6-Inch "45km"** 16th December 2007;

1st Colin 3 hours 46 min
2nd David 3 hours 56 min
3rd Victor 4 hours 11 minutes
4th Craig 4 hours 33 minutes
5th Nathan 5 hours 36min
6th Mark 5 hours 36min
Equal 7th Tom and Rebecca 5 hours 53 minutes*

DNF's (Did Not Finish entire distance);
Rod 42km in 4 hours 01 min
Trent ran first 21km...

DNS (Did Not Start, but was entered as an intending runner)
Jonathon (I.E. me)

*Rebecca is the winning Woman and also now holds the Womens course record!
**Daves bonus K's rule applies...

Mark and Nathan finishing the 6-inch in 2007!

So 10 starters in 2007 3 more than the last 2 years. If I had been there it would have been 11... Excellent times there from the first 4 (Colin,Dave,Victor and Craig), If Rod had found the start line he probably would have challenged Craig for 4th spot....Daves record of 3.42 from last year just survives for another year. Apparently it didnt rain much and the conditions were perfect, at least that is what Dave says, but I dont know whether to trust that when he believes in things like bonus K's (in crowd joke)...Apparently Mark and nathan had some big troubles as did a few others with a Carpet Python blocking their way on the steep/rough section near Oakley Dam...Details in R4YL and Ultramag magazines soon which should encourage this race (now in its 3rd year) to get more well-known around Australia...
So good improvement on last year in numbers and quality of runners. Make sure you get a copy of the next R4YL and Ultramag magazines to see the mention of this race.

Mark and Nathan after more than 5 hours of battling
the Munda Biddi "path through the forest" (Thats what this Nyoongar phrase means),
and an angry carpet python near Oakley Dam,
arriving at the welcome sight of the finish in Dwellingup...

Rebecca and Tom approaching from the distance,
Rebecca a few seconds away from a new Womens course record of 5 hours 53 minutes!

Back to 6Inch FAQ page

Some race reports from Dave and Nathan;

>>Nathan wrote;
Ť Reply #106 on Dec 17, 2007, 7:48pm ť
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, I always love to read the race reports of runners and hear about how their race panned out, and now I suppose it's my turn to explain my 5:36 (over and hour slower than planned). I started out with the plan to run slowly up goldmine hill, which worked well and i found myself in 5th position by the top behind Dave, Colin, Victor and Craig. I ran well for the first hour, then seemed to struggle a little during the second, although my pace wasn't affected. After the drink stop and a caffeine gu, things started to pick up. I was feeling great, my legs were finally starting to get moving and my pace had increased, I was confident in a 4:25 finish @ the 3hr mark (31km) but this is when the problems started.
I was flying up a hill and noticed a fox run across the track so my eyes followed that and when they returned to the track i realized i was about to step on a huge snake which was covering about 40% of the track!!!! Needless to say i backed off pretty quickly and tried to calm down a little. Upon further inspection i noticed that this snake was about 2-2.5mtrs long and about 3 inches round - yeah it was huge. There was no way in hell i was gonna run past it when its head was facing the track. I tried to move it off the track by throwing a few rock buts this just made it narky. I couldn't get around it (and i don't really like snakes and could bring myself to charge past it in hope) so I decided to wait for the next runner and warn them of the impending danger. That was Mark, who arrived about 15 minutes later. He went up to have a look and i told him where it was but something got lost in translation and he ended up walking right past it and it had a real go at him, missing Mark by about 6-7 inches. At least he had gone past it, but now that I had seen the snake have a go, there was no way i was going past it. Eventually I made a dash around the back of the snake which meant a detour through the bush and managed to get past it. I had wasted 20 minutes on that d**n snake so all possibility of a good time where gone, so given that fact that Mark was struggling I decided to run with him and make sure he finished this year. I just couldn't see the point in busting my gut to finish in 4:45. We got through in 5:36, which was a great effort for Mark considering for a long while 5:40 was the likely finish time, but over the last 4km Mark pushed hard and finished well - good on ya Mark
It was a great day for the run and on a personal note, finishing with 2hrs fairly comfortable has meant that I was almost completly recovered the next day so a tough hilly 10k was just the ticket. The plan now is to run a solid hour every day until Thursday, then taper for the Bibbulmun track run - 350km's in 5 days - Priceless. If anyone is interested in joining Dave and myself for 1 or more days contact Dave as he has all the details.
Have a great Christmas everyone and try not to put on too many Christmas kilos - c you all next year. Nathan.

