Author: Wouna le Roux

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Bush Harriers Hansells 5k run/walk series – Pahiatua

Date: 11 March 2015
Distance: 5km
Time: 29.51

Stadium Pahiatua is the headquarters for the Bush Harriers’s events.
The handful of runners at the start of the 5km fun run.
I thought it might rain, but the weather turned out perfect.
Some artwork en route.
A scenic rural small-town course.
Impressive clouds added to the scenery.
We’re starting to catch some of the walkers who started 10 minutes earlier.
Course map.

At our previous running of this event (2014), I couldn’t believe the average running speed. Where are all the slow runners? Well no surprises therefore to be just about last again. I find it very amusing that running is taken so seriously (even at a fun run). It is seemingly not something you do for fun, at an easy pace, just enjoying the fact that you’re out there being active.

We were prepared this time. In fact, I’ve made peace with being last at every event I enter into. So incase anybody worries about being last – don’t. I’ll always be the tail-end-Charles. 🙂

It is probably not worth the 28km drive across the hill to Pahiatua for this, but still nice to run in a different environment. As was the case last time, I again walked away with a spot prize! Bananas. Very practical and always useful.

 

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Round the Vines

Date: 15 March 2015

Distance: 21.1km

Time: 2:13:43

Us two at the start in the town square.
Fancy dress was the order of the day.
Me and some ape hanging around in the gutter shortly before the start. 🙂
Running through vineyards and on quiet small town roads is just awesome.
One of the musicians. He played some good ol’ rockers to help keep our pace up.
Couldn’t believe the weather. Another perfect day in the Wairarapa.
The private farms and vineyards are normally closed to the public.
Having a laugh with fellow participants who we met at the campsite the night before.
Just follow the grapes.
Festive drink stations with at least wine, water, watermelon and grapes.
More entertainment en route.
Even the stretches on the larger roads were virtually traffic-free.
The themed drink stations were so much fun. The nurses and doctors at this water point (Shortland Street) was giving sustenance by squirting wine with a syringe down the suffering “patients” throat. 😀
More music to add to the festivities.
These youngsters waiting for the first few speedsters in the 10km event to come through before taking off on the last 3 or so kilometres.
Running around the vineyards next to shelter belts.
Gerry on another loop around the vines.
The barn band providing lots of entertainment on the route.
Gerry not holding back on the tastings.
But with such a spread, who can resist.
A band on the school grounds about 1.5km before the finish.
“Welcome home darling, the roast is in the oven. Have a glass of wine.” The Desperate Housewives drinks station was my favourite.
The largest number of participants is surely in the 10km walk?
Nice to see there’s still some hippies around!
Lifesavers from “Baywatch”.
And four wine barrels.
Band at the square keeping everybody entertained throughout the morning.
Sausage sizzle and a glass of wine to finish off a great event.
Prize-giving where it was mentioned that the event drew some 1500 participants.

This event is an absolute MUST on every runner, walker, crawler or otherwise breathing person’s calendar. It is the biggest jollification around with everybody dressing up and getting into the spirit of things, from the marshals to the drink stations, ushers and organisers. Words cannot describe the fun that is the Round the Vines. Continue reading →

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Mountain to Surf – New Plymouth

Date: 7 March 2015

Distance: 42.2

Time: 4:19.50

A perfect early morning start in the foothills of Mt Taranaki.
Start-selfie. with our regular pre-marathon mix of excitement and apprehension.
The first few downhill kilometres combined with the great weather, makes it very tempting to go out too fast.
Country roads meandering through dairy farms.
Gerry enjoying an easy run.
Fly fly away.
Friendly volunteer helpers at the well stocked aid stations.
Reaching SH3 – the first stretch on busy roads.
Approaching the halfway mark at Inglewood.
A little out-and-back section in town to make up the distance.
Lots of supporters makes this a jolly changeover.
After a good shower, the rain stopped and our clothes had time to dry out.
Back onto SH3 with congested traffic.
With one kilometre to go, we got another soaking. Coupled with the wind, I was near-hypothermic at the finish.
Happy, but shivering, at the finish.

