The NorthFace 100

The North Face 100 reveals a new endurance champion!

In his first 100km run ever, Blue Mountains local Andrew Lee won The North Face 100 ultra marathon in a record time of 10:20:51 shaving 2 minutes off last year's time by Andrew Kromar

Returning to the World Heritage listed Blue Mountains in its second year, the extreme endurance race was deemed a huge success and saw an incredible 333 solo runners and 31 pairs embarking on an exhausting but ultra-rewarding journey. Determined and geared up to face gruelling hours of running through the absolutely relentless terrain and rugged environment, the 395 ultra-runners departed on Saturday 16th at 7.00am in crisp and cold conditions, with blood pumping and feeling more alive than ever!

Winner Andrew Lee, 39, from Warrimoo in the Blue Mountains, powered through the whole race and conquered the torturous distance in an amazing 10 hours, 20 minutes and 51 seconds beating last year's record by only 2 minutes! Surprised by his stunning result as he had never run longer than 45 km in his life, the father of 4 was just hopeful of finishing around 11 hours.

"Winning and picking up the race record was a real bonus and I am pretty happy about that. I was in the Six Foot track marathon a few weeks ago, and that was a 45 kilometre race where I came second. After that I kept up some training for the Canberra marathon and straight after focused on The North Face 100 so I did a fair bit of trail running near by at home for the past 3-4 weeks, leading right up to the race. I didn't know what to expect. I was hopeful that it wouldn't be too hard, but it is a tough and gruelling course, relentless at times, particularly coming out of the Kadumba Pass up near Wentworth falls. It was a bit of pain coming up some stairs, I was getting sick of stairs towards the end; the last leg was really hard. Overall it was a really good day: the scenery is amazing, the organization very professional. I would recommend the course to anyone who is into this type of endurance."

Winner Andrew Lee had never run anything more than about 45km!

Defending champion Andrew Kromar was forced to pull out due to a pre-existing ankle injury after pushing it hard to the 54th kilometre. A shame as he was flying on track to beat his 2008 record.

Special guest Dean Karnazes, who stepped off a 14 hour flight from his hometown San Francisco a day before, set a steady pace and arrived approximately four hours behind the leader with a final time of 14:42:56. The ultra marathon man, who had warmed up with a 350km race in the U.S. the weekend before, and run The North Face 100 in China two weeks ago, said of the race

"I would rate this race as the toughest hundred kilometres I've ever done without a doubt, so I applaud anyone who finished"

The women's race was taken out by Julie Quinn (ACT) who smashed the record in an outstanding 12:13:26, taking the 8th position overall.

Runners continued to trek throughout the night and into the morning, with some finishing the race up to 26 hours and 30 minutes after they had begun. All together, 282 participants made it over the finish line. Congratulations to all!

>> Read previous media releases