About Us

Brand Ambassador – Stephen Redfern

I have been running now since February 2014, so now is about five and a half years since I started. This is off the back of growing up in the Blue Mountains and being an avid bushwalker for about 35 years, before deciding to switch to running at the age of 42.

My first Half-Marathon was in May 2014 and my first Marathon in August 2014 at the Running Wild Glenbrook Trail Marathon. I then followed this up with the Sydney Marathon 4 weeks later.

I did my very first Ultra-Marathon 7 months after starting running at the Hume & Hovell 100km Ultra and was then convinced to enter my very first 100 miler at the Alpine Challenge 5 weeks later. This was only 9 months into running. I was stoked to finish this race in a time of 36hrs. This was to be my longest time in a race up until I completed the West Macs Monster 232km. I finished this race with such excitement that I realised this was where my passion and talent lay, in the long ultra runs. From this point I haven’t looked back.

I am a runner who ultimately would call himself a trail runner, and I love getting out on the trails and into the bush for my training runs and races, but really do loves to dabble and race in all forms of running. This being from trail races ranging from the smaller distances all the way up to 240km and hopefully beyond, like at the West Macs Monster 232km Trail Ultra, along the entire length of the Larapinta Trail. This being my longest race in a time of 42:30hrs to complete. I also enjoy doing mountain races and runs, including the Buffalo Grandslam back in 2017, completing all 3 races over the weekend. I very much love indulging in running holidays in New Zealand on the South Island, chasing mountains for 2 weeks, completing over 20,000m+ of elevation in that time!

Aside from trail running I also really enjoy road running as a different form and can enjoy a good half and full Marathon (with a PB of 2 hours 57 mins), all the way up to extremely long road runs like the Coast 2 Kosci 240k, which I still rate as one of the highlights of my last 5 years of running. My other discipline that I enjoy as a great personal challenge is timed track runs, and in particular, 24hr and 12hr events. After earning a PB at last year’s Sri Chinmoy 24hr Track Ultra with a total of 245km, I was privileged to have the opportunity to be able to represent Australia in 24hr Championships at both the Asian/Oceania 24hr Championships in Soochow Taiwan last December, and most recently at the 2019 IAU 24hr World Championships in Albi, France just this past month (October 2019). A very proud moment for me.

I have also been very privileged to being able to compete in races overseas such as the Tarawera Ultra-Trail 100km in New Zealand, and also running in the Western States Endurance Run WSER, last year (2018) in June only 3 weeks after my 245km Track Race, and most recently at UTMB this year (2019) in Chamonix France!

Other highlights have been to crew for a runner at the 2019 Barkley Marathon’s and to be amongst all the atmosphere of this most iconic race.
Back home I have enjoyed running quite a few of our great 100 mile races, and even being able to pick up a few course records as well such as Hume & Hovell 100 miler in 18:40hrs, Hubert 100 miler in 19:27 hrs and the WTF 100 miler in Western Australia in my best time if 16:47 hrs.
One of the toughest races I have competed in to date would have to be the amazing Great Southern Endurance Run GSER 181km Ultra, which runs from Mt Buller to Bright along parts of the AAWT, and with over 10,500m+ elevation. I had the amazing experience of racing with Tim Lock for pretty much the entirety of the whole race and having absolutely nothing left in the tank for both of us, we ended up finishing equal 2nd in a time of 33:20hrs The finishing photo of this race is still to be my most favourite captured moment of my running.

On top of all my big races and overseas adventure, one thing I do really love is to also run and race with the community. I really enjoy being around so many great runners who I am also proud to call my friends. All of the friendships I have made through running will last a lifetime! I absolutely love doing the Sri Chinmoy series, as it’s all about running for your inner enjoyment and being a part of the whole community. I also love the Running Wild club events in the Blue Mountains. Running Wild have been putting on great community-based trail races for the past 10 years, and is also home to my first ever Marathon, the Glenbrook Marathon.

My years are quite big in terms of running and kilometres with this year (2019) getting close to 6000km and 125,000M+ of elevation. My last 2 years have also been 5,750km and 5,500km consecutively. This style I quite like. I find I really enjoy just continually training and racing throughout the year with my weekly averages being around about the 120km mark.

Coming up for my next race, I will be tackling my biggest adventure to date. I have been lucky enough to be selected in a small field of about only 30 runners to race in the Hong Kong 4 Trails Ultra Challenge (HK4TUC), which is over in Hong Kong at the end of January 2020. This will entail running all four of Hong Kong’s main trails self-supported at a distance of 298km and 14,500M+ of elevation in hopefully a time of under 60hrs (but up to a potential 72hrs). What a great start to the 2020 running year!

The best advice I could ever give, is just get out there and enjoy your running and sharing with your running community as much as I do, whether it be a local parkrun to an Ultra event.

Stephen Redfern