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, April 22, 2011

    Hutt Valley Eastern Hills

    Training run with Heather Andrews. In at Wainui Hill, heading north along the main 4WD road along the ridge, and out at Silverstream. We walked most of the climbs, and ran most of the flats and downs. A total of 21.1km in 3:23:48.

    Early smiles from HeatherWellington Harbour behindLooking back, we had taken the low trackA good section for runningView NorthHeather
    Larking about, trying to balance on Manuka stumpsRunningRunning my favourite sectionBlood!Mopping Up

    Hover over pictures for captions, click for larger versions.

    The day started off overcast, but cleared later on to a fine day. Good views across to the South Island from some of the high points.

    I tried out my Inov8 trail shoes - nice and light weight, no blisters, they seemed to work pretty well. Certainly the best replacement yet for my very old asics trabuco, which are much lighter and more flexible than recent models of the same shoe.

    And here's the map:

    Hutt Valley Eastern Hills

    My set on Flickr: Hutt Valley Eastern Hills, Apr 2011.
    Posted by Andrew Shelley
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