Rob Mason from Minnamurra is a 46-year-old firefighter currently stationed in Nowra/Shoalhaven. He has set himself the challenge of running 1200 kilometres across the state in 12 days. 

The previous record for this run stands at 19 days. On 21 September Rob will begin his run from the NSW border west of Broken Hill with the aim of reaching Bondi on the NSW coast, and he will do it seven days faster than anyone else has ever achieved!

Rob is passionate about helping raise much needed funds for the Burns Unit at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead. As a firefighter with 23 years on the job, he has seen a lot of injuries to children caused by fires. He admires the courageous and resilient children, the dedicated surgeons and staff at the burns unit and wants to give support to their work and the kids’ journey to recovery. He said, “The mild discomfort that I feel when running those long races is nothing compared to what those kids go through.”

His running career started in 2008. Rob had stopped playing soccer which he’d done as a kid and was looking for something to do that would keep him fit for his firefighting job. So, Rob started to run socially with mates. They decided to do a marathon, which later led to trying an ultra-marathon (which is anything more than the normal 42-kilometre marathon). “It all kicked off from there. I fell in love with running ultra distance races,” he says.

Rob realised how important running was to his mental health, “As a Firey I was doing rescue and was exposed to a lot of traumatic incidents and so I turned to running to help me deal with it – to keep my mindset positive and to experience ‘post-traumatic growth’ as opposed to ‘post-traumatic stress’,” he remarks. “It really helps me process things”.

As his running improved, he began to understand the link that helped him cope with a busy job and lifestyle, two young kids and a wife working full time. Running became his “go to” from a mental health perspective. Rob started to increase the challenges; from 50 kilometres to 100 kilometres and then to 100-mile races. This culminated in his favourite event: the Coast to Kosciusko race, that starts on the beach at Eden and finishes on the top of Australia at Mount Kosciusko. Rob has done it six times and last year in 2022 he was lucky enough to win it, which was his lifelong dream.

Why do “1200 kilometres in 12 days”? The idea was born out of the ‘Coast to Kosci’ win last year. He and his support team of five asked themselves “What can we do that is bigger – will stretch us and raise money for something important to us?” so the concept of running across the whole state came to mind. 

What kind of training regime does a runner like Rob follow? The minimum distance covered each week is 100 kilometres, but it’s more likely that he will do 180-200 kilometres per week. Rob runs at least once a day, but it can also be twice or three times a day. He also works out in the gym focussing on strength work. Then there is “mindset work” where he taps into positivity, strategies and engagement to deal with negative thoughts. It’s definitely a ‘mind over matter’ exercise to stay mentally strong and focussed on such long endurance races.

To learn more about Rob’s mission please visit his website: www.robmason.run