Mountain? There was a mountain? As is the case more often than not, Mt Taranaki was tucked in under a thick blanket of cloud all weekend. So much so, that it was hard to figure out where exactly the mountain is supposed to be on our drive to New Plymouth. If I hadn’t been there and seen Mt Taranaki at numerous previous occasions, I would never have thought there’s a beautiful 2518m high volcanic cone, dusted at the top with snow.

Since TUM we’ve cut back on our weekly kilometres quite a bit. Needless to say, the week after the 100km event saw only a couple of walks with one or so short attempt at a “run”. As we didn’t burn it both ends at the Tarawera, our recovery was quite fast. Not that I’m fully recovered one month after the Tarawera, but I’m not injured and okey to do a little bit of training/maintenance for our next ultra – the Two Oceans 56km in South Africa. Apart from sensitive feet on Gerry’s part and a general lack of energy and lethargy on my side, we are nearly back on track one month after the Tarawera. The Mountain to Surf was placed perfectly in the middle of our post-Tarawera build-up towards the Two Oceans. Continue reading →

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First time centurion – the Tarawera Ultra 100km

Date: 7 February 2015
Distance: 100km
Time: 17:25.54

All photos by us, except the ones containing the TUM logo which are courtesy of Photos4sale and TUM. 

Happy to reach the finish. But leading up to this was a long journey …
Gerry at Te Puia, waiting for the opening ceremony.
Entering the Te Aronui a Rua Marae.
Nervous smiles before the big day ahead.
Wandering around Te Puia thermal world. The Pohutu Geyser putting up a show worthy of an international audience.
Malcalm Law, keynote speaker ahead of his High-5-O challenge. Very inspirational. (BTW, you can still text to contribute or make a donation.)
Q&A session with elite athletes from around the world. Seated LtoR: Pau Bartolo Roca, Dylan Bowman (2015 male winner), Jo Johansen, Nuria Picas-Albets, Mike Wardian, Robbie Britton and Ruby Muir (2015 female winner).
Nice touch – a stand at the expo where supporters can create signage to encourage their runners.
Daunting to see these registration tables and you know you have to go to the one with the longest distance.
All the entrants’ names were printed on a huge banner that featured outside the hotel.
I don’t think what lay ahead had sunk in at this stage yet.
Only a couple more minutes before the start. Can you feel the tension?
And away we go.
Only about 99.95km to go.
A few steps early on in the Redwood Forest on well maintained trails.
Beautiful scenery. Living here we sometimes lose sight of the lovely natural surroundings.
Long train of runners snaking through the forest.
Gerry clearly in high spirits.
Wonderful to run into a familiar face, June also from the Manawatu Striders.
A fantastic spread at the aid stations, fit for a king.
Running around Blue Lake. Little did we know when we first walked this trail in 2008 during a visit to NZ that we’d one day run this as part of a 100km ultra!
Happy days on the shores of Blue Lake.
“I can’t do this alone, oh oh oh oh o-ho…”
The variety of refreshments on offer made it difficult to choose, resulting in us perhaps spending a bit too much time at the early aid stations.
Sharing a laugh with the aid station crew.
No lack of fun and entertainment en route!
Aid station activities – eating, sorting out drop bags, filling water containers, checking gear.
Much of the day was run in the shaded forest, ensuring mild temperatures perfect for running.
Yet at the same time us Africans enjoyed the stretches in the sun, offering wider views of the rolling landscape.
Beautiful tree ferns lining the track.
Time for an aid station selfie! My cheeks bulging from sampling the spread on offer.
Slight change of scenery on the shores of Lake Okataina.
The heavy winds of the days leading up to the race left some challenging obstacles on the route.
More obstacles to slide over…
…or slip under.
Past the Tarawera Falls aid station (and 60km finish) the environment changed, with a greater percentage of the route run (or walked!) on forestry roads.
Made it! Having passed the final cut-off at the 70km Titoki aid station, we knew we just had to hang in there for another 30km to finish.
Not too impressed with the “arse-bitingly steep” hills on the loop of despair around the 80km mark.
Close to sunset, with just over 15km to go.
Over the final 5+ kms, many sections of the route were lit up with colourful fairy lights, turning our late night run into a forest fairytale. This picture doesn’t do it justice at all, but it was a really special experience.
Finally reaching the finish after almost 17.5 hours. Tired. but relieved and elated.
Such a special feeling, being able to experience these events together. I don’t know how lonely those hours in the dark must have been to solo runners.
A hug from organiser Tim Day, making each finisher feel special for having made it to the finish.
Receiving our lovely wood-cut Tarawera medals.
A special moment at the end of a very long day.
“Ju-ust the two of us, we can make it if we try…”

