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.


    Sunday, March 2, 2014

    Cannon Point: The Wild Side

    Dragon fly near the stream. For scale, my fingers
    are touching the wing.
    Being right on the edge of town, Cannon Point has some very civilised tracks. But for those who know where to go there are also some wilder seldom-visited trails. This was my last training hit out before the Tararua Mountain Race, and I wanted to make sure that I had some hills, a bit of rough trail, and a bit of route finding. So the general plan was:
    • down to the Whakatiki River (easy gravel),
    • up to the trig (initial steep climb on MTB trail, 4WD dirt and gravel, rough route through bush, easy MTB),
    • down the road to the back of the dam (easy gravel),
    • follow the stream to the dam (no track, route finding),
    • back to the start (easy trails).

    Below are a few photos from the journey.
    So nice of the council to issue a written invitation.
    And this is the sole reason that the track was closed.

    Blackberries
    After the 4WD track, the rough route through the bush.

    The trig in the distance.
    The road down to the stream.

    The route ahead - there's even a stream in there.
    Look carefully in the centre of the picture to see a
    fish. There were a lot of small fish that would scatter
    and splash through the shallows every time I crossed
    the stream. I even saw a couple of small trout,
    perhaps 6-9 inches long.

    More of the route ahead.
    Back on to a track, not long before the dam.

    Back at Birchville Dam... and civilisation.
    Posted by Andrew Shelley
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