20th Annual BananaCoast UltraMarathon

The Bible says "and the last shall be first" and so it came to pass on Sunday in this the twentieth running of the Bananacoast Ultramarathon when the first man to finish was indeed Last, Geoff. Last to be precise.

Aged 51 from Burleigh Heads in Queensland Last had never been first before but there was no doubting the quality of his victory as he crossed the finish at the Hotel Coffs Harbour 8 hrs 40 mins 3 secs after starting the 85 kilometres run from the Post Office in Grafton. Last surged to the lead which had been held for nearly thirty kilometres by 50 year old Chris Gamble from Canberra at the 64 kilometre mark and never looked like surrendering it.

Gamble had set the early pace in company with Peter Wood of Coffs Harbour with both passing the marathon (42.2kms) point under 4 hours. Gamble went on to hold second place quite comfortably after being passed by Last, finishing in 9.04.39 an improvement of nearly 22 minutes over his previous best for this event. Last also sliced an impressive 22 minutes from his previous best as well.

The other early pace-setter, Wood, was to succumb to an ankle injury and accept Nana Glen as his finishing point in 6 hrs 47 minutes. Others to call a halt at Nana Glen after covering 58 kilometres were Steel Beveridge (7.31.55) and last year’s Coffs to Grafton winner, Franz Wanderer (8.26.46).

Third place for the full 85 kms went to Geoff. Hain of Ballina who collected his tenth Bananacoast finish in 9.57.43. Fourth and fifth to reach the Hotel Coffs Harbour did so unofficially as the course had closed but both Peter Gray who had passed through Nana Glen in 7.37.29 and the absolutely remarkable 76 year old Stan Miskin, 8.26.46 at Nana Glen, were determined to go the distance which they achieved in 11 hours 40 minutes and 12 hours 35 minutes 17 seconds respectively.

All the runners praised their "seconds" or "handlers" after the event as consuming fluid and solid food in an event such as this is vital and it is the seconds who give the runners the strength to carry on when the going gets tough.