Ulju Nine Peaks Trail is a serious mountain running event in the southeast of South Korea, which for the first time offers two points races valid for the ATM Championship ranking. The massive 125 km race across “9 Peaks” and covering 9200 metres of elevation gain, and the shorter 45 km race across “5 Peaks” and 3500 hm. Event and race director Jey Jang is known from the Korea 50k event, which was part of ATM before for three years, and she hopes to make Ulju Nine Peaks Trail an annual must-do trail event for runners in Asia.

It is a beautiful region outright, but what makes it even more stunning this time of year are the autumn colours of the forests in and surrounding the Yeongnam Alps. Especially for people from Southeastern Asia, the large variety of colours is not an every-day sight. Moreover, autumn typically implies cooler and less humid weather conditions, too. Excellent for endurance athletes.

The 125 km was flagged off on Thursday morning, the 45 km will be on Friday.

Poy Brillantes is one of the Filipino runners running the 125 km of Ulju Nine Peaks Trail

A really tough mountain trail on the programme this weekend!