Last Chance to enter and to lock in your personalised race bib. Use the 10% discount code “RUN2024”. Wild Earth Training Camp recap, Mandatory Gear Check opens and GTNS Preview
Hurry, this is the last Chance to Sign Up for BTU Events to guarantee your name and country of origin on your race bib and transfers, closing on the 1st of June.
Use 10% Discount Code;
RUN2024
This is a BIG Newsletter so here are the key items;
Courtney Atkinson previews the BTU20 GTNS Course, check out his Salomon kit.
Mandatory Gear Check Opens 1st June at Wild Earth BNE and GC stores.
Bus Transfers Close for BTU events; jump on your dashboard and grab your transfer
Transfer between events will remain open but if you’d like to do this, use this link.
Best Wild Earth Training Camp Ever!
Nutrition used in our Training Camp
BTU Stakeholders Meeting - BTU Course confirmation protocols.
It’s time to get excited! The BTU Golden Trail National Series Australian Final, powered by Salomon, is next month, on the 29th of June, and we asked trail running legend Salomon Aus/NZ and Red Bull Australia Athlete Courtney Atkinson what he thought of the BTU20 course. We asked Courtney what he thought of the Crazy Creek Run, how to position yourself at the start of the race, what he thought of the infamous Kokoda Track and whether the course stacks up to be the Australian Final of the GTNS. We hope you like our YouTube BTU20 GTNS Australian Final Preview with Courtney Atkinson, Red Bull and Salomon Aus/NZ Athlete.
Okay, we are PUMPED! Massive thank you, Courtney! If you wanted to know which shoes he was wearing it was the Salomon Genesis.
And is super stunning race vest was the latest and greatest Salomon S-Lab Ultra 10 Designed by Ultra Running Legend François d’Haene, and with his quote printed on the inside of the vest for an extra special touch,
“Designed to feel like a part of you, so you can carry all your ULTRA essentials and explore the mountains without limits.”
François d’Haene
Courtney was also savvy with his racing kit. He used the Salomon Soft Flask with Filter, meaning he started the run with empty water and filled up at Hollman’s Break Creek, and other creeks along the way. This is an awesome addition to any trail runner kit, especially for those longer runs when you might not be able to carry water the whole way with you.
So head into Wild Earth while you are doing your mandatory gear check and update your trail kit.
The next GTNS race is The Coastal Assent powered by Salomon in Newcastle, NSW. The BTU team and community 🫶🏽 are heading down to the event, so please jump on their registration page and be part of the GTNS action.
The Coastal Assent is a course that will literally take your breath away! All races, including the 50km, 25km and 11km, start and finish in the Dixon Park precinct, providing runners and supporters an epic finishing experience down Bathers Way on the final push home.
So join us! We’d love to see you there!
Over the weekend, we had the BEST Wild Earth BTU Training Camp ever! A massive thank you to our sponsors for providing these goodie bags: Salomon for the soft flask, Wild Earth for the Voucher, Smartwool for the socks, and Red Bull for the Nutrition Tips.
Our Coaches, Liam Mckenzie, Katie Dall and Susannah Harvey-Jamieson, were marvellous, and our trusty sweeper, John Grieves, kept an eye on everyone over the 48+km with 2000+ vert on day one and 18+km with 1000+ vert on day 2. With MANY of our day 1 48km runners BACKING IT UP on Sunday. They battled rain, mud leeches, monster climbs of Joyner’s, Boot, Taylors, Side Break, and rollercoaster descents of West Ridge and Who-Boy.
We provided them with a mix of Hammer Nutrition Australia, Red Bull Energy Drink, Bananas, Mandarins, and Coconut Water.
Here is the list we provided in our training camp below;
Endurolytes - Full Spectrum Electrolytes.
Anti Fatigue - Supplement that helps you recover literally on the run.
Hammer Gel - Fantastic Fuel that is gentle on the stomach.
Hammer Bars—These are probably the best energy bars on the market. They are always a winner, and we always run out of them at our training camps.
HEED - This is a sports drink with amino acids and electrolytes in it that is gentle on the stomach and won’t sugar spike you.
Our Red Bull Energy Drink Flavours that were LOVED!
Why do we like Red Bull? Red Bull Energy Drink contains 11 g of sugar per 100 ml, the same amount as in 100 ml of orange or apple juice. We also like using sugar-free flavours so the runner can get all the nutritional benefits without interrupting their calorie plan for their race nutrition. Red Bull Energy Drink offers 80mg Of caffeine (less than a coffee plus B Vitamins, Taurine (amino)
Unlike other drinks, the product won’t spike your sugars. We find runners who use Red Bull also back up well and can train harder and recover faster. Their muscles are looked after, and B Vitamins are replenished, another reason the training camp runners backed up so well on Sunday. Liam and Shona were so impressed!
We are so proud to have the top-of-the-line LEKI ULTRA TRAIL FX.ONE SUPERLITE TRAIL RUNNING CARBON POLES and LEKI ULTRATRAIL FX.ONE TRAIL RUNNING POLES for our group to try. It was one epic camp! And we can’t wait to see how well everyone does in 1 month!
With the event being just over one month, it is time to lock in the following;
Mandatory Gear Check Opens 1st June at Wild Earth BNE and GC.
This is for the BTU60, BTU110 and BTU100Mi only
Wild Earth will give you a certificate to bring to check-in/race pack pick-up.
All runners in all events must carry all their mandatory gear for their BTU event. Take the time now to check the list, as it may have changed. Gear checks may happen at any time on the course and may be checked at the finish line. Any runner found without an item will incur a 2-hour penalty and be stopped at that location, preventing them from continuing until they add the item to their pack.
BTU30 and BTU20 High Vis Vests will be checked as you enter the event start line chute.
BTU20 Top 10 Finishers will all be checked at the finish line.
If you can’t make it to a Wild Earth Store, you can catch the Wild Earth team at the BTU Festival Finish Line at race pack pick up on Friday, 28th of June.
Please bring all your mandatory gear requirements, including your Foul Weather Kit.
Take the time now to Download and refresh the Capra App.
Bus Transfers Close on the 1st of June for BTU events; jump on your dashboard and grab your transfer
Transfers to another runner close on the 1st of June
We are printing our race bibs and mapping the GPS Trackers to the race bibs for the Ultra Runners (BTu60, BTU110 and BTU100Mi, so we close this option on the 1st of June.
Our Timing and GPS tracker Timing are TWO Different Companies, and they need to be mapped before we can make up your race packs, so we close transfers between runners on the 1st of June.
Transfer between events will remain open, but if you’d like to do this, use this link.
If you change the event before the 1st of June, you will have the correct Bib Colour and race for your bib,
If you swap races after 1st June, that is okay; you will have the original race name on your bib.
BTU Stakeholders Meeting
We had our stakeholders meeting this week. We confirmed with QNPWS what are their thresholds for Park Closures.
100mm in 24 hours.
At this stage, we are running with the Current BTU Course. We will check the long-range forecast next week. We will then re-check the forecast one week before the BTU. This may be when we decide if a contingency course may be required, as this is when we start marking the course. The Wednesday, the 26th of June Forecast will offer a more accurate weather forecast, and on Friday, the 28th of June, at 5 pm, we will confirm the course and if a Foul Weather Kit is required for the event.
ALL trails are open at this stage, and we plan to use the Current BTU Course.
See you on the trails!!!
Shona and team BTU!