While I’m a little late in the day on this one, I’ve just managed to find myself a starters list for this one, the Hut2Hut Oscars 100. Starting at 5am tomorrow, the Hut2Hut Oscars 100 runs over a lot of the same course as the GSER100, so you know this race is a tough cookie. Indeed, if you’re unable to make a certain time cut off point, then you’ve got to make your way to one of the nearest designated huts and kip for the night there.
And, while there’s a small field for this one, there’s a solid story behind this about helping to improve the lives of children living with Autism. If you want to follow the race online, runners will be wearing trackers in their packs and you can see that here.
So who’s racing? In the ladies, there’s a seriously good top five or six ladies who could all vie for the title.
Gill Fowler, Katherine Macmillan, Michaela Macdonald, Joanna Kruk, Amanda Meggison and Nicole Paton are probably the standout names to keep an eye on during race day. Gill’s just come off the back of a win at Bogong to Hotham, so should be in fine shape for this and is probably a leading favourite for this. Katherine Macmillan knows these trails well having won the GSER 50 miler last year and should be in with a good shout too.
Michaela Macdonald is a former winner of the GNW 100 miler, so knows what to do in the tough stuff, as does Amanda Meggison, who won the GSER 100 miler. That’s a seriously good line-up of ladies going into the race.
In the men’s you’ve got Stephen Rennick, Derek Prentice, Ben Clark, Chris Roberts, Ryan Lowe, Tegz Angel and John Salton as the possible contenders. My money will be on last year’s second place man, Stephen Rennick, who also had a very solid performance at the GSER100 miler too. My sources tell me that Derek Prentice of Peaks and Trails fame is in hot form right now, so we should look out for him, while Tegan Angel is dependably solid and is bound to put in a good performance to challenge for a podium spot.
John Salton was the joint winner of the Down Under 135 miler last year with Kevin Muller, that to me says he’s tough as nails. Ryan Lowe has a very fast GNW 100km run last year, finishing just 15 minutes behind Vlad Shatrov in a time of 10:10.
Gill Fowler didn’t run Cradle Mountain this year – but did win it in 2014 and 2015. On the other hand she did win the Bogong to Hotham race this year, so that’s a good sign for her form.
Ahhh yes, my mistake, thanks Jonathan. I wrote this very late last night and got my races mixed up! Amended.
It was brutal. Hard to look back at UTA / NF100 as that big an achievement now that this has raised the bar for what some 100s take to finish. Great job to the organisers, it was awesome.