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, August 22, 2009

    Wellington Road Champs

    walking_feet
    I only finally decided to enter this race only about 90 minutes before the start. My shins were incredibly painful from 2k-4k, and I nearly decided to step off the course. But after 4k everything seemed to loosen up and I felt much better.

    Apparently my style was good through to 6k, but significantly deteriorated from that point on when I picked up the pace. Strange thing is that my style felt suspect earlier, but good later!

    Wellington Road Champs, 2009
    The photo shows John Leonard, myself, and David Cooke. This must have been taken at about the 3k mark. David dropped off the pace, but John and I stayed together through to the 6k mark. I then decided to make a move and dropped John. But John is registered with Athletics NZ and I am not, so he received the official placing in the championship race.

    In retrospect it wasn't my best decision to enter this race. Coming just one week after the 5 Bridges Marathon, my legs were still too tight and sore to race. The race just made everything worse, with sore, aching, and tight legs for the next two weeks. But I did get to meet Nyle, so at least there was some good to come out of it!
    Posted by Andrew Shelley
    Labels: , ,

    1 comments:

    Nyle said...

    Sweet talker!!

    Hey you did great!! with only a weeks rest then to do a 10km race... no wonder your shins were sore.

    September 10, 2009 at 5:03 PM

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