A very early Sunday morning saw the start of the Glencore 2016 annual outback to the stack half marathon and running festival begin. There was a record 224 registered participants signed up for the event showing that interest in the race that starts at lake Moondarra and finishes at Tony White oval continues to grow.
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People lined up across 4 separate categories, the 21km walk, 21km run and also the 10km and 5km run.
First off at 5am was the participants in the 21km walk. Everyone was suited up in high visibility vests and headlamps as the first two hours of walking would be taking place in the dark for the 41 competitors.
Next off at 7am and just on daybreak was a record 69 competitors for the 21km half marathon. The tempo was quick from the outset with a small bunch setting the pace led by previous Outback to the Stack winner Aidan Hobbs. Just behind were newcomer Alex Tworkowski and Leon Bennett followed closely by Adam Chapman and now local Cloncurry police officer Haylee Scanlan. By the 5km mark Hobbs made it known he was here to win. He broke away from the pack at well under 4 minute/km pace. Bennett and Tworkoski could only watch the gap increase as the race continued.
Further back Adam Chapman and Haylee Scanlan were battling for fourth place with Scanlan taking the lead at the 8km mark. She continued to open up a half kilometre lead until taking the wrong turn just before the 15km mark and running an extra half a kilometre in the wrong direction. Despite this she turned around and chased Chapman down again crossing the line together for an equal fourth place overall and still the first female across the line in a time of 1.39.02 seconds.
Meanwhile Brisbane based Aidan Hobbs who happened to be here this weekend for the Mount Isa centre for rural and remote health conference continued to smash out sub 4min kms for the entire race to take the outright win in a time 1.21.22 seconds, more than 12 minutes ahead of the next closest competitor.
In the 10km category 42 competitors lined up for the start with Cory Jones taking the lead early in the race only to be slowly run down by previous winner Greg Mitchell who crossed the line in 41.17 seconds. Adding more icing to his winners cake his wife Alison Mitchell who only recently came to Australia from New Zealand took out first place for females in a time of 48.06 seconds making them both winners in their division.
A big thank you to all sponsors, volunteers and the competitors for making this event what it is and a fantastic community gathering, we look forward to seeing you all here again next year.
