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Trans Australia - Race of Fire
7th June 2000January 6, 2001, is the tentative starting date for the Race of Fire, an invitational Trans-Australian footrace that will taken some of the best runners in the world on a 4,000-kilometre journey from Perth to Canberra over a period of nine weeks in stages of roughly 70 kilometres a day.
Bernie Farmer, the brother of Australian ultarunner Pat Farmer, will be directing the race along with Jesse Dale Riley, the organizer of four Trans-American footraces in the early 1990s. January 6 has been chosen as the tentative starting date in order to allow the race to finish at Canberra, the Australian capital, on March 11 -- Canberra Day, a territorial holiday.
The finish will coincide with Sky Fire, a huge fireworks celebration where the arrival of the runners will be one of the major highlights. A crowd of 100,000 or more could be on hand for the occasion. Approximately 25 runners are being invited from around the world to compete in the event.
The course will take runners from Perth across the Nullabor Plain through South Australia to Adelaide and on into New South Wales and Canberra -- all in the intense heat of the Australian summer. Prize money will total $40,000 U.S. and there will be prizes on the line for each stage of the race. A documentary film crew will follow the race and produce a full-length feature.
"We want it to be spectacular," Farmer says. "The media coverage in Australia will be huge, and being so close after the Olympic games, the focus of the world will still be on Australia.
"The scenery that the runners will encounter is breathtaking, and while this race will test the limits of all competitors, I can promise them a finish that they will remember for the rest of their lives."
Back to CoolRunning Trans-Australia Footrace HomePage (includes links to other Trans-Australia Footrace articles)
This article has been provided with permission by UltraMarathon World, the foremost authority on Ultramarathons in the world, for which CoolRunning Australia is very grateful.
