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, February 11, 2012

    Running Wild

    A two-day trail running training camp held in the Waitakere Ranges near Auckland. Highly recommended to all!

    No soft options of a morning run, back for lunch, then an afternoon run for us - Saturday was a full on 6 hour session on the rugged southern Waitakere trails, followed by another 4.5 hours on Sunday on the more northern trails.

    Hosted by Mal Law of Running Wild, the group gathered on Friday night at Mal's bach at Karekare: Vicki, Simon, Christine and Keith, Lizzy, Heather and myself. Mal put on a fabulous barbeque, with more than enough for all of us hungry runners to eat. The evening was capped off by a lovely sunset.

    The Saturday dawned... raining! It looked like a dreadful day to be out running. Sure trail runners don't mind getting wet, but this looked like we would get soaked through in very short order. But the weather behaved, and by the time it was time to start the rain had stopped.

    Food and photo stop at Omanwanui Trig
    The first day consisted of a 27km loop south along the Hillary Trail to Whatipu, then up over Omananui Trig and back to the bach. Gorgeous downhills, soft sand along the beach, big climbs, bush, slippery clay, technical rooty sections, and stream crossings. What a fantastic place for trail running! And not a bad place for photography either...

    Looking down to Karekare Beach
    Running south along the beach from Karekare

    Skirting the swamp just south of Tunnel Point
    Stream crossing at Pararaha

    Paratutai Light
    Looking up to Omanawanui... location of the trig...

    Coastal trail on the Omanawanui track
    Penny! Chance encounter witha friend on the trail.


    After post-run drinks, chippies, and snacks Mal put on another superb barbeque, this time with some perfectly cooked lamb. We all slept well that night!

    On the second day we split into two groups. The majority of us ran north, again along the Hillary Trail, but it was noticeably easier running than the day before. The other group also went north, but drove to Piha and ran a loop from there. We met up where the track dropped to Wekatahi Creek and then all ran out to the road end together. The groups separated again and finally met up at the Piha cafe for a very late (mid-afternoon) cooked breakfast!

    Arriving at the lookout at Te Ahua Point
    Simon and Mal racing down hill

    Vicki and Heather to me, Simon, and Mal:
    "What took you so long?"

    Running back along Piha Beach in the rain
    The weather behaved, with the rain not arriving back until the last hour of the second day. It arrived quickly and set in while we were doing our second-to-last hill climb of the day, but with the warmth and the absence of wind was quite welcome. Down to White's Beach, then back up again because the intended track is impassable at high tide, then the long run down the soft sand of North Piha Beach all the way to Piha. It was a great way to finish the weekend.

    Maps

    Day 2: North

    Day 1: Heading South
    Posted by Andrew Shelley
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