Trail running

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The UTK (Ultra Trail Kosciuszko) that wasn’t

I thought perhaps I should just write a follow-up about our plan to run the 100 mile event in 2022.

Maybe because it is a new event and to entice participants into entering super early (it worked!), the event had the option to carry over your entry at no cost to the next year should you not be able to do it for whatever reason. And back doors are dangerous – when there’s a back door, one is almost guaranteed to take it.

In our defence we did try. We started with a bang and were doing very well for a few months, slowly building up fitness. Then my mum got sick, and we had to make the trip back to the motherland. Travelling around the world, and back and forth between our families for more than a month, took its toll. What was meant to be a crucial time in our buildup, ended up being a next to no training month. Coupled with all the stress of travelling, missing a connecting flight due to a stuff up by Qantas with the first flight, and having to postpone everything by a week, rearrange and rebook everything, eventually arriving without luggage, the stress of a sick parent, and the list goes on, training was the absolute last thing on my mind. Plus, that back door was wide open.

Arriving back, exhausted, to horrible weather (it seems to be getting worse) – non-stop wind and sideways rain – our enthusiasm for the inaugural event was all but gone. So we made the call to transfer our entries to this year. It is not a good decision to have to make. One’s self-esteem takes a knock and you feel like a failure.

Following the proceedings leading up to the event on FB, I was met with a mix of FOMO and relief. It was snowing up in the mountain in the weeks leading up to, and still a few days out from, the event and it started to look like the compulsory gear would have to be next level. Some lack of communication and other hick-ups by the organisers – GPX files were not made available and final course maps were not shared until the last minute, perhaps because the course had to be changed TWICE due to snow and safety of runners, details about aid stations, drop bags, pacers, support crew, etc – resulted in participants getting anxious and angry. Tonnes of entries were sold off and transferred, and things were looking to be in a bit of a shambles. At the same time, those who stuck to it could boast to be hardcore, have grit, and able to deal with whatever life throws at them. Ultimately, I suspect the course routes need some serious rethinking and replanning for the years to come.

But, fingers crossed, we can get our act together and line up at the start end of this year. We bought a new watch. The Suunto 9 Peak Pro to replace the old one of more than eight years. It was time. And with new gear comes renewed enthusiasm. We have a rough idea of what we need to do, and where we need to be with our training each month. The overall aim is to get out the door six days a week, to build up slowly, never to skip the long-run, walk heaps, and do the occasional speed session. On top of that, we have to start focusing on strength training and flexibility. My buggered hips and misalignment need all the help they can get.

To 2023! May it be a good year for health and fitness.

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Inibos parkrun (Bloemfontein, South Africa)

Date: 23 July 2022
Distance: 5km
Time: 30:16 (Gerry, 30:50, even though we finished together)

On a visit to my homeland, we decided to do one of the local parkruns in Bloemfontein, the town I grew up in.

With the Comrades marathon – the pinnacle of South African road running (an 89km run between Durban and Pietermaritzburg, alternating the starting town from year to year) – being the largest and oldest on-road ultra in the world, the whole running calendar is geared towards getting about 15,000 (or 23,961 on the race’s 75 anniversary in 2000) participants thought the course in 12 hours every year. Some interesting facts about the race was published in Runner’s World.

This is a country with a lot of focus (unofficially) on running – a lot of people run (a small event would draw 1000 participants), and when we were still living here, a 6min/km pace would place one in the middle of the pack. In New Zealand, you can easily be last with a 6min/km pace. But things are changing, and with more people taking up the sport, the focus is increasingly more on participation, even in New Zealand.

In terms of parkrun, there are 206 parkruns in South Africa. The SA male and female parkrun records are 14:02 and 16:35 respectively, compared to NZ at 14:26 and 16:23. A faster male time in SA and a faster female time in NZ.

The Inibos parkrun is one of three parkruns in Bloemfontein, capital of the Free State province. In summer it takes place every Saturday at 7:00am (October – March) and in winter at 8:00am (April – September). Although parkrun is usually at 8am around the world, I guess an earlier start is granted in semi-arid and desert-type countries where the temperatures may pose problems in terms of heat exhaustion and sun stroke. It was quite a change moving to NZ where events rarely starts before 8am, when we were used to start at 6am and be finished with a 21k run by 8:00. Also, in summertime SA events would often start at 5am.

