The second Hardcore Harry’s King of The Hill race drew a large viewership to a Pyalong hill. Photos: Emily Black Photography.
Photo by
Emily Black Photography
The race of all races drew the eyes of thousands to the region at the end of October.
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The second Hardcore Harry’s King of The Hill saw 147 daring troopers, an increase in contenders since last year’s inaugural race, move until the last person was standing.
Held at a Pyalong hill, the aim of the game was to complete a 4.2km circuit every hour, on the hour.
Failure to finish, or to complete the distance within the hour, led to disqualification.
“It takes a whole army to run an event like this,” co-race director Alex Cleary said.
Racers had to complete a 4.2km circuit every hour, on the hour.
Photo by
Emily Black Photography
“This year just exploded. It was crazy.
“There’s four of us who organise the event behind the scenes ... I was in charge of all the content and the livestream, it’s full on. We had the livestream on 24/7 and we had commentators the entire time, a few different camera angles, drones.
“It was gnarly. We had 100,000 views on the livestream and I think we’re just ticking over eight-and-a-half million views on Instagram.”
The nature of the race, being that the last person standing is crowned the winner, means the event has no real time limit.
This year’s race lasted 90 hours before Piotr Babis was the only one left on the hill, taking home a $25,000 prize.
Mr Cleary said while the winner’s feat was awe-inspiring, it was all the hours preceding the end that truly left a mark.
Piotr Babis was the last man standing, followed by close-second Blaine Bourke.
Photo by
Emily Black Photography
“All the stories leading up to that point, that is the real thing,” he said.
“If you ever watch the livestream, it’s crazy how emotional it gets in there. You’re watching people push themselves to the brink.
“There were so many tears on the livestream and you’re watching families come together and push each other.”
With the livestream having “blown up”, next year’s event is projected to be the biggest yet, with the cap of competitors being 300, 100 more than the two previous years.
To aid the ticket sales, a soon-to-be-released documentary on the Hardcore Harry’s YouTube channel recapping the gruelling race will spotlight the emotional, yet rewarding, journey the athletes embark on.
While the racers are the stars of the show, the huge viewership of the growing race is also drawn to the region, putting Pyalong on the map for many who may never have even heard of the town.
If racers couldn’t complete the circuit within the hour, they were disqualified.
“Pyalong is our big hill — we’re very lucky. (Event organiser) Ethan’s (Fleming) dad lives in Pyalong, and when they mentioned to him that they’re looking for a hill, he said, ‘I know just the one’, and he got in contact with Chris and Lynn, the landowners,” Mr Cleary said.
“They said, ‘yeah, absolutely, you can run an event here’, and that was the inception, pretty much.
“It’s been huge, the community support in Pyalong and Kilmore has been insane ... There’s so much support out here, it’s literally ridiculous.”
The countdown is now on for the next King of The Hill, set to take place on October 31 next year.
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