The 2025 Pilliga Ultra was held from Friday to Sunday, September 19 to 21, and there were plenty of locals from the Narrabri Shire in action across the three days at the annual event.
The Pilliga Ultra is raced on the rugged, wild, and beautiful terrain of the Pilliga Forest trails from Pilliga Pottery in Coonabarabran.
It is organised by For Wild Places, raising funds to protect the sacred and significant forest.
The event includes courses for everyone of all fitness and skill levels, kicking off on the Friday with a 10km race and then followed by the 50km race on the Saturday and the 20km race on the Sunday.
Two of the Narrabri locals who took part in this year’s event were Megan Davies and Cherina Gray, who are both members of the Narrabri Bushwalking Club.
Megan raced in the 10k and the 20k with her sister Janelle Scarr and one of her nephews, and Cherina took part in the 20k as she lined up for her first competitive sporting event in about 50 years.
The duo told The Courier that it was a tough but rewarding experience.
“It was a big accomplishment for me. I’ve never been in anything like that,” Cherina said.
“I joined the bushwalking club because I have been doing a lot of swimming, and I feel like I’m only getting the top half of my body properly worked out, so I wanted to do something that had an impact on my legs and bone density.
“I absolutely love it. Everyone in the bushwalking club is friendly, down to earth and very encouraging.
“One of the members, Suzie Feoderoff, got me interested in the Pilliga Ultra. We were going to do it together, but she ended up not being able to do it. I nearly backed out, but I thought I’d give it a go.
“Doing it on my own ended up being fine. All of my focus was completely on the track and each step and where I was going, so I could get there as fast as I could.
“It was quite rugged and there were a lot of places where you couldn’t run, and I was only hiking and shuffling anyway because I’m not much of a runner.
“The elevation was about 540 metres over the whole course, and there are flat areas where you can catch up on some speed.”
Cherina was proud of her time, which was four hours and 21 minutes on the dot. She had set herself a goal of four hours and 30 minutes, and she said she was rapt to have beaten it by nine minutes.
Megan also smashed her goal on the Friday and the Sunday. She had taken part in the event in 2024 and wanted to beat the times she set back then, which she achieved.
She said that the event was family-friendly and fun, as well as challenging.
“This was my second year doing it. I had family come up from Sydney for it last year too, and we wanted to do it again but go a bit faster,” Megan said.
“We ended up doing it faster in both.
“It was great being out on the trails catching up with my family. Janelle and I chatted for the whole run, and the chatting kept our mind off the pain.
“It’s a hidden gem out there. Most people don’t realise that there are 50 kilometres of walking trails out at Pilliga Pottery.
“Running the 10k and the 20k meant we covered nearly 30 kilometres of beautiful trail.
“It was really hard on the Friday for the 10k. It was about 30 degrees when we took off, so it was really hot. That made it a lot harder, and we had to push a lot harder.
“We were pretty stuffed afterwards, and we were a bit worried we might have overdone it and wouldn’t be able to back up for the 20k, but we were fine after a bit of rest.
“The Sunday was the polar opposite. It was so cold; I think it was one degree at the start, and for the first kilometre we couldn’t feel our feet.
“It then warmed up to be a beautiful morning, and I ended up beating last year’s time by about 15 minutes, which I was really happy with.”
Janelle Scarr and Megan Davies racing the 10k.
