Margs Ultra puts runners through their paces

A marathon of mass proportions occupied trails in the South West on Saturday when 1500 athletes pushed themselves to the absolute limit to run 80km between Hamelin Bay and Wilyabrup. Following a week of uncertainty whether the Margaret River Ultra Marathon would go ahead after a COVID-19 induced snap lockdown in Perth and Peel put the event on the verge of cancellation, athletes were more than grateful to be able to go through their paces. Rapid Ascent race director Sam Maffett said the vibe and enthusiasm at the sold-out event was the best he had seen in more than 10 years. “From the people to the stories — it truly was an exceptional event that just kept on giving, right through to our last finisher at midnight,” he said. With perfect race conditions and a field of 250 experienced solo competitors and 1250 team competitors, the event involved five legs on paths and trails in the area, the Cape to Cape track, and a long stretch of beach between the second and third checkpoint. Reigning champion WA-based Justin Scarvaci was close on the tail of course rookie and Victorian ultra runner Matt Crehan before he called it a day just after the 50km mark due to an old iliotibial band injury. Crehan went on to smash the record by just under one minute with a time of 7hr.15min.48sec. Joshua Kuhn and Mark Hunter took out second and third place respectively. “I was going for seven hours but when I saw that was off the cards after checkpoint three I took the foot off the gas a bit. I’m very pleased with the time. I honestly didn’t think I would get the course record.” Last year’s female runner-up Meghann Coffey went one better when she smashed her 2020 time by almost an hour to finish first in another course record of 8:24.58. In second place for the female runners was Scarlett Duncan who also broke the previous course record with a time of 8:39.44 Felicity Pidgeon took out third place. Entries for the May 2022 event are set to open in September with race officials confident the race will be a sell-out once again.