After knocking off four of the world’s most treacherous deserts, 24-year-old ultramarathon runner Jacqui Bell from Brisbane Australia (as seen on the cover of and featured in Trail Run Mag Edition #29) is in New Zealand with her sights set on being the youngest person in history to run an ultra-marathon on every continent in the world. After last year being crowned the youngest female ever to undertake the four desert ultra-running event challenge in one calendar year, Bell will…
“Make fear your tailwind, instead of your headwind.” – Jimmy Iovine. I was watching Netflix instead of getting my daughters to bed. Instead of lifting kettle bells. Instead of doing squats. Instead of running. I hadn’t run in a week and a half. I could argue that it was because I feared exacerbating a potentially race-stopping injury. The truth is that I was paralysed by an all-encompassing fear of what lay ahead. Jimmy Iovine’s comment is on point. Fear shouldn’t…
Did I just kick a skunk? Or eat licorice allsorts and throw up on my feet? Or did someone just inject heroin between my toes? Without wanting to glamourise drugs of addiction, it must be the latter because 1. I love animals (so I would never kick one, plus there are no skunks in Australia to kick); 2. I hate licorice allsorts (especially the black and white ones that would have resulted in such a vomitus display); and 3. my…
Everyone loves a new ultra but when it comes aligned with a cause that seeks to protect our wilderness, the announcement resonates all the more deeply within the trail community. So we welcome the news that the Bob Brown Foundation will host a new 70km ultra-marathon event, the takayna Ultra, in Tasmania’s stunning north west. The event will take trail-runners across a wild and remote region; over grass plains through coastal eucalypt forests, and along open beaches, dunes and impressive rocky shorelines along the rugged wild coastline of…
You want ultra? Well, you got it up Nerang way with a new 500 kms trail race to be held in the Nerang National Park in September 2019. It follows the 200 miler (Australia’s first 200 miler) held there in September 2018. Race Organiser, Ian Cornelius, a veteran of 4 x 330 kms stage races, a contestant in the 1994 World 1,000 mile championships, and director of Gold Coast Ultras, believes that “This will be the longest and perhaps most extreme trail race ever…
Ash Watson and Deb Nicholl have been crowned champions of the Surf Coast Century 100km Ultra Marathon while Roger Lay and Rachel Tucker have taken the titles in the 50km race over the weekend at Anglesea, Victoria. The seventh edition of the race saw over 1,100 competitors from across Australia and overseas journey 50km and 100km across a spectacular off-road course along the beaches, 4WD tracks and hinterland trails of Anglesea, Torquay and Aireys Inlet. Despite conditions that saw multiple…
Written by David Lipman In just it’s second year, the Montreux trail festival is QUICKLY gaining the momentum of a flying European descending from Rochers-de-Naye (1600m descent over 10km to the finish line that all races in the festival have in common). Billed as the Vaud Alps experience tour, it does not disappoint! Race directors Diego Pazos (Swiss Ultra Trail Runner of the year 2015) and Cédric Agassis and their team have put in a lot of work to create…
Australia’s first 200 mile race, the Altra Nerang 200 (320 kms), is set to take place at the end of September. It forms part of the Nerang Trail endurance festival which takes place from 27-30 September, 2018. Set in the Nerang National Park, just behind the Gold Coast, the festival effectively brings trails to suburbia. The event is headquartered out of the Nerang cycling velodrome and is conducted on a 25 km loop (trail) course. The venue is just 45 minutes from the Gold Coast (Coolangatta) airport…
There’s nothing like running the rim of an extinct volcano! Yes, the Crater Rim Ultra delivers on its label promise, with trail runners taking a point to point journey around the crater that makes up the impressive Christchurch Port Hills in New Zealand, encircling Lyttelton Harbour. 2018 sees event double as the Athletics New Zealand Trailing Running Championships, so there’s extra kudos on the line. From a low-key beginning back in 2001 when 31 runners finished, the event has grown…
