would be racing Single Day 50km event (my cousin Andrew included).
The Race starts on on rockface and it goes up, and up, and up for about 3km before there was any chance I could start actually running!
Naomi was a few hundred meters up the rock wall for the start to get some photos of people coming through, and we were off.
All of a sudden I felt like this was going to be harder than I anticipated (shock horror). Looking back, my heart rate wasn't overly high but it sure felt like it. Breathing was hard up that first hill, and there were plenty more hills to come!
The feeling probably comes partially from a lack of knowing what pace to go up the hill at - albeit we were walking anyway. Some people at the front were running apparently, but the bulk of us were walking as is pretty common in trail "running".
The remorse over not training more faded somewhat as we we rose quickly up the rocks and the stunning Grampians at sunrise came into view in all its glory.
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| The views as we climbed were certainly worth the climb |
For those that don't know, the term technical in trail running refers to the trail surface being rocky, uneven or unpredictable and a high level of concentration on where your feet are landing is often required. That was definitely the case here.
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| This is the "trail" |
The changes in landscape were also evident already over the short distance. I was relieved to come into the last 3-4km which turned into more sandy trails through grassy hills but also occasionally through head high scrub that covered the trail and required careful navigation to avoid scratches (in some cases) to the face.
I was ready for my section to finish now, especially with the thought of another 14km to do in the afternoon!
I had planned to have a little rest back at the caravan park but by the time I had come down from a bit of a runners high there were other things happening around me (lets be honest, kids don't really let you sleep if given the chance do they...). I was also nervous about how long Naomi was actually going to take and when to leave to get to the next changeover. After around 2 hours on the trails, Naomi was waiting for me at the aid station. I had all these ideas to give her some tips about the trail and to take it as slow as she needs - I had calculated that if I only needed another 2 hours for my next section she had 9 hours to run and we'd make the 7pm cut off in Halls Gap.
But Naomi wasn't waiting around, she was ready and rearing to go. She grabbed the GPS tracker and timing chip off of me and we transferred some of our mandatory gear (snake bike kit and space blanket), and she was off, starting the climb up Mt Difficult... which is literally what it is called.
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| Aid station relay transfer |
Now it was time for me to enjoy the spoils of the aid station. I downed 2 cans of ginger beer and some electrolytes pretty quickly (perhaps I didn't drink enough from my pack on the way... probably yet another thing that comes with training). Then I was onto the salt and vinegar chips. Grabbed a few free gels for the next run and got in the car to head back to the caravan park where I would wait for Naomi to get close to the next aid station checkpoint.
Day 1 (Section 3) - Thursday 6th of November
She had 20km to run, but also 1100m of climbing to do, and the technical course to traverse. I had no idea how long she would take. It was also going to take 50 minutes to drive to the next aid station to meet her.
I kept checking the tracker (which also doesn't show the most accurate position at times) and when she appeared to have about 5km left to go I panicked. At best she'd probably take 30 minutes from that point but as I mentioned, I needed 50 minutes at least!
Naomi's Mum was coming with me this time so we quickly jumped in the car and started driving up the hill to Mt Difficult Road on the eastern side of Lake Wartook. Funnily enough this was just over the ridge from where we were, but a long round trip to get there. The road in was also a narrow dirt road full of pot holes. Not a great mix when I was panicking that I would miss Naomi arriving.
Sue was quietly giving me tips to slow down over the pot holes (we didn't really want more than 1 car with trouble for the weekend). I missed most of them, and the car survived.
We arrived and tried to open the tracker to check where Naomi was, but of course there was no phone signal here. So we waited.
We waited 5 minutes and I saw Naomi coming in the distance! My pot hole madness was justified.
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| Naomi finishing strong on her first section |
Naomi absolutely smashed her run. Her comment however was "well I trained for 15, the last 5 was pretty tough". I think she was harsh on herself, although something that was true probably for both of us was that we both only packed our nutrition for our original distances, and at short notice didn't think to add some extra gels or electrolytes for the extra distance ahead.
