Killarney’s Susie and Gavin Williams-Blissner launch Untamed Border Run

One Killarney couple’s love of the outdoors and endurance events is behind an upcoming challenge, for a great community cause. Read all the details and the inspirating story behind its creators.

Founders Suzie and Gavin Williams-Blissner combined their love of adventure and the nature of Southern Queensland to create the Untamed Border Run (Photo: supplied)

For one Killarney couple, creating an extreme outdoors adventure run was the culmination of their love for their community and the beautiful nature of the Southern Downs region.

Susie and Gavin Williams-Blissner moved to the region four years ago desiring a tree change and break from Brisbane traffic, and quickly fell in love with the lush green hills of Killarney and the surrounding border region.

Lifelong athletes, the pair met through adventure racing – a tough sport which Mrs Williams-Blissner describes as her “ultimate passion” – a mixture of kayaking, trekking and mountain biking with a map and compass.

They fell in love with the local community and desired a way to give back to it while creating an event which combines the beautiful surrounds of the region with the endurance sport they both love.

July’s Untamed Border Run is a community-focused event, which anyone can register for, and takes place across paddocks and hills in Killarney and surrounds, with tracks ranging from 10km to 50km.

Founders Suzie and Gavin Williams-Blissner combined their love of adventure and the nature of Southern Queensland to create the Untamed Border Run (Photo: supplied)

“This is the debut event for us, and we are excited to have locals and out-of-towners participate, we have people signing up from Northern NSW to Townsville and everything in between - even our local mechanic signed up for the 10km,” she said.

“It might be challenging, but anyone can participate, it’ll be across paddocks and hills, and the views alone will be well-worth the effort.”

Sportswoman since the age of six, Mrs Williams-Blissner said she was excited to include her love of sport and the outdoors into the event.

“I cycled across the Simpson Desert on a pushbike over five days, I love the adventure of it all, it’s the type of people we are, we took our honeymoon to New Zealand and did a mountaineering course, sleeping with 12 other climbers in a hut,” she said.

The Untamed Border Run features lush, rugged green terrain and multiple length tracks for all ages (Photo: Supplied)

“We’re determined to make this is a community event, and any proceeds will go back to helping small groups within the localities, the townspeople come together and we love supporting each other so we’re excited to give back.

“We appreciate our community and where we live, there’s so many hard workers and it’s lovely to be a part of it all.”

The avid adventurer revealed there were also plans in the works for 100km and 160km events in the future for subsequent events.

“It may be a challenging course, but isn’t that why we sign up for these sorts of things?”

Founders Suzie and Gavin Williams-Blissner combined their love of adventure and the nature of Southern Queensland to create the Untamed Border Run (Photo: supplied)

The event comes as recently announced plan to make an cross-border town a “adventure hub,” with Tenterfield becoming a “world class” destination for mountain biking, hiking and bushwalking.

Once operational, it’s believed Angry Bull Mountain Biking Trails would attract at least 35,000 additional visitors to Tenterfield each year, generating $4.3m of additional tourist expenditure annually, as well as the jobs, to the Tenterfield economy.

You can register for the Untamed Border Run here or visit the page on Facebook to stay up to date.