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.


    Saturday, April 29, 2006

    Rotorua Marathon 2006

    Finished, Rotorua 2006
    I went in to this hoping to walk my second marathon in under 5 hours in the space of a month. But a touch of over training and a very busy period at work conspired to thwart my ambitions, and I eventually recorded 5:07:57. Although I placed 10th male walker, the official placings are meaningless because the race organisers advised walkers they were allowed to run, and the first two walkers definitely did run.

    The first third of the race went very well, although I probably raced a bit too much. The first couple of kilometres were a little on the fast side, but then I settled in to a good pace. Peter Green from Wanganui caught up to me soon after 2km, and we walked more or less together for the next several kilometres. I would pull ahead going through the drink stations, as I would just use my camelback and Peter would take water from the drink station. By 10km I pulled ahead of Peter and wouldn’t see him again until around 32 or 33km.

    I was feeling really good between about 10km and 20km, and I caught and passed several walkers that had passed me earlier. Between about 20km and 23km I played leapfrog with a lady (#53) from Australia, catching her on the hills, and then she’d catch and pass me on the downhills. She jogged beside me for a kilometre on the flat before I had to step off the road for a nature stop. I caught up with her a further kilometre down the road when she had stopped to walk.

    I was feeling ok, though not 100%, at 25km, but then rapidly started to deteriorate. As my pace slipped I was passed by two walkers that I had passed earlier. The camber on the road was quite pronounced and my feet were slipping a lot in my shoes. Large blisters started to develop on the medial side of both heels. Betraying my growing fatigue I put off retying my shoes for several kilometres. Definitely a bad move, as this allowed my feet to continue to within my shoes and the blisters got worse!

    I may not have been feeling the best, but I had been chasing down a male walker from Hawkes Bay Marathon Clinic. I caught him at about 31km, but then promptly had a couple of very bad kilometres and he got well ahead of me and I completely lost touch with him. At around this time Peter Green caught and passed me, observing that neither of us were doing terribly well at our target of 7:00/km.

    The last 10km were much harder work than I had expected, but I concentrated on trying to keep good form. From 39km to 41km seemed like an exceptionally long way. I was well and truly ready for the race to be over. Then we were in to the Government Gardens and past the photographers. A few hundred metres more and down the finish chute.
    Posted by Andrew Shelley
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