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, January 23, 2010

    Ultramarathon #20

    Siberia Gully
    Looking back down Siberia Gully
    New PB and new course record! I went into this year's race publicly intending to do 7h20, but privately hoping for 7h15. I was very happy to do 7h:14m:49s in a race where the last 25km were into a southerly head wind and the last 15km were in heavy rain.

    Pre-Start
    Cold and wet at the start.

    		The Saddle Shrouded in Cloud
    The top tunnel passes under the saddle. This year it was shrouded in cloud.

    Lisa exiting Tunnel Gully at Maymorn.
    (Photo: Nic Miller-Clendon)
    Richard McChesney won the men's race in a time of 5h:20m:10s. The women's run record was smashed by Lisa Nicholl, who lowered it from 6h:17m:22s to 5h:40m:58s.

    Thanks to Jan Bliekendaal for acting as support crew and taking photos.
    P1230020

    It had been dry all the way from the top of the
    Incline and through the Upper Hutt section, but
    by Silverstream Bridge the southerly was starting
    to get cold.
    		P1230021

    Raining again at Stokes Valley



    Preliminary Results
    NameTimePlace
    Richard McChesney5:20:10M 1
    Lisa Nicholl5:40:58F 1
    Simon Clendon5:53:34M 2
    Carl Laffan6:02:30
    Penny Kirkwood6:12:26F 2
    Michele Garrett6:27:36
    Vivian Cheng6:38:41
    Carol Bielby6:42:10
    Michael Simons6:42:57
    Andrew Shelley7:14:49Walk 1
    Michael Turnbull8:39:25
    Grant BowersDNF
    Perry NewburnDNF
       
    Posted by Andrew Shelley
    Labels: , , ,

    1 comments:

    Tom said...

    A challenging enough event with extra challenge this year with rain and wind!
    Congratulations Andrew - a fine performance and as usual looking very fresh in the pictures.

    February 9, 2010 at 8:52 PM

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