Off-road running

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Transcend 40km walk-jog

Date: 22 June
Distance: 40k
Time: 7:52

This is one of those ‘bastard’ events: it is not a marathon distance, but almost, and it is not an official walk-only event as stated on the website, you are allowed to run. Twice (on email and in person) the organiser confirmed that this is a do-what-you-want kind of event. The only issue is that if you run too fast, you might arrive at the aid station before they are set up, as they are timed to cater for the 65km runners.  The latter started an hour earlier than us, some 25km further up the track.

The  unfortunate thing about running at a ‘walking’ event is that other participants who don’t know that this is the case, treat you like a criminal. It is not a sanctioned event and there is no prizes or acknowledgement for participants who placed. It’s just an event. Do what you want, which is fantastic when you’re not super fit, or coming back from injury. The 40km event had 13 hours to finish, while the 65km event had 14 hours.

The 65km trail run is the main event, which we initially wanted to do when we started making plans to go to Perth a couple of months ago, but we soon realised we were in no state to do that. I’ve signed up for ultras when I really shouldn’t have before, and have managed to wing it. In hindsight I was obviously in a better place than is currently the case. I just knew that attempting the 65km was not going to end well.

Apart from the 65km, they included this 40km ‘walk’, a 6km trail run, and a kids dash.

During the week leading up to the event, Gerry attended a conference which ran over three days and four evenings. It started late Monday afternoon, and finished Thursday evening.

As we were staying near the city centre, I didn’t want to drive around on my own, so we decided to walk to and from the University of Western Australia where the conference was held. I opted to sit in the nearby cafeteria and work on my dissertation during the day. This meant that we walked 10km each day, which was better than nothing. There was no time in the day left to go for a run.

On Wednesday night, after the day’s conference proceedings, there was the gala dinner and awards ceremony where Gerry had to take some photos. It was also my birthday, and for the first time in 55 years I was by myself, on the fifth floor of an old block of flats, cooking dinner and having some bubbly. Another first for me – having a drink by myself. I’m definitely much more of a social drinker.

We were hoping to get our mandatory gear checked before the event at the Tribe & Trail shop, which was a 15min drive from our accommodation. Plus we still needed to buy a few things like a ‘specific snake bandage’. We hadn’t even started to think about sustenance for the event.

Tribe & Trail wasn’t open on the Friday, and Gerry was keen to attend the Thursday’s proceedings, so he opted to skip part of the Wednesday afternoon’s talks for us to get the event things sorted. After our gear was checked (our ‘snake’ bandage didn’t pass the test so we had to buy two from the shop at AU$10.50 each), we went for coffee and a huge slice of cake at a nearby beachfront restaurant as a quick birthday celebration.

Friday morning, we did laundry while vacating the flat for the trip to our next accommodation. It was a bit closer (about 2km away) to the event base at the Swan Valley Adventure Centre, and just as well as it took nearly an hour to drive out of the city to the holiday park. I did not envy the local runners who had to make that trip in the morning. Especially the 65km runners who started at 6:30am. Those who took the bus to the start, had to be at the event base at 5:15am. We started an hour later so caught the bus at 6:10am.

After we checked in and settled in our cabin, we went to the nearest supermarket to buy food for the event. I tried to remember what we usually eat on the run, as it has been a while since we’ve run/walked for 8+ hours. It was a bit of a hemming and hawing, backwards and forwards in the shop, but eventually we got a good range of flavours and textures. It is only 40km after all.

We tried to figure out how much to pack in our hydration vests, and how much to put in the drop bag. We opted to have a drop bag at the end of the second leg (the 40km covered the final three legs of the 65km which had five legs), with dry socks, a clean handkerchief and headband, and more food in case needed. Having a gluten intolerance means I can often not eat what’s on offer at the aid stations. We searched through all the jelly sweets in the supermarket, and couldn’t find any that didn’t contain gluten. Ditto for crisps.

A week before the event the weather forecast looked like it might rain all day. During the week the forecast changed to heavy rain in the morning, clearing during the day, with rain again from the late afternoon. We brought rain pants with and I was contemplating wearing them if it was going to be that wet. Wind was also in the forecast, and quite strong to boot also from the afternoon. Someone mentioned somewhere that it was only 4°C the year before (turns out it was only early morning – the sun came out and the day was perfect).

At registration the night before, I couldn’t believe how ‘big’ and sorted the event was. A good assortment of food stuffs were available outside the hall. Even a mobile wood fired pizza cart. The pizzas looked fantastic. People were mulling around, chatting, eating and generally seemed happy and content with life.

