The Dragon's Back!

As something of a regional tour, Mal Law from Running Wild kindly organised a night of trail running movies in various centres around New Zealand. The centre-piece of the night was the official film documentary on the "Dragon's Back Race", a 5-day mountain-marathon style race along the mountainous spine of Wales.

The mountain marathon format is not well known in New Zealand, with participants able to choose any route they like between check points (typically located on strategic summits). The closest we have is rogaines, and certainly the competitors that we meet in the film remind me a lot of the type of people drawn to long distance rogaining in New Zealand.

Inspiring stuff, and certainly had me thinking that I must do more rogaines, and also got me thinking (again) about the possibility of doing the Northburn 100 - very similar terrain to parts of the Dragon's Back. We shall see...

Here official trailer for the film:

The film itself can be ordered from the event website.

UK Trail Running magazine also had extensive coverage of the 2012 race, and their video footage is also available in the films section of the event website.

Everest - A time lapse short film

Amazing photography and inspiring scenery. What more can be said?

Everest -A time lapse short film from Elia Saikaly on Vimeo.

Jump from the Edge of Space

A very early morning this morning - up at 1:15am to watch history being made as Felix Baumgartner did a skydive jump from footage of the jump. This has nothing at all to do with my exercise, but it is such an historically important occasion I thought I would at least make a record that I watched it on live TV.

Two clips are shown below: first the full footage of the jump, including part of the slow preparations for exit from the capsule; and the redbull highlights package for the mission.




There's a few hairy moments on the jump as Felix goes into a flat spin, but he managed to get out of that and resume a controlled fall. Apparently the "live" broadcast was actually delayed by 20 seconds just in case something did go badly wrong. The broadcast does break away from the flat spin, but then returns to Baumgartner.

The RedBull Stratos website lists the scientific contribution and the records set by the mission as:

SCIENTIFIC CONTRIBUTION FOCUS
Red Bull Stratos aims to provide information that will further the progression of aerospace safety. The key benefits for the science community are as follows:

- To aid development of a new generation of space suits - including enhanced mobility and visual clarity - and other systems to lead toward passenger/crew exit from space.

- To aid development of protocols for exposure to high altitude/high acceleration.

- To aid exploration of the effects on the human body of supersonic acceleration and deceleration, including development of the latest innovations in parachute systems.

BENCHMARKS

- Reaching supersonic speed in freefall:First person to achieve the speed of sound in freefall without mechanical assistance. Felix's speed in freefall on Oct. 14, 2012 is estimated at 833.9 mph, Mach 1.24 (previous record: 614 miles per hour, Mach 0.9).

- Freefall from highest altitude:Felix jumped from 128,100 feet Oct. 14, 2012 (previous record: 102,800 feet).

- Longest freefall time:Felix was in freefall for 4 minutes and 22 seconds Oct. 14, 2012, making Joe Kittinger untouchable in that category (previous record: 4 minutes, 36 seconds).

- Highest manned balloon flight: Felix's float altitude was approximately 128,100 feet (previous record: 113,740 feet).

All figures are approximate based on atmospheric conditions.

It is certainly a remarkable achievement, with incredibly advanced and sophisticated systems. Most remarkable, though, is that this appears to have been privately-funded, with the payoff not to come until the technologies are actually used for space missions.

UTMB: The Runner

Inspirational trailer for documentary on the man who became UTMB champion at 60 years old.

Shotover Mountain Marathon

A promotional video for the Shotover Mountain Marathon, the inaugural event to be held on 4 February 2012. Looks absolutely awesome, will definitely add it to the "to do" list.

Salomon Nightlight Trail Run and Movie Fest

A good evening of trail running entertainment tonight in Wellington. I helped organise an evening hosted by New Zealand representative runner, member of the Salomon International trail running team, and Salomon Ambassador Anna Frost.

The evening started with a small group trail run on the slopes of nearby Mt Victoria, including some tips from Anna on hill running technique. Who better to get tips from than a world-beating runner?

I couldn't attend the run, but I could attend the movie screening afterwards. There were two movies, both inspirational in their own way:

• "For Alan", a short 15 documentary about Malcolm Law's 7-in-7 Challenge to honour the memory of his brother who died of Leukemia some 40 years ago. A short trailer is below:
  
  
   
  
• Kilian's Quest Kilimanjaro, the story of Spanish trail- and ultrarunning phenomena Kilian Jornet's record-breaking run up and down Africa's highest mountain. 17km and 4,000m of ascent up; 12km and 4,000m of descent down. This was a 26 minute documentary showing first the acclimatisation trek to the top of Kilimanjaro, and then the record setting run. A number of short clips from the film are available on Youtube:
  • Part 1: Acclimatisation;
  • Part 2: Setting the record;
  • "Backstage": incidental scenes from the trip.
  
  Word has it that copies of this film may be available in New Zealand later this year.

Thanks to Anna for hosting the event, Daniel from Bivouac Outdoor for bringing along a selection of trail running gear to display and for booking the premises, to the Tararua Tramping Club for the use of their clubrooms, to Malcolm Law for the film "For Alan", and to Salomon Running NZ for the film of Kilian's Quest Kilimanjaro.

Inspirational Short Films

Two inspirational trail running films by Joel Wolpert, each featuring one of the USA's top trail ultramarathoners:

Slogging to the Top, featuring Geoff Roes



Winter Running, featuring Anton Krupicka

Anton Krupicka on Trail Running

I have been aware for some time that I find roads and trails engender quite different mental states. Roads are good for speed and focus, but the natural environment of trails provides a much more calming and centering experience.

A recent article in Running Times by ultra-running phenomena Anton Krupicka provides a more personal and philosophical look at trail running. Anton writes:

For better or for worse, when one lives in a town or city, one lives in a built world. This world offers many distractions and comforts that I have come to enjoy quite a lot — libraries, coffee shops, bookstores, cafes, markets, high-speed Internet, etc. — but the fact remains that these things are all constructs that humans have imposed on an otherwise pristine landscape in order to keep themselves entertained and occupied. Perhaps the problem with this is that, when I am mired amongst all of these material and intellectual pursuits, I ultimately feel a lack of an underlying foundation of pure, unadulterated action or being. A stimulating novel or a smooth road might both be nice, but neither feel real to me in the most rigorous sense of the word, when compared to say, running through a grove of ponderosa pine trees or beneath a gigantic slab of sandstone turned on end by some ages-old tectonic force. And so that most fundamental authenticity or reality is what running in the mountains provides for me on a daily or twice-daily basis. Without it, I have — unfortunately, based on past experience — gone completely mad. But even more importantly, I have found that this engaging with the natural world is, over time, very instructive. Running in the mountains creates a space — through silence, openness, a removal from distractions — in which I can come to know myself and explore myself. Anton Krupicka On Being Real: Why I Run Trails, Running Times.