Introduction

Welcome to my blog. The title originates when my primary athletic activity was competitive walking, but now that I am back to running it also includes that.

Not all content is accessible from the main page: for example, the rogaines, racewalking, and ultramarathon pages all include content that is only accessible from those pages.

Ultramarathons

Ultramarathons are any event longer than the standard marathon distance of 26.2 miles / 42.195km. Standard distances for ultras are 50km, 50 miles, 100km, and 100 miles. There are also 12 hour and 24 hour track runs, and multi-day "stage races".

I have currently (September 2012) completed 30 ultramarathons, plus 1 DNF at about 66km at the Molesworth Run. Reports for most events are provided below.

See also

Rogaines

Rogaining is the sport of long distance cross-country navigation. Events can be as short as 2-3 hours or the standard 24 hours. Teamwork, endurance, competition and an appreciation for the natural environment are features of the sport. Rogaining involves both route planning and navigation between checkpoints using a variety of map types.

GN Phillips and RJ Phillips, Rogaining, 3rd ed, 2000


The two main umbrella organisations for rogaining in New Zealand are: My reports for selected events are provided below.


Hiking and Mountains

The Hiking, Trail Running, and Mountains pages are all inter-related, but with some subtle differences:
  • Hiking is not an organised race, and may include Coastal Adventures, activities in the Mountains, and hiking in other locations;
  • Trail Running covers organised events, some in the mountains, but others on local hills and trails; and
  • The Mountains category covers both events and hiking in various places that can be classed as mountains.


    • Racewalking

    Racewalking only has to meet two technical requirements:
    • no loss of contact, as judged by the human eye; and
    • the leg has to be straight from the moment of first contact until it is upright.
    More detailed rules are here.

    I'm not particularly good at racewalking, often falling foul of the straight leg rule. But I still give it a go and here are the results of my endeavours.


    Running

    This blog is primarily about my walking activities, but sometimes I do run. Here are reports for events where I have run.

    Shorter Races

    I classify events as ultramarathons, marathons, rogaines, and "shorter events". So a "shorter event" is just something that is shorter than a marathon and is not a rogaine. Consequently there's a mixed bag in here: running, racewalking, half marathons, 10k and 5k races, , etc.


    Thursday, November 13, 2003

    Shoestring Rogaines 2003

    compass_th
    All started at about 6:30pm to get approximately half of the rogaine in darkness.

    Butterfly Creek, Eastbourne, 13 November 2003.
    Started warm and dry, but rain started to fall within half an hour of the start. By later in the evening temperatures were very cold on the Eastbourne streets, but not too bad in the bush. An interesting twist with this rogaine was controls placed away from obvious features such as track junctions. Found a couple of these controls, but missed a 30 pointer in the dark. Scored 360 in 2:46 to place 18th out of 22 teams (time limit was 3:00). Top score was 690. Official results.

    Stokes Valley, 30 October 2003.
    The Weather deteriorated and was raining heavily by half way through. Lots of walking due to very tired legs from a tramp a few days earlier. Scored 310 pts in 2:32 to place 11th out of 13 teams (time limit was 3:00, but finished early due to fatigue and inclement weather). Top score was 700. Official results.

    Tunnel Gully, Upper Hutt, 16 October 2003
    Due to a late start the event was shortened to 2:40. Weather was warm and dry, and there were lots of easily runnable logging tracks. Scored 250pts in 2:39 out of a maximum 620 pts - good enough for 10th place (out of 14 teams). Top score was 520. Official results.
    Posted by Andrew Shelley
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