Spartan Bright Trifecta weekend 2019 – preview
This is the fourth year Spartan have held a trifecta weekend at Bright and there are very good reasons why this is the pinnacle Spartan event in Australia each year. In this blog post I outline why the course and town are so special.
Bright has a special place in my heart. I have raced the Bright trifecta in 2017 and 2018, the Buffalo Stampede 20km in 2018 and 2019, and the Bright 4 Peaks in 2018. I also spent 3 weeks of my annual leave in the Bright area in 2018. I am sure you will love Bright as much as I do.
General course overview
You are in Bright to race so I’ll cover that first. The festival area is set up at Pioneer Park Recreation Reserve, which is a large flat oval, and this part of the course is packed with obstacles. Bright traditionally has a lot of running distance between obstacles with obstacle clusters rather than obstacles evenly spaced across the race distance. Usually the feature obstacles like hercules hoist, multi rig, monkey bars, atlas carry, and olympus are all in or near Pioneer Park. Obstacles you will find in the running segments are usually walls and carries. It is rare that there will be any obstacles on single trail so if you would like to get some time, pushing on the single trail parts should help with this. Just be careful because there are roots, slippery pine needles and rocks on the single trail on Mystic. There is nothing soft about the ground at Bright unless it has been absolutely bucketing with rain but even then it takes a lot to make things muddy.
One thing to note is that any crawling obstacles at Bright are usually living hell because the ground is so hard your knees get bruised to oblivion very quickly. In particular, the heavy net crawls are usually pinned down to the ground very tightly. You can lose a lot of time going through the nets if you arrive at the obstacle by yourself. The net may or may not be positioned after a cold river crossing so that your legs cramp while crawling. To reduce pain during the barbed wire crawls I recommend using rolling techniques as much as possible. In 2017 the barbed wire crawl traversed blackberry bushes that had been cut low but not removed. There was also a heavy net crawl at the top of Mystic. In 2018 the heavy net crawl was the last obstacle to cross the finish line and was pinned down really tightly. Just be prepared for pain whenever you are on the ground in Bright. Think of the most painful location the net crawl could be and it will likely be positioned there. Expect the worst and hopefully the reality won’t be so bad, but I swear Paul manages to find ways to make the heavy net crawl more painful each time.
The flatter parts of the course run along the banks of Morses Creek, a beautiful rocky creek which is about waist high in Spring. The creek traverse obstacle can be difficult due to unstable rocks underfoot and in previous years has been 400-500m long. The water temperature is usually cold and can make it difficult to breathe after initially jumping in.
The climbs
Most people think the course is one long slog up and down a mountain, but this is not correct. If you look at the course maps for the super and beast distances, there is one big climb (Super) and two big climbs (Beast), but in between there is a lot of flatter, fast running on well-groomed fire trails and relatively fast single trail along the river. It is different to most other Spartan courses that usually have constant runnable hills. For Bright you need to be able to transition quickly from fast running on the flat to ascending really steep vert. More importantly you need to train your legs to descend quickly then run efficiently (or just plain continue to function) on flat ground.
The climb in the Super does not go the whole way up Mystic. The Strava segment shows the climb as 1.25km with 322m elevation at an average gradient of 25.7%. That is pretty steep and for most people will be predominantly power walking. My best effort on this segment is 16 minutes but that was during the Buffalo Stampede in 2019 where there are no obstacles to slow you down. My best time during a Spartan race is 17:02. Anyway, for me it is at least a 17minute steep slog of predominantly power walking. Obstacles on the way up are usually limited to walls, but before you celebrate, walls are quite difficult when on a steep uphill, particularly if you are vertically challenged like me. If you miss on first attempt just try again, walls are multiple attempt obstacles. There is one flatter part where Spartan could place a feature obstacle, potentially Twister, but there have not been feature obstacles at this location in past years. It is best not to obsess about times in OCR because even if the course is the same, obstacles are different from year to year. In saying this, if you want a PR on the Super Mystic segment 2019 might be your year because the course goes from Pioneer Park straight up for the steep climb. Doing the climb on fresher legs should make for faster times. In previous years the steep climb was towards the middle/later stages of the Super course.
