50K ELEPHANT

50K ELEPHANT

The course starts on city roads in the heart of Da Lat and moves onto trails along the town’s southern outskirts, with views of the north side of Tuyen Lam Lake. It runs through pine forest and jungle, past streams and farmland, to the K’ho village of Gan Reo and its coffee plantations, then climbs Elephant Mountain (Nui Voi, 1,815 m) and continues to Pinhatt Peak (1,600 m) before descending along lakeside trails to the Clay Tunnel.

The maximum time is 18 hours 30 minutes, a required pace of 20:18 per kilometre, and the expected first finisher is in under six hours. Terrain is about 40 per cent singletrack and 47 per cent dirt road. Aid stations are cup-less, crews may help at the named points (Goat Trail, Maple Leaf, Lam Ha Basecamp and Gan Reo), pacers are not allowed, and finishers earn 2 Running Stones.

The start is in town and the finish is at the lake, with two mountains between them. On Livebib the runner shares a link to their own broadcast, opened in a browser with no app or account: where they are on the course line, how far they have come and a finish estimate that updates as they go. When the phone drops signal in the jungle on Elephant Mountain, the position is carried forward along the course and marked estimated. The runner decides who gets the link.