We got our race bags with bibs, an event t-shirt and headband, and queued for the GPS trackers. These were quite big and weighed a bit. It was almost like a normal GPS device, with the option of a distress button. Outside the main hall, we waiting by the food carts (very tempting) for the next showing of the welcoming and race briefing video in the hall next door. One of the organisers were present with additional information, and to answer questions. With all the boxes ticked, we went home to cook dinner, have a shower, and try to go to bed early.

During the night/early morning (4am) when I first looked out the door it had started to rain. Admittedly I wasn’t looking forward to spending the whole day in the rain. I had no idea what the terrain would be like or how fast we might be able to move. All I knew was that there were loads of stairs, and the elevation was 1620m for the 40km. Even though that was quite a lot, I still thought it might be comparable with the North Range ultra which had similar elevation, but over a 50k distance (which wasn’t that tough). I guess 10km shorter makes a massive difference to a similar elevation, as this was next level steep, especially given my current state.

As we drove to the event base in the dark before 6am, it rained. Arriving at a almost deserted carpark, apart from runners huddled under a roof to avoid the rain, it was calm, quiet, and not much wind. It was cool, but not super cold. I even decided to leave my small thin down jacket, which is very unusual for me – I always take them as they weigh next to nothing and make a huge difference. I still had two t-shirts (a body hugging second skin, and a normal one), a polypropylene vest (plus a spare in my pack) and my rain jacket. But no gloves and no beanie, as Perth is apparently really not super cold in winter.

The bus arrived on the dot at 6:10am and waited another few minutes for some late comers. The rainy trip to the start at Walyunga Scenic Lookout took a wee while, so we decided to download the GPX file for the course. This was totally unnecessary as the course was marked very well. We arrived shortly before 7am and were dropped off near the lookout in the Avon Valley National Park in the rain (on private land?) by a shed with fires going outside in metal drums. One of these fires were also used shortly before the start for the welcoming and smoking ceremony by the local indigenous Aboriginal people for safe passage. The smell of the smoke was so familiar and comforting, and confirmed why I love sitting outside by a fire so much. I have wonderful memories relating to outside fires, and it always makes me feel at home.

Still raining at 7:30am we were off without much of the typical race fanfare. Judged by the race coverage (and video online), it was a different story for the 65km runners. We were about 50 participants, while the 65km field had 150 runners. Overall not a big event by numbers, but man oh man, it is a huge event. It kicked the arse of big events like Tarawera and UTA in terms of everything, from online entries, registration, gear checking, merchandise, to the actual course, volunteers, aid stations,.and finish line celebrations.

First leg (3rd for the 65km) – 12km, 2:22
Nissen Hut, Paruna Sanctuary

After a 400m walk along a gravel road (which placed us right in front of the pack without much effort), we started following a track going downhill. Halfway down, we had to stop as my shoelace came undone. I was still going to do them up before we started, but was so relaxed I forgot about it. A few of the other participants came past us running, and we decided to followed suit at a very slow pace for very short stints as the terrain just wasn’t conducive to running, for me. Some stairs (muddy and filled with water) took us down to out first creek crossing. And then the climbing started. Heaps of stairs that slowed me down to a snails pace took us to a high point. Only to go straight down again, followed by another straight up and down again. And that was more or less the format of the first leg. Except, after the first set of stairs going up the mountain, the remaining ups and downs looked like we were using fire roads, going straight up and down instead of following a contour or having switchbacks. Since these were very steep both up and down, I found it impossible to run, especially for my current unfit, unconditioned state.

So even though we jogged small bits here and there, I was forced to walk the bulk of the course. All up I doubt that we jogged more than 5km of the 40km.

Needless to say, my legs were completely shattered after the first 12km. I stumbled into the aid station and wasn’t sure how I was actually going to finish the 40km, if things didn’t improve drastically. We checked in, filled one bottle with coke and the other with water, took a mandarin and pear for the road, quickly downed a Red Bull, and were on our way again. The rain finally stopped not long before, and we could take off our rain jackets which were soaked inside and out.

Second leg (4th for the 65km)– 16.5km, 3:10
Valley Camp Ground, AVNP (Avon Valley National Park)

The second leg follows the Avon River and railway line. It is undulating, with a few short sharp ups and downs. This could have been a running leg for the most part, had I been in better condition. My muscles were so buggered that I started to look like I was walking on eggs.

The sun was out, and so was the wind, especially in certain parts of the valley. The first 65km runners started to pass us. We followed a 4WD track, with a short section through a rocky and tree fallen patch, before joining up with the Jeep track again.

Arriving at the aid station, a volunteer brought over our drop bag (drop bags were an option at all the aid stations, and we decided to make use of this one). We still had enough food, but I was keen to swop socks for a thinner pair. My feet were quite swollen and I could feel a black toenail coming on.

