Training

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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.

Continue reading →
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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

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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 →

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6 hours Te Arapiki a Tane and 24-hours Summerhill trails loop challenge

Total moving hours: 26
Total distance covered: 96km, including 12910 stairs (with a break between the two challenges)

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Trying to do a selfie in the middle of the night in the dark.
We made this, incase some nutters manages to complete a 100 miles in the 24 hours.

I love achievable, but wacky challenges. And this seemed like a good one for the Easter weekend. We are way behind schedule for our upcoming 100km event, and thought this should be a good gauge of where we are, fitness-wise. Each time we sign up for an event I have grand plans to do a certain amount of training, and almost always without fail other things get in the way. So we find ourselves yet again a bit undertrained for the UTA in less than four weeks time. Continue reading →

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Red Walk & Red Nose Family Fun Day

Date: 30 September 2018
Distance: 10km
Time: 57:18

Gerry, me and Rob.
At the start of the 10km event.
Jane and Jackie making the most of it.
On the way to the halfway point.
Catching up with the 5km participants on the way back.

Gerry and I participated in the Palmerston North edition of the event, which aims to “raise money and awareness for the amazing work Cure Kids does to help fund valuable research into a variety of child-related illnesses and conditions in New Zealand”.

What we thought would be a low-key fundraising walk turned out to be a decent size event – well organised and very enthusiastically supported by the local running and walking community. An enjoyable and festive 10k out-and-back run/walk along the river (there was also a 5k option) was augmented by loads of spot prizes, yummy food and great coffee at the finish, jumping castles for the kids, and more. Nor sure how many turned out but it was certainly a good crowd.

A good event for a great cause – must do again in 2019!