Honeysuckle Creek Campground
One Small Step?
Race Directors: Daniel Harvey, Locklyn Krieukz, Kelvin Peh
Course Setters: Ben Grace & Jackson Jolly
2024 saw Inward Bound back in the ACT for the first time since 2019. This was the largest event to date, with 74 teams participating and around 700 spectators cheering them on at Endpoint. Runners were treated to some classic trails on their way to Honeysuckle Campground, including Stockyard Spur and Naas Valley Firetrail.
After an incredibly long wait (of 42 years), the 2024 edition of Inward Bound marked Bruce’s return to top position of the sport it founded, ending Burton and Garran’s very impressive six-year winning streak.
You can relive all of the action on Inward Bound Live! Or by going over the course maps here.
All the photos taken by Rowan Davie, Benjamin Van Der Neit, Linus Wang, and other on-course volunteers/photographers. You can view all the photos from the event here.
Division 1 – Doctors Flat Road
Just What the Doctor Ordered?
With this year’s event once again taking place after daylight savings time kicked in, plenty of Division 1 runners were convinced that they’d be dropped before sunset, like in 2023. Did they feel relieved or disappointed when they removed their blindfolds just before 8:30pm to discover they had been dropped under the cover of darkness?
After teams all successfully left Dropsite in the correct direction, the first 25 kilometres of the Division 1 route were fairly uneventful. All teams continued south-east along Doctors Flat Road until they were forced south onto Baldy Range Road by a pesky exclusion zone.
Here, things got interesting. Teams had the choice of heading east through the notorious pine plantations of Sherwood Forest, the Lower Cotter Catchment, and Pierces Creek Forest. This would be a shorter route, but potentially more difficult to navigate. Otherwise, teams could continue south along Two Sticks Road and down through Stockyard Spur, a 15% longer and 10% hillier (but easier to navigate) option. Depending on the strengths of a team, both of these routes could be attractive options, which made Division 1 an interesting race to watch.
Griffin Division 1 got out to a sizable early lead, however, after taking a 2km detour through the pine B&G and Bruce were able to close in on them. However, Bruce & B&G would fumble this opportunity to catch up making a series of wrong turns to miss the location of one of the Corin Rd Crossings. Griffin, proceeding to not navigationally falter again, went on to comfortably outpace and outnavigate both B&G (finishing 2nd) and Bruce to EP and win the Bill Packard Trophy. Unilodge also finished strongly after taking the scenic route via Corin Dam to snatch 3rd place from Bruce.
Division 2 – Jones Plain Road
Nothing plain about it!
Division 2 was another exciting race to watch, particularly as it featured some of the most interesting route choice opportunities, including this year’s only properly viable bush-bash option.
All teams appeared to know where they were from Dropsite, following the same route through Shannons Flat for the first 20 kilometres (although B&G did briefly decide to take a detour along the way).
Throughout the rest of the race, it was very difficult to tell who was in the lead. Division X’s Team 3 were the only participants to brave the bush-bash, taking a 2.5hr ‘shortcut’ through to Old Boboyan Road. Ursies and B&G paced it up Naas Valley Firetrail to the east, while the rest of the Division made their way up Yaouk Trail.
Despite all of these different route choices, Division 2 finished in fairly close proximity. Leading the way was Bruce Hall with a convincing one-hour margin over Griffin.
Division 3 – Brindabella Valley Road
Are your knees okay?
Division 3 was controversial from the start; when the scout times were announced at the Runners’ Briefing the week prior to the event, every other Division received a precise time. Division 3, however, was told that their scout time could be between 5 and 15 minutes. What on earth could that mean?
It turns out that this variability was linked to the changing conditions along Brindabella Valley Road, which on a clear night, would afford runners a lovely view of the entire valley, making it far easier to pick Dropsite. Division 3 were dropped on one such clear night, so their scout times was only 5 minutes.
Division 3 wasn’t meant to be a navigationally-challenging route, but teams ran into trouble from the start. B&G found themselves in the middle of private property just twenty minutes after leaving Dropsite, a mistake that would lead to their disqualification after the event.
All teams made their way up Honeysuckle Trail, a gruelling 750 metres climb over just 8 kilometres, and down through Stockyard Spur to Corin Dam. Despite slight route variations through Bendora Arboretum, an area which seemed to cause some teams to struggle, teams effectively followed the same route for the first 50 kilometres.
The rest of the way through to Endpoint was fairly straightforward for most teams, except for Bruce, who attempted the most ambitious (read: ill-advised) bush-bash of the 2024 event: an 8km straight-line bush-bash from Smokers Trail to Endpoint. They DnFd after it became apparent there was no way they would make it to Endpoint before the 5pm cutoff.
In the end, Wright Hall’s non points-scoring team finished in first, with the win awarded to Yukeembruk. The two teams had held a convincing lead throughout Division 3’s footrace.
Division 4 – Bendora Road
Pine or steep decline?
