Trail Running · Wellington

🇳🇿Faultline 100 miles:
Course Analysis & Race Readiness

161km with 5448m of climbing spread across 20 climbs and 17 descents, none huge but relentless. Descending fills 36% of the course while durability decides who holds form to the finish.

CourseRecon scores your own training against the durability and descending demands that define Faultline 100 miles — the sample analysis below shows exactly how.

161 km

Distance

+5,260 m

Vertical Gain

−5,270 m

Total Descent

Apr 24, 2027

Next Edition · 276 days out

Organizer lists +4,720 m of climbing. We measured +5,260 m from the GPS track — +540 m more than advertised.

Check YOUR readiness

Connect Strava · No card · 2 min

The Course · GPS-Measured

What 161 km / 100 mi and 5,260 m / 17,270 ft of vertical gain actually look like

Measured from the GPS track: 161 km / 100 mi and 5,260 m / 17,270 ft of vertical gain. This is the terrain you're signing up for: read it before it reads you.

Course Profile

Terrain summary

Claimed vs GPS-Measured

Claimed · Organizer

161km

Distance

+4,720m

Gain

+0.0 km+540 m

GPS-Measured

161km

Distance

+5,260m

Gain

The organizer's flyer undersells this course by +540 m of climbing and +0.0 km.

Climb & Gradient

+5,260 mTotal Gain

−5,270 mTotal Loss

Gradient Distribution

39%

Flat

≤3% grade

26%

Run-Climb

3–15% up

Steep Climb

>15% up

30%

Descent

downhill

Steepest Sustained Sections

Climb

KM 13.7–16.4 · +318 m

+11.9%

Descent

KM 51.2–53.3 · −191 m

-9%

Climb

KM 46.0–51.2 · +398 m

+7.7%

Descent

KM 91.3–94.2 · −224 m

-7.6%

Finish & Cutoff Times

What it takes to finish

Reference finish times from past results — use them to set a realistic goal pace.

20h 07m

Winning time

21h 28m

Top 5

22h 32m

Top 10

26h 39m

Median finisher

32h 38m

Back of pack

Based on 2025 results.

What This Race Demands

Four things this course asks of your body

Every course weights the four pillars of mountain-ultra fitness differently. Durability carries 48% of the scoring weight on this course — the terrain makes that the deciding factor.

Weighting shows where readiness is won or lost at this distance — not whether you need each pillar. An aerobic base is a given for a race this long, so it carries little deciding weight even though it's essential — the gaps open on the climbs, descents and the back half.

AerobicSustained engine

Foundational

Sustained sub-threshold effort across 161km with a modest 529m high point.

ClimbingVertical power

19%

Twenty climbs totaling 5448m, mostly moderate to very steep grades but no monster ascent.

DescendingEccentric / braking

32%

5451m of loss over 17 descents; 36% of the course is downhill.

DurabilityLate-race resilience

48%

Absorb repeated climb-descent cycles across 100 miles without breaking down.

The Profile in One Line

A 100-mile grind of repeated moderate climbs and steady descents where staying intact matters more than any single ascent.

Aerobic FoundationalClimbing 19%Descending 32%Durability 48%

Here's how CourseRecon reads a course and an athlete

Sample Readiness Analysis

What a readiness result looks like for this course

This is a worked example for a representative strong mountain-ultra athlete — not your score. Connect your own training and the same analysis runs on you.

Sample

OUT OF 100

READY

For a representative strong mountain-ultra athlete

This is a sample — connect your Strava to see your own result.

Pillar Breakdown

Aerobic

The 161km distance demands a controlled, sustainable engine, though the low 529m high point keeps altitude and single-effort intensity off the table.

Climbing

100

With 20 climbs and 5448m of total gain, the work is cumulative; the longest climb is 9.7km and the biggest gains only 434m, so pacing repeated moderate and very steep pitches matters more than power.

Descending

At 5451m of loss over 17 descents and 36% of the course downhill, quads face constant loading; the longest descent runs 7.9km and the biggest drops 389m.

Durability

The decisive pillar: absorbing 20 up-and-down cycles across 161km means managing accumulated eccentric damage and holding technique late when legs are worn.

km 13.7–16.4

Early steep pitch

A 318m climb at 11.9% gradient hits early; going out too hard here banks fatigue that durability must pay for over the remaining 145km.

km 46–53

Climb-and-drop sequence

A 398m climb at 7.7% immediately followed by a 191m descent at -9% tests the transition between climbing and eccentric descending mid-race.

km 91.3–94.2

Late descent load

A 224m descent at -7.6% arrives past 90km, demanding controlled downhill running when quads are already saturated from earlier loss.

That was a sample