Well that was fun! Sunshine… tick, rain… tick, lush green trails… tick, friends, family & fellow trail run nuts… tick, tick, tick. The Jabulani Challenge brought it all!
The energy was high at Bobbin Head for the early 06:30am registration. We had plenty of new and familiar faces in the start chute with more than half of the 850 participants repeat customers. As the mist rolled off the waters of the marina, runners set off to sunny conditions and into the depths of the spectacular Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. There’s no denying this is a TOUGH course with technical terrain and mean elevation gains, runners needed to bring it all (and a little bit extra) to get through the kms and back through the yellow arch.
Congratulations to all runners! We hope you enjoyed your day and the sense of achievement from finishing a challenging race. On the podiums the 45 km win was secured by Josef Mcgrath for the males and Kate Cush was first across the line for the females. The 22 km course saw Paddy Trihey take first place for males and Caitlin Fowlds securing the first for females. The 12 km was a quick race with Matt Lillas powering through the finish line as first male and Jasmine Kerry first female only 20 seconds ahead of Liani Strauss. View all the official race times and positions here.
The team at Outer Image Collective got some amazing photos on the day, they are now available to purchase here.
Thanks to our red volunteer team, who were spread all over the park, marshalling, stocking aid stations and cheering participants home, we couldn’t run the event without them.
And a big shout out to our event sponsors Tailwind Nutrition Australia who fueled our aid stations on course. And thanks to Tarkine, the all new sustainable Aussie running shoes, which we’ve been testing and love.
We can’t wait to do it all again next year; bring on Jabulani Challenge 2024!
If you are keen to add some more races to your calendar this year check out Raffertys Coastal Run or Coastal Classic, both now open for entries.
