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.


    Tuesday, March 15, 2011

    Running with Perry

    Ultrarunner Perry Newburn decided to run from Auckland to Christchurch as a way of raising money for the earthquake recovery fund for Christchurch. Heather and I joined him for part of his run on day 4 of his journey.

    Heather met me at Rotorua airport (I flew in) and then we drove in to Rotorua and grabbed some breakfast from McDonalds just before they closed their breakfast menu. A bacon and egg McMuffin with a hashbrown and a coffee! With tummies satisfied it was off to find Perry. Along to SH5 and then turn left at the Nongotaha roundabout to follow it towards Hamilton. We saw Perry's support vehicle, drove up the road a bit further to a convenient stopping point, and waited.

    Perry and Heather take a walk break while Perry has a drink.
    Heather proudly wearing her Canterbury Crusaders shirt in support
    of Christchurch.
    Perry appeared fairly soon, and Heather set off to run with him. I waited in the car for a bit, then drove ahead and jogged back to meet them, took a few photos, and ran or walked with them back to the car.

    I leap frogged like this a couple of times, and then was back around the roundabout to the road into Rotorua. I ran back to meet Perry and Heather and ran back with them again. I was parked at the same spot as Perry's crew car, about 6km out from the town centre, and we all had a small coke. We all walked while the coke was being drunk and then ran back to the car.

    This time I had a mission: the temperature was picking up and it was getting very hot for Perry. It's not so bad when you're just running 10-20km for the day, but when the daily total is around 70km it can be a significant problem. I was sent on a mission to McDonalds to get three large drink cups - two filled with ice and one filled with coke. I gave the ice to Perry's crew, who put one in a chilly bin, and tipped the other into a pair of long johns and tied them to fashion collar to go around Perry's neck.

    Back down the road and park around the corner in Lake Road to check that all was ok. We were only about 2km out from the town centre now, so I needed to find a carpark. Around the lake side of the hospital and down the road a bit further I found one just outside St Michael's Church. I jumped out of the car and ran back to Perry and Heather. Heather's water was nearly finished so I took her bottle and ran forward to the car to refill with coke. They very quickly caught back up to me and I had to rush to catch up.

    Around the corner from Lake Road and in to Tutanakae Street - this was the final stretch into the centre of Rotorua and Perry's date with Mayor Kevin Winters. We ran pretty much down the middle of the lane to the waiting Mayor and photographer. Mayor Winters presented Perry with a book and letter to pass on to Mayor Bob Parker of Christchurch, and then we were treated to the amusement of watching the photographer taking a series of staged shots of Perry.
    A staged shot
    The end result

    Links:
    Posted by Andrew Shelley
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