I certainly wasn't as eager to get started now as Naomi has been a few hours ago. My legs were sore and the blisters were definitely there! But it was now or never.
I left Naomi to recover at the aid station and was off on Section 3 of Day 1.
I left Naomi to recover at the aid station and was off on Section 3 of Day 1.
I optimistically jogged off up the sandy trail until I yet again hit rock and a climb about 300m in. It had also warmed up quite significantly from my morning run and there was some humidity along with the heat. I was pretty keen to have this section over and done with.
I saw some skinks running for cover from the rocks as I walked and ran through the rocks and shrubs. I was certainly hoping that skinks would be the only reptiles I would see all week.
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| There were some cool rock formations to see along the way, and that's the trail between the rocks. |
I had originally chosen this section as it had a lot of downhill compared to the other sections that day. The theory was that if we did happen to be getting close to the cut off time at all I would hopefully be able to make up some time running downhill.
I didn't however anticipate that a large portion of that downhill would just be rocks placed in the shape of a staircase at uneven intervals. Perhaps if I was fresh I could have run some of them, but at this point in the day I was walking rather gingerly down the staircases, trying to avoid the blisters on my feet and hopefully saving my quads for the following 3 days!
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| Some of the staircase shaped rocks |
Naomi has said to me before transferring that someone on her trails said the last 5-6km of the last section were runnable and a nice downhill glide into the finish in Halls Gap.
There were absolutely some nice sections of sandy track to run along, but of course nothing is easy on this course and those sandy flatter sections were scattered with rocks large enough to put you off your balance if you took a wrong step, particularly if you have weak ankles that have not been exposed to the trails enough in the lead up. There were at least two occurrences where I had finally found some running rhythm but I mis-stepped and felt as though my race was over due to a sprained ankle. Luckily they must have had just enough strength to hold on and I could walk it out and keep going!
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| Views for days |
As I was running away from Halls Gap I saw a very large Black Snake out of the corner of my eye lying along the side of the path. This certainly got the heart rate pumping and I ran probably the fastest couple of hundred meters of my whole race. I didn't see much more but speaking to the girl behind me who passed me about a kilometer lately it had reared up at her and stopped her crossing the path!
Finally we were down into Halls Gap and onto the paths in the town. The finish line for the day was in the town square and many other racers and supporters were hanging around in the cafes around the square. Andrew had finished (many hours ago) and was there with his crew, and Naomi and our crew were there too.
Day 1 was done.
Oliver and my parents arrived later that afternoon and we were able to enjoy a good amount of time together as a family back at the caravan park where we were tasked with jumping on the jumping pillow for around an hour.
At this point in the story, it is worth mentioning a couple more car troubles. Our car having a bent door from reversing it into a carport post while the rear door was open, and Mum and Dad's car had managed to get a rock lodged in the brake pads. Both minor in the scheme of things but honestly we've had enough car trouble now thank you!
Day 2 (Section 2) - Friday 7th of November
With no news from Jo (and none required), Naomi and I were unsure what to do about day 2. It would not have been smart for me to run 2 sections again (although I was tempted). The first section was essentially the Pinnacle Hike which Naomi and I have done a number of times before, and weren't that eager to do it if we didn't have to.
We had asked Andrew if he had anything left in the tank to take on a section, but he (and his group) were all done - and fair enough too, they didn't plan to come for the multi-day event!
We ended up calling the Race Director and got the all clear to skip the first section of Day 2 which was the smartest call for us really.
It also meant I could have a bit of a sleep in and start at the first aid station at 7:30am rather than in Halls Gap at 5:50am... The only dilemma (other than the need to now climb over the drivers seat or kids seats to get to an available passenger seat in our car) was that we needed to grab our GPS tracker at the start line as they had stored it overnight to be charged for the next day.
