It's much quicker to drive this in a car! But there are worse places to run 42km. Okay, so the first 10km from Port Augusta West to Stirling North were really boring, and the next 10km a constant uphill - not very steep but the sun was in my eyes, there was a head wind, and a few people passed me here - this was my worst phase. I did the first 12km in 58min and figured now I had a 30km run to do on top of this. After the half marathon start at Saltia (1.46.30) I felt better with the sun behind a cloud and the scenery through the Pichi Richi Pass to look at. This section goes gently up and down and and crosses the steam train line 4 times.
George (who was still in bed when I was on the start line) caught up with me at about 30km but I told him to drive another 5km and at that point I handed him my pack, not that it had much in it, and grabbed a bottle of Powerade which I ran with and drank over the last 7km. I figured that once it was flat/downhill I should be able to run a bit faster and so I actually passed a couple of guys on this section while dodging the 10km walkers with whom the road seemed to be littered. Ran the last 5km on the road verge as this was softer than the bitumen, and actually managed to chase someone through the gate and overtake them at the finish!
Quorn is 300m above sea level, the highest point on the course is 340m, maybe total climb 420m? Results now on the website
http://www.pichirichimarathon.org.au Mandy Towler took 3.19; I had expected her to be about half an hour in front of me, and Mayuko Kurashima 3.34; I figured she'd be about 15min in front, and I was about right. Guess I could have trained to be faster, if I'd prioritised that over orienteering - and next time maybe I will :)