The Beast climb which goes all the way up Mystic can be split into a few segments. First up is single trail through the pines on mountain bike path. The course then comes out onto the well graded mystic launch pad access road. Always look out for traffic on this road even during a race, you get all kinds of tourists with questionable driving skills in not suitable cars driving up here. This section is runnable. The last section is a 37% gradient techy climb to the launch pad. This is probably the steepest terrain of the whole course so if you find yourself crawling on all fours don’t give up, you are a mere hundred metres from Mystic launch pad. The total ascent in the Beast climb is about 480-500m.
Bright and surrounds
Apart from the course, people come to Spartan Bright for the alpine vibes and the town’s unique character. Yes there is the main street but the real centre of Bright is Howitt Park on the Ovens River. There is a great playground here, large expanses of picnic worthy grass, and a water play area for children. You can also swim, float and kayak in the Ovens River or walk across the bridge to use the slide that careens into the river. Bright Brewery backs onto Howitt Park, so it’s a good place to base yourself on the Friday before picking up your race pack and going to the supermarket to pick up supplies. You will also find Spartans here doing cold water recovery after racing on the Saturday and the Sunday. You can do cold water recovery in Morses Creek, but the Ovens along Howitt is the deepest nearby place to get up to your neck in cold water because of the dammed off area.
Bright is also a mountain running and mountain biking mecca, and it is hard not to be caught up in the stoke. Bright hosts the premier Skyrunning event in Australia, the Buffalo Stampede each year as well as other challenging mountain races including the Bright 4 Peaks and Wandi Cross. Buffalo Stampede is held in April each year with a 75km, 42km, 22km (1,400m vert), and 10km (900m vert) course. In completing the Spartan Bright course you get to run on the same part of Mystic as the Buffalo Stampede (it is the easiest ascent and descent of the Buffalo Stampede so count yourself lucky).
Bright 4 Peaks is a four day event where participants run up a different mountain each day (Mt Buffalo, Mt Feathertop, Mt Hotham and Mystic Hill). Wandi Cross is a raw, get your hands dirty mountain run which has the most off trail I have seen in an Australian mountain race. No GPS watches are allowed and the Goat Track is probably the easiest part of the race. I am telling you about these races because once you have completed Spartan Bright and you fall in love with mountains, there are more races out there for you.
Bright is also a gateway town to the Australian alps. It is the last affordable place to buy petrol on the way to Mt Hotham and Dinner Plain and is also a stopover on the way to Mt Beauty and Falls Creek and the closest town to Mt Buffalo. It is also a great base for exploring the area’s local waterfalls. Ladies Bath Falls and Eurobin Falls are both a very short drive from Bright a short way along Mt Buffalo Rd. Rollasons Falls is another of my favourites, a 2km steep hike down from the trail head off Mt Buffalo Rd.
If you are in Bright for a few days and would like to train in a gym or go to a yoga class you should go to Bright Bootcamp. They are used to casuals and you can book and pay in advance online.
Everyone raves about Bright Brewery, but if you would like to go somewhere different here are a few recommendations:
Best coffee: Sixpence Coffee.
Best bar: Reid & Co Distillery
Best burgers: Tomahawks
Best Japanese: Katsu
Best place to buy meat for BBQ: Ricardi’s Alpine Gourmet Meats
My favourite café: Coral Lee – buy a slice of their lemon meringue cake
See you in Bright for another epic trifecta weekend!
Love your reviews/previews Mon! Informative yet casual. I also like how your voice is so evident in the text – its like the reader can hear you saying some of these sentences/phrases.
Cleland 25 this morning – this year’s field is jam packed and really competitive. I can’t wait!