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, September 11, 2010

    Marton-Wanganui 2010

    View across farmland, snow capped ranges in the distance
    View across farmland, snow-capped ranges in
    the distance.
    New PB and new course record! 6h:47m:37s. This one came as a bit of a surprise - with having walked 80km at the Great Naseby Water Race just two weeks prior, and having done no speedwork at all, I started the race thinking I would probably walk about the same time as last year, maybe a little slower. But I was significantly slower, and by 20km was 4m34s behind last year and it was looking like a sub-8 hour finish was unlikely.

    But then things started to change as I started to regain time and began to close the gap on 2009. However, my time relative to the 2008 record continued to deteriorate all the way to half way, and by 35km I was 6m49s behind. Lap 6 (35.5km - 43.5km) provides a good opportunity to identify how well I am likely to do over the rest of the race. In the previous two years I have had a bad patch along here, but this year I am feeling somewhat better and make up time against both 2008 and 2009.

    P9110265

    Relative Pace
    2008 and 2009 time relative to this year
     
    At the lap 6/7 changeover I took a chocolate chip muffin, a banana, and a couple of pain killers. From there it was up Reid's Hill. Part way up is the 45km mark and at about there I drew level with 2009. It appears I powered up the rest of the hill and gained a considerable amount of time. I was now within striking distance of the record and my focus shifted to that.

    Lap 9
    On Lap 9
    Through 50k in 5:55:04, and on to the start of Lap 9 in 6:06:40, just 54 seconds behind the record. The weather looked like it was starting to turn for the worse and I had a significant blister on the medial side of both heels. Coming late in the race with already tired legs, this is a tough lap starting with a steep down hill, large diameter gravel, some significant undulations and bad camber. With blister problems and the potential for rain it would be easy to lose focus and slow considerably along here, so I asked Heather to stay close in the car.

    I had good speed through this lap and continued to pick up time against the record. By the end of the lap, about 60km, I was 35 seconds faster than 2008. Just one short lap on sealed road to the finish, and I was still feeling good. In previous years it has been difficult to maintain a good pace along this last lap, but this year I was feeling good and actually accelerated through the lap.

    Posted by Andrew Shelley
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