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.


    Wednesday, May 15, 2013

    Diamond Lake and Rocky Mountain

    Diamond Lake
    Diamond Lake
    Part way through a hectic week of travel and work we found ourselves in Wanaka mid-afternoon with some time to explore. Armed with a recommendation from Malcolm Laws, we set off to explore the Diamond Lake and Rocky Mountain tracks.

    The Diamond Lake Conservation Area is a short drive from Wanaka along the Mt Aspiring Rd, with glimpses of Mt Aspiring across the lake as you drive there. Once there we wasted no time and set off up the hill. It's a short steep climb up to the level of Diamond Lake.

    The track presents several choices: the first of these was just before the lake as the track went either left around the lake or straight ahead to the toilet. Left it was and soon we were climbing up to the the Diamond Lake lookout.

    From here we climbed further on our way to the Lake Wanaka lookout. Another route choice: left for the Rocky Mountain lower loop, or straight ahead. We had plans so continued straight ahead to the Lake Wanaka lookout. The same choice again a little further on, and again we went straight ahead. The track then crosses private farmland to the lookout. The views can perhaps best be described as "expansive". Lake Wanaka is a long and irregularly shaped lake, but a remarkable amout of it is visible from the lookout. The photo below give a partial view; further to the left were the snow-capped Buchanan Peaks.
    Lake Wanaka
    View from Lake Wanaka Lookout

    Running at Rocky Mountain
    Running through the open grassland on Rocky Mountain
    Having absorbed the views we ran back down to the track junction, turned right, and commenced the zig-zag climb up to the lower Rocky Mountain loop. Out of the bush we were in high country grassland scattered with - surprisingly enough - rocky outcrops. More photos and then we ran anti-clockwise around the loop. We decided against doing the upper loop - we only had limited daylight left, and we wanted to drive to the end of Mt Aspiring Rd before it got dark.

    Dropping down off the plateau we passed through a steep, rocky gully. This must be quite a torrent went it is raining, but for now it was dry. We ran down to the Diamond Lake lookout, stopped for another quick look, and then set off down the wooden steps to the lake. Back at lake level we decided to continue our clockwise circuit, and rewarded by some more reflections in the perfectly calm water. Down to the car we were treated with views of autumn leaves on the trees bordering the Motatapu River.

    Posted by Andrew Shelley
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