Q&A: plant power and the Pyrenees

Victorian adventure athlete and dedicated vegan, Jan Saunders, was looking to become the first Australian to run 866km through the French Pyrenees in an inaugural endurance event, the TransPyrenea challenge which began on 19th July. She’s still out there, competing  but facing tougher conditions than imagined, she is now in the La Pastoral edition, an abridged section of the full course, that is still brutal at 450km+ This is an interview with Jan before she headed out, as seen in the latest edition of Trail Run Mag downloaded…

13 Lessons: UTA mid-pack perspective

Everyone loves hearing the inspirational feats of the elite runners. Our jaws drop as we hear the winner’s time (9.20…how is that even possible?). But what went down in the middle of the pack? Is there anything to learn from those runners for whom a silver buckle is a distant dream?For anyone who is more likely to crawl up the Furber Steps than sprint, and who maybe had a little meltdown on Nellies stairs, this is for you. Here are some…

101 Reasons to run Ultra Trail Australia

While plenty of attention is garnered by the front runners, we reckon the more moving and inspirational tales of ultra running are found further back in the pack, as with the likes of Brett Sammut whose story from 2015 ran in Edition #17 of Trail Run Mag. With Ultra Trail Australia happening this weekend, we thought it worth a look back at Brett’s experience in the Blue Mountains. WORDS: Chris Ord When life becomes too much, some run away to oblivion. Others, like Brett Sammut, reach…

Wild child – 12 year-old on ultra mission

Would you allow your 12-year-old daughter have a go at running 75 of the hardest trail kilometres in New Zealand? That was the quandary for trail event organiser, photographer and Hillary Trail legend, Shaun Collins and his wife Madeleine, faced when their daughter Zara decided whatever Dad can do, she should be able to. Just before the 2016 Hillary event kicks off, Trail Run Mag caught up to get an insight from both Shaun and Zara. [This article appears in the…

Blue Sky Dreams – History of Skyrunning

Skyrunning has firmly embedded itself into the Australian and New Zealand trail scene via events such as the Hillary and Mt Difficulty in New Zealand and Buller, Buffalo and the new Vertical K happening next weekend in Australia. While these races do an admirable job emulating their bigger-mountain cousins in the northern hemisphere, the epitome – not to mention the origins – of Skyrunning is found in Italy and within the hearts and minds of founders, Lauri van Houten and Marino Giacometti….

Singletrack on the sly

This editorial appears in the latest edition of Trail Run Mag (Ed #18), downloadable for FREE here. You can also purchase a subscription on iTunes for your iPad/iPhone or Kindle Fire. Rebellion hath furthered many a righteous cause. And sometimes I’m glad that there are rebels in our midst risking angry lectures from park rangers at best, prosecution at worst, to forge new singletrack under a canopy of anonymity. Those who are by day law-abiding, tax paying, voting citizens, become…

Run to Paradise: Tour de Cooks

How to turn your entire family into trail runners? Take them to the Cook Islands…and take your time. WORDS: & IMAGES: Chris Ord I’ve never DNFed in my life. Without any pride and with much prejudice, I can now say that I’ve joined the quitters’ club. There are no upsides to quitting. You feel a fool. You hate your body for letting you down. You feel depressed. Maudlin. Morose. Dejected. Guilty. Ashamed. More pointedly, pissed off. With all that negativity…

Trail Medic: Lyme Disease

There’s lots of dangers inherent in trail running, risks we all accept as part of the experience of going wild. One of them potentially prevalent across many trail running nations can leave runners bedridden, yet you won’t see the accused culprit coming. US-based Murray Susser, MD, gives oversight to the problem of ticks and the particularly nasty disease they can infect you with. [NOTE: it has been pointed out to TRM that in Australia there is, according to the Australian Government…

It was you: a letter of trail origins

Kiwi running legend, Mal Law, is about to undertake the most audacious feat of his life… the High Five-0 Challenge: fifty marathons, fifty mountains, fifty days. Before that it was the 7-in-7 and the Coastal Path Challenges with a bunch of other cause-related runs packed in between. On the eve of his biggest challenge to date – and biggest fundraising effort with almost $300K raised for Mental Health Foundation of NZ (MHF) – we thought we’d re-run a very personal piece he wrote for the…

PROFILE: Rising Starr

For more than 14 years, running was an addictive curse feeding a sickness that clouded Lauren Starr’s world.  TRM Editor, Chris Ord, goes for a run with an inspiring young woman who has battled Anorexia Nervosa and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I am an insensitive idiot. For most of her life, Lauren Starr has suffered from anorexia nervosa. An eating disorder. So where do I arrange to meet for the first time? “Let’s meet at The Pantry, it’s a great little…