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.


    Monday, December 27, 2010

    Field Hut and Table Top

    Field Hut
    Soon after arrival at Field Hut
    As part of a decent week of training over the Christmas - New Year period, a hike up to Field Hut and Table Top with Richard Wall, Vivian Cheng, and Heather Andrews.

    The DOC sign says 6.6km and 3-4 hours to Field Hut. We made it in a relatively comfortable 2 hours. It had been raining lightly on the way up, but was very warm. We stopped at the hut for lunch, put on some extra layers, and then went on up to Tabletop. It was a bit windier up on the tops and visibility wasn't great, but it was still relatively warm.

    After a bit of larking about for photos at the far end of Tabletop we turned to head back down to the hut. It was definitely colder as we were walking into the wind, and I was now glad to have my coat on. The cloud started to lift as we were descending and soon we were treated with views through the clouds down to Otaki Forks.

    PC270164
    In the clouds on the boardwalk on Tabletop.
    PC270181
    On the way back down from Tabletop the clouds
    lifted to give us this view back down to Otaki Forks.

    Testing the waters
    Viv, Heather, and Richard try to work out whether
    they will cross the river. I already had -- it wasn't
    particularly deep.
    A quick stop at the hut to collect water and talk to some of the other trampers, and then it was back down to the Forks and the car. Conditions were warm and pleasant when we got down there, so we sat on the grass to talk while we ate the remainder of our supplies.

    Posted by Andrew Shelley
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