I told Naomi surely we could just get it on the way up to the aid station. I was wrong. Our tracker for some reason had been taken back to Mt Zero for the start of the GPT100 Miler event (where the racers start, and keep going until they finish, or pull out - no going back to their beds overnight, they need to keep running through the night).
I am not being critical of the organisation of the tracking devices but it was a bit odd that they hadn't just kept our tracker in Halls Gap. I went into RaceHQ and we were given another tracker, but as I found out at the end of my run, it never actually tracked us that day...
Sue drove me up to the first aid station and while it felt a bit like cheating, no one really cared nor knew what that I'd just driven there.
Without a runner before me, off I went, again with an optimistic jog along the slight incline - for about 400m - then I hit the rocks again and the staircases.
While this was the section I had been assigned to in Plan-A, I had focused so much on day 1 and taken little to no notice of what the course I was about to tackle would actually be like. I did know that it was pretty much all the way up, then all the way down to the finish.
Given the fatigue in the legs from the day before I decided walking was probably going to be a healthy idea for a good section of the day, especially the rocky incline. My ego wanted to run a bit more than I did, but looking back it was never going to happen regardless of whether I had run one or two sections the day prior.
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| The stunning Grampians from above |
Along the actual top of the ridge the rain started to come down. I wasn't too bothered by this as I figured it would reduce the chances of a repeat snake sighting, and we were of course well prepared with our mandatory gear which included an appropriate rain jacket. I wouldn't usually run in anything more than shorts and t-shirt so the rain jacket was new to me (literally as well, I'd bought it the Monday prior to the race and had never worn it, not something that is recommended in the endurance racing world but what's another variation from the recommendations...).
Finally the downhill started and it was actually good running track, nice and sandy, not too many pebbles or rocks. If only my legs could move at a running pace...
With 6km left to the aid station I was playing a mental game. I tried my best to run to the next kilometer marker but found myself running a bit, then walking, then running. I ran a good couple of kilometers with another runner from Cavendish. It is amazing how distracting talking to someone can be.
After around 2 hours of running and hiking I reached the aid station where Naomi was waiting to get started on the biggest climb section of the whole event. Andrew and his crew were there to watch a number of runners come through which was also nice.
Naomi once again smashed her run. It was a massive climb that we'd decided she would take on given I did the double run the day prior. She loved it, and was loving running more than I think I have ever seen in all of the events she's done in our time together!
No more car dramas today and Jo confirmed that they would be on their way back that night to re-join us for day 3!
Naomi and I were once again dragged to the jumping pillow at the caravan park which was actually quite therapeutic. The soft impact of the jumping pillow was a releif from the harsh rocky surfaces on the trails. The hard part was staying awake and matching Oliver's energy at the end of the day!
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| Jumping Pillow Antics |
Day 3 (Section 1) - Saturday 8th of November
Forecasts for Friday night leading into Saturday morning were for winds of up to 50km/h and temperatures to drop to around 6 degrees. That was in Halls Gap. Up on Mt William racers were warned that overnight "feels-like" temperatures could drop to as low as -7 due to the wind. Wind gusts were recorded at 90kmph!
I am glad I was not doing the overnight run. Kudos to those warriors. However, it was pretty difficult to get out of bed at 4:30am on Saturday morning with the wind howling and rain pelting, knowing it would likely only be worse on Mt William.
Mandy and Rob, our original pit crew were back on board and generously dropped me off in the early hours at Halls Gap for the shuttle up to Mt William. This time I was sure also to make sure our GPS worked so that our pit crew could have at least some chance of working out when we might arrive at the next aid station.
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| Mandy had made team flags for us |
Section 1 of Day 3 was the 2nd longest section of the race (after Naomi's day 1 section) 19km but it was mostly downhill. I'd learnt now that downhill certainly doesn't mean its easier, or runnable, and that was certainly the case for this section. I had hoped that Jo would want to take on this distance, but I didn't push too hard and she rightly chose to do the 3rd section of the day.
