Earlier this month, local runners Matt Griggs, Justin Hiatt and Elliot Cooper ran the fastest known time on the Canberra Centenary Trail, traversing the 145km circuit in 16 hours 3 minutes and 53 seconds.
Cooper told Canberra Daily running the trail has become “something of a tradition” for himself and the other members of the Ultra Mediocre Runners of Canberra club.
“Since the fires and Covid last year caused many events to be cancelled, it’s become a tradition for us to run a trail when one of our big races is cancelled,” he said.
The trio took the record on their third time running the track on Sunday 13 June after a last man standing ultra-run was cancelled in Victoria.
“It was a great day out for us and a great privilege to hold that record on such a great trail,” Cooper said.
It was exactly one year since another local runner, Alex Ramsey, set the previous record at 16 hours 50 minutes and 23 seconds.
According to Cooper, the Canberra Centenary Trail is “the trail to do” for local ultra-runners.
“It’s a big goal for a lot of people,” he said, “and it’s a really great length at 145 kilometres.
“It’s unique to have a trail loop around the capital city, it’s a very special thing.”
Cooper puts his affinity for the trail down to the fact it links many of the ACT’s nature reserves, and it includes over 3,000 metres of climbing.
“You get all these different perspectives on the city, which makes it a real joy to run,” Cooper said.
“Every reserve you run into, you feel the refresh coming off the concrete and going in amongst the trees.
“For me, running trail in mountains is the best place to run long distances; it’s a way of really connecting with nature and your environment and feeling a part of it.”
The Ultra Mediocre Runners of Canberra Club was created initially by Cooper and Griggs “basically as a joke” after last year’s 24- and 48-hour track running events were cancelled by the AIS, who in a statement said the facility was being reserved for “elite runners”.
“We found it quite funny that people who run for 24 or 48 hours aren’t ‘elite runners’; we thought they must be mediocre,” Cooper smiled.
So, they started running in some quirky bright shirts and then in January this year decided to incorporate as a club.
“We’re a group whose aim is to further the sport of ultra-running and to create a stronger community of ultra-runners in the ACT,” Cooper said.
Astonishingly, given the distances Cooper clocks up (approximately 100km a week), he only really got into running around 10 years ago at the age of 28 while living in Japan.
After initially getting into running via marathons, he soon discovered ultra-distance trail running.
“Covering a lot of ground in the mountains was really inspirational idea to me; it was a way of combining another sport that I recently began, which was hiking, with this new sport for me, running.
“I put the hiking and the running together and that’s how the trail running interest was born.”
