Our People
22 July, 2026
From a town in crisis to a running success
WHEN floods struck Halls Gap in 2011, the damage was measured not only in closed roads and battered infrastructure. Visitor numbers fell. For a town built around tourism, the effects were felt quickly, and Monique Cummings was among the local business owners wondering what could be done to bring people back.
At the time, Monique and her family operated Grampians Adventure Golf and MOCO Gallery, while she was also secretary of Halls Gap Tourism.
“The floods had a significant impact on tourism, with roads near the top of town closed for some time,” she said.
“The disruption from the damage at the top of Grampians Road and in town at the Stony Creek Stores seriously affected business, the first major disruption we had experienced.
“As secretary of Halls Gap Tourism, I remember the chair looking for someone to come up with a new idea in response to the situation.”
Monique had one.
What if they held a trail running event?
It was an idea born from a difficult moment, but she could already see how it might work.
“I became excited about the idea because I knew our family had the skills to bring it together,” she said.
Her daughter Amber was working in running events at the time, sons Brad and Darren worked in graphic design, daughter Rachel was an accountant who could help navigate the regulations, and husband Colin could take care of the heavy lifting.
“Initially it really was a family project,” Monique said.
A Run The Gap committee was formed to continue organising the event, while Darren remained involved and, in recent years, his wife Charlotte joined the effort through social media.
With support from local businesses, committee members, volunteers, Halls Gap Tourism and Northern Grampians Shire Council, the first Run The Gap was held on May 27, 2012.
There were 6km and 12km courses and 374 people turned up to run them.
It was a beginning that gave Monique and those around her something to build on.
A Mini Run The Gap was added for younger participants, followed by a 21km event in 2014.
By 2016, participation had passed 1100 and the event had become financially independent.
This year, more than 1500 people took part — a record field for an event that began as one local idea to help Halls Gap through a difficult time.
Shortly after the first event, Monique’s own idea of what Run The Gap could become also changed.
Her original plan was to build the event to the point of profitability and eventually sell it to a professional operator.
But after seeing its effect on community spirit, and the strength of the support behind it, Run The Gap became about something else.
“Once we started, it became more about giving back to the community,” Monique said.
“With enormous help and support from locals, I could see we could make a positive difference in adding equipment and advocating, with financial support, for bike paths to make Halls Gap an even better place to visit.”
The event went on to contribute to local infrastructure, sports and fitness equipment and fire recovery efforts.
For many years, $1 from every registration has also been donated to the Grampians Walking Track Support Group.
Even as the event now enters a new era, that legacy is not finished.
Run The Gap Vic. Inc. will continue for a period, with $100,000 held in trust to support advocacy for a proposed extension of the shared path towards Halls Gap Zoo and WAMA.
The committee also plans to continue supporting smaller community projects until its remaining funds are exhausted.
But Monique is quick to make clear that Run The Gap was never built by one person.
A succession of committee members, volunteers and supporters also left their mark on the event.
Matilda Iglesias helped scope the original Tunnel Road 21km course.
In the early years, Thomas Parkes handled the photography, running between the different distances to capture the action before additional photographers were eventually engaged.
Mandy Noble stepped in to help while the Cummings family was establishing a new business, while Pat Drum brought ideas that improved the way the courses were set up.
Then there were the businesses that stayed for the long run.
After the Cummings family’s own Grampians Adventure Golf, Will Hudson from Livefast Lifestyle Café became the first external sponsor in 2013, initially supporting the medals before becoming naming rights sponsor from 2014.
Halls Gap Lakeside Tourist Park and Mixx FM also came on board in 2014, while Absolute Outdoors has supported the event since 2016.
Many other local businesses have also supported Run The Gap by providing spot prizes.
And some of the traditions that helped give Run The Gap its character had little to do with running at all.
There was, for instance, the fully cooked “brekky brunch”.
Eggs, bacon, sausages, tomatoes and onions were joined by locally supplied bread, fruit, milk and juice, along with one of David Whitham’s “signature surprise additions” — baked beans.
Mr Whitham, Graham Parkes and Neil McIntosh have been among those rallying the teams needed to feed a field that, year by year, kept getting bigger.
Not every year, however, went to plan.
In 2020, Run The Gap encountered its biggest challenge when COVID-19 restrictions forced the event to be cancelled.
For an event built around bringing people together, there was suddenly no way to gather at all.
But the response from runners offered its own measure of what Run The Gap had become.
More than 95 per cent of participants chose to roll their registrations over to the following year.
“This was an incredible show of support, significantly reduced the administrative workload and helped keep our community engaged,” Monique said.
“As a result, RTG21 became a true celebration of resilience and reconnecting.”
The timing was fortunate.
The event went ahead, and Victoria entered another lockdown the following week.
Three years later, another crisis forced Run The Gap to adapt.
The 2024 Pomonal bushfires meant the established Tunnel Road 21km course could no longer be used, leaving organisers with about a month to find an alternative.
Locals Phil Gijsbers and Mark Whyte volunteered to scope a new Chatauqua Peak course, while Pomonal CFA members, who marshal the 21km event, immediately agreed to help on the changed route.
Once again, the event kept running — and donated $20,000 to the Pomonal fire recovery effort.
For Monique, that journey — from 374 participants in 2012 to more than 1500 this year, through floods, fire and a pandemic — has brought rewards that could never be measured simply by entry numbers.
“Personally, one of the greatest joys has been watching this event grow year after year,” she said.
“Working alongside the incredible people who help to bring the event together and connecting with participants through email enquiries has given me a unique insight into what this event means to so many people.
“Hearing that it has become the favourite event of many is something I will always treasure.
“It has been a true passion and an honour to be on this journey.”
Now, after 15 years, that journey is changing course, though the decision to step away did not come suddenly.
Monique said it had taken some years to find the right person to take Run The Gap forward.
The possibility of handing it to a local volunteer group was explored, but she said people were simply too busy with other projects to commit to running it.
“The answer to the question, ‘Why now?’ is simple: it’s taken a few years to find the right person to take the event on,” she said.
That person was ultimately found close to home.
On June 30, Run The Gap transitioned from its volunteer-led incorporated association model to Absolute Outdoors, which will operate the event within its established business.
For Monique and the committee, the existing connection made the handover feel like the right fit.
Monique said the current committee was delighted to be leaving the event in the hands of Adrian and his team at Absolute Outdoors.
“Adrian already has a strong connection with RTG, making him the perfect person to lead the event into its next chapter and help it continue to grow,” she said.
For Monique, the handover closes a remarkable chapter that began when Halls Gap was hurting and someone asked for an idea.
The answer was a trail running event.
Then it became a family project.
Then a community project.
And somewhere across the kilometres run, the breakfasts cooked, the volunteers recruited, the money returned to the community and the crowds who made their way to Halls Gap each May, it became something that could endure beyond the people who started it.
The next Run The Gap will be held on May 23, 2027.
Someone new will lead it towards the starting line.
But the event Monique and the Halls Gap community built together will keep running.
“We can’t wait to see what the future holds.”
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