The Golden Ultra: A three-day staged ultramarathon in the mountains of British Columbia

Jacqueline Windh / 23.09.2015

­Over 150 ultrarunners from Canada, the USA and Europe have converged on the town of Golden, British Columbia, for the inaugural edition of the Golden Ultra. This new three-day staged ultramarathon will have them running up and down the mountains above this small ski-resort town. Nearly sixty of them are entered to run for all three days (including me).

Day 1 is a vertical kilometre - a 1077 m elevation gain over just 4.7 km of trail. The route starts high at race headquarters, the Kicking Horse Mountain Resort (14 km drive up from Golden) at 1262 m (4140’) and ends even higher at 2339 m (7674’). Not too bad for the runners who are ending this as a one-day race - but for those continuing on for Days 2 and 3, the aim will be not to burn out the legs. Not yet!

Day 2 is a classic mountain ultramarathon - with a 2700 m (8858’) cumulative gain and loss over a 55 km route. We start and finish lower down here, in the town of Golden at 785 m (2575’). The highest point is mid-race at 2365 m (7760’) - so much of that cumulative gain is really gain. We essentially go up and then down one big mountain!

Day 3 is sort of a trail half-marathon - a “fast” (for those of us who still have it in us) 19 km trail run - still with 801 m of cumulative gain and loss over the route, starting and ending in Golden. (Sounds “flat” - but that’s still nearly the same average slope as the big day, and actually steeper than the steep middle section of that day).

There is live chip timing along the course. Results are posted for “open” (under 40) and masters (40+) categories, both for one-day competitors and as a separate category for the solo competitors who are running for all three days. California’s Jorge Maravilla is a favourite for the three-day event, and Canada’s Jen Segger will be competing in the 55k second-day race.

Jacqueline Windh is an ultrarunner and adventure sports journalist, and editor of www.runningultramarathons.com

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