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.


    Friday, June 24, 2011

    Salomon Nightlight Trail Run and Movie Fest

    A good evening of trail running entertainment tonight in Wellington. I helped organise an evening hosted by New Zealand representative runner, member of the Salomon International trail running team, and Salomon Ambassador Anna Frost.

    The evening started with a small group trail run on the slopes of nearby Mt Victoria, including some tips from Anna on hill running technique. Who better to get tips from than a world-beating runner?

    I couldn't attend the run, but I could attend the movie screening afterwards. There were two movies, both inspirational in their own way:
    • "For Alan", a short 15 documentary about Malcolm Law's 7-in-7 Challenge to honour the memory of his brother who died of Leukemia some 40 years ago. A short trailer is below:


       
    • Kilian's Quest Kilimanjaro, the story of Spanish trail- and ultrarunning phenomena Kilian Jornet's record-breaking run up and down Africa's highest mountain. 17km and 4,000m of ascent up; 12km and 4,000m of descent down. This was a 26 minute documentary showing first the acclimatisation trek to the top of Kilimanjaro, and then the record setting run. A number of short clips from the film are available on Youtube:
      Word has it that copies of this film may be available in New Zealand later this year.
    Thanks to Anna for hosting the event, Daniel from Bivouac Outdoor for bringing along a selection of trail running gear to display and for booking the premises, to the Tararua Tramping Club for the use of their clubrooms, to Malcolm Law for the film "For Alan", and to Salomon Running NZ for the film of Kilian's Quest Kilimanjaro.
    Posted by Andrew Shelley
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