The Division 4 Dropsite was carefully chosen in the hopes that teams would be split between a northern and a southern route. To the Course Setters’ delight, this split did eventuate.
Both routes were roughly the same distance. The southern route, which led runners down Stockyard Spur and across Corin Dam, was hillier, though easier to navigate. The northern route, which may have been less intuitive as it initially led teams in the opposite direction to Endpoint, took runners through the Pierces Creek Forest pine plantation, which was flatter and faster assuming teams could stay on track through the pine.
One other difference between these two routes was that the southern choice was more physically challenging towards the start of the race, while the northern route avoided an initial steep climb and the sharp descent of Stockyard Spur, frontloading the vert (with interest) to avoid an uphill route to Endpoint. These differences could help or hinder different teams.
The winning team was Bruce Hall, who had chosen the northern route (along with 4th place Fenner). Wamburun & Burgmann in 2nd & 3rd respectively, had gone south.
Division 5 – Mt Clear Campground
A clear split
The trials and tribulations Division 5 faced across the event started before their Scouting Period had even begun. Dropped deep inside Mt Clear Campground, an area accessible by neither buses nor cars, Division 5 spent hours being shuttled from Boboyan Road to their starting point, first by car, then by foot via a blindfolded conga line.
Did things get easier once they could finally take their blindfolds off? Division 5 certainly didn’t have much time to adjust to their surroundings having to quickly make the defining routechoice. Somewhat counterintuitively teams could head south-east route being careful to avoid a div specific exclusion zone but be rewarded by a quicker (and drier) route or go west towards a long boring slog up the creek-riddled Naas Valley Firetrail directly out of Dropsite. Teams were fairly evenly split between these two routes.
For the most part, teams executed their chosen routes well. The boldest decision of the Division was the Division X ADFA team’s choice to bush-bash from Gudgenby Creek Firetrail to Half Moon Creek Firetrail, a decision which squandered 2.5 hours. They ran into Yukeembruk, who had erroneously headed north along Half Moon Creek Firetrail, and both teams subsequently ran for over an hour in the wrong direction, contributing to their DnF results.
Out the other end of the pack, Division X IBSC showed that experience does count as they finished in first place. They were followed by Bruce, the Div 5 first college team to arrive at Endpoint.
Division 6 – Lower Cotter Catchment
Caught at Booroomba
Division 6 had one of the most difficult Dropsite experiences of any Division in 2024. Not only were they dropped a tricky three-way intersection in pine, but they only had four minutes in which to scout. This tripped a few teams up at the start, with runners heading in all different directions from drop.
Once they located themselves, the Division 6 route tracked the Division 7 route pretty closely, with the bonus of having to pass through Vanity’s Crossing. At Vanity’s Division 6 teams had to cross the Cotter River, so they had to endure wet feet throughout the rest of the race.
Navigation-wise, teams chose fairly standard routes, with a handful of exceptions. Yukeembruk chose to climb Tidbinbilla Ridge rather than spend more time in the pine plantation of Pierces Creek Forest, and both Bruce and Johns momentarily lost themselves off Devils Gap.
The only significant split occurred around Corin Road, with five teams heading to the east road crossing, and six to the west. Every team that headed west DnFd, with most seeming to get stuck in Booroomba Station, a whitelisted section of private property.
The non-point-scoring Griffin team were first to the finish line. Hence, Fenner was awarded first place in an incredibly tight race to Endpoint (that mirrored the Division 7 finish an hour prior); they finished just two minutes in front of the B&G team.
Division 7 – Ash Road
Piercing Through the Pine?
Division 7 had one job: make it through Pierces Creek Forest without falling victim to the deception of the pine plantation. A fearsome thing, every Inward Bound runner is warned of the difficulties involved in navigating through winding, fickle trails through pine. 2024’s Division 7 teams rose to the challenge, though some were certainly led astray.
From Dropsite, teams generally headed in the right direction. Johns made the decision to climb Tidbinbilla Range, avoiding some of the tricky navigation but instead increasing the distance and elevation gain of their route. Meanwhile, battling it out in the pine below, most teams erred at one point or another, including Yukeembruk, Ursies, Lodge, and Wamburun, who seemingly followed each other on an erroneous detour to the west.
The exception? Fenner, who maintained a consistent pace and avoided making any navigational mistakes, despite the plentiful opportunities to do so.
In an incredibly exciting finish, B&G overtook Fenner on the final stretch of the Endpoint approach, earning first place by an incredibly tight margin of just three minutes.
Although they missed on winning, Fenner were bestowed the Doherty-Banks Navigation Award for their efforts.
Results
The results of the 2024 edition of Inward Bound were as follows:
*Penalty applied by Race Referees, NPS – Non Points Scoring team
You can see the detailed results and reasons for penalties by downloading this spreadsheet.
This led to a grand points total for each college as follows:
A special congratulations to the Doherty-Banks Navigation Award Winners, Fenner Division 7, Bill Packard Trophy (Division 1) Winners, Griffin Hall, and Overall Winners, Bruce Hall!
You can download the racemaps from here