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, February 28, 2009

    A Damp Day on the Atiwhakatu Track

    Camp
    I was sitting under a tarpaulin eating my breakfast at 6:15am when the rain started. I thought it must just be a shower, but instead it set in and was quite heavy by the time I had packed everything up and was ready to go. Figured that the side creeks could become a problem if there was too much heavy rain, so I modified my intended route and ended up doing the Hooper Loop with some extras.

    P2280010
    Up to Atiwhakatu Hut in 1h15 (DOC time 3hrs). Took some photos, enjoyed the opportunity to get out of the wet, and pondered my next move. Decided to head back down to the Hooper Loop turn off, and climbed up that track to the Gentle Annie. Got very wet and a bit cold as I gained height. At the top decided I needed to put on a dry top, so went along to the Mountain House shelter to do that. And from there back to the top of the climb and back down the Gentle Annie to complete the Hooper Loop.

    Total day was 19.5km in 3h30 of walk time.

    Map
    These photos and more are available on Flickr.
    Posted by Andrew Shelley
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