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 the Surf Coast Century 100km solo event will automatically be crowned the Australian 100km Trail Running Champion, providing extra incentive to interstate competitors.
Paul Munro from Melbourne is expected to finish on the podium again this year. Munro finished third in 2014 and is currently in great form, having won the recent Run Larapinta Stage Race in Alice Springs. Other contenders for podium are Mathieu Dore and consistent high performer Ross Hopkins.
In the women’s event all eyes will be on last year’s 100km female winner Kellie Emmerson (pictured above), who set a new women’s course record in 9hr,29.32. Emmerson finished 19th female – and 1st Australian female – at the 2015 World Trail Championships in France in May so she’ll be tough to beat. However Amy Lamprecht from Tasmania who finished second to Emmerson last year will be back to challenge her again.
The 100km course can be completed by individual runners or relay teams (of up to 4 competitors). There’s also a 50km solo option that makes the step into ultra-distance races a bit easier for those not quite ready to tackle the full 100km.
The women’s 50km event will be hotly contested by last year’s winner Lucy Bartholomew, who finished in 4hr,32.04, and 2006 World Orienteering Champion Hanny Allston from Tasmania.
The Surf Coast Century course is a beautiful run in a beautiful part of the world. It provides plenty of variety to keep runners excited, access for spectators and support crews, a few challenging hills but also a few rewards and easy kms. It’s an ideal introduction to ultra trail running.
The course is a figure 8 with Anglesea being the start, half way point, finish and the event hub. The race starts as the sun comes up on Anglesea main beach and the course features renowned surf beaches, clifftop trails, sweeping single track, lighthouses, waterfalls, scenic lookouts, remote wilderness and almost everything in between.
The 100km course is basically split into 4 different legs, the end of each leg being a checkpoint where teams may interchange to another member, receive support from support crews and race officials and tick off another milestone of this challenging event. Each leg is also quite different from the others, with its own range of landscapes and terrain through which the course passes – retaining interest for individuals and providing team runners the chance to choose a leg that suits them.
Salomon Leg 1, 0km – 21km
Leg 1 of the Surf Coast Century starts on the beach at sunrise and takes runners on a beautiful 21km journey from Anglesea to Torquay. Highlights along the way include the towering Anglesea cliffs, rock hopping at Red Rocks, Point Addis Beach, the famed Bells Beach and plenty of rock pools. It’s almost flat from start to finish.
Active Feet Leg 2, 21km – 49km
Leg 2 basically follows the Surf Coast Walkand other coastal walking tracks and trails along the clifftop from Torquay back to Anglesea. Runners will enjoy some magnificent views before hitting the single track wonderland of Eumeralla at the 33km point, and then will ultimately descend back to the beach to finish in Anglesea.
Hammer Nutrition Leg 3, 49km – 77km
Leg 3 is the hilliest leg of the race and the crux of the course, feature some more remote sections of coastal bushland and a mixture of single, 2WD and 4WD tracks. There are several significant climbs but runners will be rewarded with what is arguably the best trail running loop in the Otways – a flowing single track that climbs gradually up the valley past Currawong Falls to a trig point on the ridge at the 67km on Love’s Track, and descending down into Ironbark Gorge on the other side. This section finishes at the Moggs Creek picnic area.
AY UP Lighting Systems Leg 4, 77km – 100km
The final leg provides more single track through tall timber forest to emerge at the best lookout on the coast (in the Event Manager’s opinion anyway) on Ocean Views Ridge above Moggs Creek at the 79km point. Heading towards home, runners will pass the majestic Aireys Inlet Lighthouse, run along Urquhart Beach and re-join the Surf Coast Walk before the final descent onto the Anglesea Main Beach and into the finish line at Anglesea Riverside Park.
To register or find out more about the Surf Coast Century 2015 visit