Buffalo Stampede Week Success!

HELD 31 MARCH – 2 APRIL 2023

For those of you who have been here before, you know the feeling.

For those of you who haven't, allow me to explain. It starts before you even reach Bright, the tiny town nestled in amongst pine plantations and rolling mountains. Driving down the Great Alpine Road with the monolith of Mount Buffalo on your left, a stark reminder of the upcoming run, you make your way through the tree-lined streets into town.

It may be country Victoria, however Bright feels more like a European mountain town and the trails that the Buffalo Stampede has in store make that impression even stronger. While the first race, the 10km, doesn’t start until Friday night, Thursday is when the Buffalo Stampede week kicks off. Sitting at Sixpence Coffee Roasters, I notice more and more trail running folk stop in as the morning rolls by. I can’t exactly tell you if they are trail runners or not, but the technical footwear and old event shirts are a dead giveaway.

I first came to this event last year. I was new to trail running and staying with friends. The people that I met over that first weekend racing at the Stampede are the reason I came back this year, and certainly will next year. It’s the community that makes trail running and the Buffalo Stampede so special.

We begin the official festivities Thursday night with a film at the Bright Brewery. Majell Backhausen's End to End had piqued my interest, but the thought of a pre-race Bright Brewery pizza sealed the deal.

Friday afternoon rolled around and so did the opening of the races. The twilight 10km race around the local trails sets everyone up for the weekend. 100km and 20km runners getting ready for their Saturday race mingle around the race village getting their mandatory gear check and bibs pinned on. While the runners finishing the 10km let off steam with some beers the other runners nervously head home to put their legs up and eat as many carbohydrates as they can.

We had an early start on Saturday.

I was running the first leg of the 100km relay, so while I still had the usual butterflies, they weren’t as intense as the people around me who were getting ready to set off for the whole thing. The first climb of the race, 700m of elevation up to Clearspot was eerie in the dark, but being surrounded by head torches left me feeling a part of something big. Trail running may be an individual sport, but the comradery you feel with other racers facing the same self-imposed suffering as you makes for special moments on the trails.

I finished my relay leg and passed the hypothetical baton onto Kelly Angel. My leg was 34km with 2300 metres of elevation gain. Painful enough, I finished with a feeling of sympathy for the 141 athletes that were still only a third of the way through. I was lucky enough to catch the first runners come through the Mount Buffalo Chalet aid station – Matt Crehan, Reece Edwards and Ryan Lowe for the men, and Jordan Maki-Richards, Jill Ellis and Emily Mcleod for the women. Many say that running 100km is nothing but a suffer fest, but after watching these folk run the Stampede Ultra, I can tell you that athletes as talented as these few can well and truly race the distance.

I got back into town and was quickly filled in on the 20km results. Nathan Pierce and Kate Avery ran 1.42 and 2.04 for 20km with 1200m of climbing respectively. Fast! Just as impressive were the 460 runners that completed the gruelling course, many of those first-time trail runners.

Saturday finished with cheering the 100km runners into the finish line. They started rolling in just after 5pm – Matt Crehan broke the tape for the men at 5:10pm after finishing it in 11:10:52. Jordan Maki-Richards came in to win the female race in 14:21:26. Perhaps most impressive was Karl Martindale-Vale, after running for 32 hours, Karl came across the finish line at 2am. To me, that is the beauty of this sport. Karl was celebrated just as much as Jordan and Matt.

Don’t let the marathon fool you. It may start at the top of a mountain and run down into town, but climbing 2000m after starting with a hard descent will sort out the toughest runners. Everyone was in a great mood at the start line. The end of daylight savings had gifted runners with an extra hour of sleep, and catching a sunrise from the top of Mount Buffalo set everyone up for a great day of running. Mike Carroll set off the start line hard, he had a point to prove and oh boy did he prove it, leading from start to finish. The women’s race was run very differently. SJ Miller and Patricia McKibbon came out of the gate conservatively then wound it up. These two ran side by side for 35km of the 42km course. SJ managed to break free down the final descent and hold Patricia off to win the most competitive race of the weekend by a little over a minute.

You can probably guess how the weekend ended – more beers and pizzas at the brewery watching the marathon runners cross the line. I’d like to say thanks to Single Track events, the volunteers, supporters and especially the runners for making this event what it is. I know for sure that I’ll be back next year...hope to see you there!