Canberra man's team wins Wild Endurance challenge - Canberra Times - The Canberra Times

Hughes man Emmanuel Conde, 27, together with three teammates beat 161 other teams to win Wilderness Society's Wild Endurance 100km team challenge marathon in Blue Mountains. Photo: Supplied

A Canberra man and his team have won the Wild Endurance 100-kilometre team challenge in the Blue Mountains on Sunday.

Emmanuel Conde, of Hughes, helped Team Nikomen finish the marathon in 20 hours and 39 minutes, ahead of 161 other teams.

The Wilderness Society event began at 8am on Saturday morning and required team members to stay within 100 metres of each other at all times, with headlights – and the moon – the only light during the cold night.

Mr Conde, 27, said he was a “bit tired” after the event, but celebrated with a drink.

“I did have a beer this morning mate, [plus] a lot of stretching, water and magnesium,” he said.

Mr Conde works as the international liaison officer for Touch Football International after arriving from France in December 2010, and is heavily involved with the local touch football community in Deakin.

He said the 100km is broken into three lengths, with breaks of between 20 and 45 minutes at the 27km, 48km and 83km mark.

“We refuel, we take some water, food, rest a bit,” he said.

Mr Conde joined two other Frenchmen and a New Zealander, all based in Sydney, to form Team Nikomen.

The team's name derives from the legend of the Greek runner Pheidippides, who is said to have run from Marathon to Athens following the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC to declare “nike” or “nikomen” - “we have won” - before collapsing and dying from exhaustion.

“We knew we would struggle to get through, but we [also] thought we would give it a bit of European background, with the history behind its name,” Mr Conde said.

Team Nikomen raised $4686 for the Wilderness Society NSW, making it the fifth-placed team for fundraising, and Mr Conde praised the men's girlfriends for their support.

“We were very lucky our girlfriends came to be our supercrew, on our breaks our girls were set up with a mattress, drinks, food,” he said.

“That was very awesome, because you have this team behind you and get text messages during the race.”