Northburn 100k: Where Suffering Is the Prize
Mar 31, 2026
On the 21st of March 2026, I lined up at the start of the Northburn 100k in Cromwell; a race that had been on my list for a long time. Living just down the road in Alexandra, I was drawn to it - big hills, exposed terrain, long climbs, farm tracks, a lot of vert — exactly my kind of racing!
Northburn is one of the hardest races in the Southern Hemisphere. The tagline says it all: “Where suffering is the prize, and everyone’s a winner.” I’d completed two 100km races before (plus one DNF), but nothing with this kind of elevation, so it felt like a genuine step up — and it was pretty intimidating, I'm not ashamed to say.
I entered before Christmas and committed to it as my A race. From January, I worked closely with my coach, Chris Lucas, on a focused block that ended up being one of the most effective I’ve ever done. Chris called it early — if I wanted to perform well at Northburn, I needed to be able to run downhill late in the race. That meant:
- Two strength sessions per week, focused on leg strength and stability
- Consistent hill running, with deliberate downhill work
- Back-to-back days on the weekend to build fatigue resistance
It was less about hero sessions and more about consistency (consistency is always my downfall, along with saying yes to every run my friends dream up. I was in the middle of planning an attempt on the Craigieburn Round when I thought to check in with Chris, who gave me a cool reality check and advised me to stop self-sabotaging!).
Chris described the block as “cramming for an exam.” It was definitely condensed, but because of my training history, I adapted quickly. Toward the end, the fatigue did catch up — but that was by design. Chris pulled the volume right back into the taper, and he absolutely nailed it. By race week, I felt incredible. No fatigue, just a strong sense of readiness. All I wanted to do was get to the start line!
The other area I knew I could control was nutrition and hydration. As soon as I saw the weather forecast (hot, no cloud cover, no wind) I knew hydration would be critical. The stony ground at Northburn radiates heat, and that was going to amplify everything. A few weeks earlier I’d acquired a sodium analyser, and had been monitoring my sweat rate. What I found changed everything:
- I’m a very salty sweater - about 2000mg/L
- My sweat rate was consistently 800–900ml/hour, even at low intensity
So I built my race plan around that. I doubled my sodium intake compared to previous races and committed to:
- 1 salt tablet every 20 minutes
- At least ~700ml of fluid per hour
It sounds like a lot, but it was a game changer. I’ve never taken that many salt tablets in my life. But it worked out perfectly. I had no sloshing, no nausea, no GI issues, no feeling overfull - just steady absorption. I've also never fuelled so well in a race, and I put it down to being hydrated all the way through, meaning that fuel was transiting through my gut smoothly and steadily.
On race day, we started at 6am in the dark, heading out on the "Home Loop" before starting the first big climb as the sun was rising. Watching Cromwell and Lake Dunstan come into view as the sun came up was pretty special!
I kept things really controlled early on - heart rate in Zone 2, fuelling and hydrating from the start, and no chasing or racing anybody. The first climb topped out around 1600m mid-morning, and I felt great. From there, there was a 13km downhill, but I could feel the payoff from the training.
Then came the “Loop of Deception”, where just as you think you’re nearly home, you get sent straight back out into the hills for another 400m of vert in the heat of the day. Classic Northburn.
I came through the end of lap one in 6:45, and spent nearly 10 minutes in transition having my bottles refilled with cold water and ice bandana filled by Ultra Angels Amber Kirkman and Fiona Hayvice. I'd been given some very good advice by Hazel Harrison the night before to allow extra time for cooling in the transition between loops 1 and 2, and it ended up being extremely good advice because I headed out just before 1pm… straight into the Death Climb.
This was probably the crux of the race, thinking about it now. The gradient was around 20–30%, the heat was radiating from above and back at me from the ground, and progress felt slow. But I kept saying to myself: "Everyone’s in the same boat. Just keep going."
