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, September 29, 2012

    5 Trigs!

    Driving up the Island from Palmerston North with James, so decided to find a few trigs on the way north.

    Our first stop was at B9JR, a few kilometres out of Bulls on SH1.

    B9JR
    Trig B9JR
    B9JR plaque
    B9JR nameplate

    A little further up the road was the sign for Latitude 40 degrees South - I had driven past this many times, but this was the first time I had actually stopped.

    Latitude 40 South
    Latitude 40 degrees South
    40 South Grader
    New Volvo grader at 40 South!

    Somewhat further north, beside the road just out of Waiouru is AHK6 (Waiouru). I had tagged this one earlier in September, but it was too easy not to get it again!

    AHK6 Waiouru
    Trig AHK6 "Waiouru"
    AHK6 plaque
    AHK6 nameplate

    From there we drove north to the very northern edge of the defence area and walked in to A7X5 (GG), on top of a small hill. Lots of warning signs about the dangers of crossing into the defence area, but the "border" was just widely spaced red warning triangles. When we got to the trig we found that the beacon was all but destroyed, with just the small wooden pyramid remaining.
    A7X5 DOC Sign
    A7X5 Defence Warning
    Defence area warning sign

    A7X5 Defence Border
    Protecting the border!
    A7X5
    Trig A7X5

    Back in the car and driving north again, James kept a close eye on the map so that we could stop in the right place for A53J (BMM 29). This trig was only a couple of metres back from the road, but invisible because it was in a derelict state and had fallen over.
    A53J
    Trig A53J as we found it
    A53J
    A53J standing back up again

    B1DN Oturere
    Trig B1DN "Oturere"
    Our final trig for the day was B1DN (Oturere), right at the edge of the road.

    With some off-track navigation there's many more trigs in the Desert Rd area, so plenty more to explore yet.


    Postscript: The LINZ database has been updated with a photo each of A53J and A7X5:

    Posted by Andrew Shelley
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