“Highest Mountain Marathon in New Zealand”
2014 Photos 2015 Photos (scroll down).
Saturday 28th January 2017. 11am Start near ‘Bob Lee Hut’ about 4km north/east of the Snow Farm Lodge. Most people catch a bus from Albert Town Tavern or Wanaka and get taken to this point. All others in their own vehicle please meet at the Snow Farm Lodge (up at the Southern Hemisphere Proving Grounds) and follow bus to the start point. Your run follows the Mountain Bike route over Mt. Pisa and down to the bottom of the hill below the Wanaka airport, from here you hop onto the Clutha River track all the way back to Albert Town Tavern. (Mountain Bikers start 1hrs before you so most of them will be well out of your way). New Map of the last 13km here.
Course closes at 11pm – heaps of time! Recreational walkers welcome.
All Marathon Finishers entered before 19th January will receive a Medal, Click to View Course Profile
Registration
Marathon entry fees Includes post race beer or cider, meal, a couple of well stocked aid stations and a race photo.
$90 early-bird (until 1st November) $120 standard. – Late fee $150 extra from midnight Monday 23rd Jan.
Registration and race briefing
Registration From 2pm-6pm on Friday at Albert Town Tavern. And from 9.30am-10.20am at the Snow Farm Lodge. Online entries close Thursday 26 January at 8pm. (you’ll need to bring Cash to the registration desk).
Race briefing 10.20 at the Lodge – then we pile in buses and cars and drive a couple of kms to the start near Bob Lee hut.
Dinner and prize giving- 6pm at Albert Town Tavern
Compulsory gear
Compulsory gear will be checked at registration Two top thermal layers plus a seam sealed water proof jacket, thermal leggings, warm hat/thirband, gloves, whistle, survival blanket.
You will also need to carry up to 1L water for some sections of the race and you really should bring some of your own nutrition.
Bus to race start
Must be pre-booked with registration, $15 – LEAVING Albert Town Tavern 9am and Pembroke Park at 9.15am.
These first two video’s don’t do justice to the visual splendor of the country -they’re quite old but they do give you an idea of the type of country you’ll encounter.
For the Marathon do you need to carry the compulsory gear with you on the run? or is the compulsory gear for the 100km run? and by what do you mean seam sealed water proof jacket? and 2 thermal layers
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Yep, compulsory gear is the same for the Marathon as the 100k.
Compulsory gear is not necessarily ‘extra’ gear. If you start off running in a thermal top (to keep you warm e.g. merino or polyprop…) then you only need one more ‘extra’ one. A seam sealed jacket is proper waterproof, the stitched seams have had a strip of plastic sealed over them – ask at an outdoors (camping) store and they should be able to show you examples. They can be a ‘shell’ layer but they must be water proof.
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Re Marathon, says 1000 m ascent but from profile looks more like 400 odd meters mostly in first 10 km. can you confirm this? Also what is the ave finishing time from last year. Thanks
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Hi Chad – I know!!! I was shocked to discover 1000m of gain (GPS’d) but the majority of that is small ups as you are going down so it doesn’t ‘feel’ like that much.
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Hi Terry
What is the average finishing time for the marathon please?
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4.5hrs
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Hi Terry
Compulsory gear questions – do the two thermal tops have to be long sleeve?
Can we use a thirband instead of a beanie?
Is it compulsory to carry 1l of water from the start?
Can’t find an actual race start time?
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No the two thermal tops don’t have to be both long sleeve. We expect one will be.
Yes a Thirband instead of a beanie is fine (assuming you know how to turn your Thirband into a beanie!)
Your first aid station is 10km away so yes, minimum 1L water from the start.
11am start. (Yes the last couple of hours can get very hot!)
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Hi Terry,
Do many people enter as recreational walkers? I am planning on walking most of the marathon with a little bit of jogging here and there. But I have visions of being right at the back all on my own ….
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Hi Dara – no not many people have walked it – which s a shame because they have plenty of time!! You probably will be on your own quite a bit but there will be periodic 100km runners come passed you from time to time. On the ups they will be walking at about your pace I’d imagine but on the downs they may jog away… then another one will come along… I’d love to see more marathon walkers – this is the perfect event for it.
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Hi Terry, If it is hot like in 2015 will compulsory gear be modified to individuals choice again notified on the morning of the event? Also we are driving up to snow farm ourselves. Do we jump on the bus from there to the start line or follow it right through (we have a passenger to drive it back down)? Thanks!
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Hi Andrew – yeh, nah, compulsory gear from the start I’m afraid. In 2015 one guy tried to do it all just carrying a 750ml drink bottle and genuinely nearly died. If you’ve got the pack with the minimum gear in it it’ll be easy to carry the extra water/electrolytes too. Its more of an adventure run than a qualifying race for the Olympics.
Having said all that… if it is another scorcher we may allow your packs to be dumped at the second last aid station – Lake McKay Woolshed. So long as you can carry a bottle with you…
If you are getting a ride to the SnowFarm wth a mate you will need to jump on the buses for the last 4km out to the actual start after the briefing at the lodge.
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Hi Terry – a compulsory gear question – I usually wear 3/4 leggings. Do I need to carry a full-length pair of “thermal leggings” as well?
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Hi Dara – typically ‘leggings’ have zero thermal properrties. If they say ‘Thermal’ somewhere on the label then that will be fine… otherwise you’ll need the additional thermal ones.
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