The bus ride was the first challenge for me. I should have thought about it better and sat near the front of the bus. My tendency to get motion sickness reared its head and I worked up more of a sweat on the bus than I had so far on the run. At least I was warm I guess.
Race start was 6:00am but the bus arrived at the start line at 5:30am. Most people got off the bus, but a few of us decided it was far smarter to wait on the bus until we had to get off rather than being frozen and blown off the mountain. A few of the 100 miler racers that were either forced to or voluntarily pulled out of their race trudged onto the bus to head back to Halls Gap as well. There were some very cold runners, and they did very well to get as far as they did!
Race start arrived and we braved the elements. I had a thermal top, long sleeved running shirt, a buff and a beanie, gloves and my rain jacket. It was going to be better to overheat than to get cold and I think I got the gear right.
The first couple of kilometers were on a road up to the peak of Mount William. In the conditions, this was probably the best (and safest) possible start. The wind was nothing I had experienced before. You could hear it howling over the cliffs surrounding us with incredible force. Every now and again you would need to brace and hold your ground or you'd be blown across the road.
By the time I'd reached the trail I think I had gotten the hang of the wind, which had not died down at all. The next challenge was the trail. The first part of the trail was essentially a watercourse - probably due to the overnight rain. Running through black mud and trying to keep my feet as dry as possible noting that I had 17km left to run in the cold.
Most of this section had also been completely burnt by the bushfires earlier in the year. It was really quite interesting to see the regrowth in some sections, and nothing in others.
Again, I hadn't studied this section in detail. I knew we had to climb a bit before going down, but in actual fact it was a climb followed by a small, but very steep decent before another steep climb. More stairs, but this time they were going up! The down was more like clambering down boulders, there was some of that the day prior but the wet, sooty boulders just added some more challenge to the whole thing.
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| The way down - yes, that's the trail |
I spent most of the morning running/hiking with 3-4 other racers. It is really interesting how there would be sections where I would overtake them, but then 5-10 minutes later they'd be back in front and well ahead, before I'd catch up again. I suppose we all have our own strengths and weaknesses on the trail, whether they are obvious or not.
Today was the first day that the climb to the top of the hill was not rewarded with a view either. Every now and again the sun would try its best to break through the fog and glisten on the stunning cliff faces. One such time was spectacular so I stopped to get my phone out of my pack but by the time I had done that the cliff face was gone and the fog was as thick as ever.
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| The Mt William landscape and the view dissapearing into the fog |
Nonetheless, day 3 was definitely my favourite day. The landscape (that I could see...) changed numerous times from rocky outcrop with burnt out shrubs, to climbing boulders up the cliff face, to soggy marsh where we were running over grates (which were a nice, flat relief from the rocks).
This did have me thinking about how impressive the entire trail has been. I am in awe of the work that has gone into actually marking out and then constructing the whole thing in such remote, challenging terrain. We were told that The Parks Victoria Team had worked tirelessly since the bushfires earlier in the year to repair the course and it was most evident to me in this section. The trail was actually still closed to the public at the time of the race and this was kind of its test run before being reopened.
Once again the section ended in a runable few kilometers. After 15-16km I was pretty eager to get to the end so did a better job than the day before of running where I could, although the finish could not come fast enough. The fatigue was setting in, so much so that I did hip and shoulder a burnt tree accidentally. No harm done other than a surprisingly sooty left shoulder.
Finally the cheers and the cowbells of the aid station came into earshot and Rob had walked a fair way up the track to spot me. Naomi, Jo, Mandy and Alex were all waiting at the aid station. Naomi was the next runner so she set off pretty soon after while I enjoyed a hot cup of Chicken Noodles and a number of packets of salt and vinegar chips.