I’ve lost my big toenails more times than I care to remember. A friend once told me that you only get seven new ones, and then it won’t grow back again. Haha. I can confirm that he was just pulling my leg. The last time I lost one, was in 2015 at the Tarawera 100k run. It took more than eight years to grow back. It was only last year that it started to look normal again. I knew it wasn’t. It hadn’t grown back all the way to the front and was thicker than it used to be. But it looked ‘normal’. This toe was so swollen that I knew the nail might come off again.

After peeling some mandarins for the road, Gerry had some baking and jelly sour sweets, before we were off on the last leg.

Third leg (5th for the 65km) – 12.5km, 2:20
Finish Cobbler Pool

Shortly after a steep downhill on a muddy 4WD track we started on a 4km relentless uphill. It was more gradual than any of the other uphills, and should be runnable if you’re fit.

But of course, what goes up, must come down, and we were again treated to some very steep downhills followed by more uphills. Worst part was that after the first 4km on the gravel road, we were walking through farmland with no trail. It was cambered and rough in places, and being totally buggered by then didn’t help.

We passed a small aid station for the 6km runners, and took another Red Bull for the last few kilometres. We could hear the finish line celebrations in the distance, and I just wanted it to be over.  Naturally the finish was on an uphill, but I was just glad to have made it in under eight hours.

This is a super tough run, and I’m very glad we didn’t enter the 65km run. Gerry had Covid again some time back, coupled with some other things that derailed our training, so we opted for the walk. How hard can it be? Well, let me tell you, it was ridiculously tough. I did not expect that. Since we walk more than we run the past few months, I thought I should be okay. And was it a flattish marathon on the road, I would have been fine, and might even have managed to finish in under six hours. But the 1632m elevation over 40km took its toll. I was not ready for that, and definitely not used to tough terrain, let alone wearing a hydration vest.

Apart from a handful of pademelons on grassy patches, and some ants, I didn’t seen any other animals. We could hear birds, more in some places than others, and it was obvious a trapping program was in place, judged by all the catch-traps out on the course.

The first bus (which we booked) only arrived ten hours after the 40km start, so we had to wait two hours for it. Initially I thought we would take a shower and hang around enjoying the party at the finish line, but I was too buggered to move. I parked myself in a sunny spot, as it was getting chilly in the final hours of the day, while Gerry collected the complimentary glass of beer. Unfortunately they didn’t have any cider (as promised) so Gerry had both mine and his. He also bought us fries and coffee to try and keep warm.

The drop-bags hadn’t arrived back at the finish line yet, so we had to make another plan to get it. If I had one complaint, or could make one suggestion, it would be to bring back all the used drop-bags in time for the first bus. Instead, they were taking everything back to Tribe & Trail after the event, which wasn’t open on the Sunday or Monday. Since we left for NZ the Monday evening, Gerry had to make special arrangements to collect it from the shop owner’s house.

On the bus taking us back to the event base, the most gorgeous full moon accompanied us. It was dark already and the trip took about an hour and a half. Once back, we went to the nearest Indian for take-aways, still covered in mud and smelling from a distance. Back home, we had a quick shower, poured a glass of wine, and had left-over salad with the curry.

It was my first ‘run’ in a new age group, and one that confirmed I have a lot of work to do in terms of mobility, stretching and strengthening before our next trail ultra, not to mention run training.

The event had no medals, but instead you plant a tree. Every participant also had to pick up five pieces of rubbish, and raise AU$20 for the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (thanks Nina for donating the money!) As a textile artist I focused my efforts on textile rubbish.

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Baldwins Bluff Trail

Date: 16 June
Distance: 10km
Time: 1:30

After our parkrun, we visited some art galleries in Perth, had lunch, washed down with beer/cider at Picabar, bought some food for two days, before heading south out of Perth. It was about an hour’s drive into the ‘heart of the captivating Darling Ranges’, when we arrived at the Serpentine Falls Tasman Holiday Park where we stayed a couple of nights. It was already late afternoon, so we poured a glass of vino and started with dinner.

During the night I thought I heard raindrops. But in the morning it was sunny and another gorgeous day greeted us. Rain was forecasted, so we decided to drive the scenic route through the Serpentine National Park. By 10am it was clouded over and a soft rain started to fall. At the historic town of Jarrahdale we stopped at the Jarrahdale Local PO Kitchen for coffee and lemon tart. The air smelt clean and everything was covered in a shiny wet layer. Tourists, locals and a biker gathering had the cafe buzzing with patrons on this Sunday morning.

The narrow road winds it’s way through eucalyptus (jarrah), in red and rocky soil. I was surprised to not have seen a echidna yet. The environment reminded me of our first venture into Australia (Tasmania) when we saw our first echidna. I was intrigued to read about their 4-headed penises (which are not used to urinate!).

