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, August 14, 2010

    Butterfly Creek Nighttime Madness 2011

    Heading up the first climb
    Heading up the first climb
    After several days of heavy rain the track was the muddiest I had ever seen it. Not slippery clay like I was expecting, but a layer of wet slushy mud.

    About 1km along the road at a pace that seemed far too fast, and then into the bush. The first climb was much as I had remembered it - calves burning, everybody walking and the climb seeming to go on for a long time. Lights could be seen in front of us, but also a long trail of lights behind us.

    Having reached the top there was an initial steep downhill, and then on to a much more gradual easily runnable track. The field had thinned out by now; sometimes we were following other people, and sometimes I was the one out front... it seems a lot darker when not following anyone else! But the running was generally good.



    The leg out to Butterfly Creek itself is an out-and-back. Each year a different object is placed at the turn around to ensure that competitors really do go all the way there. This year's object was a pink pillowcase.

    We stopped for a couple of photos on the way down the Bus Barn track. Once we were out the bottom it was a good solid run back to the start/finish, and we passed several other pairs along the way. Final placing was 20th out of 32 mixed pairs, and 57th out of 84 total pairs.
    Posted by Andrew Shelley
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