S1 Trieste Ultra 61 km
New for 2027! A brand-new course!
The S1 Trieste Ultra is an experience first and a race second: head torch, silence, cold and that particular focus that only comes at night, as you keep switching between city streets and open countryside. It suits runners who already have some experience and want something genuinely different — more a test of the mind than of ‘speed’, where what counts is a clear head, careful pacing and strength of character. If you’re looking for a race that stays with you for weeks, this is the one with the most cinematic feel.
📍 Logistics
🧳 Bag storage
🚧 Time barriers, refreshment points and checkpoints
- 🥤🍴🍲 ⏱️🚧 Bagnoli, km 13.2 21.30
- 🥤🍴 ⏱️🚧 Basovizza, km 25.6 01.00
- 🥤🍴 ⏱️🚧 Obelisk, km 35.3 03.00
- 🥤🍴 ⏱️🚧 Contovello, km 46.7 05.15
🎒 Mandatory kit
- Enough food and water for 15 km of running
- Your own cup or mug for drinking at the refreshment points
- Head torch and a way to recharge it
- Long trousers and a long-sleeved top, or any combination that fully covers arms and legs when needed
- Survival blanket (emergency foil blanket)
- Gloves, hat and jacket
- Mobile phone + power bank
🚌 Shuttles
💶 Entry fees
- €61 up to and including 1 June
- €68 up to and including 1 September
- €83 up to and including 1 November
- €93 up to and including 15 December
- €107 up to and including 10 January
🏅 Awards
MAXIMUM TIMES: GENEROUS OR TIGHT?
The Karst is hard to run on: stony ground, frequent changes of direction, short ups and downs and hardly ever a truly flat stretch. If you want to run the whole way, that means constant effort: your pace, line and footing keep changing.
For walkers, on the other hand, the relatively modest elevation gain makes it easier to keep up a good rate of progress. The maximum times set for every distance are generous and mean you can complete the course at a brisk hiking pace.
The boredom factor is zero, for fast and slow runners alike: even without big climbs, the courses keep your mind busy all the way — with technical ground and views that never stop changing. If you have any questions or want more information, contact us!
Not ready to sign up yet?
If now’s not the moment, let’s stay in touch — we’ll keep you posted on race news. One email a month, at most.
Course and elevation profile
Time barriers and refreshment points
Can’t find the GPS track?
Everything you need to prepare for the race is already on this page: the map, with the ITRA-certified distance and elevation gain, and the point-by-point checkpoint table, showing the kilometre mark, the ascent and descent of each section, the refreshment points and, where there are any, the time barriers and their closing times. These are the official race figures — the ones that count under the regulations and for ITRA points — and they are final: with that table you can plan your pacing, your split times, what to carry and where to refuel.
We hold the GPX back for two reasons, and neither is an oversight.
The first is your safety. People who download the track weeks in advance don’t go back and check it, and in exceptional cases the course can change at the last minute: a road closed, a path no longer passable, extreme weather. Set off with an old track on your device and you’ll find yourself following a line that no longer exists — and that’s where the risk becomes very real.
The second is that some sections cross private land. They are open for the race under agreements made for that day: they aren’t routes you can go out and do whenever you like.
Holding the track back for now isn’t a shortcoming: it’s how we make sure you have the right course on race day. The official GPX is released in the week before the race, in its final version, ready for you to load onto your device. On the day, the course is marked in any case: GPS is an extra check, not what you navigate by.
We often publish training loops and segments covering the stretches that are open all year round, so you can get to know the terrain before the race.
In the meantime, we recommend:
- looking at previous years’ tracks online, which help you get to know the terrain — though the course changes from year to year and some sections are only open on race day;
- consulting the interactive map to plan your recces;
- checking our Facebook page and the articles on the site for updates and recce loops.
CAI trail network
This course takes in CAI trails on the Karst
The race alternates trails listed in the CAI FVG trail register — Sector 0, Karst — with connecting sections specific to the course, waymarked by the organisers.
