52 in 52 Race #8 - Wellington Half Marathon

I thought last weeks trip was a biggie... nope. This week I had to be in Gisborne on Friday for a BNI Meeting. This meant I either drove back to Rotorua and then down to Wellington, or just headed straight down from Gizzy... which is what we did. I say we, because the lovely Lainy had taken Friday off and came with me.

What a trip... that is a heck of a long way, even for a seasoned driver like me... what was worse was that we were heading straight towards one of the biggest storms in recent New Zealand history that had hit Wellington. We arrived at the Capital Gateway Hotel who had sponsored me for the event to find a Hotel with no power - they hadn't had any for 6 hours! We were too tired to worry... lay down for a kip and when we woke 2 hours later the power was on... great.

After a cruisy day Saturday - just a quick trip in the morning to registration and a few visits to friends and family - it was raceday Sunday and off early to the city.

The race started from the CakeTin... oops Westpac Stadium. We had been warned that all the Stadium parking was sold and not to park in the wrong place... so we finished up parking about 1.5km away (duh) and wandering down.

This was on a whole different level to the other events so far... 5000 entrants over the various events, there were people everywhere! Impossible to catch up with anyone you know - especially as my cellphone was in the car!

Outside the weather was fine, but a bloody cold wind made me wonder if I had enough clothes. We all lined up with about 15 minutes to start time... a great mass of humanity, nervously shuffling and stretching and chatting. Race briefing over the PA, then the countdown and we were off. 
 
First thing I noticed was that the wind was barely noticeable, running in a large group filtered it down to next to nothing (phew). From the big wide concourse we were funnelled into the overbridge and down onto the road along Waterloo Quay. I hopped on in the group behind the 1:40 pacer and felt quite comfortable. We left Waterloo Quay onto Customhouse Quay and then onto Jervois Quay and round into Cable Street.

Still feeling pretty good, the legs feel it more than the lungs on road runs, we made the left turn onto Oriental Parade and the big stretch around the bays. There really wasn't much to report around here, I was cruising along easily, taking lots of pictures - one lovely runner also took my picture for me too.
 
Round from Oriental Parade into Evans Bay Parade, still going strong all the way down past Greta Point, past the Aid Station for my first drink of the day and around into Cobham Drive and along past the Airport. We hung a left into Shelly Bay Road and cruised along passed the 10km mark, starting to see more and more runners heading in the other direction on their way back.

Then, just before the turn... PING!!! something went in my right hamstring. At first I though I was done for, very sore. Walked a bit, then shuffled and though, "OK, I can do this to the finish". The great thing was that the pain slowly abated, to a point where about a kilometre or so later I started to slowly stretch out again and speed up.
 
It was feeling ok and then next thing I was back at full race pace and better, Passing everyone that had passed me and feeling great but frustrated at the time I had lost. After a couple of km's at this pace I could see the 1:40 pacer about 400 - 500m ahead of me around the bays.

I kept pushing, but again with just under 5km to go the hammy pinged! Time to back off again, warmed up quicker this time, but still lost time. On the way back in we hopped oof the street and onto the wharfside area and again I was pushing hard.

Out off the wharves and along to the same overbridge we had gone out on and I knew the finish was right there... up the overbridge ramp and the hammy wasn't having it, and I finished at a shuffle... in a time of 1:40:17.... only 54 seconds outside my PB and my second fastest Half time ever! 

I should have been happy, but the overwhelming sensation was disappointment. 

Overall a great day, I love the course - and that's from a runner who does not like roads. I would come and do this again... I am sure there is a PB out there.

52 in 52 Race #7 - HBTR Pukeora Pickled Pukeko

I finished at Rainbow Mountain and the 6th event of the Challenge... headed back to Rotorua to try and thaw out, knowing that I had a big road trip to the Southern Hawkes Bay ahead of me the next day to complete the first Double-Header of the Challenge.

After a bit of thought (and a long hot bath) I came up with a plan so cunning you could pin a tail on it and call it a weasel (yes I know I stole that from Blackadder).

I would have an afternoon kip, grab some dinner, then I would watch the All Blacks v France (30-0 Woohoo!!!)... then toodle off as far as I could towards Pukeora. I drive a lot and know to stop when the eyes get too heavy.

Well I got all the way to Waipawa - which is just down the road from Waipukarau, which in turn is bloody close to the race venue! Then the plan was to curl up and have a snooze in the wagon... which is kinda where the plan came a bit unstuck. I have had many power-naps in the Subaru but never attempted to have a proper sleep. Let's just say that 6'2" of me struggled to find any position at all that was comfortable!

