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Jesse Dale Riley completes run across Australia
12 October 1998 - Tarcoola
Jesse Dale Riley has completed his run across Australia. An American adventurer who revived trancontinental racing in the United States in the early 1990s, Riley arrived at the Sydney Opera House at 12:30 p.m. on October 9 -- 3847.3 kilometres after setting out from Perth on August 8. His elapsed time for all 63 days on the road was 624 hours, 30 minutes and 50 seconds.
Riley, crewed by his brother John, stayed with Australian ultrarunner Pat Farmer the night before the finish and Farmer ran with him the final 6 or 7 kilometres to the historic Opera House, the most famous landmark in Australia. "It was a very pleasant finish," Riley said. "I was really happy that everything turned out okay."
The arrival was low-key. Riley was met at the finish by four or five friends he met on the road including three he first encountered while crossing the Nullarbor, in Western Australia.
The final kilometres through Sydney were hectic, and came at the close of a 58-kilometre stage which took him 6 hours, 40 minutes and 16 seconds. He got separated in traffic from his brother and from Farmer. But they eventually tracked him down and all turned out happily.
Everyone celebrated afterward and the next day the two brothers left for Melbourne by train, where both planned to run the Melbourne Marathon. (John was hoping to post a time good enough to qualify for the 1999 Boston Marathon.)
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.
