The Carcoar Cup Running Festival is a grand annual challenge on the Australian running calendar. Held the first weekend of November in the historic Central West NSW town of Carcoar, the Carcoar Cup is a fantastic weekend for both runners and family. The festival was conceived to bring runners & visitors from all over Australia & overseas to showcase the beauty of Carcoar and the surrounding region.
It is run over a course which has been described as one of the toughest and most beautiful in Australia. This is the ultimate family running weekend, with events for all abilities and ages. For a small regional event the prize money is huge – $15,000 – but this is the ultimate family event, with adults tackling the longer events and the children their own special race.
There are also many other activities organised around the town over the weekend including exhibitions, displays and stalls. And with so many other attractions available around the region, why not make a weekend – or even an extended holiday – out of your time at the festival this year?
The hero of the Carcoar Cup Running Festival, this race is run over the traditional marathon distance (42.2KM) but with a mix of sealed and unsealed surfaces and changes in altitude and scenery along the way. The Carcoar Cup begins in Carcoar, travelling along the Fell Timber Rd and out onto the Mandurama Neville road. Competitors then loop out around the back of Neville before storming down the main street to the cheers of waiting spectators as they cross the half way mark. Runners then make their way along the Blayney Shaw Neville Rd towards Blayney before turning left for the climb onto the Mt Macquarie saddle leading to the mostly gentle descent into Carcoar.
For the teams event, the Carcoar Cup Marathon course has been easily divided into four separate sections. The sections vary slightly in distance and difficulty, so allowing for teams combining various strengths, older and younger, and disabled contestants.
The half marathon begins in NEVILLE and, following the second half of the Carcoar Cup route, makes it way back to CARCOAR over the saddle of Mount Macquarie. At 21 km in length it is a great way to be involved in the festival without having to complete the whole marathon distance. Or use it as training for the Carcoar Cup next year! Actually the most popular race of the Festival!
The Ultra Marathon is the newest addition to the Carcoar Cup Running Festival and has been included due to popular demand. Runners in the Ultra will follow the same challenging course as the Marathon runners with the addition of a loop after the town of Neville.
The Carcoar to Creek Dash is a shorter alternative for those who want to be involved in the Festival but for whatever reason don’t want to run the bigger distances. Starting in Carcoar, runners will head up Mount Macquarie, turning Right onto the Fell Timber Road and race down to the Coombing Creek Bridge. Runners will then turn around and charge back to Carcoar. This run is approximately 6km.
This Festival won an Australia Day Award for Community Event of the Year in its inaugural year, 2011, and raised a considerable amount of money for charity. It was described as the best new running event in NSW, and it is always very much a family affair.
LESS
