After more than 28 hours of tough running in conditions which forced hundreds of runners to quit because of extreme cold, Hoka One One athlete and Trail Run Mag representative, Kellie Emmerson, ran herself into 5th place at UTMB, one of the world’s most competitive 100-mile ultramarathons. The event takes athletes around the mountains range surrounding Mont Blanc in France, covering 167km with 10,000 metres of climbing – effectively 4 marathons in thin air while running up and down a 3,500-storey building….

It was a birthday celebration to remember not only for the Ultra Trail Australia event enjoying its tenth outing, but also for the women’s winner, Lucy Bartholomew, who took out the women’s title on her 21st birthday.  It was a satisfying victory for Lucy, who began her trail running career at the tender age of 16 running the Surf Coast Century amid a swirl of age/ultra participation debate and was often banned by some event organisers from competing in ultras…

“I had no idea what I was in for – the flowing single track of the night run; then the vast expanses of flat terrain that we traversed before reaching rugged ranges over which we clambered  under a searing sun; then the depths of gorges so vast that they humbled my weary body.” For Hanny Allston, elite ultra trail runner, the landscapes of Larapinta were unlike anything back home in Tasmania. She had pushed her  body across the Larapinta Trail…