Real estate agent Michael Percival claims second-place finish in 2021 Simpson Desert Ultra Marathon at Birdsville

A second-place finish in the Simpson Desert Ultra marathon then followed as the 60-year-old continued to defy his age.

He's run in ultra marathons and competed in ironman and triathlon events for decades, but none are quite like the challenge you face in the arid Outback.

"The desert environment is so different. It was pure ... desert," he said.

"It's very sparse and dry whereas the races on the coast typically involve a lot of climbing and that's how they form the main challenge of the events.

"Events like Ultra Trail Australia in the Blue Mountains is up and down all the time so it was quite different from anything on the coast. There's nothing like it at all."

Despite the challenges of three hours in the desert, Mr Percival still enjoyed it. It won't be the last he does.

"It's a constant one to know I can still run and run competitively at the age of 60. I've never been 60 before so it's all new," he said.

"It was spectacular. The landscape is big and beautiful and severe and you're either running in very soft sand or stoney gibber plains so it certainly was a real challenge and very different to what you'd experience on the coast."

His three-hour, 13-minute time is even more remarkable when you consider he covered another 26 kilometres the day before as a volunteer.

"I wasn't expecting to feel like running very fast on the Sunday because I'd done 26ks the day before running up and down sand dunes fixing course markers because they were short of volunteers," he said.

"But I felt really good and I thought I did pretty well."

And don't for a second think the well-known local real estate agent is a 'one and done' sort of runner. He's aiming to do the 100-kilometre event in 12 months.

"I'd do that just for the experience of being out in the desert in the middle of the night," he said.

"You wouldn't want to live out there with the heat and the flies, but to go out there and immerse yourself in the landscape in that environment for a brief time is a really good thing to do.

"It's a hobby of mine. I'm always doing something."

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