Running Up Australia’s Highest Peak with Nedd Brockmann

It’s 3:30am on a Saturday in Sydney, I’m half an hour early, and I’m not even among the first to arrive.

But there’s just something about the Nedd Brockmann effect that draws people out of their beds for a run well before the sun is up.

Even when they’re not told how far they’ll be running.

Yet it’s exactly this kind of mystery that makes Nedd’s Milk Runs tick. An unfathomable hour, a location not dropped until the day before, and no registration required. It’s a recipe for hype on a scale that only the iconic blond mullet and his famous choccy milk can create.

“It’s the idea of coming here and being crazy and doing something different,” one runner tells me below the pop-up floodlights in Queens Park.

“It’s pretty impressive to see everyone getting up at 4am on a Saturday,” another adds. “We could be sleeping in, but we chose not to. We chose to get up early, go run with Nedd, and do it for the country.”

“He’s just an absolute Aussie icon,” someone else says. “He’s a deadset legend.”

When the man of the predawn hour rocks up, it’s in a sea of flashing cameras as he fights to hand out a hi-five and a “howz it goin’?” to everyone who’s turned up for him.

It’s the type of celebrity status usually reserved for Olympians or premiership players. Not an Aussie larrikin from the Central West region of NSW just doing what he can for those in need.

But since running 4,000 kilometres across the country in 46 days to raise $1.85 million for homelessness in 2022, Nedd’s not stopped taking on challenges – like the time he ran 1,000 miles around an athletics track in 12 days as part of his Uncomfortable Challenge and raised almost $2 million.

“I would say the biggest kicker that keeps me driving to push myself would be two things,” he later tells me. “One being our finite time on this planet and the feeling I get when I do something incredibly hard. We aren’t here forever and I want to make the most of my time here doing things that light me up.

“The other kicker for me would be doing it for a cause greater than you. Whether it be to inspire people or so people can lean on you in tough times, but also raise money for homelessness and causes that are important to me. It’s what keeps me going to get these things done.”

Since becoming one of the most recognisable ultra runners in Australia thanks to that questionable cut, Nedd’s also not stopped drawing a crowd.

On Saturday, more than 400 people joined the final Milk Run madness of the 26-year-old’s whistle-stop tour, which included visits to Wollongong, Canberra, Bonnie Doon, Geelong and Melbourne, all in the space of a week.

But it was in Sydney, which the former sparky now calls home, that the PUMA Australia brand ambassador launched a challenge to his fans after the 50-minute early morning run (which felt more like the stampede in the Lion King with runners hurtling down the middle of the road and jumping over any obstacle in their way).

Put simply, win a game of paper-scissors-rock, get on a bus, jump on a chartered jet, get on another bus, and run up Mount Kosciuszko – the highest point in Australia – to unlock the ultimate runner’s high, all to officially launch PUMA’s largest global brand campaign to date, ‘Go Wild’, in Australia.

Did I mention the bus would be leaving by 6am?

A silence of disbelief fell over the milk-thirsty crowd as they struggled to take in what Nedd had just said.

And then all hell broke loose.

As runners jostled for space in the line up of paper-scissors-rocking, our leader stood in as the adjudicator, overseeing each win and loss as if all the competitors were his mates.

Because if running around Sydney with Nedd Brockmann was enough to give people goosebumps, the chance to personally join the big man on a once in a lifetime trip was sheer man-hugging-loudly-squealing-jumping-up-and-down ecstasy.

And the whole of Queens Park was hooked.

Once two lucky winners had been crowned, they joined 23 others, including some handpicked by Nedd’s own team after they replied to an Instagram story that went out just two days earlier, calling on anyone up for an adventure. Inspiring members of the local running community were also among those invited.

I caught all of this goss between an outfit change, with PUMA kitting us out from head to fluoro-Deviate NITRO-wearing toes, before a quick briefing and then it was onto the bus.

“PUMA is just getting around some mad dogs, flying us down to go for a run,” Nedd tells me from the backseat in that down-to-earth tone he’s renowned for. “I’m just very grateful that you’re all very eager to come along on this, and also just get around what we do. So, hell yeah!”

It wasn’t until we tumbled out of the black buses in the dark at Bankstown Airport (“the happiest place on earth” according to one excited runner who’d brought her mum along), that I think reality hit for most of us.

It was under the flickering lights of an empty conference room, while the sun ever so slowly rose outside and we were handed make-shift boarding passes for Corporate Air to Cooma, that the excitement reached palpable. By the time we boarded our flight, it had been four hours since I got to Queens Park and strangers were quickly becoming friends as we bonded over this crazy ride, still unsure of what was to come.

An hour later we disembarked onto Cooma’s single sun-lit runway, and as we inched ever closer to our final destination, Millie Rowley, the founder of Sydney’s She Runs Club, called it a “pinch me day”, and I don’t think anyone could have disagreed.

It was on the bus to the base of Kosci, as we passed through some of Australia’s most outrageously beautiful outback, that I got the chance to chat to Charlie Sutherland, a 22-year-old British guy who’d only arrived in Sydney four days earlier after running the 1,000 kilometres from Melbourne to Bondi beach.

The challenge had taken him just 17 days and involved covering about 52 kilometers a day until he smashed out 100 kilometres on the final day. Just like Nedd, he was determined to support those in need and had raised $14,000 for Men’s Minds Matter, a mental health and suicide prevention charity.

Facing a hamstring injury, the unbearable heat, constant inclines and sleeping in a van on the side of the road each night, Charlie says he fought many mental blocks, but there was one thing that got him up each morning.

