Outside it was dark and wet but inside a small gym above Bondi Beach the atmosphere was warm and energetic as 12 of Australia's greatest athletes gathered at 4am earlier this month to warm up for an attempt at the record for the fastest time to run 100km on a treadmill (team).

Shift 60 gym was the location and the stars included legendary marathon runner Steve Moneghetti, multiple world champion triathlete and ironman Craig Alexander and, just to keep the boys on their toes, female middle distance champion Lisa Corrigan.

The other athletes were Andrew Reid, Ariel Young, Michael Prince, John Mergler, Alister Ross, Stephen Madden, Clint Kimmins, Dave Matthews and Trent Wood, a mix of professional runners, surfers, surf lifesavers from popular TV series Bondi Rescue and other athletes.

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The plan was simple - to run 100km on a single treadmill more quickly than anyone had ever done before. The benchmark to beat was 5 hours 42 minutes 32 seconds - a time set in the USA in 2008, meaning that they'd need to keep the treadmill running at over 18.5km/hour.

As the runners urged each other onwards, speeds of up to 22km/hour were regularly held and the athletes forged an early lead over the current record pace.

By the time they reached the 100km mark (which was actually 101.16km - to allow for distance lost during each changeover) the clock had hit 5 hours 24 minutes and 10 seconds, meaning a new record had been set.

Perhaps just as importantly the team had raised tens of thousands of dollars for Kids Foundation, (a local charity dedicated to childhood injury prevention and recovery), and had slotted in some handy early morning indoor training at Shift 60 on an otherwise miserably wet morning.