Brian Bloomer Aug 2007

Born in the inner Melbourne suburb of East Brunswick, Brian was nine years of age when his family moved out to West Heidelberg where he spent his formative years. “You had to be tough to survive out there”, was Brian’s blunt assessment.

Not surprisingly, his initial foray into competitive sport was as a featherweight boxer, an era that saw him earn the nickname of “Punchy”.  “I won more than I lost”, he reminisced, “One night I shared top billing on TV Ringside”  [A live local boxing program in the late 60’s]

Marathon running came later in life with 13 marathons producing times in the 2:40 to 2:50 bracket.  Brian’s best time was the 2:42 he recorded at Canberra in 1984 in the most atrocious of conditions.  Only when he equaled this performance two weeks later at the old Halls Gap event, did he start pointing his attention to the ultra scene.

As a celebration of the state of Victoria’s 150th anniversary, a “one off” 150 kilometre track race was organised by Geoff Hook, a prime mover amongst the ultra fraternity at the time.  Taking place on March 10th 1985 at the Aberfeldie Athletic Track, a star studded field of seasoned and experienced runners ensured a quality event.   With temperatures reaching the high 30’s, little regard was afforded to the virtual unknown runner who led the experienced field in the early stages.  With a creditable 6:07 performance in the 1984 Victorian 50 Mile Track Race where he ran solidly to lead for 38 miles then “died” over the last 12  [A valuable learning experience, in Brian’s words],  Brian was hardly a complete novice but his lack of experience over a longer distance had wise observers expecting him to fade as he extended his lead during the first half of the race.  To cut to the chase, many a face was covered in egg as Brian charged on to victory with a well judged performance that left many of the nation’s best in his wake.  “I can’t recall my time”  mused Brian, “But I think I was under 14 hours”.   A chapter of Australian ultra history had begun.

Brian added this about his “breakthrough” ultra……

“I was out on the grog until 1am, then I had to make sandwiches and prepare drinks etc which took until 4am before I had to pick up a mate of mine who was crewing for me.  I never thought we would get there on time but luckily the race started late and I managed to have a 10 minute nap.”

“After the Aberfeldie event, I contacted Mike Agostini the next day about getting an entry into the Westfield Sydney to Melbourne race.

“All you’ve done is beat a woman. You’ll need more than that” was Mike Agostini’s rather sexist reply in reference to the great Margaret Smith”.  [Margaret Smith finished second outright in the 150km race]

Undeterred, Brian sought the personal references of 1984 Westfield winner, Geoff Molloy and the legendary George Perdon. 

To quote Brian again, ”George told me he was pulling out and that a position would be available, he told the organisers that he thought I would win it.  On that note, I was accepted”

When the Westfield Sydney to Melbourne race got under way in April 1985, the 44 year old was indeed amongst the starters.  While many of the overseas stars had large entourages, Brian had moved heaven and earth to be there on a shoe string budget.   At one stage, Brian was going to run with just a one man crew.  A mate was a long distance truckie who reckoned he could go six days without sleep and Brian was confident he could run the distance in the same time!!!  Ultimately, it didn’t quite come to that when some local fundraising around his home suburb of Springvale in Melbourne’s south-east managed to get a support crew together.

The tough, tattooed and nuggetty marine steward had an unshakable belief that he could take things up to the world’s best multi day runners.

With little experience himself, a small crew with even less experience and virtually no money, Brian ran all the way to Melbourne in 6 Days 17 Hours and 20 Minutes to take third position ahead of many of the world’s best.  Only Kiwi champion, Siggy Bauer and the unbeatable Yiannis Kouros were ahead of him.  Being presented with the “Outstanding Achievement Award”, Brian won a brand new red Mitsubishi Colt which he adorned with the distinctive registration plates of “ULTRA – 1”, a car he still drives today.  He may have been unknown a few months earlier, but Brian was sure making headlines now.  Showing no ill effects, he then knocked out a 2:45 marathon at a low key event in suburban Melbourne just four weeks after his epic run.

Brian’s work as a marine steward had him crossing Bass Strait between Melbourne and Devonport several times a week.  Most of his training consisted of running laps of the ship’s deck, often for 10 hours or more!

The Brian Bloomer star rose further in 1986 with a new Australian 24 hour record in February.  In torrid heat at Melbourne’s Box Hill Athletic track, Brian arrived late, missed the first 10 minutes of the race, hit the track, took the lead after six hours and flew through the night hours fuelled on water and cold tinned spaghetti all the way to a total of 242.648km in a performance that rendered all those present spellbound.  Australian ultrarunning had not seen anything like it before.  It was also the first time that a home grown talent had surpassed the imperial mark of 150 miles in 24 hours.