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| Team NingNangJong back together (feat tree soot on my left shoulder) |
Our crew car drove around to the next aid station to wait for Naomi to finish. She had less climbing to do today than the previous days which was nice, but of course still a challenging run (none of these were easy by any stretch). And guess what, she smashed it yet again! The cooler weather was definitely agreeing with Naomi and her running, and she was loving it. She also mentioned it was great to see a few of the 100 Miler runners out there still chipping away with around 40-50km to go. They'd made it through the night and were "almost" in Dunkeld.
Jo was ready and rearing to go. Like us her training in the leadup was disrupted, and of course the last couple of days had been a roller coaster, but as is the theme of our team this weekend, she of course smashed her run too.
The team was back together and it was great to be able to debreif together about the day. Of course, we recovered once again by spending the afternoon with Oliver and Isabelle on the jumping pillow.
Day 4 (Section 2) - Sunday 9th of November
The final day!
Naomi was the lucky one to start this morning - a different experience for all of us as I had somehow managed to start our team off every other day!
Naomi was off before the rest of us were awake, Mandy and Rob dropped her in Halls Gap at 5:50am to get on the bus to the aid station for race start at 7am. Again, she smashed the run but she did say she was done, and fair enough. She had done the most climbing of any of us. I am very proud of how she went about her whole weekend and each and every day.
In hindsight, I didn't mind starting the team off each day as it is so difficult to work out when your teammate is going to finish so you end up waiting either a long time or not long at all. Regardless, you need to be ready to start running. Having said that, we weren't racing this as such so we didn't need to be ready straight away, but waiting in the cold for an unknown period of time is a different concept to knowing when your race will start.
As with a couple of the previous days, I hadn't really looked at what this run was going to be. I had in my head that all the hard stuff was done so today would be a much easier day and we could all just cruise through to the finish.
I was brought back down to earth once again after the first 400m runnable section that then turned into a dreaded stone staircase. I knew that there was a climb, and I had looked at the elevation very briefly before starting. There was up, then a "little" down before climbing back up Mt Abrupt and back down to the final aid station.
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| No views from the top today |
I'd mentally had enough, but still enjoyed the run. There was again unfortunately a fog still sitting at the top of the mountains so the climbs didn't end in the potential spectacular views. There was a lovely section about halfway along that was covered in thick fog and just felt really mysterious.
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| Photos don't do it justice but this was a beautiful, mystical place to be |
Somehow my legs survived the 10.5km final section and I made it back down the other side of Mt Abrupt into a classic runnable section to finish the day. It had started to get warmer and the landscape turned into a bit of a grassy woodland. It was the first time in a couple of days I'd thought I probably should be on alert for snakes again...
It was at this point that I remembered that I hadn't actually transferred the space blanket and more importantly the snake bite kit from Naomi's pack... that was a very naughty and very silly mistake that we managed to get away with both in terms of managing not to see any snakes but also in terms of a mandatory gear check at the aid station - which had occurred multiple times on previous days.
Jo was the last runner for our team again. Naomi and I wanted her to finish the day and the race, and in fact the last day's order was the only time of the whole race that we stuck to Plan-A!
The rest of the crew drove down to Dunkeld where we met the rest of our extended crew, kids and Grandparents! We hung around and kept a close eye on the tracker to make sure we would all be at the finish line to see Jo finish.
As she approached Dunkeld, as tradition dictates, Naomi and I met Jo a few hundred meters before the finish and we all ran across the line together!
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| Team hugs for a race well run. |
What a ride, what an event! Naomi and I loved the whole thing and we were impressed by the organisation, the people and of course the Grampians!
We leave the 2025 GPT 100 on a high note having run well beyond what we thought our cabailities were. Naomi and I loved spending the time on the trails but also the time with our family afterwards - even if it was extremely tiring and it would have been a lot easier to lie in bed at the end of each day.
But perhaps the kids were the difference. There is definitely some science in contining to move your body and muscles so that you don't seize up. The kids certainly helped us with that!
And of course, while we crossed the finish line, there is definitely that feeling of not quite having completed the whole race - we missed one section as a team so I guess we'll just have to come back again!
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| The finish |
