DADE CONQUERS INCREDIBLY TECHNICAL DU135

By Kate Dzienis

HE RAN IT, HE CONQUERED IT, HE MADE IT ALL THE WAY.

Twenty-three year old Thomas Dade from Mt Martha, Vic dominated this month’s Down Under 135, which was held the weekend of 13-15 May and offered 32 starters one of the most technical and aggressive trail running courses in the Australian outback.

It kicked off on the outskirts of Bacchus Marsh in Vic, with runners leaving the MacKenzie Flat picnic grounds and making their way along the Lerderderg River towards Mt Blackwood, heading to the gold mining town of Blackwood and then running along the Great Dividing Trail (GDT) through to Nolan’s Creek Picnic Ground over Mt Wilson – then turning around and doing it back-to-front.

Dade clocked 226.68km on his sports watch when he completed DU135, saying it was absolutely a team effort with his crew at aid stations ensuring everything he needed and wanted was at the ready.

This year, a contingent of 32 runners made their way to the start line, but it was only Dade who made it all the way to the finish. Highly technical and difficult, DU135 was.

“It felt great to finish, that’s for sure…but to be honest, I was completely ‘stuffed’ to even think about how it felt to finish,” he says.

“You’re so fatigued by that point, you don’t get that ecstatic feeling of finishing, but there were a few times I thought to myself that, wow…I was going to be the only one finishing the race.

“It was probably when I had about 60km left to go that I realised I was going to be the only one making it to the end. I was given an update, and firstly felt slightly disappointed because I knew most of the runners out there, I was hoping they’d all get to finish because they’re all such incredibly experienced runners, I have so much respect for them all.

“It was surprising to hear people were dropping out, and I was asking myself why it was happening. I mean, it’s hard to train for something like DU135, and it’s more of a footrace than anything I’d say. A lot of the race is so-called off-trail, lots of climbing rocks and sliding down your bum…I must’ve fallen over 30+ times, and just grabbing onto trees to pull myself up.

“DU135 is so different, so incredibly technical, and perhaps it caught some people off guard, maybe.”

Dade has run DU135 before, so he came into the 2022 event with some backed up knowledge, however the course had changed slightly last year due to weather. In 2021, he came in 2nd after finishing in 53:11:00 with Nigel Hill coming in just before him at 52:36:00 – there were only two finishers.

This year, Dade shaved some impressive minutes off his time, coming in at 53:07:53.

“The course was harder this year, because in 2021 a storm affected quite a bit of the course so it had to get changed,” he explains.

“There was about 1,000 more vert this year, and it was also 6 or 7 kilometres longer. The conditions last year were more slippery, so both years kind of equalled, or cancelled, themselves out.”

Asking about Dade’s training schedule? For starters, he’s not one to look at A Races or using events as training races, and he believes any coach would despise having him as an athlete – he enters a lot of races…a lot. He’s only been running since late 2019, with his first official run being the Surf Coast Century 100km that year.

Dade has gone on to run in 35 official ultra events, including securing some impressive podium finishes in the 2022 Buffalo Stampede Grand Slam 152km/3 Stages (1st Male), the 2021 Great Southern Endurance Run 100mi (1st Male), the 2020 Wilson’s Promontory 100km Trail Race (1st Male) and the 2019 New Year’s Eve Rock Around The Clock 50km (1st Male).

“I love entering them and just aim to do my best,” he explains.

“For me it’s all about pushing myself…I mean, winning is great, but in the end, personally for me, it’s about finishing.”

Pictured: Thomas Dade gets some much needed tending to upon completion of the 2022 DU135. Photograph – Christopher Dade.