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, July 16, 2011

    Eastern Hills Trail Marathon

    Eastern Hills Trail Marathon
    Who was responsible for this? Someone thought an out-and-back along the Hutt Valley Eastern Hills might be a good idea, and on suggesting it someone else said "ok". This was an out-and-back version of the one-way trip on 22 April, naturally with twice the distance but with more than twice the climb since last time we had a net downhill. Somehow we both thought it seemed like a good idea.

    This was not an official marathon, as it was neither officially measured nor a public event. Heather's GPS measured the course at 42.23km with a huge 1,495m of climb, so the distance was long enough. I will claim it as a "fat ass" style marathon though, with no official entries, no fees, no aid stations, and no course markings, and no prizes. Just a couple of friends out for a long run on a defined course!

    We had a perfect winter's day; it started very cold, but for the most part was fine and sunny. There were clear views to the South Island, with four snow-capped mountain ranges visible.

    South Island Mountains
    View of South Island mountains

    Time on the outward leg was 3:25:50, just 2 minutes slower in the uphill direction than in the downhill direction last time. We were both pretty stuffed by the time we tagged the gate at the top of the Wainui Hill Road, and then turned and walked back uphill for 1km before we reached a convenient place to stop for lunch and a quick breather. Less than 15 minutes later we were back underway, but with our tired state the return (net downhill) journey took about 3:30.

    Posted by Andrew Shelley
    Labels: , ,

    0 comments:

    Post a Comment

    Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)