Lonely Mountain Ultra 100K: Is This The Hardest Course In Australia?

Racing The Lonely Mountain Ultra 100K In The Heat

The Lonely Mountain Ultra is a brutal day out, and race morning told the story: hot, heading for 25 degrees, on a long wooded trail course with big climbs and steep descents. I started steady, ran my own race and slowly moved through the field. I sat in fifth for the first few kilometres, moved into fourth by around the 8km mark, and by the 35km checkpoint I was in third. Not long after that I found myself running second, which I did not expect that early in the day.

That is the part of ultra racing that surprises people. Patience moves you forward, especially in the heat, while others go out hard and pay for it. I kept the downhills controlled, found shade wherever I could, and kept my effort in check on the climbs. My legs felt great. My pacing was working. The problem turned out to be somewhere else entirely.

When Your Stomach Stops The Race

Up at the summit, a few kilometres after I last saw my crew, my stomach shut down. I could not take on calories. I tried a lolly, I tried water, I tried Coke. Nothing would sit. Even drinking water hurt. By the time I came back down to the aid tent I had gone about three hours with zero calories.

Here is what you need to understand: your legs can be fresh, your fitness can be spot on, and your gut can still end your day. I could run the downhills, but I could not climb a small hill. There was nothing in the tank to power the effort. This course also has long stretches with no aid stations, so once things went wrong out there, there was nothing I could change until I got back.

The Decision To Pull Out

After two loops, past the halfway mark, the next section meant going straight back up the same steep hill I had just come down. I sat in front of a fan, tried to settle, and faced the facts. If I could not eat, I could not produce the energy to get back up that climb. I had made the decision two hours earlier and nothing changed it. I pulled out while running second, with my family right there, and headed home with them.

That hurt. You put months into your training, almost everything goes right, and then the one thing you did not control decides the outcome. But after UTA 100K I made a promise to myself that I would not run myself into the ground like that again. A DNF in the right situation is a decision, not a failure. Protecting your body and your next block of training matters more than finishing at any cost.

What You Can Take Into Your Next Ultra

First, practise your fuelling in the heat, not just on cool training runs. Heat changes how your gut handles sugar, fluid and salt, and what works on a mild morning can fall apart on a hot afternoon. Second, build a fuelling plan with options. If one product stops working, have something else you know you can tolerate. Third, take calories early and regularly, before you feel you need them. Waiting until your stomach complains is usually too late.

Finally, plan for the course you are actually running. If aid stations are few and far between, you carry the solution with you. Test every product on long, hot training days, and write your plan down before race day. Small details matter too: a blister from the wrong shoes cost me time at an aid tent. Fitness gets you to the start line, but fuelling gets you to the finish. If you want a fuelling and race plan built around your body and your goal race, personalised coaching with Run The Race is where that starts.