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.


    Sunday, March 4, 2007

    Karori Sanctuary Gutbuster

    Went through 950m in 6m:02s and was first in to the bush. On the climb to the top of Wrights Hill I caught the back markers of the women's run, and in turn was caught by two other walkers. They got away from me, but by the end of the next downhill they were less than 50m ahead.

    The climb to the wind turbine was steep, hard, and hot. The two walkers ahead of me got away again on this climb, and I didn't see them again. The roller coaster was a little tortuous, with steep downhills interspersed by yet more climbs.

    We finally made it down to St John's Pool and the 9km marker. At this point I was informed that I was first walker, so I'm not sure what this says about the two guys ahead of me! A zig-zag climb through the bush, and then out to the sanctuary fenceline again. Some more steep climbs here, but also stretches of relative flat. Along a side track to return to the road and 950m to go. This was the finish point in previous years, and I clocked in here at 1h:24m. Down the road to Ben Burn park and a finish in 1h:30m:11s.
    Posted by Andrew Shelley
    Labels:

    0 comments:

    Post a Comment

    Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)