A few more sightseeing stops in the rain, including a visit to the Serpentine Dam, and we completed the round trip back at our accommodation for lunch.

Gerry had to finalise his poster for the conference, and as soon as that was done, we went for a jog-walk to Serpentine Falls and the Baldwin Bluff trail. It was nearly half-4pm, and the sun would be setting in a couple of hours, which was a minor concern. But not enough to deter us.

From our accommodation it is 1.6km to the parking area. We walked the first kilometre which was next to the road, before starting on a slow jog into the park. From the parking area we jogged the 400 metres to the falls where massive swimming holes are located. The water was dark and looked eerie, but clean and almost inviting (if you’re that way inclined). Strangely enough, we are five days out from the shortest day of the year, and the temperature was warm and comfortable (19 degrees C). I can imagine people might go for a swim, even at this time of year.

After the quick in and out to the falls, we took on the Baldwin Bluff Trail which went in the opposite direction from the falls out of the carpark. It is a 6km trip out-and-back, meaning the first three are mostly uphill. There were bits of downhill and the last kilometre was flat-ish with just a minor ascent, totally runnable.

Underfoot was quite rocky, and my old self – watching out for snakes underfoot – kicked in immediately. There were a number of other people making their way up the hill, but mostly people were coming down the track back to the carpark, as it closes for vehicles at 5pm. We were huffing and puffing going uphill to the lookout as fast as we can. With all the action, snakes would presumably have scurried away anyway.

At the far end, we saw a pademelon pair grazing on the foliage. We could see the campsite where we stayed down below in a distance, about 5km away (only two as the crow flies).

We started on the downhill, which went a bit quicker than going uphill, although the tripping hazard slowed me down to the occasional walk. We reached the completely deserted carpark at around 5pm, and had a sip of water before heading out of the park. The last kilometre (as with the first one) we walked along the road from the park gate back to the accommodation.

It is a lovely trail, and I’m happy we could fit it in before dark.  

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Mangahao Power Station to Reservoir #3

Date: 2 June
Distance: 16.5km
Time: 2:15

Yesterday we entered the Old Ghost Ultra, an 85km trail run, traversing the Lyell mountain range. It has been on our list (that endlessly long pipe dream list of events) for a long time, and when the countdown to the opening of entries was ticking down, Gerry and I were both sitting with laptops, ready to click click click, pay $360 each and Bob’s your uncle. It was much easier than I thought to get on the starters list – a list of only 300 participants.

Perhaps we got a bit carried away in the moment of trying to be one (two) of the lucky ones that ‘got in’, but now here we are. Entered, and a bit less than nine months to get ready.

Despite a reasonably good start in March (169km), the following two months were again a hit and miss. We just couldn’t keep it consistent. In April we managed seventeen activities and 197km, and in May nineteen activities and only 139km. Gerry was sick with who knows what, couldn’t/didn’t want to eat for about week, and generally felt unwell. With winter around the corner and the weather challenging to top it off, running was taking a back seat.

But with entries to an event that sounds fantastic in all respects, we decided to celebratenby going out for a run-walk where we haven’t been before. Thinking of venturing into the Otaki Gorge to summit Mount Hector, we soon realised it might be a bit too ambitious for my current fitness state. On top of the trail itself which is about 13-15km one way, and about 1400m straight up the mountain, there’s another 6.3km hike down the gorge road and over a massive slip. All up, the outing would have been nearly a marathon distance, with a lot of elevation, and only nine hours of daylight. It didn’t seem realistic.

So off to Shannon we went for a trip to the three dams in the Tararua Range . We knew about these reservoirs and were curious to see what it looked like. The plan was to drive to the Tokomaro No 3 Reservoir (8km from the Power Station at the bottom), then jog-walk past the Mangahao No 2 Reservoir to the Mangahao No 1 Reservoir, about 9km further into the mountain. But driving past the power station and starting the steep shingles single lane road, we soon decided that we’d rather have a look on foot before attempting it by normal car. There aren’t really turn-around spots and we weren’t sure what the condition of the road would be like.

That meant that we wouldn’t be able to make it to the furthest reservoir, as again, that would result in nearly 40km out and back if we don’t drive half of it to the campsite.

The road was reasonably steep, mostly uphill (490m) for 8km, of which we walked the bulk of it. About two-thirds in, a 1.2km downhill section was most welcome, before heading up again over the last kilometre or two to the reservoir.

The Arapeti campsite is basically just a clearing in the bush, overlooking the dam. No toilet (which I was hoping for, but ended up having to pee in the bush) and no water.  And no shelter, just an information board with photos about the erection of the dam wall. We looked around and walked to a small building, before starting to make our way back downhill.