If such a performance was not spectacular enough on its own, Brian’s unconventional approach in the days leading up to his historic run beggars belief.  

“I’d missed  three weeks of training with a knee injury”,  he expanded, “So I ran for four hours around the local track during the midday heat on the Thursday, then did another six hours on the Friday to see if I was up to it.  I got through that OK so fronted up to Box Hill on Saturday planning a crack at Yiannis Kouros’s world record”.

 “When I realised that I had the national record sewn up but wasn’t going to reach Yiannis’ record, I slowed for a walk break.  My son Dean really ripped into me. “I didn’t spend all night looking after you just to watch you have a bludge, now get moving”, he yelled. “So get moving I did”.

With a new national record under his belt, one would expect that some down time might be of the essence but the Colac Six day Race was only a week away and Brian was keen to use it as a training run to fine tune his routine prior to his second attempt at the Sydney to Melbourne event some two months away.  Paying little attention to his final tally [training/practice was his only purpose at Colac],  his 763.6km was still good enough to have him amongst the leaders in the best six day field assembled in the world to that date.  

In the first week of May in 1986, Brian was amongst the favourites as the annual race between the nations two largest cities got underway.   In the most dramatic of circumstances, Brian took the lead while still in NSW and spent two days in a cat and mouse battle with Yugoslavian champion, Dusan Mravlje.  It was about 20km north of Albury where Brian suffered a torn calf.  Most of us would not have been able to walk with such an injury but the tough resident of working class Springvale fought his way to Melbourne to snare second position ahead of the accomplished Englishman, Patrick Macke.

With the press playing the “Aussie battler makes good” card, he celebrated his performance with a cold beer.

12 months later, the 1987 Westfield Run was run over a new course. Instead of heading straight down the Hume Highway, the race had been re routed through Canberra and into Eastern Victoria with the approach to Melbourne via the Gippsland Highway.  The distance exceeded 1,000km for the first time.

With second and third positions in his previous two attempts, Brian had focused his entire year on preparing for a shot at victory.  He had trained heavily around the Otway Ranges  and was as fit as he had ever been but, once again, he was going to have to contend with a strong field of international runners.  1987 produced heatwave conditions and Brian came home strongly for fourth position and first Australian for the third consecutive year. Over the new course, a time of 7 Days 19 Hours and 22 Minutes was arguably his best Sydney to Melbourne performance to date.

With his passion still burning, Brian returned for a fourth crack at the “big one”.  Sadly, the 1988 Westfield Run ended abruptly for Australia’s premier multi day exponent when a bad knee injury forced him out after only 202km.  In what appeared to be his swan song, we didn’t hear much from Brian as he slipped into retirement in the knowledge that he had created a whole new chapter of multi day running that the nation had not seen the likes of before.

In 1991, Brian re emerged and was regularly seen around the circuit of Sunday morning fun runs.  In November of the same year, he returned to Colac and clocked up a creditable 704.4kms over the six days.

Almost 20 years after he set the ultra world alight, Brian again returned to the Colac Six Day Race in 2004.  Aged in his mid 60’s and enjoying retirement, a leisurely 522.2kms resulted.

“My Colac runs in 1991 and 2004 were just fun things. Something to do and to enjoy the company”, Brian elaborated.

Interesting, likeable, an engaging personality and never short of a yarn, a true measure of the man is the fact that during his heyday, Brian could also be found at many of the “short’ ultras on the calendar, assisting and encouraging others in any way possible.  Another fact that most would be unaware of is that he often made generous donations of many hundreds of dollars to AURA and ultrarunning in general from his Westfield prize money each year.

These days, Brian has retired from the workforce and resides in the Melbourne bayside suburb of Seaford.  Describing himself as a sports nut, he is a regular live spectator at almost every sport on the calendar.  AFL football, Australian Open Tennis, motorbike racing, surf carnivals and more are all his agenda. Brian maintains his fitness via his old boxing routine of the heavy bag and speed ball while keeping his legs ticking over at the Victorian Road Runners monthly 8km fun runs around the famed “Tan Track”.  Just look for the red Mitsubishi with the “ULTRA – 1” number plates, you can’t miss him!

Compiled by Ultramag Editor, Kevin Cassidy, August 2007.