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, February 6, 2012

    Belmont Rogaine

    The last of the 5 events held in Wellington over Waitangi weekend to celebrate the 21st birthday of rogaining in New Zealand. The very first New Zealand rogaine was held in Belmont Regional Park, and today's 4 hour event was also held in the park.

    With about 10-15 minutes of planning we had picked a loop, and then walked back to the start area just in time to miss most of the briefing! A couple more minutes and then it was time to start.

    Competitors scaling the hill to the first trig.
    We initially set off at a jog, making sure we really were where we thought we were on the map. Cross-country along a fence line for a short section, then up a steep hill to gain our first points at the trig. Just 10 points, but we were underway!

    The next control looked easy on the map, but for some reason we didn't find it quite as fast as might have been expected... which in this instance just means we had to search a little rather than walking straight to it.

    On to the next one, down the hill, up the next one to the track junction, and ... stop. In a demonstration of just how out of practice we were with map reading and rogaining, both of us jumped to the conclusion that the next control must be over the far side of the huge hill in front of us. After several minutes of matching features to the map, and actually reading the map properly, we realised that the next control was DOWN the slope in front of us, just a few hundred metres away. So down we went, and control #90 was in the bag.

    Looking down into the gully concealing #90

    A row of World War II bunkers in the distance.
    We continued down hill to the farm road at the bottom of the valley, and continued on with our planned route of heading out to pick up #41. That done, it was back up the valley, and then a steep climb out to get #52. Another short, steep climb and we were back level with the WWII bunkers. Count the pillars inside one of the bunkers for another 20 points - not such a fun task when there were several dead sheep inside!

    At the gratuitous trig
    Then off for a jog as we set off to get #50 at a power pylon. We now decided to make a change to our plan, and rather than heading to #80 and then #51, we instead went to #70 then down to #80. This route to #70took us around a track not far below a trig... the trig wasn't a control, but it was there... and we might not ever be here again... so we climbed the short distance up the hill to claim a gratuitous trig!

    Trig conquered, it was off to #70. Climbing over a gate, I jumped down and felt a searing pain in the main joint of my right big toe... this was not good! No more running for a while, and even walking I was a bit slow. When we got home there was a large bruise on the side of my foot, so somehow I had landed badly and caused some damage.

    Rogainers in the valley below
    We claimed #70, down the steep hill to the farm track, then walked and jogged down to the valley floor. Up to #80 - quite a social control with lots of people claiming it. Along to #51 or climb out the more direct way? We decided we were getting tired and didn't want to have to sprint uphill to the finish! So we climbed out the direct way, and then claimed controls #12 and #11 and had a more leisurely finish.

    Posted by Andrew Shelley
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