Training

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Mukamuka Munter

Date: 15 August 2021

Distance: 32k (we measured 31.7k)

Time: 5:48

Since our eight months hiatus last year, we have been running reasonably consistently from the beginning of this year, working on a decent base. It has been tough, and slow going. We’ve had some setbacks, some no-running weeks, and times where the weather just made getting out of bed a challenge, let alone trying to be active. As the event date drew nearer I realised that I wasn’t nearly ready, which seems to be a recurring phenomenon. And then I made the mistake of ‘not caring’ about it anymore either. The Mukamuka Munter would be our first event in two years, but for the past couple of years, I am feeling somewhat over events. Not sure why that happened. 

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Nelson runs

After three weeks of 70k per week, it was time for a cut-back week. Luckily this coincided with a work trip to Nelson. With all the best of intentions in the world, it remains challenging to try and fit in runs while out of town for jobs. That also goes for travelling. When your holiday involves tents and lots of different campsites, it just gets too hard with super early runs, fitting in a shower, and still pack up and vacate the site by 10am, not to mention the pile of wet, dirty running gear. This, of course, is much easier if you can afford (and are that way inclined) to stay in somewhat more luxurious accommodation for a few days or weeks at a time.

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Hacket Track, Whispering falls, and Chromite Mine loop

Date: 24 February
Distance: 11.6km
Time: 2:22

A few weeks back Wouna found a notice about an upcoming textile art exhibition and competition (the Changing Threads National Contemporary Textile Fibre Art Awards) that was open for entries, so she decided to give it a go and entered a couple of her large patchwork-style fabric portraits. Initial digital entries were submitted, from which one of her pieces made it through to the shortlist for the exhibition. This required couriering the artwork down to Nelson’s Refinery ArtSpace, where the exhibition was held. And then came the nail biting wait to hear if she made the finals.

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24-Hour isolation challenge

Date: 24-25 April 2020
Time: 24 hours
Distance: 103km

Passing the supportive messages written by our neighbours provided a boost on each lap.
Paul’s sound system providing some good vibes.
Loving the drawings!
Living out of town makes for a laid-back, rural running experience.
Heading into the sunset. 🙂
Our aid station.
Late afternoon shadows.
Thanks to the tree-rich area large parts of the course is in shadow much of the day.
Always a highlight to finish a fifth lap.
Sunset silhouette.
Nothing better than hearty soup on a long run!
Midnight – one third down. Looking a little tired.
As we all know, ultra-running is basically an extended food-fest.
A very welcome dawn.
Still well-stocked, many hours down.
Counting laps. 1 lap. = 1.5k.
A Strava view of our aid station, and the corner in the middle of our 750m stretch, which we passed 136 times in 24-hours.
A hero’s finish, with Chariots of Fire on the boombox. Fantastic support by our lovely neighbours, Paul, Katy and the girls
These shoes were way past their sell-by date at the beginning of April. Yet, I still added more that 400 km to them in the past 25 days. Probably a physio’s nightmare, looking at the imbalances.

If anyone told me a few years ago that I would do a 100km training run, without it being an official event, I would have said, dream on. Not only is this physically a huge challenge, but also mentally. Getting your head around that distance takes some mind gymnastics. Getting your head around doing it outside of the support, comfort and camaraderie of others in an event, takes extra strong brain gymnastics. Continue reading →

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19 k’s for 19 days – a COVID-19 isolation odyssey

Date: 1 – 19 April 2020
Distance: 362.5km
Time: 52:56
Elevation: 8970m

Screen Shot 2020-04-23 at 6.42.04 PM

In the weeks leading up to the Level 4 lockdown in New Zealand, when everyone was stockpiling on toiletpaper and flour, my thoughts were focused elsewhere – to come up with some sort of physical challenge that would reflect a small part of the pandemic. And since running and walking is my preferred exercise, the plan would have to involve one or both. With 2019 being the year that the virus was first detected (hence COVID-19), nineteen had to have prominence. To just run/walk 19km is no challenge. Any abled body can do that, even if it takes you all day. The logical next step was to try and repeat the 19k for 19 days in a row, and just like that, the challenge was set. To make the challenge just a wee bit more challenging, I decided to try and do every day’s 19k in under three hours. That is rather swift walking if you are not a speedwalker, or a couple of kilometres had to be jogged. Continue reading →