Ultra-Trail Kosciuszko race recap
Take the conditions, the fear and insecurity, and race.
Entry
Kosciuszko National Park is my favourite national park in Australia. Being only two hours from Canberra, having Australia’s highest mountains and most beautiful alpine meadows, it is an addictively beautiful place to experience the outdoors. In recent years I have really enjoyed weekends in Kosciuszko featuring main range, Hannels Spur, and the rolling grounds near Guthega. When entries for the inaugural Ultra-Trail Kosciuszko (UTK) opened and I saw the 27km course was predominantly on the very tame Thredbo Valley Trail I was pretty disappointed, and decided not to enter the race. By the time I changed my mind and was up for a fast 27km with 700m of vertical gain the race was sold out. Getting an entry was difficult but on 2 December I was fortunate to get a free entry from a fellow Canberran who could no longer make it. I also was able to get a room at the YHA and one day off work. So it was happening and I was excited.
Looking at the finish line after bib collection on Wednesday night.
Very manageable amounts of snow so I was caught quite off guard with the last minute course changes.
Course changes
Large trail running events looking to use popular national parks trails are increasingly being held on weekdays. For UTK this meant the 27 and 50km were on the Thursday and the 100km and 100miler on the Friday. So on Wednesday after work I made it just in time to Bullock Flats to check in, and then arrived in Thredbo as the sun was setting. I had made peace with the fact the conditions were bad and there was a lot of snow. Bad conditions had followed me around like a plague in 2022 so I wasn’t really that surprised. In the four weeks preceding I had run in the snow 6 times and three of those days it had been snowing fairly heavily. I had practised using poles to assist with traversing snow. I had tested all my gear and was confident in how to move to stay warm in those conditions. I was taken very off guard when the courses were changed less than 12 hours before the start.
I assume that the course changes were brought on by Thredbo Resort that manages the land in the resort property which includes the full first loop of the 27 and 50km courses. There were almost no changes to the course as marked in the Kosciuszko National Park parts of the course. The course directors unfortunately cannot control last minute decisions made by resorts and parks about access to their trails. This was a very different situation to Ultra-Trail Australia (UTA) in 2022 where it was pretty obvious from months out that course changes would be required, but there was misleading (in my opinion) communications about this, which ultimately led to the shorter distances being predominantly road races. There have been very bad vibes surrounding UTA due to these miscommunications (and other reasons) which most recently seems to have resulted in entries still being available weeks after launch for the 2023 race when tickets usually sell out in minutes. I just want to clarify that UTK had great community trail vibes. With the two events being similarly priced, if you are choosing between the two I highly recommend you go for UTK.
Anyway, for UTK, the course changes resulted in the 27km course going from 800m of vertical gain to 250m and the highest point of the course did not exceed 1600m above sea level. Given my late entry to UTK and lack of training on flat ground, I was hoping that a strong start to the first part of the original course with the big climb and steep descent down Merritts Nature Trail would then give me a buffer for the fast flat running in the second half of the course. With the course now being 6.5km of trail running and 21.5km of well graded flat to slightly descending Thredbo Valley Trail I was now really out of my depth. So while most runners were freaking out about the snow and seemed happy about the course changes, I was not. Usually I go over my training to get confidence for a race but I did not do this for UTK as I knew I was not prepared for this type of running, and that was for the original course before almost all the vertical gain was taken out.
The changes also included that the 27 and 50 races would start at the same time, with self-seeded staggered starts. This would have added to the stress but thanks to covid, most of us have ample practice now at these self-seeded staggered starts.
While I had contemplated pulling out of the race, in the end I decided this would be a great learning experience for me and that any embarrassment I felt would be worth giving it whatever I had.
Revised course map.
At approximately 5km running on the board walk between the Thredbo River and the golf course.
Race day
We woke up on race morning to soft snow flakes falling in Thredbo village (in summer). While it was just below 0, I warmed up and stayed warm wearing long socks, arm warmers, gloves and my waterproof jacket over the top. Sheltering in between my two warm ups, a lady commented that my merino socks were very fuzzy. Yes, I actually trail run including occasionally bush whacking and these socks are well and truly tested. I managed to hold back and not comment on her brand new untested bright pink socks which looked like they had been purchased straight from the expo. Untested socks come with consequences, so no need to say anything. Also a good reminder that Ultra Trail races draw all kinds of people including those very new to trail running. Sometimes I am not exposed to complete trail newbies because they don’t tend to sign up for mountain and sky races. It made me feel grateful for the course changes because while I would be fine up there, a lot of people might not be. It is really easy to forget that much of Australia’s population has never even seen snow and likely don’t share my enthusiasm about mountains.
