In yet another show of endurance and prowess, power couple Mel and Todd Cockshutt from Port Mac have crossed the line in one of NSW’s most gruelling races.
The pair competed in the North Face 100, held on May 14-15 in the Blue Mountains alongside some of the best ultra-marathon runners in the world.
Mel completed 54km of 100km run, finishing in just over 16 hours with third place for female teams, while Todd finished the entire race in 14:34:32. “Good enough for 112th place out of around 660 solo starters. Almost one quarter of the competitors did not finish the race,” he said, “surely an indication of just how arduous it really was.”
Mel escaped the wrath of night running, while Todd faced sub-zero temperatures with little more than a head torch, battling the bush, the mountains and nature at its most rugged.
“Challenges and experiences like this make most other challenges pale into insignificance,” Mel said. “It is Comboyne, Matthew Flinders and North Brother in Hastings region, Mt Ainslie and Mt Stromlo (in Canberra), and every other mountain I can think of all piled on top of one another.”
The pair had to climb over rocks, stairs that were “uneven and muddy or so narrow a baby’s foot just fits on them” and ladders up and down cliffs, plus an almost vertical downhill run that went for at least a couple of kilometres.
“I would like to say that Todd and I are crazy. We had a chance to get rid of three kids for the weekend and go to the beautiful Blue Mountains. But instead of romantic dinners, we decided to run around in freezing cold temperatures with 700 other people in the bush,” Mel said. “We got in the top 250 finishers of about 700 starters, so are very impressed and stoked with that. The Gold Coast Marathon, my next challenge, is going to be as easy as pie after that.”
Yet Mel said her experience was of little significance compared to the achievements of her husband Todd.
“Todd deserves the fantastic result he got. His dedication to the training paid off with an exceptional race. Well done,” she said.
“Thanks to my support crew on the day,” Todd said, “without them it would have been an even longer day.
“What next? I’m already working out how to shave 35 minutes from my time for next year.”
