Wave Starts

Why have wave starts ?

The start line is approx 10m or a little wider, but within 10m of the start it narrows to about 2 metres wide (6 feet - enough for two horses to pass each other - which is why the track is named Six Foot Track). The track goes steeply downhill and is very rocky. About 400m further on it becomes a single track staircase for about 800m, causing everyone to come to a grinding halt and go slowly down the staircase. There is some delay here and often dangerous behaviour by a minority of runners. The wave starts are an attempt to minimise anguish and maximise safety for all runners. Due to use of chip timing all runners still receive their exact start to finish time and race times are adjusted for the runners to the first wave.

The wave start times and allocation of runners has been fine-tuned over the years such that last year it was pretty much perfect - no bottlenecks for each wave and fairly clear running all the way :

  • Early Wave: 07:00
  • Wave 1: 08:00
  • Wave 2: 08:05
  • Wave 3: 08:20
  • Wave4: 08:35

Male runners over 60 years old and females over 50 years who wish to start at 7 am must select the Early Start option on the entry form, you cannot decide on the day. This gives the senior runners a crush free start and means that they will be nearing the finish around the same time as runners in later waves, hopefully spurring the seniors on to a sub 7-hour finish. All runners must still complete the event within 7 hours to be eligible for an award, however they generally have until 8hours before they attract the attention of the sweeper. Early starters will place as per their running time. Runners in the Early Start will be issued a race number with grey colouring.

Cut-off times in 2011

  • Wave 1: faster than 4:29:50 (Males) 4:54:10 (Females)
  • Wave 2: faster than 5:20:27
  • Wave 3: faster than 5:54:58

Important Notes!

For some reason a lot of people invest a lot of time in building a case for starting in one wave instead of another, and we want to make the process as clear as possible (and reduce exceptions to a minimum).

Here is the methodology:

Everyone is allocated a time based on their running history:

  • Previous 6FT runners get the best time from the last 5 years
  • If they have not run the race in the last five years, but have in the last 10, we take the best time adjusted up by 2% for each year over 5.
  • If no 6FT history then we take the qualifying race time and multiply it by a certain factor. The factors were:
    1. Any 42.2km road marathon in 4:20:00 or faster      x 1.5
    2. Yurrebilla (56km) in 8:45:00 or faster      x 0.8
    3. Mt Wilson to Bilpin (35km) in 4:05:00 or faster      x 1.72
    4. Fitzroy Falls Firetrails Marathon (42.2km) in 5:00      x 1.4
    5. Overseas Ultra under race cutoff      x manual
    6. Glenbrook Trail 34km in 4:15:00 or faster      x 1.65
    7. Two Bays (28km) in 3:50:00 or faster      x 1.83
    8. Mt Mee Trail Marathon (42km) in 5:15 or faster      x 1.33
    9. Any Ironman-distance Triathlon run-leg in 5:00      x 1.4
    10. Coastal Classic (29km) in 4:15:00 or faster      x 1.5
    11. Glenbrook Trail Marathon (42km) in 5:15:00      x 1.33
    12. Deep Space Marathon (44km) in 5:30:00 or faster      x 1.27
    13. Bogong to Hotham run (33km) in 7:00:00 or faster      x 1
    14. Six Inch Trail (46km) in 6:00:00 or faster      x 1.17
    15. Wildhorse Criterium 32km in 4:00:00 or faster      x 1.75
  • The overseas ultras were looked at on a case-by-case basis. (Most of them were Comrades)
  • All people who requested an early wave and qualify are allocated there
  • We then allocate all the 23+ finishers to their preferred wave
  • We then order everyone else in terms of the time
  • The top 20 women who requested the fastest wave are then put in W1
  • The remaining spots in all waves are then given in order of time making sure that no-one is allocated to a wave before the one they requested. (ie if the runner requested “wave 3 or later” they will not be placed in wave 2, even if they qualified). This is the provisional wave allocation
  • We then go through everyone who asked to run together with someone else. These people are put together in the latest wave of anyone in the group
  • We then back-fill any opening in the higher waves due to people dropping down
  • The Race Director runs his eyes over everything to make sure all potential winners etc are in wave 1. Minor adjustments here.
  • Bibs allocated
  • Final wave starts list published