WEEKLY NEWS – 11/4/2018

Kate Dzienis • April 11, 2018

Down Under 135mi

Down Under 135mi was held last Friday (April 6) and across the weekend as participants challenged themselves to get through the 217km single stage non-stop race. Held along the trails of the Lerderderg and Wombat state forests in Vic, you could be forgiven for thinking you were in another world despite being just 40kms west of Melbourne CBD.

It’s rumoured to be one of the toughest trail races in Australia, and it’s a fair call…Down Under 135mi has had a finishing rate of just 23% in the last two years.

This year it was a mammoth effort by two AURA members who just took the event by storm.

David Giles from Willetton, WA took control with 1st overall and made it well under 54-hour cut off, crossing the finish line in 49:05:20 while fellow AURA runner Ben Hirst from Kingston, Tas hit the ground running to score 3rd overall not far behind with a time of 51:13:20.

To give a bit of perspective, there were 26 starters this year with only five finishers (19% finishing rate for 2018), and the dates for next year’s event have already been announced (April 12-14, 2019).

A big congratulations to both David and Ben who conquered a big race.

Pictured: The five finishers of the 2018 Down Under 135mi. Photograph – Facebook.

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AUTRA Race Report 2-11-2026

By Kate Dzienis • November 2, 2026

Illawarra Escarpment Traverse, NSW Kunanyi Trail Series - Cascade Slide, Tas Harry's King of the Hill, Vic Upcoming Events WEEKLY RACE RECAP FOR 2-11-2026 As always, we're continuously on the hunt for your stories and reports, so get those race reports and photographs in to ultramag@autra.asn.au with the following information: Word document, single spaced Include the name of the event, the date and the location anywhere in the report (just a bullet point at the top is great) Please attach photographs to the email – do not put images in the body of your Word doc. You’ll just get me emailing you back asking for the photos sent in the correct way! As many photos as possible. With our new website, it’s now easier than ever to include a nice gallery in each race report No PDFs please And remember, it doesn’t have to be about an AUTRA-listed event specifically! You just have to be an AUTRA member for the 2026 year. Also too, if you’ve run in a non-AUTRA listed event anywhere on home soil or internationally, we’d love to include your race results and experience in our Member Updates, so please do reach out to us via email to kate.dzienis@autra.asn.au If any corrections need to be made in any of the results listed below, please alert me via email.