Turns out writing about a 100km event is just as hard as doing it. What can you say that hasn’t already been said before? Instead of repeating what you can read about the race on the comprehensive official website, I thought perhaps I should just give a broad overview of my experience of the race weekend.

We drove through to Rotorua (the venue for the race) on the Thursday, two days prior to race day, figuring it might be a good idea before taking on our first 100km run to arrive well in time and settle down before the event. The official opening was quite early on the Friday morning, so even more reason to arrive the day before. After the official race welcome (Powhiri) at Te Aronui a Rua Marae, Te Puia, things moved to the Holiday Inn where registration, the expo, talks, presentations and all the rest took place. It was a jolly occasion, with lots of athletes and their support crews pitching up for the pre-race activities. There was even a rogaine on the Thursday that drew quite a number of participants.

One of the highlights of the proceedings during Friday morning was the keynote talk by Malcolm Law. He really is an extraordinary person, being the first to do the seven Great Walks in NZ in seven days to raise money for leukaemia and blood cancer. This time around he is pushing his limits even further by attempting to scale 50 peaks, and in the process run a total of 50 marathons, in 50 consecutive days, of which the Tarawera Ultra marked the start. Through his extraordinary High-5-O Challenge Malcolm aims to raise $400 000 for Mental Health (having lost a brother-in-law to suicide). One of the things he said that stuck with me, was that if you ever think of doing something, just do it. And that is so true. All the things that I’ve ever thought of doing, but haven’t yet, still taunts me every day (like that PhD!). Another excellent point he made was that if something cannot be scientifically proven to be impossible, then it must be possible. Definitely something to keep in mind next time you feel something is “impossible”. Continue reading →

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Lake Kaniere track

Date: 3 January 2015
Distance: 22.8km
Time: 3:37

Hokitika is a gem of a town on the west coast of the South Island. How’s this for a super-quaint town sign?
The “spit” – a sand bank stretching into the sea creating a natural bay at Hokitika.
This cross near the spit has lots of hooks where different flags used to be attached, to inform incoming boats of the conditions at the entry of the bay.
We parked some distance from the actual start of the track and got a kilometre extra training on a jeep-track.
One of the very technical sections, with lots of roots, mud and uneven ground.
The sounds of boats and other “water toys” were humming in our ears for most of the first half.
Lake Kaniere visible through the trees every so often.
Some rocky sections, presumably side-streams running into the lake.
It was a really hot day and we did not take nearly enough water. I was hoping to get some at the other end of the track. Not to be, unfortunately, so we ended up pretty dehydrated.
A tricky little path.
A big climb at the end of the 11km before turning around and going back along the same path.

In the setting and frame of mind of The Luminaries (Gerry is finally making the time to read Eleanor Catton’s Man Booker Prize winning book), we arrived the evening before in Hokitika – historically a gold mining town. Driving up and down the city centre streets we tried to picture various scenes in the book, wondering which buildings (or remnants of buildings) might have featured in the story, which of the hotels might be the one where Moody walked into the closed meeting of the twelve men who’s collective experiences make up the novel. Standing at the “spit”, staring out at the ocean as the sun goes down, had us wondering if this was where some of the fictional characters in the book had also stood. This piece of land, the neighbouring harbour, and our subsequent drive up to Lake Kaniere, conjured up vivid visions of scenes from the book.

We saw the Lake Kaniere Track in a local brochure and decided it looked ideal for a trail run. What better way to experience a place than to do it by foot? New Zealand is literally a network of trails in every nook and cranny of the country. It is a trail runners paradise. Not only are you safe from muggings, but since there are no natural dangers like snakes, scorpions or spiders that can kill you, it really is the setting for an invigorating, stress-free run. Continue reading →