The run you already know.
There’s a trail everyone has. The one you know without thinking about it. Here’s why that one matters more than the one you’re training for.
Race photograph · the headland at Catherine Hill Bay
Where the lake lets go and the coast takes over
The 22 starts soft, on the lakefront lawns at Raffertys Resort with Lake Macquarie flat and silver behind the line. It doesn’t stay gentle. By Catherine Hill Bay the trail tips up onto the headlands, the water turns from lake to open ocean, and the back half asks for everything the calm first hour let you keep.
You spend the first hour by the lake thinking you’ve got this. The coast has other ideas.
Armchair Ultra
The world’s big races, in Australian time
Every major trail race, and how to watch it from home
A living calendar of the world’s big races, month by month, with the Australian viewing time on every card. Kept current through the season.
Open the race calendar →The Guide Library
GPX, elevation & honest terrain notes
Newcastle, NSW
Glenrock Lagoon · Trail & sand
Glenrock Loop
A choose-your-own circuit of the Glenrock singletrack, dropping to the coast and climbing back through the gums. Shared with bikes.
Sydney Harbour, NSW
Sydney Harbour · Path & bush
Bradleys Head Loop
A breezy harbour-headland loop from the Taronga Zoo wharf through blue gums and angophoras, with the Opera House and Bridge across the water. A few steep stairs, muddy after rain.
Blue Mountains, NSW
Rock & rainforest
Grand Canyon Track
A loop down into the canyon at Blackheath, ferns and dripping sandstone walls along Greaves Creek, then a steady stair climb back to the rim.
Unfinished
Some things you don’t get to leave behind.
A fortnightly account of the long road back to the start line, the training, the setbacks, and the unfinished business that keeps pulling me toward the trail.
A fortnightly return to unfinished business, all the way to Ultra-Trail Australia, May 2027.
Read the latest dispatch →Kit, Tested
Gear, fuel & apps, kilometres on it, not press releases
Trail Shoe
Hoka Mafate Speed 5
$299Big-stack cushioning and deep Vibram lugs that bite on wet rock, a proper mountain-ultra shoe. All that foam underfoot dulls the ground feel on tight, technical singletrack.
Running Belt
Satisfy Space-O Running Belt
$190Sits flat and dead still on the hips, a flask and phone vanish into it with zero bounce. Minimal by design, so don’t expect to load it like a vest.
Nutrition
NeverSecond C30 Gel
$42 / 12Thirty grams of carbs in a genuinely neutral, not-too-sweet gel that goes down clean deep into a long run. The pouch is a touch fiddly to open with cold hands.