Quick Facts
Biography
Richard Bowles (born 19 September 1978, in Leicester, England) is an Australian ultramarathon runner and adventurer based in Melbourne, Victoria. Richard has many world records running rugged mountain trails that cover the length of entire nations. He works closely alongside some of Australia's leading psychological experts in understanding human performance, resilience and perseverance, educating the business world from this unique understanding.
He is the first person to have run the world’s longest multi use marked trail; Australia’s Bicentennial National Trail (BNT) from Healesville, Victoria to Cooktown, Far North Queensland a total of 5,330 km along Australia’s Great Dividing Mountain Range, in just five months Richard completed the rugged wilderness trail end to end, while crossing crocodile infested rivers, and dealing crop growers with shotguns.
His achievements don’t end there. Only three weeks after completing the BNT, Richard was running on New Zealand's, Te Araroa Trail, another 3,054 km mountain trail, running the entire length of both islands, once again becoming the first and completing the tough and dangerous trail to wrap up 2012. Most of his days were spent in the snowline, through avalanche zones, raging white water river crossings.
Early 2013 he was once again on the run on Israel’s National Trail and in just 14 days covered its 1,009 km length. . At the end of that same year. He risked his life in the name of adventure running, when running around the base of the erupting Mount Sinabung volcano in North Sumatra, where the Indonesian Government had evacuated more than 80,000 people. It became a world first, with no one ever entering a restricted area to run this way.
In 2014 he set yet another record along South Australia' 1200 km Heysen Trail, averaging 85 km a day to complete the trail in just 14 days, smashing what was a 25-day record. More recently he has been involved with world-renowned Dr Ricardo Costa of Monash University, testing his unbelievable endurance fitness in the name of science and research. Covering 50 km a day for a week on a treadmill, while carry 12 kg in 32c. To replicate multi stage races and the nutrition requirement that are needed.
He works with psychology experts to understand how and why people do what they do. His research and unique approach is shared with corporations worldwide, helping senior management and teams of all sizes engage in, and commit to, long term objectives.
Other running achievements
- 2010 - Tenzing Hillary Everest Marathon, Nepal - Australian Record Holder 2010
- 2010 - Mind Alpine Challenge, Alpine Region, Victoria, Australia Overall Winners Team Outer Edge
- 2010 - Wilsons Prom 48 km, Wilsons Promontory, Victoria, Australia - former Course Record Holder 2010
- 2011 - Tasmanian 3 Peaks Race, Launceston - Hobart, Overall Winners.
- 2012 - The Australian Bicentennial National Trail 5330 km - First to Run the trails entirety in 5.5 months
- 2012 - Te Araroa Trail (New Zealand) 3054 km - First to run the trails entirety in 65 days
- 2012 - Ran over 10,160 kilometres of trail, equivalent to over 240 marathons
- 2013 - Israel National Trail (Israel)1009 km - Ran the trail entirety in 14 days with foot infection on day two.
2013 - Fist to run around an exploding volcano in Northern Sumatra 2014 - Baw Baw to Bourke Street, a three-day running record from Mt Baw Baw in Melbourne, Australia - to Bourke Street in the city's CBD
2014 - Heysen Trail, South Australia 1200 km - 14-day record end to end.