Kunanyi Mountain Race Report
The famous mountain on Hobart's doorstep played host to the Kunanyi Mountain Run festival on the weekend of 24-26 March for two Byron Bay trail runners and their blended family. Matt Wood and Jacqui Morrow inspired (?) 3 of their 6 adult children to join them in Tassie to try the newest race in the event schedule - the Foothills 9km. With over 380m of elevation and some of the prettiest forest trails on the mountain, it was the perfect introduction to trail running for Liam - 19, Kai - 22 and Emily - 21.
Having completed the 25km Mountain run in 2022, Matt and Jacqui were keen to return to Hobart; Matt to step up to the 67km Ultra Solo, and Jacqui to have another go at the 25km distance, and challenge herself on the Vertical Kilometre (VK) race (which Matt had excelled at the previous year).
The first race of the festival is the Vertical Kilometre, held on the Friday afternoon. To meet International standards, the course must cover 1 vertical kilometre in less than 5 horizontal kilometres. It's definitely the steepest and shortest route up the mountain! Jacqui accidentally ended up in start wave 2 with the elite women, which made for an excellent start line selfie but no accidental eliteness. The VK is ridiculously challenging as a run, with parts of the course so steep that competitors are reduced to a mad scramble up and over granite boulders for hundreds of metres.
Very early Saturday Morning, Matt set off for the start of the 67km Ultra Solo, which takes in much of the VK course and other similarly steep and rocky slopes. Nursing an ankle injury from 3 months earlier, and thinking it was ‘only’ 67km, Matt had set himself the ambitious goal of staying ahead of the checkpoint cutoffs. It turned out to be 4,000m of extremely challenging and technical climbing (and downhills), and after a very long day out, Matt prevailed and finished the race with nearly 2 hours to spare.
The 25km Mountain Run started at the more civilised time of 8.30am, and Jacqui set off up kunanyi (Mount Wellington) on a good part of the same course as the VK, only with some runnable bits. The course winds its way up the eastern side of the mountain, taking 13kms to achieve the same elevation as 4.6km the day before. After summiting the Pinnacle and snatching a quick photo of the magnificant view over Hobart and River Derwent, the descent then spills down the famous Organ Pipe track and around the north side of the mountain, before flowing through 12kms of beautiful rainforest tracks and over crystal clear creeks towards the runhub.
The following morning, Jacqui was back at the start line up with Liam, Kai and Emily for their first trail event. A race entry wasn't available for Jacqui, so she ran incognito in her sunnies. Liam was out of runhub and across the paddock with the lead pack within minutes of the start. Unfortunately, he didn't have a sports watch, so was unable to judge his pace or distance. After finishing, he assured everyone that he would have gone a lot faster in the 2nd half of the race if he had known how far he had to go. Kai and Emily took a more leisurely approach, and enjoyed the scenery and the opportunity to test their hiking skills on the steeper parts of the course. The weekend was sealed with hot chips on the lawn in front of the Tassie Parliament a few hours later and Guiness or two in an Irish pub at the Salamanca markets, before catching a very late flight home on Sunday evening.
Overall, it is a fabulous event, with a local feel and global appeal, respectful of the amazing environment, inclusive of runners of all ability but allowing us to rub elbows with the elite and aspiring international runners. Highly recommended to all, and would definitely enter again.
Race results
Jacqui - VK, 1hr:10min:44sec, 10th female
Jacqui - 25km, 3hr:58min:09sec, 3rd female 50-59yrs
Matt - 67km, 15hr:45min:25sec - beat the cutoff!