Address: 415-419 Hat Hill Rd, Blackheath NSW 2785

The easiest way is to drive. Google and Apple Maps work well.

There is plenty of Parking for FREE at the Event Village. Please ensure that you arrive at the Event Village well before the start time of your race, no later than 45 minutes prior to start. This will ensure everyone can park safely and in time.

If you are coming from Sydney you can catch a train to Blackheath train station. Allview Escape is still a fair walk (4km) from there or a 6 minute drive. We would encourage you to organise a lift to the Event Village when you need one via the Hounslow Facebook Community Page: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1ATC8F8Hzj/

Or you could book a taxi with Katoomba Taxis: https://www.katoombataxis.com.au/

We would recommend jumping online and searching around for accommodation in Blackheath or Katoomba. There is loads on offer in these two large towns.

You can pick up your bib at the Event Village at Allview Escape. Please refer to the Event Schedule for the updated time slots for when you can pick up your bib either the night before you race, or the morning of.

Marathon Runners: please bring all your Mandatory gear to bib collection in order to be checked before receiving your bib.

YES! Simple, everyone who is running on one of our courses must be carrying the entire list of Mandatory Gear with them at all times. There will be random checks along the course and at the finish line with time penalties applying.

Marathon Runners: please bring all your Mandatory gear to bib collection in order to be checked before receiving your bib.

We have a very generous supply of toilets at the Event Village and at ALL Aid Stations.

“Crew” means people who can wait for you at an Aid Station and then hand you supplies and assist you in any way you need.

You can have Crew for both the Marathon and 17k at Grand Canyon Carpark Aid Station.

You can have Crew at Allview Escape. Allview Escape is also a drop bag point for the Marathon.

We are still deciding on Crew details for Perry’s Lookdown. Last year there were lots of cars on Hat Hill Rd and the runners also run along this road. We may make this a no crew point.

You can NOT have Crew at Pinnacles Car Park. Please do not let anyone you know drive out to Pinnacles, parking is non existent there and they will have to drive back. Pinnacles Aid Station is a drop bag point for runners.

Runners can label their drop bags clearly with their bib number and hand them in at bib collection or on the morning of the race at the bib collection tent.

This is another ongoing conversation that we are having internally.

We certainly don't have to give any prize money out at all.

There is also no substantial evidence that prize money even boosts the participation levels of a race. The only benefit that can be seen from offering prize money is drawing a more competitive field.

In some ways not offering prize money is a smarter move financially and administratively. We get no one question the fact that we don't give prize money when we don't, but when we do give prize money, people want to ask why it is distributed the way it is, or why we should even give it out since they see trail running as a participation sport and it should just be given out at random or not at all.

So why do we give prize money?

Our current answer is that it contributes to professionalisation of the sport. Even though we are not offering much prize money, it is a start, and by giving out a little on big fake cheques it goes a long way. It makes the top performing runners in the sport feel appreciated and makes them want to continue to work hard, perform well and be recognised.

This also brings the attention of brands, who see the exposure these athletes get and want to use this to promote their products. Take Jess Jason for example, she won the Hounslow marathon, got heaps of attention, won a little prize money and ASICS are backing her with free kit and a bonus. 

Now this might not be seen as a good thing to some people, that we are celebrating the faster runners because they're fast. But that is the reality of sport. People don't put up posters of me or any random trail runner on their walls, they put up posters of Courtney Dauwalter. Similar to other sports and their heroes like Serena Williams and Eliud Kipchoge. The faster runners become professional, they work hard, they win races and then their stories are shared and followed and that's how heroes are made. This then elevates the status of the sport and then ultimately inspires people to get out onto the trails. 

So in some small way, by offering prize money, we are trying to elevate the profiles of Australian trail runners. Currently there are no full time trail runners in Oz, and all the heroes of the sport are from US and Europe. But there are some Aussies who are starting to change this and we think that we are playing a small role in this. 

By boosting the profile of the sport, sharing athlete storylines and tying them to our events, we are not only growing the sport as a whole, but hopefully growing our events.

In short, we are fans of Trail Running.

We decide to allocate equal prize money to the races we want to encourage a more competitive field.

One could make the argument that the more expensive races should win more prize money.

One could make the counter argument that prize money for each event should just be proportionate to the profit of each race. We have seen that the longer the event, the tighter the budget. Yes, the cost of a ticket is higher, yet the costs for us to put it on are higher and the participation rate is generally lower. Our staff and medical at the race weekend adds up a huge cost as well as the planning, logistical, equipment and supplies costs of the longer races. It seems to be that 20k distance is the most profitable. So if we took that argument we would offer more prize money to the 17k. 

