Nerang 100 Miler Race Director’s Report

By Ian Cornelius

Back in the 1990s a race, called the Tamborine Trek, took place from the beach at Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast, to the top of Mt Tamborine and back for a total of 68kms. The course went through Nerang National Park going out and then coming back in – 13kms each way.

It was a great race but with increasing traffic and a steady growth of competitors, the narrow winding Guanaba Road became too dangerous so from 2007 the race was converted to trails.

The maximum distance on offer was 50kms, but with the popularity of the sport increasing in recent times, more people are participating in trail running and more still are opting for even longer distances.

It has become a natural progression to build a 100-mile race – the loop in the national park was almost 25kms so we installed an out-and-back section to get it to 25kms exactly, which became two loops for 50kms, four for 100kms and six and a bit for 100miles.

Thus, the Nerang 100 Miler was born in 2016.

We didn’t promote the race so much in the first year, preferring to use the experience more as a shakedown, enduring it ran without incident. Not everything went to plan though and competitor Matt Grills ended up in hospital with severe dehydration, having to be evacuated by a 4WD overnight.

Out of the experience that first year, 2017 means we did things better, including having a qualified First Aider at the event for 33 hours as well as warnings to contestants about hypothermia and necessary emergency supplies.

This year’s Nerang event was most successful – it was incident free and we had records broken in the 100-mile, 100kms and 50 mile events.

Performances

In the 100-mile races, all who finish deserve the description of having achieved a stand-out performance. We had Kevin Muller, acclaimed by AURA as the 2016 Ultra Runner of the Year and our race winner last year, who finished in just under 24-hours. We also had our first ever female finisher Seivland Poh (30:39:55). This year also saw 55-year-old Stephen Wright (last year’s winner of Run Down Under and the oldest contestant in the Miler) finish in 6th place.

The 100kms was won by Jason West and Amy Strong in 12:28:56 and 15:24:27 respectively (both records).

The 50-mile was won by Justin Blom and Katheryn Jones in 10:12:28 and 12:27:23 respectively. Katheryn’s time was a record but Justin’s time was eclipsed by Kevin Muller’s split which was 9:20:44.

The 50kms was won by Hamish Hamilton and Kylie Butler in 4:42:52 and 6:16:38 respectively.

A tough 100-miler

The elevation gain for Nerang is about 6,200-metres, much the same as two other tough milers, the Alpine Challenge in Victoria and the Great North Walk on the central coast of NSW. What sets Nerang apart is the shorter, yet seemingly never-ending ups and downs. Running up Heartbreak Hill is out of the question because it is too steep to run (except for our 25kms record holder Andrew Arkinstall 1:49:39) but even walking up it six times is not for the faint hearted.

Party time

Thanks to well-known ultra runner and musician Ben Dennien, we had a great after party, and anticipate it to get bigger and better every year. Next year, it will again be from late afternoon on the Saturday to coincide with the finish of the 4 x 25kms relay, the 50-miler and the first of the 100kms solo runners who should finish around 7pm to 8pm.

UTMB ranking points

Those who finished the 100 miler will receive 6 ranking points with 4 points to those who contested the 100kms or 50-miles. As anyone contemplating entering UTMB you need a total of 15 points. Nerang will definitely help get you on your way.

Thanks to our many sponsors, volunteers and, above all, the athletes, without whom this event would not be possible.

Pictured: Kevin Muller racing in this year’s Nerang 100 Miler.

Ian Cornelius is the CEO of Gold Coast Ultras, and is a race director for the Nerang 100 Miler.