24hr Enduro Race Report 2021
What: True Grit 24 Hour Enduro Aussie Titles – complete as many laps of the 11km 30 obstacle course as possible in 24 hours
When: 2pm 6 March 2021 to 2pm 7 March 2021. Note this is a much warmer time of the year than usual. Usually Enduro is held in the middle of winter and has often been cold and wet, requiring competitors to wear wetsuits overnight to stay warm.
Where: Dargle Farm, Lower Portland, Hawkesbury region
Categories: Individual (with Age Groups 18-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50+), team relay 2 person, team relay 4 person.
Read race preview for women’s field here.
Wide open grasslands reflect heat back at you and can get very hot, luckily temperatures topped out at 28 degrees
Robyn covering the last obstacles before finishing her final lap.
Race wrap up
I arrived at Dargle Farm at 10:30am on the Sunday with three and a half hours to go until the 24 hour race ended. I felt like living death having raced the Australian Alpine Ascent on Saturday, driven from Charlotte Pass back to Canberra and then left Canberra at 6am on Sunday to drive for 4 hours to the Hawkesbury. But the athletes still moving around the course made me feel super fresh in comparison.
The festival area had chilled, summer camp vibes, with a tent city set up at the finish line. By 10:30am most individual athletes were trying to get back in time to start and complete another lap before the 2pm deadline. The course is the same as the 10km True Grit race (which I have done before), with a few of the obstacles altered slightly (the sandbag carry was on a flat piece of ground rather than up a hill). Overall the obstacles are more military style, with minimal technical rigs (if any). Obstacles include walls, barbed wire torsion bar crawl, ammo carry, tunnels, rope climbs, river rope traverse, monkey bars and dam swim. Competitors were all soaked in mud up to chest height which indicated there was quite a lot of mud in the dam. Conditions were dry (except overnight there would have been dew), warm and fast.
On my way to tent city I bumped into Steve Johnston who broke a couple of ribs the weekend before, but still had a good go at Enduro, including a lap late in the night with his daughter Emma Johnston who is currently studying year 12 and was competing in a two person team. I then went to find Robyn’s husband Adi and her parents who had crewed for Robyn throughout the night and only had a couple of hours to get through. Robyn had just finished her 10th lap and was out on her 11th lap. While getting the update on Robyn’s progress I saw Matt Moore pass through tent city to start a lap wearing budgie smugglers and a legionnaire hat. I am not sure how he managed to do a whole lap in that attire! All I can think about is the chaffing. Sometimes it is good just to have a bit more fabric.
I also saw Tom Bleasedale leaving for his last lap (he came second male overall). Tom looked surprisingly fresh (as fresh as you can when coated in mud) and is a real endurance machine. Nikki Sorrell (who completed 8 laps and 88km) also passed through tent city on the way to start her final lap, though she was fairly focused on getting it done so I didn’t interrupt. I learned that Hannalise had to pull out of the race at about 4am due to being too cold after putting in a fantastic effort. Jasmine Sparkes was on track to be in the top 5 females too.
We moved to the small hill which was a perfect viewing platform to wait for Robyn to pass through. By now many of the solo competitors were doing the 10 burpee penalty instead of completing obstacles. Jim Bullard passed by, completing the Enduro in a 30kg weight vest.
Robyn completing the monkey bars and rope traverse on her last lap (she had a burpee free race)
There was a stark contrast between the individual and team competitors. Over the 24 hour period competitors in the top 4 person teams complete 4-5 laps each, with hours of rest between, enabling a much faster pace on the course. At the 22hour mark, the contrast with the solo competitors could not have been greater. There was also a hot competition between the top 4 person teams. Laura Newton’s mixed gender team ‘Unsung Enduros’ were clearly in the lead but the all-female SORTS Warriors were challenging for second (in the end coming a super impressive third place). I am a bit confused as to whether there are separate team categories for male/female/mixed, but SORTS Warriors came third outright, and won the female 4 person teams category (if there was one).
Eventually Robyn came through. I was unsure if she would be too delirious to recognise me, but on jogging down to the rope climb to be closer, it was clear that she knew exactly who I was. I asked if she would do burpees or complete the obstacles and she informed me she had done no burpees and was going to complete every obstacle on the course. Very much still sane. I watched Robyn do the rope climb, monkey bars and log river crossing before she left to do the single trail bush loop out of sight. After what was a much shorter time than expected Robyn emerged from the bush to do the barbed wire torsion bar crawl and medium wall, running the whole time (despite having covered 120km). She powered across the rope traverse and through the rings and then over the last obstacles to cross the line. She finished with an impressive 11 laps and no burpees. While waiting for the presentations I asked Robyn about how it went. She said she started strong and did well until lap 8 which was difficult but then picked up after that. She mainly fuelled herself with gels and chews (trialled beforehand) with some but not much solid food every 4hrs or so (half a packet of noodles prepared by hubby Adi). She also changed socks several times and singlet once, but wore the same pair of shoes and tights the whole race.
While I got to see Robyn, I unfortunately didn’t spot Jacki Richardson or Eve Birch (2nd and 3rd females) out on the course. But Jacki is in the 40-49 age group and Eve is in the 50+ age group, so this just shows how older athletes tend to dominate the field in endurance events. Awesome work ladies! I also got to see Linda Dent and Toby (her border collie) from a distance. I hadn’t expected Linda to be there, so that was a nice surprise.
Great work to everyone who raced at 24 hour Enduro in 2021.
Results
Top 5 females
1. Robyn Koszta 11 laps 121km
2. Jacki Richardson 10 laps 100km
3. Eve Birch 10 laps 110km
4. Pauline Decoster 10 laps
5. Jasmine Sparkes 10 laps
Top 5 males
1. Jamie Hunter 14 laps 154km
2. Tom Bleasedale 12 laps 132km
3. Benjamin Bowes 12 laps
4. Joel Murcia 12 laps
5. Ashley Finnigan 11 laps 121km
Team of four
1. Unsung Enduros – Paul Clark, Pete Wand, Laura Newton, Jess Bujeya 17 laps 187km
2. LFB 2 – Ryan Kamenic, Brandon Foster, AJ Blancaver, Reece Parker 17 laps 187km
3. SORTS Warriors – Kate Hobbs, Tetiana Drahonchuk, Rowena Macneish, Ulyana Lisovyk 16 laps 176km
Team of two
1. The Kookaburras – Lonnie Stone, Tom Redden 14 laps 154km
2. Dirtyfoot – Peter Tabb, Craig Hall 14 laps 154km
3. Team P P – Paul Vermay, Peter Muldoon 11 laps 121km
Robyn completing slip wall and rope climb on Lap 11 (her last lap).