However, again the allocation of prize money doesn't come down to the profit of the race or the cost of the ticket, for us it comes down to trying to support the athletes who perform at the highest level and directing the top athletes into our premier events.

It’s not conventional sharing this in detail but we are so very proud of our events and the value for money they represent so here is an explanation to offer a deserved understanding of everything that goes into the Price for race entry.

There is no easy way to explain / understand less you’ve directly done each micro aspect of event production directly. It’s easy to assume it’s less involved than it is. 

Firstly, from our perspective you could put events into three camps: 

1. Those with super high quality production, safety practices, course marking and overall facilitated end-to-end amazing experiences conducted in incredible, often inconvenient locations. Let’s call this A-Standard for ease of this. We at SingleTrack aspire to be defined as this. 

2. Those with moderate levels of the above variables, perhaps suboptimal course marking, perhaps questionable depth and breadth of medical and safety resources and low production and facilitated experiences. Great event, though sometimes a little loose around the edges. Hard to see these gaps till something goes pear shaped. 

3. Finally those that don’t worry about the A-Standard variables summarised. These have their place as minimalist events but participants in general should expect a very low cost of entry as it’s swapped with little effort and/or incurred expense. 

You could split costs into a few key defining categories:

• Course and Trail (scoping, design and mapping, marking and de marking)

• Risk, Safety Management & Medical - it is the main requirement for an event to ensure the participants safety and not overload the surrounding health and rescue services. Paying for Doctors, Nurses and many First Aiders for multiple days really adds up.

• Fees and Permits from all the various authority bodies involved. 

• Operations: Transportation and Logistics (to move goods around: to location, at location and back); Roads and Traffic Management; set up, pack down etc. in our cases usually about 14-pallets equivalent worth of stuff is moved into the region for production. 

• Gear storage. We got about 30 pallets worth of gear all up in different nooks and crannies. Not a garage type scale. 

• Cost of assets: the things that are used come from somewhere and they come at a cost, though fortunately they last a good many years. 

• Timing - big difference between good and okay and each split time and day has additional cost.

• Telecommunications. There are a number of fancy receptors and receivers (radios and starlinks) to enable effective on course communications between our aid station leaders and safety team back to race HQ. Reliable communications are central to a safely conducted event.

• Aid Station supplies and operations. In general, all commodity stuff: crisps, fruit, lollies etc though the stuff that matters costs a little more in time; try boiling 380 potatoes the day before Race starts! Quite an event in itself. A lot of folk say they love the range and standard that we provide. One more thing, you can have as much as you like, and we never run out.

• Lots of other variable costs such as participant bibs, medals, merchandise, banners.

• Toilets and amenities; it’s not by accident that it seems at our events there is always a port-a-loo when you seem to need it and they are not always straightforward placements. 

• Equipment Hire plus Sound and commentary. It’s a central pillar to a great village vibe and experience. 

• Crew related expenses: travel, accommodation, meals and our team's time. In the case of Hounslow we will have folk on ground for 2 days prior and 1 day after. She’s a mission. 

• Prize money and awards. We value our elites committing their bodies and minds to our events and we think it’s only fair they get rewarded with a chance to earn some coin. We are a believer in contributing more here than what we should do to be financially responsible but again, we value their support and we think events are best when every standard of athlete is represented. 

• Photography, videography and content. We have to capture memories.

• Venues and precinct hire; there is no free lunch in venues and places. 

• Waste management; we do our best to minimise but it all adds up. 

• Volunteer engagement. We love and value our team of volunteers. We respect them by providing a tremendous swap of value through the supply of great kit, and race entry credit, so there is a very real and substantial cost involved. It’s all deserved and we are grateful for our extended team. 

• Sales and Marketing and Graphic Design directly associated. It’s our engine. All the other stuff is crucial but this matters to drive sustainability of the event. 

• Business management such as payroll, accounting, insurances. All the boring stuff but very involved. Someone has to do it. Many people assume that insurance must be to blame for high prices, however, through the support of various governing bodies Event producers like ours and others are afforded very attractive and reasonable access to insurance. 

• Event production and project management. You would not think it but we are constantly in the depth of planning for future editions of our races, year round.

A profitable business does not go broke; we are here for the long game with a bucket load of foolish ambition, but we are very good at this and we put on a great event. 

We would love to see you come along to one of our epic adventures.