Which meant that I was the very first competitor to arrive on raceday!

Wet rainy day, not too cold though, didn't deter the runners of the Hawkes Bay and before long there was a nice queue at the Registration Caravan window.
 
The course, as we were informed by our trusty (?) Race Director, was 3 laps of a circuit that went firstly around the vines and then onto the MTB trails.

So away we went on time and around the vines, a lovely little uphill tucked in amongst them to wake us up and then into the forest.

MTB trails are reknowned for their winding, meandering paths and this was no different, around and around we went. Up and down through beautiful pine needle lined trails and pretty good footing... for now! 

 The other interesting thing about this type of forest MTB trail is that at times you could see 5 or 6 other runners all running in different directions on different parts of the course,.

At the end of the first lap I made a bit of a stuff-up... instead of turning back up the hill to the caravan for the loop around the vineyard, I followed the wrong arrow back out onto the MTB trails again. I soon realised what I had done when some of the faster runners passed me for the second time - and pointed it out to me!

With the steady drizzly rain the course was starting to cut up a bit. By the second lap the two shorter races had both done a lap each on it and now the uphills were 'interesting' and a couple of the downhills were 'fun'. While I didn't have my Inov-8 X-Talons on (as they had gotten wet on the Saturday run), I was wearing my Inov-8 Roclits instead and still had twice the grip of just about everyone out there.

At the end of the second lap I did a double lap of the vineyard to make up for stuffing up the first one - which got me a few comments from the gallery!

Into lap 3 and the body was holding up better than expected after a tough weekend, the trails however were getting muddier, so it kept my attention right to the end. At the finish I still had enough left to push up the final hill and run strongly (for me) to the finish.

2:20 was my time... the official time was a bit different to this and I can only think I may have been penalised for my out of order loop... not a problem though, as this is not about being world champ!

Another great Hawkes Bay Trail Run Event... the great thing so far from the 3 of their events I have run (2 this year, 1 last) is that they have been completely different to each other. The next is around Sacred Hill... hoping for something new again! 

52 in 52 Race #6 - Lactic Turkey Double Rainbow

One thing about Shaun Collins from Lactic Turkey Events, he is always on for an interesting new event... another thing is that he is not very good at measuring distance - but more on that later!

photo by Lorraine Thorne

It was a cold frosty morning at Lake Okaro near Rainbow Mountain for the first ever running of the Double Rainbow Trail Run. Seeing the white frosty grass on the way out for the very reasonable 10am start, I was very happy that I was not in the marathon as they started at 8am!

As usual with a new event, the numbers were ok at 120 over the 3 events, but with plenty of room for growth... and from everyones glowing reports, that will happen. This was also the first event of a weekend Double-Header and so I was determined not to 'overdo' it.

After catching up with a few of the usual suspects and sharing running lies, the race kicked off with about one and a half km's around to the back of the lake where we climbed through the fence and into the neighbouring dairy farm. Wet feet through the puddles in the paddock and onto the dairy race (left) for some hard fast running... through the underpass to the other side of the highway and then some more dairy race, a bit more paddock (dry this time). Then around the roads at the back of the quarry and into the trail!
 
And what wonderful trail, I have run on Rainbow Mountain a couple of times before and walked parts of it with family. However the first bit from the Murupara Road through to SH5 (right) was a section I had not run... but will in the future! Nice and flowing through the bush with gentle ups and downs it was great.

photo by Lorraine Thorne

Then you pop out (left) by the carpark on SH5 (to be greeted by partner Lorraine and my daughter Kate) and then back onto the trail and the climbing starts. Gentle at first for a couple of km's to the turn... the turn up the hill for the first time.

photo by Michael Rodliffe

It is amazing the difference that race mode brings - even when you are 'taking it easy'. I ran far more of the uphill than I have ever done in other runs on the mountain... although no-one that I saw was running the last few hundred metres... that was just plain steep! Whether it was because I had run more than usual or because of the company I was chatting to on the way up, but the top came a lot quicker than I had expected (right).

Then we reached the "Aid Station at the Top of the World" (left) with amazing views over the fog covered Reporoa Valley all the way to Taupo and around. A quick turnaround here and down we went, onto the relatively new MTB trail and this was a great free-wheeling gallop, left, right, ups and downs... but mainly down. Had to watch the footing with plenty of roots and slippery bits, but it was awesome.

