Most of you will know Tom Landon-Smith as the Race Director of UltraTrail Australia but did you know he was a World class cross country skier and adventure racer?

In Ep72 of Running Matters we discover the man behind the biggest monument of Australian trail running. We discuss the evolution of AROC sport, from a niche adventure racing company to being absorbed by global juggernaut Ironman and the expansion of UltraTrail from 150 runners to 7000 in a little over a decade. 

We chat about some of the incredible performances  from athletes like Killian Jornet, Dylan Bowman, Brendan Davies, Lucy Bartholomew and Ryan Sandes but also why UltraTrail is such a welcoming and inclusive event for runners of all abilities. Tom covers the connection to the Blue Mountains and it’s people and why keeping his event environmentally sustainable is of such importance.

Tom details the never-ending challenges (fire, flood, pandemic, avalanche, etc) of trying to produce an event in 2020 and explains the final insurmountable hurdles for this year’s race.

As usual, we dig deep on the big issues like being swamped by muddy hugs on the finish line, carrying house bricks on the mandatory gear list and being dominated by his wife in the Perisher Pub Crawl for 7 years straight!

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