Virginia O'Loughlan has struggled to stay calm over the past few days, knowing her friend Samantha Murphy is missing.
"It's just a rollercoaster of a nightmare at the moment. It's extremely surreal. I can't sit still at the moment," she said.
Ms Murphy, 51, hasn't been seen since she left her home in the regional Victorian city of Ballarat to go for a run about 7am on Sunday.
Ms O'Loughlan built a strong friendship with Ms Murphy while their children were at school together.
Along with the Ballarat community, she still holds a strong hope that her friend will be found.
"She's a strong, fit person and she's also an extremely sensible and grounded person as well," she said.
Loading..."Personally my thoughts are I don't believe Sam would be on any of the goat tracks up in the bush. I believe Sam would have been running in wide, open spaces.
"She would have checked the weather, what it was going to be like."
Family overwhelmed by 'unbelievable' support
On Thursday afternoon, Ms Murphy's eldest daughter Jess joined her father Mick to issue a tearful plea for her mum to "come home soon".
The family also thanked the community for its support in joining the search efforts, which include mounted police, drones and crews from the SES and CFA.
"The generosity throughout the community has been unbelievable," Mick Murphy said.
"To accept all the food that'd want to be cooked for us, we wouldn't have to go to the supermarket for 12 months.
"We really, really do appreciate everything that everyone's doing. Thank you."
"We still need more people on the ground," Ms O'Loughlan said.
"There are a lot of people out here at the moment – different agencies — the SES are doing an amazing job at the moment, and so's the Ballarat community, really banding together," she said.
"It's amazing though to see people who don't even know Sam coming forth wanting to assist in any way, shape or form."
On Thursday, police said they did not have the capacity to officially register search volunteers, but information was available at Buninyong Police Station for anyone seeking to assist.
Facebook group grows to more than 8,000 members
Local resident Cindy Hobbs does not know Samantha Murphy personally, but felt compelled to set up a Facebook group to help find the missing mother.
Ms Hobbs began sharing information in the group, which has rapidly ballooned to include more than 8,000 members.
"It's had a lot of amazing support from the entire community who've just flocked to it so it's almost become the main point of the latest updates and feelings of the community," she said.
Ms Hobbs said managing the group was not an easy task, but the support it had generated highlighted the "fantastic" strength of the Ballarat community.
"I want them [the family] to know that the community has their back when it comes to feet on the ground and people out looking for her," she said.
"Ballarat's a small town … I really felt for her, she's a mother.
"I do believe that we will find her."