The road was wet from the recent rain, and cool in the shade, but fortunately the temperature was about 13 degrees C with only a very light to almost no wind. Having said that, the cloud cover changed the mood to ominous. Seeing all the shot gun shells and alcoholic drinks bottles and cans next to the road, didn’t help. Add to that the usual dumping of rubbish, and you have me worried about the types that frequent this road. One such dump site even had photographs strewn in the ditch, while a couch was set alight in another spot with a dirty nappy, amongst the rubbish, still laying in a puddle next to the burned out couch.

We saw three guys on scramblers (off road motorbikes), not together, a girl on a MTB, a fancy new-ish ute, an SUV, a farmer and his wife in a clapped out old ute with a dead pig on the back, a party of two 4WDs, and two boy racer-type utes, on the road. The latter two (4WD and boy racers) being the types you do not want to encounter while on foot on a narrow gravel road. With revving engines, racing up the mountain, one on foot is very exposed with nowhere to go or hide. Sheer drop off in most places makes for a very scary road, especially by vehicle.

Back at the car, safe and sound, we poured coffee from the thermos, and ate some corn cakes with cheese and salami, before heading home. It was still an enjoyable outing despite the somewhat uncomfortable feel of it all. It’s amazing how ones mind can go off on a tangent when the mood (and the weather!) is just right, and you start to look for dead bodies floating in the dirty brown water beneath the dam wall, or a dead tramper next to the road, run over by someone drunk or drugged.

Perhaps I should stop watching crime series or movies. Hehe.

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Glen Oroua School fundraiser – lumpty dumpty

Date: 7 April 2024
Distance: 13km
Time: 1:33

After our last event at Tekapo (50km) in September 2023, our running dwindled quickly, and eventually came to a halt. School assignments had to be finished which included work for an exhibition in the middle of November. With no exercise and working around the clock, I got my first experience with covid which had me feeling crappy but less so than with flu. After three weeks, just as I was starting to feel better, the dreaded ‘cough cold’, which is worse than covid I’ll have you know, got the better of me. I strained intercostal muscles from all the coughing which put me out of the game for months (3 to be precise).

By the end of December, beginning of January, I figured I had to start doing something, so we went for easy walks. I was still out of breath from covid and the cold, so running wasn’t going to happen any time soon. I did attempt a jog once, but it was too hard with sore ribs and lungs that didn’t work.

Then came our trip back to the motherland where we again fell back into laziness, doing no running or walking for six weeks. That was the last straw. I was going to have to start over – no leg memory, no natural pace or rhythm, a heavier body to drag around, tightness, and cranky knees and hips. It was downright awful. I felt like a sack of potatoes every time I tried to run.

Nonetheless, it had to happen. I’m not done with running yet, so we started again on 4 March. Being a firm believer in the power of walking, we decided to walk 4km and run 4km every day. With every day I mean do it the first day, be buggered for four days before attempting it again. The second time I was again buggered for a couple of days, but the following week we could do four outings, and so things progressed. All up we managed about 20 run-walk outings for the month of March., most of them 4-walk-plus-4-jog. The two disciplines are slightly different, working different muscles, and to me it is a huge help when trying to get fit again. I can double up on the mileage without straining myself by running everything. Over the five days of the Easter weekend we extended the outings to 11km, running about half interspersed with walk breaks.

Then this event came along. Since we haven’t done any events in what felt like ages, we were keen to do one. Always more fun suffering with others around a course.

Although it was listed in the running calendar, it wasn’t well advertised, as was evident from the number of participants. Or perhaps the price tag and terrain was a deterrent? I counted 21 across all the run events (3k, 7k, 10k and 13k), and the bike event didn’t seem to have many more, as was the case with the walking event. Which is a shame being a fundraiser and all.

Since we started running again in March, our longest continuous run was about 4.5km, and I battled to keep to a 7min pace. Even though there was progress I felt like I wasn’t ever going to be fit again. I was uncertain whether I could or should try to run 13km, but at $40 entry fee regardless of what distance you do, I wasn’t going to do anything other than the longest event. Lunch (beautiful burgers) was included as well as dessert, but I still found it to be a bit dear, especially for those who came for a 3k walk. And also my allergies meant I couldn’t eat anything on offer, not even the chews at the drink stations.

Which brings me to the ‘course’. It is one big loop on a farm, private land so no worries about traffic which was great. Two water points on the course were placed at about 5km and again at about 8km stocked with water and chews. The organisers and all the volunteers were super friendly and supportive. Everything was wonderful except … But I’m getting ahead of myself.

