Ultra

Race strategy

Start easy, build your effort, and go all out at the finish.

• Start easy and control your HR up to 32.0km.
• Hold your race pace up to 33.2km, but stay in control.
• The finish is runnable. Save your legs to run it all the way.
• Ease into the early runnable section, then run your race pace.
• Start · 0.0km–2.5km · Race-day nerves push your heart rate up: don't follow the crowd, find your own rhythm.
• Settle in · 2.5km–32.0km · Ease in: hold back more than feels necessary. The race is still ahead. Running pays off here: run wherever you can.
• Work · 32.0km–33.2km · Climb of 231m, high point 246m. This is where the race is built: steady, solid effort. Climb by heart rate or breathing, not pace.
• Home · 33.2km–56.1km · 22.9km of runnable trail. No heroics: settle back into your own effort and hold it to the line. Running pays off here: run wherever you can.

Course

By gradient, 12% of the distance is uphill, 17% downhill and 71% flat. The longest climb runs 1.2km at an average 19.7% grade (231m of vertical). Surface: 74% road and 10% trail. Flat-equivalent effort: 57.3 FlatKM.

Poles

Poles bring little benefit here: only about 1.2km of pole-friendly terrain.

Quad damage

There is too little runnable descent to damage the quads: plan the race around climbing and fuelling.

Weather

On race day, start temperatures have historically ranged from 13°C to 18°C, with around 19°C at the highest point; the chance of precipitation is about 20%. Heavy rain of 10.0mm or more falls on about 3% of days around this date.