With the election race coming to a head, a gruelling race of a different kind is underway in Central Australia.
More than 300 competitors have signed up to run different lengths of the famous Larapinta Trail in the three-day West Macs Monster festival this weekend.
Individual runners and teams participating in the 231-kilometre ultramarathon 'Sonder Monster' event began running at 9am on Friday from Redbank Gorge.
The race is not for the faint hearted, beginning with a 8km climb and a 740-metre elevation gain to the top of Mount Sonder.
There is a cut-off time of 60 hours, with the record held by 2019 winner Shane Johnstone, who completed the run in 40 hours, 55 minutes and 18 seconds.
Returning champion Elizabeth Woodgate, 58, said she wanted to shave two hours off her 2021 finishing time of 56 hours, 52 minutes and 2 seconds.
"You can tell people what it's going to be like ... but I think until you actually step foot onto that trail you just don't appreciate how tough it is and how remote it can be," she said.
Last year, Ms Woodgate said she took just one 10 minute nap, but she was planning to run the race without sleeping this year.
"You might look over on a ridge and you can see a building, or you can see people there. You know deep down inside that there is no building there and there are no people there, but to you they are quite real.
"I kind of lean into it a little bit and have a bit of fun with it."
More challenging conditions
Race director Marc Woods said about 30 per cent of the field across the five running events was made up of returning competitors.
But because of heavy rains over Central Australia earlier this year, the track had changed considerably since last year.
"They're going to find sand where they used to find rocks, they're going to find rocks where they used to find sand and they're going to have lots more challenging conditions ... there are lots of ruts and washouts after all the rain," Mr Woods said.
The second-longest event is the 128km race, starting from Ellery Creek on Saturday morning.
The 65km event will start early on Sunday morning at Standley Chasm, and the popular 25km run from Simpsons Gap begins at midday on Sunday with about 180 competitors signed up to participate.
This year marks the third full West Macs Monster festival, excluding a smaller version put on in 2020.
"What we tell everybody is that if they're looking for an experience that's beyond what they've ever done before — more rugged, or where they want a connection to country — there's a huge amount of spiritual connection to country that you get when spend so many hours on this event," Mr Woods said.
"Their sense of achievement after the effort that they have to put in to get through this is insurmountable."
