Kalorama, Dandenong Ranges, VIC
in the Dandenong Ranges, close to Melbourne. A local trail running classic since 2012, through fern gully forest and towering Mountain Ash. Choose the 12.4km twilight, 23km single loop or 46km double loop and take on a course with almost no flat ground.
A twilight climb up the punishing Observatory Track to Burke's Lookout for sweeping Melbourne views, then a fast technical descent through fern rainforest to a party-vibe finish.
Official 12.4km CourseStarting and finishing at 1000 Steps, a single loop through undulating Dandenong Ranges forest with near-constant short climbs and descents.
Official 23km CourseTwo laps of the 23km loop, the second run in reverse. Same relentless undulation twice, with cumulative fatigue deciding the second half.
Official 46km CourseWhy Her Trails
Her Trails brings together event-specific programming, weekly coaching, female-focused education and a community preparing for the same race day.
A progressive 12.4km, 23km or 46km program built around the Dandenongs' relentless short climbs and descents and the demands of your distance.
Bring your training, injury, pacing, fuelling, recovery and race day questions to a live group coaching call each week. Ask live or submit your question beforehand, with replays available afterwards.
Practical education woven throughout the program on menstrual cycles, perimenopause, menopause, pelvic health, fuelling, energy availability, recovery and injury risk.
Strength, mobility and recovery practices sit inside the training program. They are not treated as optional extras or referred to another product.
Prepare alongside women taking on the same event. Share the uncertain weeks, long run lessons, questions, progress and race week anticipation with people who understand the goal.
Practise pacing, downhill control, fuelling and race day logistics during the training block, before those decisions carry consequences.
A plan on its own is just numbers on a page. Her Trails turns those numbers into training you understand, support you can lean on, and a community that gets you to the start line ready.
How Do I Join
12.4km, 23km or 46km, priced by distance.
Best value if you are training year round.
Racing in the Dandenong Ranges? Tell us and we'll help you plan around it.
Her Trails · Race Weekend Support
Training gets you to the start line ready. Race day in the Dandenong Ranges is where the training becomes a shared experience, close enough to Melbourne for a proper cheer squad.
This is where the magic of a Her Trails pinnacle event shows up. It is Kosci women comparing gear lists for the Snowies, GPT teammates handing off a leg, and Roller Coaster women trading notes on the Observatory Track climb in the lead up to race day. You can arrive alone. You will not race alone.
Roller Coaster Through the Her Trails Lens
What the course demands
The name says it all. This is well-made forest singletrack and management trail, not rocky or highly technical, but it genuinely never flattens out: short, steep climbs immediately followed by fast descents, on repeat.
The 46km asks you to do all of it twice, with the second loop reversed and legs already carrying the first lap's fatigue.
There is rarely a stretch to settle into rhythm. Effort management and downhill control matter more than raw fitness.
How this program prepares you
Aerobic strength built deliberately, and race specific long runs that mirror the demands of your distance, from the 12.4km twilight to the full 46km double loop.
Downhill control and effort-based pacing, not pace-chasing, are practised within your training, so managing constant gradient changes is second nature by race day.
A program that respects real life while it builds the leg durability this relentless little course rewards.
Roller Coaster Training
Her Trails builds dedicated, race specific coaching for all three Roller Coaster distances we support.
12 Week Program
A single-loop course through dense forest with repeated steep climbs and descents. Builds pacing discipline, downhill control and endurance from start to finish, for a fast, punchy race with a real party-vibe finish.
$169 AUD · or 2×$99
View Program16 Week Program
Prepares you for the sustained demands of constant climbing and descending across a single, uninterrupted loop. Aerobic consistency, leg strength, downhill confidence and effort management so you don't burn matches early.
$399 AUD · or 3×$150
View Program18 Week Program
The same demanding loop, twice. Builds aerobic consistency, controlled climbing and descending, pacing discipline and the strength to hold composure as fatigue accumulates in the second half.
$450 AUD · or 3×$169
View ProgramThinking Through Your Distance?
Practical coaching insight to help you understand the challenge before you choose.
From The Trail
The ground does not punish you for climbing. It punishes you for running well too early.
Roller Coaster's trails are well-made and rarely technical, which is exactly what makes them deceptive. There is little terrain to force you to slow down, so the pace you choose on the first climb is the pace that decides your day.
Choosing Your Distance
Choosing Your First Ultra
Not sure whether the 12.4km or 23km is the right first step up. A practical look at what separates the distances and how to choose with confidence.
Read the Trail Note →Race Ready
Power Hiking as a Skill
On the Observatory Track's steepest pinches, an efficient hike often beats a forced jog. Why power hiking is trained, not improvised.
Read the Trail Note →Race specific coaching for the 12.4km, 23km and 46km, or full access as an All-In member.
Roller Coaster Through the Her Trails Lens
Roller Coaster rewards more than fitness. It rewards runners who can manage their effort and hold pace as short climbs and fast descents repeat, without a break, for the whole race.
What the Courses Demand
The 12.4km, 23km and 46km all use the same well-made forest singletrack and management trail. Not highly technical, but genuinely relentless: there is very little flat running anywhere on course.
That accessibility is part of the appeal, but it makes it easy to spend too much energy early, especially on the twilight 12.4km's punishing Observatory Track climb. The 46km compounds it: the same demand, twice, with the second loop reversed.
Across all 3 distances, the goal is not simply to climb well once. It is to keep climbing and descending with control as the terrain keeps changing under you.
How Her Trails Prepares You
Each distance has its own progressive program, building aerobic strength and race-specific endurance without asking you to reproduce the full race in training.
Downhill control, effort-based pacing and leg durability for constant gradient change are practised within your training, so they are familiar before race day.
The programming goes beyond the sessions themselves, with in-depth guidance on pacing, fuelling, recovery, menstrual cycles, perimenopause and menopause, injury risk and adapting training around real life. Weekly live coaching calls give you a place to bring your own context, ask questions and work through when to maintain the plan, modify a session or step back.
Evidence-informed trail running guidance for women, written by the Her Trails coaching team.
