Eventual winner Jo Blake, smashed the record, completing the race in 26 hours, one minute 40 seconds.

Pam Muston led the ladies with a time of 32 hours, 31 seconds.

At Nullica on Friday morning the beach was crowded with runners and their support crews, their muscles strong, their feet clear of blisters and the salt air plentiful in their lungs.

They had 246 kilometres in front of them and a 2229 metre ascent to the summit.

They stop only to attend to their feet and answer nature’s call.

Just a few dozen kilometres down the road, race favourite and last year’s winner Tim Cochran tore a muscle forcing him from the race.

Eden’s Mark and Sharon Spink were amongst the crew, supporting Mark’s sister Lisa who came in 19th out of 24 despite having a cold and a healing tear in her calf muscle.

“Jo ran the last 5.5 kilometres in 25 minutes, he hit the summit Saturday morning and got to the top of Kosci in around 24 hours,” he said.

The longest time recorded was 35 hours and 38 minutes.

“There’s a bit of a saying that goes around ‘Run like a girl’” Mark said.

“Because the girls are a bit tougher than the boys, there’s never been one not to complete the race.”

Three of the men withdrew before the finish line.

The Spinks family also accompanied Lisa along the last 18 kilometres of the race, sharing the elation of reaching the summit, and crossing the ice, together.

This year the runners were accompanied by a film crew who aim to create a documentary on the race through some of the nation’s most iconic landscape.

Director Sue Swinburne and producer Meg Carlsen hope to show the film, along with two others about running, online and at festivals with a special aim towards Australian high school children.

“The runners in our films are ordinary people who achieve amazing things through running,” Swinburne wrote on the Coast to Kosci website.

“I’m looking forward to showing young people these stories, in the hopes that they look beyond the limitations they perceive in their lives, and to see what can achieved by anyone with the will to try.”