“There were Teletubbies, Smurfs, men in budgie smugglers, people from Dancing with the Stars, Spidermen and people with tools stuck to their heads,” Great Lakes College’s Kieran Hennessy said.

What, like spanners?

“Yeah.”

Eleven students with disabilities, teamed with ‘buddies’ from the student committee, took on Australia’s most popular run last Sunday. Team organiser Nikki Hale said the pairing system worked well.

“No-one lost their buddy. The idea was to really stay together on the bus and the whole day,” she said.

“They all had fluoro shirts on, so I think that helped.”

Just as well. The starting area, with 70,000 humans, gorillas, cartoon characters and beings harder to define, was no place for the faint-hearted.

“It was so crowded it was unbelievable,” runner Robert Schumacher said.

“There was just a sea of people. It would’ve been good for crowd surfing, or stage diving.”

Emma Carlson and buddy Jaime Leung thought the infamous Heartbreak Hill overrated, but found a more urgent problem on the 14km route.

“There weren’t enough toilets, and the ones there always had people in them,” Emma said.

“I had to wait over half an hour to pee,” Jaime added.

Johnny Ralston was pleased to maintain a jog up the daunting hill, and buddy David Henderson got a rare glimpse into the lives of some locals.

“There was a rock band playing on the roof,” he said. Despite the distractions, Johnny and David recorded the best students’ time – 116 minutes.

Not bad, but English teacher Mick Lawson should surely have a bunk at the Beijing athletes’ village; he finished in 74 minutes.

Whatever their athletic ability, no-one could fault the timekeeping.

In a race first, a timing chip recorded exactly when each runner crossed the start and finish lines.

“We all had a chip on our shoes, but I almost forgot where the finish line was,” Kieran said.

“It was good to finish, and there was a mad jazz band playing.”

Robert savoured the last stretch.

“It was fun at the end. It felt like a miracle,” he said.

“I want to do it again next year.”