Race Report: Ultra Adelaide 100km

Ultra Adelaide tackles the Heysen Trail from Kuitpo, then heads North through the hamlets of the Hills, to Mount Lofty and beyond through Cleland National Park, Morialta & Black Hill, before following the Torrens River down to the finish at the heart of Adelaide.

This was to be a rather short visit for the race, so I arrived in Adelaide the day before the race, and spent most of the remaining day sorting out my gear, a real short shakeout run and then a nap before heading down to the event village for check-in and mandatory gear check.

Race day started with an early wakeup because we were being bussed out to the start line at 4:20am. Since I was staying in the city it was an easy walk down to the event village where I could grab a coffee, then hang out for a bit before the 45-minute bus ride up to Kuitpo.

The contrast between people dressed in running gear carrying running packs, and very intoxicated people who have just left the club was rather amusing.

We arrived at Kuitpo well before sunrise, and although the weather was forecast to be quite warm it was reasonably windy up at Kuitpo. The air temperature wasn't bad, but the wind was certainly cutting. Whilst waiting around I had my jacket on, but just before the start I decided to stash my jacket away in my vest, and donned the hi-viz vest for the morning section before the sun came up.

A bit of standing around in the cold wind for the race briefing, then we were off! We started for a kilometre or so down the road then jumped into the pine forest and onto the Heyson trail, which we would be following for the next 70km.

We were to spend the first hour or so in darkness before the sunrise. This first section was pretty nice - mostly flat running and settling into the routine of following Heyson Trail markers. Despite the wind at the start line once we were ensconced in the pine forests and sheltered from the wind the temperature was absolutely not a problem.

My plan right from the start boiled down to: keep it super easy for the first 30km, move confidently and strongly through the hills, then try to send it at the end.

In typical fashion though I was worried that I was going a bit too fast. My heart rate seemed higher than what I would expect for the effort level, but I put it down to race-day anxiety. I decided to ignore heart rate, and switched my watch to a different screen to run off feel.

The sun started to come up and we were treated to a pretty impressive sunrise. Once it got light I switched out the hi-viz vest, head torch and buff on the move.

After what felt like hardly any time at all we got to the first checkpoint. It's early days yet, but hydration is an area I usually fall down in so I made sure to top up with water (though it turned out to be tailwind, but no matter) and kept on moving.

The next section continued through the pine forest but introduced a few steeper pinches, all whilst the spectacular morning light continued.

After our jaunt through the pine forests, the course moves onto a section of the Heyson trail that heads through some farmland. This was a mix of different trails including some cool single track, negotiating fence crossings over styles and some nice, boggy cow paddocks.

Then after successfully avoiding all electric fences, it was back out onto the road heading into Mylor.

The second aid station was in the small Adelaide Hills town of Mylor, with a great atmosphere outside a cafe. Running into the town along and next to the roads was quite fun, and again I didn't stop for long in Mylor. I simply filled up my bottles, gave the volunteers a wave of thanks and then figured I might as well just keep on going.

After leaving Mylor, the course started to ramp up a bit as it moves towards the hillier parts of the course. This also means getting to enjoy more single track parts of the Heyson Trail that head into Bridgewater. The town of Bridgewater for me mentally marked the transition to where the hills on the course begin.

At one point I wasn't entirely sure I was on the right track as some of the flagging tape looked to have disappeared, and the markers for the Heyson trail pointed me across a footy oval (that had a game of footy going on), but I was following the line on my watch as well as the Heyson trail markers. Eventually I found the flagging tape again!

Encouragingly, from the point we cross under the highway it's an easy 19km cruise into Adelaide if you're driving. For the rest of us, however, we had 62km to go...

A group of local runners came past in the other direction and asked what the event was. I always enjoy engaging with other runners and people who aren't in the event, particularly the locals, and letting them know how much I'm enjoying running their usual trails (and how good trail running is).

Just after crossing under the freeway, I realised I was catching up to another runner and moving a fair bit quicker than them. This was certainly early days to be getting excited about passing someone, but it's always a nice feeling. I made sure I maintained the current effort level, not concerned about actually passing them at this point, then ended up passing them on one of the switchback climbs.

After following a nice, cool section of single track the course crosses a golf course. I hardly paid attention to the sign warning me to watch out for golf players, but as I entered the course I saw a golf ball go whistling over my head - I didn't quite realise that I would be crossing a fairway and needed to actually look out for flying golf balls!

This is where the gradient starts to ramp up towards the Mt Lofty climb, and just up ahead I could see another couple of runners in front that I was slowly gaining on. Once again, needing to remind myself that this isn't the time to push, but at the same time I might as well pass if I'm currently moving at a pace faster than they are. So, I passed two on the road, and then another person on the steep fire trail climb up to the top of Mt Lofty.

The climb to the top of Mt Lofty was steep. Real steep, and had quite a few mountain bikers coming barrelling down in the opposite direction. My first attempt to move out of the way was a bit sketchy, so for the rest I simply held my line to make it more predictable for them to avoid me.

Perched atop Mt Lofty is the 46km aid station which was my first planned 'major' stop to resupply. 'Major' simply meaning that in addition to filling up with water, I also went and found my drop bag to switch out nutrition flasks and grab my poles for the next few climbs.

As a side note: this was the first time I've carried Vert gels for the entire time, and when the aid station volunteer asked if I had any rubbish to get rid of it was quite a nice feeling to not have any.

After a quick chat with the volunteers and grabbing some fruit I carried on down the hill in good spirits, crossing over the road a couple times and then onto the Wine Shanty Track. It's around here that I started to catch up to the back of the pack of the 50KM race, which meant more opportunity to have a brief chat to people along the way.