I stuck to the plan: hydrate, fuel, control the effort; and something interesting happened — it actually got easier! As we climbed, the temperature dropped slightly, we picked up a breeze, and I found a rhythm. I caught a few runners, including some friends, and just kept moving steadily upward.
Just before Leaning Rock, I overtook the lead male in the 100k — unexpectedly, I was in the overall lead.
From Leaning Rock, it was a nice runnable descent. Leaning Rock is a special place for me because our house looks directly up at it, so I stare at it every day. The view from up there was also indescribable - in one direction you can see out to the Clyde Dam, and the other up to Cromwell. I felt so happy to have the second big climb out of the way, until a small reality check - at TW aid station, I ran off in the wrong direction. Thankfully, a volunteer sprinted after me (yelling — which I didn’t hear for a while because I had my headphones in) and caught me before I went too far. I lost about 10 minutes, but honestly, I deserved it for not paying more attention! I had a laugh with the volunteer about how lucky I was that they had their running shoes on, and got back on the right track.
Between ~70–80km, the race finally bit. The climb up to Mount Horn was really steep, and I felt some fatigue setting in. I also had blisters on the soles of my feet and was starting to feel the accumulated load of the race. This was the one point in the race where it felt properly hard, but all I could do was keep eating, keep drinking, and keep moving. I took some caffeine and just kept moving forward.
From Mount Horn, it was (mostly) downhill. The terrain was really steep and loose in places, so I slowed a bit because I didn't want to roll an ankle or do something stupid with less than 20kms to go. At one point, I ran alongside a herd of goats for a few minutes.
By the time I reached the final aid station ("Brewery", where they apologised for having no beer), I just had about 10km to go. It was runnable, and I had regained some energy and my legs were still strong (just like Chris planned!). I even found myself racing the sunset, trying to finish before dark, because I didn't want to get my head torch out of my pack (I missed it by about 15 minutes). I fuelled right to the end too — even with a few kilometres to go, I was still following the nutrition alerts on my watch. I never went to the well, never emptied the tank completely, and my recovery has been faster as a result.
Then came the final stretch through the vineyard, through Garretts aid station (where I was offered some cut fruit from a beautiful fruit platter), and eventually I could see the finish line lit up in the distance. That gave me a massive lift, and I knew my husband Brian and our dog Margo would be there. I ran as well as I could and finished 1st overall, with a time of 14:38. I’d planned for a 15-hour finish, and I knew I could be competitive….but I never imagined I’d win outright. That’s a first for me. But even better, with a wrong turn and it being my first time on the course, I can see where time could still be gained, and the course record doesn't seem out of reach!
What This Race Reinforced
This was the biggest, hardest ultra I’ve raced, but hands down the best I’ve felt doing one. For me, it came down to a few key things:
- Consistency in training beats big sessions. Like most ultra-runners, I have a propensity to over-train, so having objective guidance from a coach was critical to keeping it in check and not burning out straight away.
- Strength work matters, especially for downhill durability.
- Dialling your hydration and fuelling are critical to having a good race. I hadn't tested using that much sodium previously (so I broke my own rule of "Nothing new on race day"), but I decided to trust the science and use my sodium results to build my race plan. I didn't want to suffer out there, and one of the main reasons why people suffer on race day is by not having their nutrition or hydration dialled. (I could go on and on about this!).
- Ultras reward preparation, not just grit. Preparation builds confidence, and confidence allows execution.
Northburn is cool, and that comes down to the people. A huge shout out to Terry Davis of Highland Events for creating something that keeps people coming back year after year; to race director Glenn Christensen, who stepped in twhile Terry was running his own race and did an outstanding job; and to the wider team — especially Rachel, Linda, and Amber, and all the marshals. The effort that goes into this event by these volunteers is massive. Those guys are out there for days on minimal sleep, purely to support the runners.
Northburn delivered exactly what it promised: challenge, suffering, and something deeply rewarding at the end of it. The biggest reward, though, was getting the process right, and letting the outcome take care of itself.
Coach Hannah
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