At 9am the bikes were sent off, and five minutes later the runners, followed by the walkers. Surprisingly, once I got going, familiarity kicked in and I felt completely at home and ready for what was to come, despite really not being fit enough. Leg memory came back and the sack-of-potatoes-feeling partly subsided.

Although near the back of the pack, we managed a pace slightly under 7min/km. However in the last few kilometres I slowed down to over seven and sometimes 8min kilometres to average a 7:06/km pace. This was due to the increasingly rough terrain, which was just unnecessary and silly the last couple of kilometres.

Which brings me to the terrain underfoot. It is no secret that I despise running in paddocks. The terrain is just too uneven and bumpy, and a challenge on ankles and feet. Short stretches were on gravel roads and reasonably even, but other stretches went through small pine forests, which wasn’t as smooth and flat as I expected. Apart from windfall, pine cones, etc, we were running on a motocross track. This means a million little humps to run over, the kind where a motorbike would fly over a few humps at a time, but I wasn’t going quick enough! I found this a bit annoying.

The last 3km took us through bigger bike loops, humps, and hills, followed by a very rough cut stretch through weedy bushes which was downright terrible. Stumps sticking out, weeds  strewn on the sandy ‘path’, and heaps of tripping opportunities, turned this into an unpleasant finish.

On the bright side, I jogged pretty much all of it. I was a great test to see where I’m at, and I was pleasantly surprised to be able to jog 13k almost continuously when push comes to shove.

Would I do this event again? Probably not, unless the entry fee and course change. 😀

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Race Tekapo

Date: 16 September 2023
Distance: 50km
Time: 7:51

During the week leading up to the event, we followed the weather predictions closely, and things were looking increasingly grim. When an outing like this starts to get into the thousands of dollars, you don’t want anything to derail your plans. Winds of up to 100km/h (130km higher up the mountain) and a possibility of rain starting from 1pm were in the forecast for the event, according to YR. MetService had the rain starting at 4pm. We had all our compulsory gear, plus a few more layers (yes, I’m a wuss when it comes to extreme weather), and were crossing everything for not too bad weather.

The trip down was fine, but exhausting. We flew from Wellington early on Friday morning, so had to get up at 3:40am to drive down well in time. The wind was blowing like no tomorrow the day and evening before, and I was worried trees might be down/on the road, increasing our travel time. Fortunately nothing of the sort, and we could drive down in good time. The wind was still very strong, blowing our little car across the road, and I was stressing about the flight. I’m not a big fan of turbulence or sideways landings, but when we reached Wellington, it was calm and beautiful. I could not be more relieved. The flight was okay, a little bit of turbulence, with a decent landing in reasonable windy conditions, as Christchurch was more windy than I hoped.

When we walked out of the airport, the temperature was already a few degrees cooler than Wellington and Palmy. The rental car guy picked us up at the airport and drove to their place to sort the paperwork. Once we were on our way, we made by a quick trip to the supermarket for some last food stuffs, before making our way to Lake Tekapo. It is about a three hour drive and we were hoping to take it easy, stopping along the way, and not feel too rushed. It was about 10am when we left Christchurch.

Not a whole lot was happening along the way, and not many towns to stop for coffee or a breakfast. Most places were still closed. Fairlie, on the other hand, was bursting at the seams with queues out the door at some eateries and coffee shops. After a walk through town to find some hot chips and coffee, we eventually gave up and decided to stick to the bread, cheese and salami we bought at the supermarket. Why does one always want something other than what you have on hand?

We arrived at our accommodation at about 3pm, checked in, got our gear ready, and walked the 750m to the event registration. Registered and with a bib, goody bag which included a race branded Thir headband (!), our compulsory gear checked and drop bags dropped off, we made our way back to the lodge as it was starting to get dark. While cooking dinner, we shared a cider, and cranked up the heaters.

The temperature was already in the single digits and dropping though the night. Prediction was for minus one at the start of the race. When we got up, yet again before 4am, it was one degree Celsius. But the best part was there was almost no wind! It was obviously going to pick up sooner rather than later, but our 1.2km walk in the dark to the start was just very cold, not super duper cold from wind chill.

Race briefing was at 5:40am, and at 6am on the dot we were off – to the theme music of UTMB: Vangelis’ Conquest of Paradise. Haha. That was quite funny, but for the first few kilometres I was humming the tune in my head thinking, dreaming, about doing the UTMB one day.

From the start we went straight onto the walkway next to the lake, across a footbridge, past the Church of the Good Shepherd, and into the forest. The sun was starting to rise and by the time we reached the first aid station just on the other side of the forest (at 3.7km) we could turn off our headlamps. We ran a big loop in what looked like a paddock. Huge rabbit holes were strewn across the field, which reminded me of a time when I was 13 years old when I stepped into some animal’s burrow and nearly disappeared down the hole. I was in agony afterwards from spraining a few things, and to this day I wonder if that had anything to do with my wonky spine.

