Well the five fingers have done it again with Chris White taking out the Gold Rush premier 42k event in a time of 3:44.52. The weather gods smiled upon the inaugural gold rush field of 47 runners with overcast skies and a NQ coolish morning – perfect trail running temperature.
Thanks to all participants for their enthusiasm to attend and still smile after a tougher than expected run (you were warned haha). Also a massive thanks to Marshalls Di and Rob at the Goldsborough turnaround and to Tim and Co from the East Mulgrave Causeway. A Big thanks to Brendon Malone from DERM (QPWS Ranger) who gave up his Sunday to allow us access to the northern section of the trail. Also thank you all volunteers at admin and catering for the Gold Rush and the entire Dirty Northern Trail Running series for that matter. The Volunteer of the Year series prize went to Idan Piercy. Also thanks to the Cairns Road Runners and Triathlon Club for their patience and ongoing support.
Novice trail runner Steve Postma who travelled from the Burdekin for the event had this to say about the event
‘It was my first trail run of any sort so I had no preconceptions. I have no complaints at all. Organise the same weather for next year if you can. Maintain the relaxed, friendly atmosphere. It was obvious that some work had been done to the track to make it easier to pass, and that was good, but it was still unmistakeably a rainforest track complete with logs to climb over and duck under, wait-a-while to avoid, water to traverse, mud, rocks, tree roots – I loved it!’
Click on this link to the full field results (series results are also here).
Overall Results are as follows
Gold Rush 42k:
Male
1 White Chris 3:44:52
2 Cunningham Steve 3:59:04
3 Wood Dave 4:20:45
Female
1 Crowe Susan 4:24:42
2 Gori Anita 4:38:21
3 Sager Julie 5:15:10