- CAI 015
- CAI 046
- CAI 001
- CAI 039
- CAI 044 · Ressel
- CAI 012 · Cobolli
- CAI 009
- CAI 023 · Tiziana Weiss
The course
You set off from the heart of Trieste early in the evening, while the city is still lit up: Piazza Unità d’Italia, the Habsburg palaces, the lights along the Canal Grande. Then you climb up onto the Karst, but true darkness never comes: this is a race lit from end to end — by the city spread out below like a carpet of lights, and by the moon reflected in the Gulf.
In between, there’s everything: Val Rosandra and its white rock walls where Emilio Comici trained, the Opicina Obelisk, the descent to the sea at Barcola, the climb back up through the vineyards to Contovello. And then the finale along the Costa dei Barbari, with the sound of the sea beneath your feet and the light on the water guiding you to PortoPiccolo.
This isn’t a fast race: it’s a night-time experience you’ll remember for weeks.
Who this race is for
The S1 Trieste Ultra is an experience first and a race second: an evening start in Trieste, a course run entirely at night between the city and the Karst, and a finish at dawn in PortoPiccolo. More a test of the mind than of ‘speed’, with a cinematic feel you’ll remember for weeks. It suits runners who already have trail experience and are looking for something genuinely different: what counts is a clear head, handling the cold and the dark, and character. Explore the area: PortoPiccolo and Sistiana Bay, the logistical hub of the Corsa della Bora.
The S1 Trieste Ultra is the first half of the S1 Bora Ultra. If you’re running the S1 Bora Ultra (116 km), you can decide mid-race, at PortoPiccolo (km 61.2), to stop there and be ranked in the S1 Trieste Ultra: the two races share the same course up to that point.
Medical certificate. Mandatory: a valid certificate of fitness for competitive sport (athletics, cross-country skiing, triathlon, cycling or swimming). Competitors who are not Italian citizens and are not members of an Italian sports club recognised by CONI are exempt.
The right pace. At a brisk walking pace (about 5 km/h) you’ll cover the 61.2 km in around 12 hours 14 minutes, within the maximum time of 13 hours 30 minutes. You can finish it at a fast hike, but the intermediate time barriers are binding and leave no margin for error: you need to keep up your pace without long stops at the refreshment points.
Dogs. No, that’s not possible: the S1 Trieste Ultra is a competitive race.
Sister races — the 49–61 km band. In terms of physical demands, the S1 Trieste Ultra sits in the 49–61 km band of our family of events, alongside the Sardon Ultra (49 km) on sardon.run and the Montasio (55 km) at the Summer edition of the Alpe Adria Ultra Trail. Rather than pairing races one to one, we offer the whole band as alternatives of the same level.
Want to train on the S1 Trieste Ultra trails outside the race weekend too? The guide Trail Running in Trieste brings together Karst routes you can run or walk all year round.
In Trieste, you never know.
One year in short sleeves drinking beer by the sea after the race. The next year, wrapped up to the eyeballs. The weather changes; the fun doesn’t. Check 10 editions’ worth of stats, then decide at the last minute what to wear.
Gallery
PortoPiccolo — Bora Village
Start and finish for almost every race. The Bora Village at PortoPiccolo is the event’s base: a fully covered, heated venue overlooking the Gulf of Trieste, with everything you need before, during and after the race.
One place for bibs, expo, showers, food and prize-giving — no moving from place to place, nothing spread out. Arrive, run, celebrate.
Accommodation
Apartment or hotel: book it yourself or straight from your Runner Profile. At the Corsa della Bora you can share an apartment with other runners — we’ll take care of matching you up with flatmates.
PortoPiccolo and Sistiana have places to stay just a short walk from the start. Trieste is 20 minutes away by bus.
Shuttles
Dedicated shuttles run from Trieste Central Station to the Bora Village and back: the outward trip costs €4 and the return is free. Each distance has its own timetable — check the page for your race.
The Bora Village is also on the regular Airport–Trieste bus route, so you can get there by public transport without the shuttle.
Getting to Trieste
The Bora Village is ideally located: two minutes from the motorway exit, 15 minutes from Trieste Central Station and 20 minutes from Friuli Venezia Giulia Airport.
By car, train, bus or plane — Trieste is closer than you think. It’s 90 minutes from Ljubljana and less than two hours from Venice.
PortoPiccolo, Sistiana · Duino-Aurisina (TS) · 2 min from the A4 motorway · 45.7633° N, 13.6350° E