Wednesday, May 23, 2007

DAY 6

“Karno” Cruises Towards Sydney Centre

As Dean Karnazes ran out Shellharbour at 6.30am this morning, he knew he had about 130 kilometres to cover to reach his goal of completing the North Face Summit to City. Having already run over 450km in the past 5 days, the American ultra-athlete was looking remarkable strong considering the punishment he had recently endured.

13 year old Ben Scollary appreciated his fortitude at that point. As one of many admirers who have followed Dean’s progress, Ben wanted to join the iconic endurance athlete on his journey to Sydney. He made the effort to get up before school to meet up with Karnazes on the road, run 4km and was thrilled to run with his hero.

Karnazes tackled Day 5 of the North Face Summit to Sydney accompanied by Australian endurance athlete Guy Andrews with a winding run down into Wollongong and through Bulli and Thirroul, and onto the punishing climb into Otford. The 6 km ascent took Karnazes from the beach to 200m above sea level, and provided some of the most spectacular scenery the trip has seen so far.

“Making that rise and looking back to wards Shellharbour, I got a real feel for the distance and height we had just covered, and it was an amazing view. I had a guy called Adrian do the climb with me and he was psyched – yelling and spurring us both on! It was a great leg of the trip.”

Such is the impact of Karnazes, not only in Australia, but around the world. The 42 year old endurance athlete has pushed his body to the limits of human tolerance, and lived to tell the tale in his book “Ultramarathon Man”. The reach of the book is extraordinary, with many people, runners or otherwise, relating to the motivation and determination that Karnazes embodies.

Descending into the Royal national Park, Karnazes completed the 77km of day 6 in Bundeena. Having crossed at least 4 major national parks in the last week, Karnazes has made incredible time and showed remarkable strength to this point.
Me and Ultramarathon Man Dean Karnazes before running together for 7 hours

18 comments:

Ewen said...

Fantastic photo R2B! Read about your adventure on CR. Must go back and have another look.

Dean seems impressed by your 6' shirt!

runliarun said...

How awesome! Give us details.

Spud said...

One of the few CRs to run with him.
Nice work R2B.

Superflake said...

I know the bloke in the Six Foot shirt but who is the bloke in the red shorts? Nice photo.

Tesso said...

Great pic - you look as fit as him!

I missed reading your story on CR, I'll have to hunt it down. Then again, you could always blog it :)


PS No PMC for me this year. Hopefully the GC Mara though.

PPS Queenslander!!!!

Bruce said...

Hi mate, thanks for your comments, I'm mad keen on running (when I eventually get fit again) so I might have to track down that book. All the best. Sorry about the Blues last night!

Samurai Running said...

Yes nice photo R2B

What's with all the celebrity pics recently. I'll try to post my one of me and Eric Growth.

I've read a bit about Dean and found it interesting. I saw one comment he made that made me laugh.
When asked in an interview "Does your wife run too?"

He answered:

"Only when I chase her." ;)

Becky O said...

Wow R2B, I am sooo jealous. I was thinking about heading down home to run with him and now I'm cursing that I didnt. Dont know if I would have been able to keep up though!!

Tesso said...

Hey R2B. Not sure if you saw my previous comment. No PMC for me this year. Glad I didn't commit, I had enough trouble running 21k on the weekend ;-)

Good luck with it!

Unknown said...

Nice photo! I agree, you look like you could have made the entire trek as well.

Black Knight said...

Great! Karnazes now can be pride to have a picture with the First Assassin. Very kind of you to spend part of your time with him!
Does Karnazes know how lucky he was to meet you in person?

Wayne said...

Thanks for you kind words on my blog, it's certainly a tough time for all involved, I'm perhaps at the lower end of the scale.

Great blog by the way, good detail. I'll certainly keep an eye on it, hoping to get some ideas for my own training. ;) Best of luck.

Black Knight said...

Where is the First Assassin?

tim said...

mate what's happened to this blog? Have you retired from running after your run with the Man?

Black Knight said...

The Black Knight Army is ready to rescue the missing in action knights!!! Please tell me if you need our help.

Spark Driver said...

That is a great pic. Very insperational.

trailblazer777 said...

One of my ultimate running goals is to earn one of those 6 foot shirts. Maybe in 2008 or 2009 a few of us from western australia will head over.

Anonymous said...

Good for people to know.