Waiting in the starting chute it was nice to bump into Bianca Pietrass-Wong who was running the 100km on the Friday so there to see off Jimmy doing the 50km. I also bumped into Jordi who I completely didn’t recognise in her thousand layers of clothing, obviously coming from a warmer climate than me. She had enough clothing to outfit at least three trail runners.
With the staggered and combined start, runners were being let off in groups of 6-10 every few seconds. I started a minute or so after the race started, immediately climbing up a grassy ski slope. The first 6km was very fun with a mix of trail terrains, climbs and descents. After heading up and down ‘Easy Does It’ (a green ski run) we joined a firetrail (the start of Merrits Traverse) for some more climbing. This was followed by the first single trail section being a short stint up Merrits Nature Trail. If we had completed the original course, we would have descended the whole trail which is a fun technical descent involving hundreds of bush stairs and rocks. In the revised course we were going up the section with the bridge creek crossing. This is the first section where the combination of 27 and 50 km runners was not great. The 50km runners almost all stopped to walk the stairs. Luckily it wasn’t so crowded it was impossible to overtake, though it did involve going to the side of the single trail which isn’t great for the vegetation and it did involve waiting a few seconds for a space to overtake. Leaving Merritts we joined Meadows Nature Trail which is a grassy jaunt across ski slopes. We passed under the Snowgum Chairlift and the Kosciuszko Express. I was enjoying this grassy and slightly muddy section. We then descended around the golf course and riverside walk single trail which was rocky and muddy in parts. A short flat road section then brought us to alongside the Bobsled where we then got to turn left and climb another short bush stair section of Merrits Nature Trail. At 6km all the climbing and technical running in the entire course was finished.
We then descended down a firetrail back to Friday Flats where we passed by the start and commenced the 22km of fast slightly downhill running to the finish line. The Thredbo Valley Trail is a very well graded wide single trail popular with beginner MTB riders who generally start at Thredbo, ride the easy trail down to Crackenback and get the shuttle bus back to Thredbo. It is a beautiful trail that has several bridged crossings of the Thredbo River and passes through both Ngarigo and Thredbo Diggings Campground. A couple of kilometres after starting the TVT runners started streaming by me. I knew this would happen as it was now essentially a road runners race and I had not been training on flat terrain for most of the year. I was running in about fourth place prior to the 10km mark and finished as eight female. The number of men overtaking me was also significant, and I knew I was running with a whole lot of men who were doing the 50km but running the same pace as me. I just focused on fuelling and my race plan but it was a massive psychological struggle to keep going and not just pull out of the race. It was a relief when we finally made it to the last five kilometres which changed the rhythm with some slightly varied terrain. Crossing the finish line the sun was out and temperatures were hovering at just below ten degrees.
In the end my result was what I should have expected for such a lack of training on flat trails and/or road. While none of the races I have coming up are at all similar to this course, I will be plugging gaps in my training to be a better all round runner including on flat surfaces. Despite the race outcome not being great, the race was also a great opportunity to practice my mind game, which has improved massively this year and I really look forward to using in 2023.
After the race I watched my Canberra friends finish the 50km and spent some time at Bullock Flat before the drive back to Canberra (with a quick stop in Jindy for lunch with Jordi who it turns out probably raced the 50km on a stress fracture). UTK was well run and had great community trail vibes for such a big event. Should you race UTK next year? Yes if you are after the following:
· 27km – you like flat and fast trail running. While there is one climb at the start there is only 10km of true ‘trail’ running before 17km along the Thredbo Valley Trail. Suitable for beginners to trail running (ie those who have done a road half marathon or marathon and want to try a trail race) and those who like fast trail running on mainly flat trails.
· 50km – has twice the vertical gain of the 27km. More of a balanced 50km with two big climbs at the start before hitting 17km along the Thredbo Valley Trail to finish. You would want some experience on technical trails as the course pretty fairly tests all trail running modalities (uphill, downhill, flat, some technical but mainly non technical).
· 100km and 100 miler – the 100km and 100 miler have significant amounts of vertical gain and cover some of Australia’s best alpine terrain across main range and beyond. A must do if you are into these distances.
