More than 540 runners started yesterday in the event, which race director Steve Tripp said was "well up" on previous years.
"It’s quite a big jump, to be honest.
"Trail-running is a growing sport. It’s more about participation than competition, and meeting your own challenges; being healthy and experiencing a bit of nature in the process."
The Three Peaks-plus-one event is the longest course — and doubles at the New Zealand short ultra trail running championships.
Runners tackled a 55km route which is an additional loop of the traditional race.
The traditional race covered 26km where competitors traversed through Flagstaff, Swampy Summit and Mt Cargill.
There was also the race to the summit which covers 11km as runners made for the summit of Mt Cargill and descended Bethune’s Gully to eventually finish at Chingford Park.
"Dunedin has an exceptional trail network. There’s nowhere else you can go 2km outside the town centre and do 50km of trail in wild native bush.
"You can run it in any condition. The trails had been the driest I’d ever seen them, but if you put 500-odd people on those trails they get kind of muddy, but most people actually enjoyed that."
This was the 41st iteration of the event in some form.
"One of the great things about [yesterday’s] event was the gender split.
"In previous years, you might get a split of 65% male, 35% female; this time around it was closer to 55-45, so it seems to be becoming more equitable."
More than 100 volunteers assisted with the event.
"They were awesome. There were some at the top of mountaintops where the wind chill factor made it feel like -5°C or colder.
"There’s always a lot of little things you can tweak; but overall I’m really satisfied."
Yesterday’s St Patrick’s Day celebrations did not seem to lead to weary runners either.
"There was one student who was running on little sleep [as a result], but really, you could tell there was nothing he would rather have been doing."
