Surf Coast hosts 100km Trail Run Champs

FROM NEWS RELEASE: This year the Australian 100km Trail Running Championships will be contested at the Surf Coast Century on Saturday 19th September, starting and finishing at Anglesea, Victoria, in the famous Great Ocean Road region. The event has become a mainstay on the ultra marathon circuit. After three years it has built a reputation as one of Australia’s must-do trail running events and approximately 20 percent of this year’s 800 competitors are from interstate or overseas. The winner of…

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EVENT WRAP: Surf Coast Trail Marathon

The second instalment of the Icebug Surf Coast Trail Marathon proved a watershed event for many participants running the half and full marathon distances along the coastal cliff-top trails of south-west Victoria. From the course record-breaking and back-to-back win by Kellie Emmerson in the women’s, to the course record-breaking competitive comeback win by Mathieu Dore in the half distance, to the multitude of extraordinary achievements by everyday runners in the mid and back pack, it was a day of celebration…

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Catching the Surf Coast Trail Marathon Bug

A sell-out in its first outing last year, the Surf Coast Trail Marathon, in Victoria, is returning to the trail running event calendar with an updated title and promises of yet another upbeat event designed to lure runners off-road. Now be known as the Icebug Surf Coast Trail Marathon, the event has welcomed aboard Swedish shoe brand Icebug which recently launched its range of trail shoes onto the Australian market. “The Surf Coast Trail Marathon is an ideal stomping ground…

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Trail Run Conference: The Directors’ Cut

What is the collective noun for a gathering of trail running race directors? Is it a mob? A gaggle? A herd? A gang? A horde? A rabble? A misery? Dan Lewis looks for the answer as trail race directors from across Australia and New Zealand congregated at day one of the first National Trail Running Conference being held in the Blue Mountains this week in conjunction with The North Face 100. Whatever the collective noun of trail run race directors is (and we would…

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Shire women finish WildEndurance on top

Sutherland Shire female team, the Glenbrookers, dominated the WildEndurance challenge, convincingly winning the 100km cross country event in the Blue Mountains last weekend. The team, comprising Sarah Highfield, Fiona Bedford and Simone Hayes, completed the 100km course in 18 hours 42 minutes. All teams endured gruelling conditions with the event track resembling a swamp in many parts and competitors having to cross creeks in waist deep water after torrential rain fell throughout the event.  Not only did The Glenbrookers win the…

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Women Better Runners Than Men: Research

It’s a headline that will rouse a few eyebrows, while also getting a few heads nodding in agreement (including those fellas who have recently been ‘chicked’, as the run crowd dubs it). But perhaps it’s something we all know deep down: women are better runners than men. That doesn’t mean an individual female is any faster/better than an individual male (although of course that can be the case), or that women hold the ‘fastest’ titles. That’d be like saying all all…

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Here comes Kepler: a trail challenge

Of tough men, long skirts and bronze shoes… A fixture on the New Zealand trail running calendar for 27 years, now, the inaugural Kepler Challenge  (planned to be a one-off) was originally organised to honour a Fiordland outdoor legend. In 1988, the Te Anau community was looking for a way to commemorate the centenary of the re-discovery of Milford Track by Quinton MacKinnon (re-discovery as it is thought that a similar route had previously been used by Maori to gather greenstone…

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New Record for NZ Great Walks

After nine gruelling days of aching muscles, mental fatigue and sleep deprivation, Ben Southall (UK), Luke Edwards (AU), and Patrick Kinsella (UK) – aka The Global Adventurers – have completed a world-record setting challenge of running the nine Great Walks of New Zealand back to back. The goal of completing the Great Walks in nine days was achieved with just 40 minutes to spare, although, as with every adventure in nature’s extremes not everything went to plan. Extended drive times…

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Record attempt on NZ’s Great Nine

Nine and a half marathons in nine days through a range of testing terrain plus a 145-kilometre kayaking mission in the mix – this is the challenge three running adventurers have set themselves this coming November as they attempt to run New Zealand’s nine `Great Walks‘ in as many days. Even for New Zealand – the spiritual home of adventure racing and a mecca for trail running enthusiasts from around the world – this is an extreme undertaking, and one…

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Shared win and course record at SC100

It was a perfect finish to a perfect day, with two trail running champions crossing the finish line together to take the Surf Coast Century 100km win and a new course record set for the women’s event. Brendan Davies, from the Blue Mountains in NSW, and David Eadie from Melbourne showed the true spirit of ultra running by sharing the win. Davies led the race all day but was caught by Eadie with just 3km to the finish. They took…

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