“It almost felt like a duty because I’d told all these people who don’t feel like they’re good enough that I was going to do this thing, and I had to show and prove to them that you can do anything you put your mind to, that you can overcome any challenge you face, and that there’s always light at the end of the tunnel,” he later tells me.

Digging deep and pushing through the dark times became a daily task for the 22-year-old as he chased that ultimate runner’s high.

“It’s not just about beating a time and getting faster,” he explains. “It’s more about what I can physically push my mind through and the mental barriers that I can push past. That’s the runner’s high that I felt when I completed the challenge. I felt unstoppable and unbreakable. Doing the things that people look at and think are impossible, that’s when I feel most alive.”

By 10:30am we’d arrived at Charlotte Pass and, after a quick pit stop at the drop toilets, we hit start on Strava and were off at last.

With the sun beating down on us, we pounded the gravel footpath, relieved to finally be moving our tired bodies after a morning of travel, having long forgotten our eight-kilometre run at 4am.

While the group spread out, we dodged hikers who applauded the fluoro-shoe-wearing team as we pounded up the mountain, full of raging endorphins, and tried in vain to keep up with Nedd – who was literally running laps around us.

By six kilometres in, my quads were screaming as the incline increased and the air thinned out. As the co-founder of the Coogee Run Club, I’m more used to sea-level routes, and I lost sight of the guys I was running with while I took a laboured breath to take in the view.

I’d never run up a mountain before, and this one was extraordinary, with a vast Aussie landscape spread out before us.

The last three kilometres were tough as the path underneath our feet changed from smooth gravel to paving stones and rocks, but suddenly, high above the clouds and around the corner, the summit appeared.

Pushing on, I raced up the final few hundred metres with my eyes on the prize, dodging the queuing crowd until I had my palms on the 2,228-metre summit.

Unless you’ve climbed a mountain before, it’s impossible to understand the feeling and sense of achievement at the top.

“I feel alive and I feel grateful for being able to do this,” a breathless Mathilde Rudzki, the founder of The Run Therapy, panted.

“It was brutal. That was tough; I did not expect that,” gasped another of the runners, India Surridge. “Running with Nedd is like, literally unreal. He’s like lapping all of us. Crazy. Absolutely insane. Best day ever!”

Charlie later tells me that climbing Kosci was one of the most amazing experiences of his life. “I’ll never, ever forget it,” he says. “I’d never summited a mountain, I’d never done a trail run, and I was four days post 1,000 kilometers across the country. Yet I got picked to do this thing and it was just the most amazing feeling ever. To run with Nedd – someone I look up to and someone who got me into hard, uncomfortable challenges – was just the most surreal day ever, and I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for me.”

Elated, we wandered around the top, enjoying 360-degree views while riding the ultimate runner’s high, which according to Nedd’s logic was all the more higher due to our altitude.

“I would say that feeling of finishing a run, that immediate kind of high heart rate, or the lactic in the legs, or the exhaustion in the legs; that high of finishing is exponential to the distance or pace of which you run,” Nedd later explains. “So that the easier the run, the lower the high in my opinion, and the harder the run, the more euphoric and high you feel.”

Getting down to science however, Dr Steve Lindley – a long distance runner and thrill-seeking surgeon who can often be found working from the sidelines of Formula 1 races – says a runner’s high is essentially a spike in dopamine right out of the gate.

“This feel-good chemical sparks your brain’s rewards system, boosts motivation, and helps you lock into your rhythm,” he says.

Within the next half hour, serotonin kicks in. “That’s your mood’s best friend, dialling down anxiety and lifting your spirits,” he explains. “Running starts to feel less like a chore and more like therapy on the move.

“At the same time, your body releases endocannabinoids which mellow you out and give you that cruisy, calm vibe. They’ll peak around the 60-minute mark, bringing that smooth, floating feeling we all chase.”

Which brings us to the top of Kosci, which took me precisely 58 minutes to scale and to feel like I was floating above the clouds, and when, according to Dr Lindley, my prefrontal cortex was taking a back seat.

“That mental chatter fades, your thoughts quieten down, and you slip into the zone,” he says. “It’s meditated, effortless and oh-so-satisfying.”

And it’s exactly that which carried us down the mountain.

“Running up Kosci with a bunch of legends that kind of just threw their hat in the ring and said, ‘Let’s live life, let’s have a go, let’s embrace each day,’ it was incredible to see and to be a part of,” Nedd says.

“It was a lot harder than we anticipated but it was a very, very fun nine kilometres uphill, and when we got to the top it was beautiful to see the sense of accomplishment on everyone’s faces.”

“It was cool to be on top of Australia and to look down on the beautiful valleys and with the fresh air, the stillness, the amazing energy and the beautiful sun beaming down, it was one of those really special days and the end of a special week after so many Milk Runs,” Nedd continues. “And to be able to celebrate with amazing people who get around what I do, but also get around running in general and embrace discomfort, I’m very grateful to PUMA for making it happen and giving us all the opportunity to experience this feeling.

“This runner’s high.”

And with that, we wrapped up with a six-kilometre walk down, a short chairlift ride to the bottom of Thredbo, several boxes of pizza, an hour’s drive to Cooma Airport, an hour’s flight to Bankstown, and a bus ride back to Queens Park where it all began.

“I feel like I’ve woken up from a dream,” India tells me on our way back to Sydney.

“It’s been absolutely amazing and so surreal.”