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, October 25, 2009

    Racewalking NZ 50k, 2009

    Like 2007 this was a hot and windy day. And also like 2007 I recorded a time of 5h57m - but this year it was 17s rather than 51s.

    There were 5 starters: Mike Parker, who last walked a 50km many years ago, Quentin Rew who has only been walking for a few years but is very fast, and three regulars – David Sim, Peter Baillie, and myself. David had fractured an ankle about 4 weeks previous, so was not in the best form.

    PA250009
    At the end of the first km: Mike Parker, David Sim,
    Andrew Shelley, Quentin Rew, Peter Baillie
    A slow start was good for me. 7min17s for the first 1km as we all crossed the line together. The faster walkers started to pick up the pace and the field began to spread out. It wasn’t long before I was well behind the others. I was still walking relatively slowly, but my shins tightened up and became really sore and I just couldn’t walk any faster.

    My shins started to improve after 5k and I could start to pick up the pace. After a slow 35:51 for the first 5k, it was 33:31 for the 2nd 5k, followed by 33:29 and 33:46. This put me on 2:16:37 for 20k, and it looked like I might be on for a similar time as last year (I was 2:12:21 for 20k last year, but I figured that the slower start this year would give me more “in the tank” for later).

    From 20-25k was 35:06, but I was still quite happy with the total time. 25-30k slowed slightly again (35:30), but more significantly it was getting quite hot and I was feeling quite light headed. I was concerned that unless I slowed down for a while I might faint. So the next km was very slow as I walked slowly, drank some more, and had a gu. At around about this time Mike Parker pulled out – although about 3km ahead of me he had been having a hard day and was slowing considerably (before the 31st km I was starting to catch back up) and decided to pull out.

    PA250033
    Receiving the bell at the start of my final lap.
    After that one slow km I returned to a “less slow” pace, but still didn’t want to push it too much until 35km. 30-35k took 38:52. David Sim had lapped me and had a lead of about 1500m on me. I unlapped myself with about 7km to go, and then set about trying to catch and pass him again before 50km. The 1km loop was brilliant for judging progress in catching David – 600m, 500m, 350m, 250m, 50m, and then with 1500m to go I had him. I tried to keep pushing the pace but the splits don’t show anything particularly spectacular. 35-40k was 37:29, 40k-45k was 36:39, and 45-50k was 37:12.

    Results
    NameTime
    Championship
    Quentin Rew4:52:54
    David Sim6:00:24
    Mike ParkerDNF
    Peter BaillieDQ
     
    Non-Championship
    Andrew Shelley5:57:17


    AlanaKate
    Senior Women's 15km: Alana Barber (1st) 1h23m55s; Kate Newitt (2nd) 1h30m30s
    PA250026
    Quentin Rew, Winner 50km, 4h52m55s
    		PA250021
    Tony Sargisson, winner non-championship 20km

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