The trail then spat us out next to Kerosene Creek, I resisted the temptation to go and have a quick soak and stayed on the trail that winds around the mountain back to the start of the uphill again. This was a really fun and testing bit of trail with lots of rolling ups and downs. At this stage I was feeling pretty ok and going a bit faster than I had planned.

photo by Michael Rodliffe

Back onto the hill for the second time and my time was only 1 minute slower than the first ascent (right)... so that was pretty good. I had my own drink in my Inov-8 waist pack... so I just grabbed a handful of jet planes at the top and back down again... this time down the road - which sucked, well not really, but after the MTB trail a road will always come a very, very poor second. At the bottom onto a bit of forestry road and before we knew it we were back onto the farmland.

photo by Lorraine Thorne

Funny thing but everyone seemed to find the dairy races a lot longer heading back than on the way out, I wonder why! I certainly did and was starting to wane. Seeing someone closing in on me back across the paddock gave me the necessary incentive for a final push and I reached the gold at the end of the 'Double Rainbow' in just under 3 hours (the pot of gold was a pot of Crunchie bars by the way). The 24km had come in at about 26km and the marathon runners finished up running a massive 47km's!!

At the finish was a wonderful bottle of Crouchers Pilsner and a great lunch and lots of pats on the back and a load more runners lies!

The temperature was dropping and a few spits of rain, so we popped around to Kerosene Creek for me to have a soak. The rain started and the temperature dropped further so I took my family home and missed the prizegiving as they had already given fantastic support without giving them pneumonia!

The pretty much unanimous response on Facebook from the runners has been that this is one event you do not want to miss in the future! So watch out on the Lactic Turkey website for next years date.

 

52 in 52 Race #5 - Xterra Riverhead

RIVERHEAD!

Another trip down Memory lane on Sunday at my first event at this years Xterra Auckland Trail Running Series (it was Race #2, but I missed the first)... Riverhead Forest hosted my first ever event in the Xterra Auckland Series back in 2010 and so it is always nice to head back.

Despite my title, it wasn't as muddy this year as 2010, but definitely the muddiest I have encountered in many a day.

Total Sports Aaron & Nicola Carter

Driving up from Rotorua on the morning after leaving at 4.45am, I was driving through teaming rain nearly the whole way. Even when I got to Race HQ it was still raining pretty steadily on and off.... but of course Total Sport know how to organize a race as it stopped raining completely about 20 minutes before race start!

Great to catch up with 'the team', Keith Crook, Steve Neary, Leah Anstis, Anna Murphy, Mal Law, Paolo Osorio... the list gets ever longer!

Also there were the fabulous team from Inov-8, Richard was the runner today with the girls guarding the shop! Cam from RockTape was taping up a storm and great to catch up with.

Alan Reeves (Reevsy - left) was on the microphone for the 3rd week running and gave me fantastic coverage, chatting to me twice before race start and again at the finish as well as a few more plugs thrown in during the day... thanks mate!

With a very tough weekend to come and a slight groin strain, I had decided to take it a bit easier for this race... and for once I was true to my word. I cruised gently up the first long climb, having a chat to Chris Hope from New Zealand Running Calendar before he pulled away into the distance!

First little excursion away from the forestry road gave us a taste of the race to come with slippery step up and lovely mud (right).

Then it was a lovely series of ups and downs across the various ridges, sometimes through the forest and sometimes through recently felled areas (left) and some large open spaces. The variation of this race was great. 

About 3km in the lovely Anna Murphy (right) and I got together and kept each other company for about the next 8km. This was pretty good for both of us as we were both trying not to go too hard and the pace stayed comfortable right through to the course split... where Anna took the Long Course arrow and yours truly the Super-Long!

After we split I once again had to be careful not to push too hard, but this was solved quickly with a nice 100m (vertical) climb in the next kilometre. Then some more fabulous ups and downs including a couple of freaky mudslides downhills.

It was on these that I found out about the 'almost unfair' advantage I had... my Inov-8 X-Talons... they were amazing. I have been racing in trail shoes for quite a few years now, but nothing that comes close to the grip of the X-Talons Three times on muddy downhills the people in front or beside me were reduced to going down on their posteriors (left) while I ran down almost like it was dry... stunning, you have to try them to know just how good they are!

Just after meeting back up with the Long course you start to get close enough to the finish to hear the speakers and everyone else finishing... but you still have quite a long loop to go and the last 2km is mud, puddles, followed by more mud and even more puddles. Feeling pretty good after taking it easy I let myself have a little burst here and passed quite a few.

I had a ball in this race, not busting a gut running allowed me to really love the mud and the trails and the company at the finish just made for a perfect day.

For the record I finished the 24hrs in 2:39 for 7th place in my agegroup.

