WELCOME TO AURA’S WEBINAR SERIES

With a background in Olympic distance triathlons, Ben Berriman – YOUR MC FOR THE WEBINAR – has completed numerous ultras including the 6 Foot Track, Mt Solitary Ultra, Sydney Oxfam, Hounslow Ultra, Wild Endurance 100, TNF/UTA100, GNW100miler and Ironman Australia. He facilitates the Blue Mountains Marathon Clinic where he works with over 2000 members to build opportunities for all levels of runners and was an original committee member for Running Wild NSW, a not-for-profit that provided affordable, high-quality trail events.

As the AURA State Representative for NSW, Jane Trumper was the first woman to run across the Simpson Desert (664km in 10 days) and in 2012 she ran solo and unsupported from Canterbury, UK to Rome, Italy covering 2300km in 40 days. In 2013 Jane ran the 88 Temples of Shikoku in Japan (1200km in 17 days unsupported) whilst in 2014 she ran 700km across the Gibb River Road in 11 days. This 60-year-old grandmother runs a marathon nearly every weekend, has run over 450 marathons and ultramarathons including over 25x 100km events, 10x 100milers and is a 9x Coast 2 Kosciuszko finisher. Needless to say she has heaps to share with anyone wanting to tackle their first ultra!

Isobel Ross took up running when her kids were young as a way of keeping fit. Before motherhood, she raced mountain bikes successfully, but found this hard with young kids in tow. Living near the bush she ran mostly on trails. When she decided to do her first marathon she made the common mistake of doing too much too soon and missed the start line. Fast forward a few years, she trained for a Sub 3 marathon and in the process entered her ‘training run’, the 6 Foot Marathon, which she consequently won! This qualified her to represent Australia in the World Long Distance Mountain Running Champs three times. She has also ran an impressive 198.7km on the track in 24 hours. She now sticks to mainly 100km and 100mile races, has been an entrant to the elusive Barkley Marathons, and most recently set an epic FKT to complete the seven main peaks in Victoria. She completed the 291km run in 67 hours and 22 mins! Isobel is also a personal trainer and running coach. She’s also an AURA State Representative for Victoria.

Allicia Heron has always been hooked on the challenge of running and also by the way it makes her feel. She represented her school as a child in state running and then in her working life in the Navy. Her first ultra was a 50km race in Canberra in 2018 after never having done a marathon. This set her drive and enthusiasm to pursue longer distances. She has since completed multiple 50km to 100km events and also taken to the track for 6, 12 and 48 hour events. Her longest distance is the recent 48-hour in Canberra where she clocked up 266km. She finds that ultras challenge you in more than just being able to run a long distance – you need to be focused on nutrition, changing terrain and sleep deprivation just to name a few hurdles. She recommends that runners new to ultras to just go for it and enter, be prepared to suffer but find a part of you that you didn’t know existed once you dig deep. You’ll be rewarded with a massive sense of accomplishment. Allicia is an AURA State Representative for ACT.

Martin Fryer has been a member of AURA for almost 25 years, having been inspired in the mid 1990s by the ultra-endurance achievements that he read about in the AURA magazine – Yiannis Kouros, Cliff Young and Bryan Smith running the Westfield Sydney to Melbourne races, Sandra Barwick and other NZL and AUS women running amazing 6 day race distances, our first Aussie runners like Kevin Cassidy that ventured over to do the Western States 100 mile race in California in the 1980s and 1990s. Martin was inspired to do his first ultra at 6 Foot Track in 1997 and a subsequent ‘slippery slope’ journey of completing more than 100 ultras on trail, track and road since then for events ranging from 4 hours to 43 days in duration and from 45km to 2800km in distance. His highlights include running Western States 100mile (21st) in 2007 as well as 1st Place in the World 48-hour Track Champs in 2007 with 433.686km, a record that has only just been beaten 12 years later. His most memorable experience was competing in the 246km Spartathlon in Greece in 2016 which runs from Athens to Sparta. These accomplishments only touch the surface of Martin’s incredible journey.

For Martin, being involved in ultramarathons means being part of a community (more like family) of like-minded individuals that have been fortunate enough to see the profound effects that training for, and completing an ultramarathon, have on their physical, mental and spiritual health, He has seen so many people’s lives changed permanently and positively by participation in this sport and that alone is the perfect motivation for him to continue to be deeply involved as a participant, volunteer, race timer, race director, National 24H team coach and AURA State Rep. He continues to give back to the sport that he dearly loves and treasures.

Simone Hayes is a married mother of two young adults and started running to get fit and lose weight before she got married in 1996. She dabbled in a few half marathons while running her personal training business which she has operated for 16 years. Never having run a marathon she got ‘talked into’ entering her first 100km race, the North Face 100 in the Blue Mountains (now named UTA). After that race and saying never again, she went looking for the next thing to sign up to the very next day. She developed an overwhelming passion for the sport of trail running and is also a qualified running coach which she combines with her PT business. Since then Simone has run dozens of 45 to 50km trail races, 14 x 100km races, 2x 100mile races, and after turning her attention to the track in 6, 12 and 24 hour events, qualified for the Australian 24 Track Team in 2019 in Albi, France. She recently finished her first Coast 2 Kosci Ultramarathon 240km in 2020. Simone is passionate about encouraging new runners and her clients to get outside of their comfort zones and dip their toes into ultras to test themselves and see what they are made of. She believes most people are only limited by their minds and proper training advice! Simone is extremely invested in the ultra-running community and is on the committee of AURA.

AURA State Representative for Qld Dan Symonds is a married father of one from Harvey Bay. Before becoming an elite ultra runner he was a rodeo clown and ‘did a bit of bull riding’. He then spent 5 years in Canada before venturing to his first ultra which was a 50km mountain trail that went up and down 3 mountains at a ski resort in 2015. Since then, his love of ultras grew and he hasn’t looked back since. His specialty is track events but he occasionally ventures onto the dark side of trails. Dan was on the Australian 24 Hour Track team in the 2019 World Championships in Albi, France. He recently competed in the Sydney 24 Hour Ultra, finishing in 2nd Place with 237kms. He loves talking about running and ultras and is happy to answer any questions or help new runners in any way.