Back at the aid station, we stuffed ourselves with the wonderful spread of oranges, Heartland chips, Pam’s jet planes, and biscuits. The chips and jet planes were gluten free which was fantastic. Normally I can’t have anything at aid stations as most jelly sweets do contain gluten, and we have to carry our own sustenance.

We were going quicker than I anticipated, doing the first 10k in 1:15. Considering it was nearly flat and very easy underfoot, one could go at speed. But this was meant to be an event for us to take easy, not break ourselves, and just enjoy a long day out. But of course doing the first 10 so ‘quick’, I figured we could potentially try to do each 10k in one hour thirty minutes, to finish in about 7h30. It is still reasonably slow, and shouldn’t have a long tail of recovery. We had 15 minutes in the bank for when we have to go over Mt John, which would no doubt slow us down.

After a whirl around the forest of which parts are being felled, we headed back long the edge of the lake towards the start at about 21k. Passing next to the start/finish area, we topped up our waterbottels, feasted on the spread, and headed off towards the mountain. Although it is only about 300m elevation, the ascent is over a 2k distance – quite steep with no respite. A big part of the ascent was also in a forest and sheltered from the wind. But once we popped out above the forest, it was rather windy. And cold. I’ve started with five layers, got down to four layers, but had to put on my fifth layer again. My buff and beanie hadn’t come off yet, and neither the gloves. With a 6am start, it was still early in the morning and very cold. The poor marshals out on the course and on the mountain, just standing and waiting, must have been freezing.

Once partway down the other side of the mountain, we were diverted onto a sealed road that took us on a steep downhill to the aid station at 28k. We opted to have a dropbag there with more sustenance, some gherkins and prosciutto. We also added rain pants to the dropbag incase the forecast came true and it started to rain at 1pm. We passed the aid station twice (again at 43k) and could access these items on any of the two occasions.

Past the aid station, we took a right to run down another sealed road for another couple of kilometres before being directed back onto the trails. We were running downhill towards Lake McGregor, followed by a long stretch next to Lake Alexandrina. At about 33k on a grassy patch, my feet caught on thin air and I took a roll in the meadow. Luckily there weren’t rocks and the landing was fairly soft. However, all my weight came down on my right arm, which felt quite sore afterwards. Fingers and other joints could still move, albeit sore, so I figure nothing was broken despite the pain.

The stretch next to the Lake Alexandrina felt like it went on forever. At times the track was quite cambered, on top of being quite narrow, making running a bit more challenging. But having said that – this is the easiest most runable 50k I’ve done so far. Apart from the (about) 5k of steep climbs, the whole course is reasonably flat and easy underfoot. Some rocks in parts , and the potential for slippery mud on the downhill coming back off Mt John, but mostly very easy terrain.

We exited from the Lake Alexandrina trail at about 41k, to follow a gravel road back to the aid station at ’41k’ (it was at about to 43.5k). Still filled up from all the goodies at the aid stations we didn’t bother with our drop bag. Moved it to the ‘used’ pile and started on the uphill again. Despite the wind and it being reasonably cold, I took off my fifth layer (a thin down jacket) and gloves and put it in the outside pocket of my hydration vest.

At the top of the incline (about halfway up Mt John again), and with about 6k to go, we dropped down the other side, making our way to the finish. We passed a couple more 50k runners and a few of the 32k runners in this last stretch.

Unfortunately, somewhere in the last 6k, my little down jacket and gloves blew out of my bag and into oblivion, I guess. I hoped that another runner who may have come across it, might pick it up and hand it in, but sadly I haven’t heard anything yet (nine days later). Still crossing my fingers, but not holding my breath.

At the finish it was blowing a gale. We were wet from sweat, and started cooling down quickly. This was when I noticed my jacket was missing.

Gerry bought us mocchas at the coffee cart, we collected our dropbag, and started walking the 1.2km back to the lodge. After a shower, we headed back to the track and walked about 3k back along the course to see if we could find the jacket, but no luck.

With the horrible wind, prize-giving was moved from the race village next to the lake to the community hall where we had registration. Unfortunately this was so small that more than half the people had to stand outside, unawares of what was going on. When the numbers for the spot prizes were called out, the bush telegram were passing the numbers around outside the hall.

Afterwards, while people were bursting out the doors, we headed inside to find the white board with bib numbers written on it for minor spot prizes. Gerry got a spot prize and picked a pair of Creeper wool toe socks for me, which I can’t wait to try out. He also got a couple of free beers.

