Kevin Tiller

Today would have been my 13th Six Foot Track Marathon but I was injured so I couldn’t run. It’s a bit like a ritual going up to the Blue Mountains each March at the tail end of summer. I have been up there most years since 1991 (a long time now!) However I didn’t go up there to watch this year … I hate watching.

There is a meme about people running a “sicko” time at Six Foot and it sprung from a Tshirt had made about my pb on the course .. not really an elite time but certainly a great yardstick for a reasonable runner.

The Six Foot organisers posted this on Facebook : [link]

The Six Foot Sicko: 4 hrs 11:05
by Kevin Tiller. Race Director 2001 – 2009

Ultimately the sicko “benchmark” was due to a Tshirt I had made – see attached photo. This was in 2006. I was race director from 2001 and each year many people would remark “you put so much effort into the race have you ever run it yourself or ever thought of running it ?” I had actually run it approx 7 or 8 times between 1991 and 1999, once finishing in 8th place and once in 9th place. My pb was 4.11.05 set in 1994 when I came 9th. I thought it would be a good idea to have a shirt made with my pb on to show that I was a sixfoot runner. Because at the time I was putting a lot into the race in terms of time but also digging out some of the history, organising training runs ete, I just tacked on “six foot sicko” onto the shirt. I then wore it each year at the race and people just started to use that as a target for the keen runner (at the time I had a marathon pb of 2hrs 49mins so a sub-4hr sixfoot is only achievable by the super human. 4hr 11mins is a tad easier. It’s interesting that today a 9th place finish you would need a run A LOT quicker … but then 1994 only had 257 finishers! times change.