Race Report: Ultra-Trail Australia UTA22

by Amy Renkert Stabins

I’ve been hearing about the Ultra-Trail Australia (UTA) race series for several years. The UTA is associated with UTMB (Ultra-Trail Mont Blanc), one of the most prestigious trail running races in the world. The UTA is held in Australia's Blue Mountains National Park, in the town of Katoomba where my sister and her family live. Her kids and various other family members and friends have run in these races in the past. We were planning a visit for this spring, and my sister encouraged my husband (Henning) and I to join her for the UTA22, a half marathon running along the fire trails and single track through the park. It sounded like a great event to arrange a visit around.

Training for this canyon trail race was challenging in the Maine winter. The UTA22 has an elevation gain of 1,177 meters (3,861 feet). Ironically, we ran the On the Run Half Marathon in Old Orchard Beach—The World’s Flattest Half Marathon—as part of our training (my time 2:19, Henning’s time 2:12). We traveled to Australia a few weeks before the race to do some backpacking and worried that the time away from running would tank our readiness, but six days hiking with heavy packs through the mountains of Tasmania turned out to be just what we needed.

Race morning was cool and misty, great running weather. The 2,279 UTA22 runners were released in waves. We self-seeded in the last wave knowing that we aren’t super speedy. The elites in the first wave reached the finish line as we were making our way to the starting line. All of the runners wore loaded running vests. There is a mandatory gear list that includes an emergency blanket, whistle, compression bandage, rain coat, thermal layer, food, and water.

The first five miles are all downhill on a fire road through old growth eucalyptus forests. Picture the steepest sections of the Quarry Road Trails and add slippery mud. I know that running downhill can wreck your legs just as much as uphill does, but I was able to keep an easy brisk pace the whole way down. Then the uphill began. The next five miles were mostly steeply uphill. All of the racers were walking up the steep long hills and running the short downhill stretches.

With about three miles to go the trail turned to rolling single track—generally a handful of stairs interspersed with a couple hundred feet of straightaway along cliffs and waterfalls. The woods were alive with the calls of cockatoos and lyre birds. By this point it had become clear that we could have started in an earlier wave. I was passing dozens of people who were clearly struggling with the distance and elevation gain. The long downhill followed by a lot of power-hiking had left my legs fresh, and I felt like I was flying along the straightaways.

I’m going to attribute some of my late-race freshness to proper fueling. Years ago I read that a 13-mile run is too short to require fueling, and I’ve never been one to eat or drink much during a long race. I think the wisdom on this—or my understanding of it—has changed. I carried electrolytes (LMNT Mango Chili) and water, and took a maple syrup or chia gel every 30 to 45 minutes. I think this really helped a lot.

The final section of the race is the Furber Steps—951 steps of carved sandstone and metal staircases. This stretch was a bit bottle-necked, but I was able to keep a consistent pace the whole way. The finish line is only a few hundred feet from the top of the stairs, and cruising into the festival-like atmosphere was exhilarating! My time was 4 hours and five minutes. Henning was ahead of me at 3 hours 26 minutes, and my sister was just a few minutes behind me.

Our race was only half the fun. My niece was crewing and pacing her boyfriend in the UTAMiler (100 miles). Unfortunately he had to DNF after 107K due to knee issues. My nephew ran the UTA100 (100K). We were able to catch up to him at several spectator locations and checkpoints and follow his progress as he battled it out for first place with one of the three other young men in his age group (18-19 years). He started out in front, fell behind in the middle, and then surged ahead in the last 22K. All of the longer races (50K, 100K, UTAMiler) finished with the same stretch of trail as the 22K that we ran. My nephew ran this section in 3 hours 45 minutes—20 minutes faster than me after spending the day covering 78K. He finished at 12:30 at night with a time of 17 hours and 49 minutes. So impressive! Bonus—the age group winners score a direct entry slot at UTMB in France next year; maybe we will go and crew for him there!

For more amazing scenery, here is a link to a video of the event:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5hJxj9DmUc