So that's number 5, great day, great fun... as usual with Total Sports!

52 in 52 Race #4 - Thermatech 3D Rotorua 2013

In 2012 this event came up 11 weeks after I ran the Tarawera Ultra. I hadn't run an event for 3 weeks and was getting a bit fractious so I hopped on NZ's best website for events - The New Zealand Running Calendar and spotted 2 close events. One was the Tauranga Half and the other was the Thermatech 3D.

It was at first a tough decision, Tauranga was cheaper and the 3D was on trails I ran all the time - so how exciting was that going to be? In the end though, trails won out over road (as they usually do) and I sneaked down for a late entry on the Saturday night. 

What does this have to do with this year... well it was awesome!  

Firstly, running trails you know and love in a race is so different to a training run. 

Secondly we actually went down a couple of trails I had never run - in my very own Redwoods! I had a blast and finished 3rd in my age group.

So in 2013 for the 52 in 52 there was never a doubt... Neil and Katrin were kind enough to sponsor my entry to the event and a happy man was I. On Saturday they had a great Expo where I caught up with Susan and Richard from Inov-8, my incredible sponsors. They were so busy that I didn't have much chance to chat though.

 
Before I go on I will tell you that this is one Festival with something for just about everyone! In the running/walking they have a 2km for the kids, a 5.5km, 10.5km and of course 21.1km. They have a 31km MTB race, a 42km Duathlon. Then there is a 9km paddle, 25km Grassroots Multi-sport Challenge, a 50km Premier Multisport Race (where Richard Ussher finally got knocked out of #1) and a 50km Team Multi-sports race. So the neat thing was that whole families were there competing in a range of totally different events.                                

 
Race morning dawned overcast with no sign of rain and a pleasant running temperature. Down at the race start area an hour early as always, I sucked in the atmosphere, watched the kids 2km race(left). Talked to a lovely lady from Te Puke about the merits of Rocktape and then taped her knee for her! Caught up with Tarawera Race Director Paul Charteris and met Geoff Higgins in person for the first time... also a quick catch up with the lovely Margo Southgate ever smiling who snapped my start-line pic (above).                    

And then we were off and straight away a change from last year's track. Just a subtle change but noticeable for a local! Out further towards the Nursery Hill road before we turned back into the forest. 

About 1km in and the first climb starts, the famous 'Green' trail through the Redwoods (below)... not up the stairs like this years Tarawera Ultra, but up the other side as in previous TUM's. A bit of running and a fair bit of walking for the 120m climb and then down the steps to the other side. 

 
A little scamper through the main Redwoods trails then off the side on a new 'locals trail' that I have not seen before, which soon joined the start of the next uphill. This in total was a 187m climb, but the first bit is one of my favourites in the forest... I have dubbed it Back Trail, I found out on the day that others call it Fern Gully, whatever the name it is a runnable climb on magic single track up to Tokorangi Pa Road.  

Once up there the climb continues to the very top point of the road. Unfortunately due to logging it has changed from a track to a forestry road for this section, but you are too busy slogging up the hill to be too concerned.

Then it was helter skelter down the back, 

..then cut across to the Tank to Town Trail which brought us down onto Tarawera Road. We then rattled downhill parallel to the road for a bit and cut across into a lovely piece of single trail that this race introduced me to last year. As you can see from the picture (right) it looks like virgin forest and yet this is less than 400metres from the roundabout at the bottom of Tarawera Road! 

All that was left was a quick zigzag across through main trails and some bush to the finish where... we took a left and headed out on lap 2! Whether it was the hangover from Huntly or just old-man's tiredness. 

 


I struggled a bit in this lap... mind you, I wasn't the only one. 

I still passed more than passed me, so I guess that's acceptable. I caught up with Geoff Higgins towards the top of Tokorangi Pa Road for the second time and he graciously zoomed a head to get a couple of

pics of me running up the hill, Thanks Geoff!

Caught a few more on the downhill sections towards the end and finished just over 2:12 which left me in 2nd position for my age-group. Felt a touch disappointed as I was about 5 minutes slower than last year... which is bloody stupid, cos the course was slightly different and this was my 3rd half in the previous 3 weeks.

On to the prizegiving that night and these guys do it well. Radio Sports controversial host Mark Watson was MC and the prize list was something to behold. I had a chance to catch up with Susan from Inov-8 for a little bit longer chat, she had done fabulously well finishing 3rd in her section of the 50km Multi-Sport Challenge!

All up a great day in my fabulous little corner of kiwiland and if you were not there then you missed out big time!