We headed home to cook the meat we bought, boil some potatoes and have salad, washed down with a red. By then my arm was so sore that I was certain something was fractured or cracked. I could not use it at all, and moving it in certain directions was pure agony. And everything else was more sore than I hoped it would be. Our latest long outings where we walked most of the way, meant I wasn’t very sore afterwards and recovered quickly. But we jogged more than I planned during this event, which resulted in more pounding. We were near the back and I felt bad for keeping the volunteers waiting in the cold, even though we made the ’41k’ cutoff with more than an hour and a half.

This remains the challenge in the NZ running scene  – people don’t want to participate if they’re not fast. Which means that running isn’t really inclusive. This would be a very good event for someone new to the distance, but with only a 121 participants in the 50k (6 DNS and 4 DNF) and a winning time of 3:49 (male), 4:06 (female), the field is very spread out and the back of the packers are few and far between. The slowest time was 8:48.

If we lived on the South Island I would do this event every year. It’s easy enough, great underfoot (when not wet), and fantastic organisation. The aid stations are wonderful, the course is well marked, and the event branded Thir headband was just the cherry on the cake.

During the night the wind picked up even more (is it even possible?) and it started to rain. The wheelie bins with giant rocks on them at our lodge blew over, and things looked terribly grim in the morning. I counted my lucky stars that race day was the day before things turned really nasty. We started gathering all our stuff, and packed for the road trip back to Christchurch. A quick drive through the village (we usually just pass through on the main road), while it was raining coupled with strong wind, before taking the highway. This time we decided to take the scenic route back, which to me looked the same as the other road. Or did I miss something?

We stopped for coffee at the one horse village of Burke’s Pass, but after a look around we ended up leaving without coffee. We drove past Kimbell, visited The Garage Gallery, and later stopped for filter coffee at the Fairlie Heritage Museum.

After taking the rental car back, we checked in at he airport and waiting for our turn. People were milling around and I dreaded the thought of having to fly in the horrible wind. The tail end of some of the strongest winds ever recorded in NZ (246k/h at Cape Turnagain, on the eastern side on the North Island) was blowing outside as we were waiting to board the plane. I found it hard to imagine flights were going ahead in the atrocious conditions.

Taking off was quite bumpy and a lot of turbulence. It was scary, but as we approached Wellington, it just got worse. I didn’t want to look, but the last time I did, the see was white and the water obviously super choppy. I closed my eyes and hoped for the best, when the pilot suddenly pulled up full throttle only to make a U-turn and head back to Christchurch. Three planes before us were already diverted, as were flights to Dunedin. All these flights were going to Christchurch. The landing was, given the circumstances, not too bad, but not the kind one would like to repeat.

With long queues of passengers trying to find out what next, emotions were running high and people were grumpy. Luckily Gerry was nearer the front end and could get a flight back to Wellington the next morning (it seemed almost too soon, as the stormy weather was still lashing the country), and also a nights accommodation at the Sudima Hotel. As we walked the 400 metres to the hotel, we chatted to another lady who was diverted from Dunedin. I couldn’t help but think to myself; what if the weather was so atrocious everywhere and there was nowhere to land? Which made me angry that the airlines took the chance in the first place. But I’m assuming they know what they are doing.

While we waited at the hotel to get helped, we bought a glass of wine at the bar, and just revel in being safely on the ground.

The next day we had breakfast at the airport, while our flight was delayed three times, in order for the wind to die out a bit. It was still blowing strong, but the water was less choppy and the landing was, again, not too bad given the circumstances.

Back home, two massive branches of a pine tree fell on the chicken coop and caused a lot of damage. The tree lost its central leader while it was still a small tree 14 years ago, and grew a heap of branches in its place. Some of these have the circumference of a pregnant sheep, and it was one of these that came down. The havoc it caused is immense: a row of Puhutekawa threes are all flattened on the one side, and some lost all branches. Our remaining apple tree (the other one drowned during winter) took a beating on the one side and some other indigenous tree are also damaged. The amount of work to clean up is vast, and will take a long while before we will have it all done.

Unfortunately, my arm (the one I fell on) took a turn for the worse. By the Friday after the event, I went to a doctor as I was sure something was cracked of broken. Turns out it must be torn ligaments and/or muscle. I was referred to the Hand Physio, but could only get an appointment in ten days time.

In the meantime, I’m pretty useless, and battle to see how I’m going to get everything done that need doing in the next couple of months (school work, cutting grass, pruning olives, cleanup pine tree, fix chook house, and the list goes on). On top of everything, I also picked up a cold of sorts, so no running anytime soon.

That’s the way it goes. Life will throw curve balls. We just need to figure out how to catch them.