By Lia Ladbrook
Each year, groups of runners from in and around the ANU are blindfolded, put on buses and dropped in the middle of the bush. Using only a compass and map, they are challenged to navigate distances ranging from 40 to 100km. This is Inward Bound (IB), and the 2025 season delivered massive results for Burgmann College.
Interest in IB was huge this year, with what seemed like half of Burg training for the event in October. Throughout the season, we saw our runners using bush-doof scarves from the night before as blindfolds, bogging cars in national parks, bush-bashing through the thickest of vegetation, and even conducting several river crossings on one unforgettable Sunday long run.
Burg filled all seven divisions this season with experienced, if a little jaded, runners. These teams were dropped near the coast on race day and ran towards Endpoint at Majors Creek. The course presented some brutal uphill slogs, with sections like the Corn Trail leading teams through inclines even an out-of-date Cool-Mint Chocolate Clifbar couldn’t make more bearable.
All seven Burg divisions made it to Endpoint before the cutoff time, with five of our teams placing in the top 5, and Burg’s Div 6 sending it across the finish line in first place. Burg emerged as the leading residential college, taking second place overall behind Griffin Hall.
Burg ran its way through a very successful year of IB, and Ben and I couldn’t have done it without the help of our assistant coaches—Lily Elias, Claudia Zybenko, Darcy Webster-Jones and Fergus Grave. A huge thank you also to our college coordinators, Tom Henchcliffe and Olivia Marshall, as well as Euan McLean and the Endpoint Committee, all of whom supported our runners tirelessly.
IB also wouldn’t be the same without the help of our volunteer drivers, so a special thanks must be given to everyone who shuttled runners across the ACT this year. Finally, thank you to the Housekeeping team and Burgmann Reception for always accommodating our requests, no matter how late the notice.
2026 was a great year for Burg IB, here’s to many more to come!
Photos below courtesy of photographers Paige Horrigan, Christopher Landy, Cameron Wallace, and Benjamin Van Der Niet.
