Tussock Traverse

This was one out of the box -- entered on a whim, and little event-specific training, but I led for most of the way and was only beaten by 15s in the walk.

Mt Ruapehu from Tukino 2WD carpark

Entrants milling around at the start

The start is from the 2 wheel drive car park on the Tukino skifield access road. From the start it is a steep climb for 2km up the road to the "Round the Mountain" track to Waihohonu Hut. I took off at a fast pace, and very was leading the field up the hill. The combination of the steepness and the altitude meant that I was soon gasping for breath. Shortly before the 'Round the Mountain' track Mike Peterson caught and passed me. We turned off and went through the 2km mark in 19:39 - ordinarily a slow pace, but probably about right given the steepness of the hill.

As was to prove the pattern for the next 15km, I was faster on the the rocky downhills, and Mike was faster on the uphills. I quickly caught and passed Mike, and then kept pushing hard to open up a small lead. After a couple of minutes I quickly stopped to take the photos below.

Across the Rangipo Desert in the direction we are travelling, 0:30:29	Mike coming down a hill in the desert, 0:34:16
Looking back at Mt Ruapehu, 0:56:49	Across the desert, 0:56:54

Mt Ngaruhoe with Mike ahead, 0:57:12. I gained the
lead again shortly after this.

We switched positions a couple of times as we raced across the Rangipo desert. After one long hill climb Mike had regained the lead. As we passed through a patch of low bush he slowed to get a gel from his pack, so I slipped in to the lead again. As we hit the relative flat of the dry stream beds I cranked up my tempo and opened a small lead. But the lead was only ever small, and Mike would close up again as we went up any hills. Mike was right behind me at the 8km mark, 10km mark, the Waihohonu turn off. Heading up towards Tama Saddle Mike remained behind me as we continued to make steady progress. As we reached the 14km mark I noted that we had been underway for about 1:44. A finish time of 3:30 ought to be possible: after all, I thought we had done most of the climbing and would soon be heading down hill. How wrong was I...

Mike and I went through 16km and 17km together, but by two and a half hours in to the race I was starting to slow. At around 2:29 my right calf threatened to cramp, and at 2:33 Mike took the lead. The hills were taking their toll, and I was slowing considerably. We had a short climb, and then descended into a gully on the top of the Tama Saddle (where I took the pictures below). The climb out was very steep, and I had to stop for a breather, allowing Mike to increase his lead.

Mt Ngaruhoe, from a gully on the Tama Saddle, 2:47:58

Mt Ruapehu, from a gully on the Tama Saddle, 2:48:07

Climbing out of the gully we were upon the check point at the turn off to Tama Lakes. I went past the turn off at 2:50:35. From now it should be a fast downhill to the finish. Wrong again...

First view of the Chateau Tongariro, 3:15:37

While it was a gentle downhill away from the saddle, there were also more dips and climbs into and out of stream gullies. I had hit the wall and was moving very slowly up the hills. The runners were walking at least twice as fast up the hills as I was. After a short while I realised what was happening and decided it was time to eat the complimentary Gu from my race pack. As I finished the Gu I crested a hill and the Chateau came in to view. I stopped to take a photo, and soon after was passed by a walker (Marco) on the downhill. This dropped me back in to third place; definitely time to keep up the pace.

We set off at a fast pace down the hill, and I was aware of another walker right behind. I stayed close, but was soon passed by the first female walker (Linda), dropping to fourth. Yet another walker was right behind me. I stayed right on Linda's heels as the four of us continued down the hill, across a stream, and then up the other side. Across a short flat section and we arrived at the race martials at the top of the Taranaki Falls turn off. Down the steep set of steps towards Taranaki Falls, and then Marco stepped aside enough to let Linda through and then appeared to deliberately slow. I wasn't having any of that, and squeezed past him to stay on her heels.

As we passed the 24km mark I figured that with only 3km to go I should have enough left in the tank to turn this in to a sprint to the finish. I stayed behind Linda , figuring I should save at least some of my energy for any last sprint. We soon opened a gap of perhaps 50m on the two walkers behind, and Mike was nowhere in sight.

The finish area

A series of switch backs brought us out of the bush and on to a gravel road through scrub. I still didn't have great hill speed, and I dropped back behind Linda. At the same time Marco caught and passed me and headed off to join Lina. By now Mike was less than 100m ahead, and appeared to have hit the wall himself. As we hit the flat I tried to pick up some speed, but was closing only very slowly on Marco and Linda.

We were directed to turn right on to a side track, then it was very briefly through some trees and on to the lawn in front of the Chateau. Marco and Linda crossed the finish line together, and I was just 15 seconds behind. Next time I should probably start my hill training more than 2 weeks before the event!

Top Walkers:

Name	Time
Linda Dubbeldam	3:54:25
Marco Dubbeldam	3:54:25
Andrew Shelley	3:54:40
Paul Riedel	3:54:54
Mike Peterson	3:55:30
John Thompson	3:56:15
Debbie Young	4:07:01
Jansci King	4:07:01
Kevin Vicary	4:12:20
Peter Bourke	4:14:05
Jan Bliekendaal	4:24:44
Note: the table above takes account ofpersonal observations on "walkers" that were running, anddiffers from the results on the officialwebsite