Hoka Ultra-Trail Australia by UTMB unveils its long-awaited 100-mile distance next Friday, with the first edition of the UTAMiler set to take 400 starters out of Katoomba at 5am AEST on 15 May. The new distance is the headline addition for an event that was promoted to UTMB World Series Major status a year ago, joining a small club that includes UTMB Mont-Blanc, Western States and Ultra-Trail Cape Town. Until now UTA's longest race had been the 100km, and organisers have spent two years routing a true 160km Blue Mountains traverse to fill the slot a Major is expected to occupy.
The course leaves Blackheath shortly before sunrise, dropping immediately into the Grose Valley before climbing past Perrys Lookdown to the Blue Gum Forest. From there it picks up cliff-line trails through Lockleys Pylon and the Grand Canyon section, then swings west to a pit stop at the Hydro Majestic Hotel above the Megalong Valley before turning south through Six Foot Track country and into the back end of the existing UTA100 course. The closing kilometres push runners along Federal Pass and up the Furber Steps, the same 951-step climb that finishes the UTA100 at Scenic World, with the leading milers expected back in around 18 hours and the final cut-off set at 36.
Vlad Shatrov is the top-seeded male in the inaugural field, the Newcastle-based veteran having been on a UTA start line in almost every edition since 2013 and now stepping up from the 100km after multiple podiums on the shorter distance. New Zealand's Cameron Kerr arrives off a strong 100-mile run in Thailand and a 100km podium at Ultra-Trail Kosciuszko by UTMB last December. The women's field is led by Hayley Teale, returning from a stress-fracture year, alongside Lucy Bartholomew and a clutch of New South Wales locals who have been training the new sections through autumn. Qualification required eight Running Stones from UTMB Index races, which has thinned the entry list relative to UTA's other distances but produced a more experienced ultra field.
UTAMiler shares race weekend with the UTA22 on Friday and the UTA100 and UTA50 on Saturday, but Friday's 5am start gives the milers a clear day's airtime on the UTMB Live broadcast before the rest of the festival kicks in. UTMB Live has confirmed continuous English-language coverage from race start through to the back of the field on Saturday morning, with Australian and New Zealand commentary, drone tracking through the Grose Valley and roving GPS-linked podcasts from the Hydro Majestic and Katoomba aid stations. Conditions in the Blue Mountains for race day are forecast cool and dry, with overnight lows around 6C in the valleys and daytime highs of 18C up on the plateau.
For UTA itself, the UTAMiler is a statement that the event can stand among the best of the UTMB Majors at every distance. The Blue Mountains course gives the race a topographic identity that the existing 100km only partially captured, and a 160km flagship gives Australian and New Zealand runners a Major-status mile race in their own time zone for the first time. The first race off the line on Friday will set the early benchmark for the new distance, with the men's and women's records starting at the times posted by whoever crosses the Scenic World finish first; with a deep, qualifying-stones-only field and a tested course, those marks should hold up as more than placeholders.