Inibos (a colloquialism for what would roughly translate to ‘in the bush’) is a private playground for runners, walkers, MTBers, kids’ quad bike rides, airsoft, and other adventures, with a picnic area and coffee shop. The course is run on gravel roads and single track trails. It is a double lapper of 2.5km with just a small uphill stretch in the middle of each lap. The familiar dead, yellow winter grass, dusty tracks, eucalyptus and other indigenous trees, not to mentioned prickly weeds that get into socks and shoes and eventually skin, bring back good memories of our running beginnings some twenty-plus years ago.

We started near the back, and soon had to pass some walkers and slower runners. Since we ran some twists and loops, we could see the runners ahead and behind us. The ground was uneven, solid and dusty, making it hand to just tune out and run.

We were going at a reasonable clip despite the fact that we’re running at 1500 metre altitude. Add to that my current ‘fitness level’ (or rather lack of fitness), and I was huffing and puffing like and old steam engine. But without totally killing myself I could manage a 6 min/km pace.

At the little hump at the finish where the volunteers recorded our time, the one lady edged me on to run quick and not let the men ‘beat us women’. I assumed she was referring to Gerry who was right behind me. On the clock on the wall I saw that my time was a bit over thirty minutes which is not flash, but I was happy to be able to achieve that. When the results came out, big was my surprise to be the first female (haha) and 13th overall out of 99 runners. This parkrun is perhaps more focussed on getting out and being social than running at speed, the way parkrun is intended to be.

We didn’t stay for any social activities afterwards as we didn’t want to be away from the family for longer than needed. It’s been seven years since we last made a trip to South Africa, making our long-overdue family time precious.

Perhaps next week we’ll try a different one.

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Kosci Kosci Kosci, Oi Oi Oi

Crossing that bridge to the unknown.

To say that the past two years didn’t take its toll, would be a lie. I thought I was reasonably okay with everything that surrounded the COVID-19 pandemic, but on hindsight, I did feel down and uninterested in most things. Especially with regards to running, training, events, and everything running related, but also going groceries shopping or even just out for coffee. The constant reminder via masks, the tracer app, QR codes, and the resistance-inducing smell of sanitiser, was all a bit overwhelming and distressing, and it was almost as if social distancing became attractive and comfortable – not needing to interact with others. It was promoted everywhere – keep your distance, stay two metres away from others, and so on completely the opposite of normal human behaviour, wants and needs.

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To Herepai peak and back

Date: 23 October
Distance: 12.7k
Time: 4:22

Just when I think we are back on track, running regularly, slowly building up the kms, something happens (in my head, I guess) and the enthusiasm dwindles. Perhaps the knowledge that my body is out of alignment, causing all sorts of semipermanent issues, is resting heavily in the back of my mind. The surgeon’s words keep repeating in my head; ‘better find yourself another sport’ and ‘forget about running’. A small part of me still thinks it is fixable, but that would involve a knowledgeable person/s (in terms of bone, muscle and fascia) who can work with me to iron out the wrinkles: lateral pelvic tilt, hip dysplasia, femoroacetabular impingement, weakness and knee pain, fused vertebrae, mild scoliosis, and the list goes on. None of it is life-threatening or so bad that normal life has to come to a halt. Pelvic instability is probably a fair name for my ailments. But I firmly believe that with the right help in terms of strength and flexibility in the right places, the ball of my femur will stay put and not fumble about in the socket causing pain. I do not see FAI as a death sentence or nearly as bad as surgeons make it out to be. When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Surgeons want to cut – that is their bread and butter.

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Barefoot and zero drop

This is neither a shoe review, nor expert advice. Just an observation.

There are so many theories out there about barefoot running and zero drop shoes, that it gets tangled up and one can easily just lump it all together as one concept. However, this is not the case, as I was sorely reminded of this week.

But first let me backtrack a bit. For the past five or so years, I’ve run in Altra. Since I always walk around barefoot in the house, going zero-drop was a no-brainer. No fuss, not frills, no getting used to it or gradually phasing it in. To be honest, I don’t think interchanging between zero-drop and six to eight or even ten millimetre is something that will really affect the average runner (if a blind test was done). But according to the experts, this is not the case and one shouldn’t just jump into zero-drop shoes.

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