IT PROMISED to be gnarly, technical and vertical.

And for Bendigo ultra-runners Ross McPhee and Simon Austin, the Down Under 135 was all that and more.

The 135-mile race (217km) is billed as one of the toughest of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere.

It certainly lived up to its reputation, with only five of 26 starters finishing the race, which included climbs and descents through the Lerderderg Gorge and Wombat State Forest. 

Those famed five included McPhee, who finished second in a time of 49 hours, 13 minutes, and fourth-placed Austin (52:46).

The Bendigo runners, who have fast become regulars at ultra-events, described their respective placings as handy bonuses to simply completing the gruesome challenge.

McPhee finished a mere eight minutes from the winner David Giles, from Willetton, Western Australia, nearly stealing the race with a colossal effort over the concluding stages.

“I was certainly coming at him near the end, I was about an hour behind him with 14 kilometres to go,” he said.

“I was coming home strong and I knew he wasn’t going well at that point, but just couldn’t quite there.

“The race certainly takes a toll – physically I feel pretty good and I’ve been for a couple of runs since – but I think it takes a lot longer for the energy levels to pick up.”

McPhee and Austin are among an exclusive group of three athletes to complete both the Down Under 135 and last November’s Great Southern Endurance Run through the Alpine National Park.

The two events are rated as the two toughest events of their kind in Australia.

McPhee rated the Down Under, which included nearly 10,000 of incline and ascent, as arguably the tougher.

“Length is obviously a factor, but just the terrain under foot is so harsh that it’s difficult to make up time,” he said.

“Time just got away from you so quickly – there were some massive sections where you were going so slowly.

“Once you get into the second day without any sleep and you see the massive distance still in front of you, it can be heartbreaking and you see people starting to fold.”

The race has had a finishing rate of just 23 per cent the last two years.

This year’s event was restricted to 35 invite-only runners, including at least one international from Canada.

Austin said he and McPhee were unsure of what their next challenge might be.

“With the Down Under and Great Southern being rated the two toughest races, it’s hard finding new challenges,” he said.

“It might be the (240km) Coast to Kosciuszko towards the end of the year.”