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, August 24, 2012

    Sutton Salt Lake: Trig 'A'

    Trig
    Trig A
    The day before the Great Naseby Water Race, and what should one do? Take a short cross-country jog to a trig along the way of course!

    Just a little south of Middlemarch is an area called Sutton, which is home to a trig, a railway crossing, and a salt lake. As we were driving down the side road to get to the lake carpark we spotted a trig up on the hill... hmmm...

    We followed the track from the carpark and took the left branch, which would head roughly in the direction of the trig. After a bit the track became quite boggy, so we headed up to avoid the bog. Enthusiasm to reach the lake seemed to have waned, and from our vantage point we could see the trig in the distance.

    P8240511
    The trig in the distance. Looks like easy travel...
    Heather and her mother headed back along the track to the car, while I set off at a trot to the trig. I sighted against some rock outcrops ahead for navigation. It looked like it would be easy travel, and for the most part it was. There were two minor water courses to cross, but that was easy enough standing on clumps of long grass.

    Over to the trig, up the rock, photos, and then set off on a more direct route to the car.

    Back at home I thought I'd find the trig on a topo map. On the old topo maps it's clearly marked as a trig, name 'A', elevation 248m. On the new Topo 50 maps it's just a dot with the elevation marked!
    Postscript: the good folks at Land Information New Zealand were most interested to know that a trig existed and that I had photos. My photos are now loaded on their database:

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