STEVE Moneghetti has tackled plenty of challenges in his running career and he knows firsthand the competitors who head to Bathurst for the 2021 World Athletics Cross Country Championships face a big one.
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They face the challenge of Mount Panorama.
While best known for the 6.213 kilometre racing circuit, the cross country competitors will not follow that tarmac.
Instead they will start in the area usually reserved for support categories, run through space which is occupied by campers during motor sport events and even head through a through a vineyard.
Competitors must cover that course, which is two kilometres long, five times.
Though 1994 Commonwealth Games marathon gold medallist Moneghetti has not tested himself on that course, he has run around the race circuit and knows how tough it is.
"When I was running I was amazed at how steep it was, how long it took to get over the actual top of the mountain, it's much quicker in a car, I can tell you that," he laughed.
Like many Australians, Moneghetti grew up watching the Bathurst 1000 and seeing the likes of Peter Brock and Allan Moffat do battle on its slopes.
But he is just as excited at the prospect of some 550 elite cross country runners from across the globe squaring off at the Mount in the bid to become a world champion on March 20 next year.
"It's an incredible venue, Mount Panorama, wow," he said.
"The technical nature of this course makes it one of the world's great circuits so it is an iconic place to come to in Australia, no doubt about that. It's reputation precedes it.
"It's so exciting to have the World Cross Country [Championships] not only in Australia, but at an iconic venue like Mount Panorama. It is an unbelievable course, it has unbelievable atmosphere for spectators, for athletes for everyone."