Wilson McShane, Yorke Peninsula Country Times

Twenty-three hours and 56 minutes. A lot can be achieved in this time, but few can say they have run 100 miles, or about 160 kilometres, in such a short timeframe.

But this is what Kadina man Scott Martin achieved on Saturday, May 13, when he won the Irrational SOUTH 100 Miler through the Flinders Ranges.

“It’s been something that’s been on my bucket list for a while,” Martin says.

The humble 45-year-old says he trained for more than eight months for the event.

“Every Sunday I would drive up to Pirie and run up around the hills, because it was the closest I could get to hills,” he says.

“I trained for pretty much eight months for it and just ramped it up a bit.”

He says he would train between 35-47km on his “long run”, which included more than 1500 meters up hill.

The race began in Hawker, where runners then had to trek through the Flinders Ranges, and finish in Quorn.

“The race was on the Heysen Trail and some spots were pretty much unrunnable,” he says.

“There was one section that was just brutal.

“I was basically just crawling through there at snail’s pace.

“If you didn’t have your watch, you wouldn’t know where the hell to go, it wasn’t really a trail, it’s just like a river bed.”

Martin says this section measured more than 22km and took more than four-and-a-half hours to get through.

Despite this, he was focused on outlasting his competitors.

“I was just in the zone.

“I was pushing to get in front, and once I realised I could get in front, I’m like ‘I’m going to catch this guy’.

“Even once I was in front, and was well in front, I just kept pushing.”

There were 36 people who started the race, but several did not finish.

Martin says he first started running about seven years ago.

Since then he has participated in more than 42 official marathons and several 100km runs.

His son Brett, who helped at checkpoints during the race, says he was overwhelmed with emotion when he saw his dad cross the finish line.

“I’m not a very emotional guy, I don’t remember the last time I cried, but when he crossed the line, a few tears definitely came out my eyes,” Brett says.

“I was very proud.”

Brett says his dad was incredibly driven to win after the same race was abandoned due to weather last year.

“It just made him more keen to come back and do it all again.

“In that race, most other competitors had pulled out, but not dad,” Brett says.

Martin next wants to run the MOAB 240 (a 240 mile, or 386km, run in Utah in the US).

This article appeared in Yorke Peninsula Country Times, 21 May 2024.