Trail Running · Cromwell

🇳🇿Northburn 100 miles:
Course Analysis & Race Readiness

160km with 8,829m of climbing and 8,834m of descending across 18 climbs and 18 descents. With 41% of the course pointed downhill and repeated very steep grades, this is a relentless quad-punishing hundred-miler.

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

160 km

Distance

+8,750 m

Vertical Gain

−8,760 m

Total Descent

Mar 20, 2027

Next Edition · 241 days out

Check YOUR readiness

Connect Strava · No card · 2 min

The Course · GPS-Measured

What 160 km / 99.5 mi and 8,750 m / 28,720 ft of vertical gain actually look like

Measured from the GPS track: 160 km / 99.5 mi and 8,750 m / 28,720 ft of vertical gain. This is the terrain you're signing up for: read it before it reads you.

Course Profile

Segments

Daylight

Terrain summary

Claimed vs GPS-Measured

Claimed · Organizer

160km

Distance

+8,830m

Gain

+0.0 km−80 m

GPS-Measured

160km

Distance

+8,750m

Gain

Climb & Gradient

+8,750 mTotal Gain

−8,760 mTotal Loss

Gradient Distribution

21%

Flat

≤3% grade

27%

Run-Climb

3–15% up

12%

Steep Climb

>15% up

40%

Descent

downhill

Steepest Sustained Sections

Descent

KM 87.2–90.4 · −537 m

-16.8%

Descent

KM 65.9–70.5 · −680 m

-14.7%

Climb

KM 127.0–132.0 · +722 m

+14.6%

Climb

KM 83.1–87.2 · +558 m

+13.7%

Finish & Cutoff Times

What it takes to finish

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

23h 46m

Winning time

28h 07m

Top 5

30h 25m

Top 10

32h 31m

Median finisher

48h 00m

Back of pack

What This Race Demands

Four things this course asks of your body

Every course weights the four pillars of mountain-ultra fitness differently. Descending 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 output across 160km and 8,829m of gain with no flat relief; only 7% is flat.

ClimbingVertical power

20%

18 climbs totaling 8,829m, including a 13.9km climb gaining 1,312m and 37% steep grades.

DescendingEccentric / braking

48%

Dominant demand: 41% downhill, 18 descents totaling 8,834m, with a 1,260m single loss.

DurabilityLate-race resilience

32%

160km of repeated climb-descent cycles hammering the legs from the first descent to the last.

The Profile in One Line

A 160km ultra defined by heavy descending, 8,800m+ of vertical each way, and sustained very steep grades.

Aerobic FoundationalClimbing 20%Descending 48%Durability 32%

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

QUESTIONABLE

For a representative strong mountain-ultra athlete

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

Pillar Breakdown

Aerobic

With 8,829m of gain over 160km and just 7% flat terrain, the course demands steady aerobic output for the full distance with almost no recovery ground.

Climbing

Eighteen climbs stack 8,829m of gain, and 37% of the course exceeds 10% uphill grade. The longest climb runs 13.9km for 1,312m, requiring efficient sustained ascending.

Descending

The decisive pillar: 41% of the course is downhill across 8,834m of loss and 18 descents. Very steep descents cover 20.4%, including a 10.5km descent and a 1,260m drop, demanding eccentric strength and control.

Durability

Eighteen full climb-descent cycles over 160km relentlessly load the legs. Late steep climbs and descents past 126km test whether legs survive the accumulated eccentric damage.

km 65.9–70.5

Sustained steep descent

A 4.6km stretch drops 680m at -14.7%, one of the harshest descents on course. Legs must absorb this eccentric load well before halfway.

km 126.8–131.8

Late steep climb

With over 126km already run, a 5km climb gains 722m at 14.6%. This ascent tests climbing strength on heavily fatigued legs.

biggest climb

The 1,312m ascent

The longest climb runs 13.9km and gains 1,312m, the single largest vertical effort. Pacing it efficiently protects reserves for the descents that follow.

That was a sample