Re: 6" 2007
>>Dave wrote;
Ť Reply #107 on Dec 17, 2007, 11:59pm ť
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Was another fun day in the bush! Thanks everyone for coming, I think all enjoyed their run.
Race day forecast was for showers and thunderstorms. Coming off a max of 36C last year this was a big turn around and the conditions looked set for fast times. As the runners gathered before the start it was quite dark under overcast skies.
Nine runners toed the line and we headed off up Goldmine Hill the biggest climb of the course. I soon cleared out to a small gap but was joined by Colin not long after making it to the top. Together we ran from about 2K to 30K. As we crossed Scarp Rd to start the trail section a car was pulled up by the side of the road. An unknown male runner then asked "Is this the Six Inch Track?" After being unable to find the start Rod jumped in and started his run from about the 4K mark.
As we started down the trails it was obvious that Colin had an advantage on the flatter sections while I was doing better on the more technical tracks. One of us would pull away using there strength whilst the other would then fight back keeping a tight pack of two until Del Park Rd whichi we reached in 1.31:20. It felt like we'd been running fairly hard so I saw little chance of a course record even with the cool conditions. Prescribed burning had changed the nature of the course quite a bit, but fortunately the cool conditions didn't have us searching for shade.
Halfway came up around 1.51.20, still that 1.5 minutes off record pace. We flew through the next few K and heading over the Alcoa conveyor-belt Colin eased away on a long downhill. By Oakley Dam the lead was out to 20 seconds but Colin missed a turn and ended up following me up the big rutted hill. I buried my head as I sensed an opportunity to assert myself on a steep technical hill. Barely 20 metres up I noticed a large snake-head about 6 inches from my right foot. I yelled back to Colin but by the time the message got through he had run right over the top of it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I think that it was just a harmless carpet python, but this didn't stop a few scares for Nathan and Mark later on. Maybe it was Snakeman, he did seem very interested in the race ealier in the year. Through until Scarp Rd it is mainly uphill and I stuck with Colin. However once we reached Scarp I pulled out a Gu and whilst taking it Colin stole a short lead. Approaching the last drink station Colin was still in front with a handy lead of about 80 metres. Kate managed to arrive between Colin and myself to man the station for the slower runners. I grabbed a quick drink perhaps losing 10 seconds. Trent had pulled out at halfway and was walking in from here. A fine effort considering his lack of training.
I mangaged to keep Colin within sight thinking that if I could run the last 5K as quick as I had the previous year then I may be able to catch him. I turned up the last big hill with about 9K to go and my legs never recovered. The next 4K were a struggle but I hadn't slowed too much. When I arrived at Marrinup with 5K to go Rod's wife informed me I was only 1 minute down. There wasn't to be any fast finishing as shortly after I blew up like a big hot air balloon and was even forced to walk a bit near the end. Colin finished solidly and took out the win by 10 minutes in the end.
Fifteen minutes later Victor crossed the line with a big PB and was followed not long after by Rod who had run the equivalent of a marathon in 4.01. Craig was next in 4.33 informing everyone he would have gone under 4.30 but the course was actually 46K. It was a long wait for Mark and Nathan and we had the traditional bottle of bubbly while waiting. Finally Tom and Rebecca finished in style with a new female course record to Rebecca of 5.53:00. Tom evidently had had his own battle with the snake and this may have contributed to him looking a little worse for wear. Dave.

Some 6 inch stats from the first 3 years;

>>Jon wrote; Re: 6" 2007
Ť Reply #109 on Dec 18, 2007, 6:56am ť
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The 3 inch wide snake at six inch...hey ...very interesting reading....thanks Nathan and Dave for sharing your race thoughts...
Some 6 inch 45km stats from the first three years;
6 Inch the first three years time rankings;
1. Dave K. 3.42(06) 4.02 (05) 3.56 (07)
2. Colin F. 3.46 (07)
3. Victor L. 4.11 (07) 4.19 (06)
4. Stephen Cota 4.22* (05)
5. Warren T. 4.27* (05)
6. Craig B. 4.33 (07)
7. Nathan F. 4.36 (06) 5.25 (05) 5.36 (07)
8. Andrew C. 4.45* (05)
9. Mark B. 5.36 (07) DNF (06)
Equal 10th Rebecca D. & Tom M. 5.53 (07)
Equal 12th Kaye T. & Cherie C. 6.10 (06)
14. Jonathon P. 6.25 (05) 7.04 (06)
Note that Cota,Warren and Andrew actually ran about 48.5k...so they probably would have run about 4.10,4.15, and 4.30 otherwise although difficult to say for sure...
DNF's; Rod (got through 42k in 4.01 and if he had found the start line probably would have ranked in the top 7), Mark B., Suzy T., Trent O....
So 14 runners have successfully completed the 6-inch challenge so far.
Multiple successful completions;
3 times; Dave, Nathan.
2 times; Victor, Jonathon.