The next section contained one of the more substantial climbs, which, for some reason I really can't remember at all. I'm not sure if I was just in a zone, or perhaps suffering a bit, but I just cannot picture that climb in my head.

Anyway, I do recall a little single track link at the end of that climb down to a short but somewhat treacherous section down the road, kindly directed by a marshal. I say it was treacherous because it was a narrow section of road with hardly any shoulder next to the barrier. However, it was only short and the traffic was really quite considerate.

After that short road section the course turned off onto a much quieter road which rolled straight into the Norton Summit Aid Station. By this stage I had a well-practiced aid station routine of pretty much just filling up with water, maybe grabbing a slice of watermelon, and then heading on out. From here we're following the trail towards Morialta Gorge!

The Morialta Gorge area contains a maze of trails which would be awesome to explore further one time, especially seeing as it seems I didn't take too many photos through here. After bouncing off the road, we were given a nice single track descent to Third Falls which seemed like a popular spot for people to hike into to check out the waterfall. After climbing out the other side and cresting the ridge, we had a steep descent down to a carpark. There seems to be a trend over here of putting hollow square paver things in the steep descents (I presume as erosion prevention) which makes it rather treacherous to descend at a run.

After the carpark there was then a big climb to get out of the gorge, and if you're counting, it's the third of five major climbs of the day. This was a fun single track climb - rocky and with plenty of switchbacks. I was still passing some 50km runners and the occasional day hiker, but in such glorious, sunny weather I was wondering if my poor ginger complexion was being cooked by the sun as well as starting to feel like maybe I didn't have quite enough water for this leg.

This combination of factors did mean that eventually the climb felt like it was starting to drag on a bit, until it started to level out and opened up into a fire trail and I was able to get some running in again. Now the scenery was starting to feel a little more coastal, with the rough, rocky section of track giving way to something a little more sandy.

Just after thinking how sandy and coastal it felt, we were gifted with a nice, rocky, steep descent.

The descent led down to the crossing of Montacute Road, where there is another checkpoint. Keen to refill my water and keep moving toward the penultimate checkpoint; I did feel a little bit bad here as there were lots of 50km runners in the aid station, but not directly using the water. They're out to enjoy the day so not necessarily interested in moving through as quickly as I was. I don't think I pushed in, but probably didn't show as much appreciation and patience as I should have.

Once out of the aid station the track starts to climb a bit, and this leads to what is really the second-last climb of the day. This section had some really steep climbs, which was good fun. Through this section I was working confidently but also telling myself to conserve a little bit to ensure I had enough left in the tank to run the last 19km. I passed a few more 50km runners on one of these climbs, one of whom reckoned I was possibly in 4th, with 3rd not that far ahead.

I wasn't aiming for a podium, but that certainly gave me a little extra motivation.

Once we crested the hill and had a slight reprieve we had to descend down to then start the final climb. This was a really awesome, steep, rocky and technical descent that was an absolute blast before easing out into flowy single track. At the bottom it petered out into a flat runnable section, and I was really happy to still be consistently running the flats here!

My nutrition had slowed a bit, so I tried to shove more gel in as I tackled the last climb. Again telling myself to conserve, and that this isn't the time to push just yet.

The crest of the climb comes over and provides great views out over Adelaide and to the coast, with a really open, grassy ridge at the top, and then an awesome steep, quad-smashing descent.

Honestly I was a little worried about my quads so started using my poles to take the load off a bit.

Coming off the descent prior the checkpoint I realised I had just passed the current 3rd place. I'm not normally in a position to be close to the podium, but with this in mind I certainly had a little competitive spirit starting to light up - so I got into the checkpoint and grabbed my drop bag for a quick shoe change into road shoes for the 19km of footpath.

I also dumped my poles in the bag, grabbed a new gel and a banana for the road whilst the volunteer kindly filled my bottles.

With a wave to the aid station vollies I ran out of the checkpoint and started grinding away down the footpath. This was going to be a bit of a slog, so I try to maintain a consistent pace but damn it was hard work. I wasn't looking at the distance on my watch but couldn't help myself estimating distances in my head all the way into the last aid station.

I left the last aid station feeling like I was moving well, but it was still a slog. Despite the elevation profile making this section look flat and even slightly downhill there were certainly still some ups and downs.

With only a few kilometres to go I could hear someone storming down behind me, which I thought might be another 100km runner because I couldn't see their bib. They passed me, but then inside the last 2km I passed them again and started moving quicker (as it turns out they were a 50km runner, so I needn't have worried).

I crossed the bridge which I knew meant I was getting very close to the finish, but I think I accidentally took the long way around (it only added an extra 50m or so). From this point I knew I was home and hosed with only about a kilometre to go - I tried to pick up the pace to finish strong.

I passed under the last foot bridge, and turned up the finish chute. With a quick look over the shoulder I slowed a bit to ensure the two 50km runners ahead of me could have their moment, before crossing the line in 3rd place (and seeing Jin, who had just placed 2nd in the 34km standing on the podium).

I'm super happy with how the day went, and to finish in what is my best 100k time yet is really, really cool. The way training had gone I thought I might be able to get in under 12 hours but to crack 11 hours is a great personal result. There are still plenty of lessons to learn of course - particularly around hydration and nutrition intake.

The atmosphere around Ultra Adelaide was spectacular, and I really enjoyed the course and how it showcased Adelaide trails. It's encouraging to see how events like this are really embracing the spirit and culture of trail/ultra running. It's also really exciting to hear they are introducing a 100 mile course from 2025!

I sat around for a bit at the end to chat with a few people and see more finishers, as well as the start of the twilight 10km run before heading back to the hotel to find some food and call it a day.