With Motatapu and then Northburn on my back door step there was no reason to go and run Tarawera. There’s a few reasons a) it 100k, I think that’s about the hardest distance to do, in fact I’m only 1 for 3 at the distance. b) it has a lot of flat smooth stuff and I’m pretty slow on that. c) So expensive to take the family when we can all go to the other races at home. So the answer to the regular questions above was always “one day”.

Well, one dark wet Friday night somewhere between Hindon and Dunedin a little birdie got in my ear and asked the right question. Not everything has fallen into place, oh well. But the result is a whole bunch of people happy to see me toe the line at this years Tarawera 100k. To be fair I’m nearly as excited as K Day about it. Everything seems to have turned to gold for Paul this year and the mens field is as good as any Ultra ever assembled in New Zealand.

I’ll take a few steps back here. I’ve known and talked with Paul for a few years now, he even did his PhD with colleagues from work. Without giving him a call and getting him to write down the actual genesis of the race I’ll paraphrase how it came about. Paul had been living in California (hating it) and been involved in the Ultra scene over there. Came home and wanted to do sometime similar here. Which is a lot different to the way it’s generally done in UnZud. So Tarawera was born. Version 1 was some unknown distance (I was once told 95km hahahahaha) run in possibly a fast time. Must have had lot’s of road. Version 2 was somewhere near 100k, but must have had lots of road as it was crawled home by the same person in what turned out to be their last ever race. Version 3 is possibly where this race grabbed a lot of people’s attention. Instead of just 1 decent (cough) runner, there was a group led by Sam Wreford and some genuine competition unfolded and captured the imagination. http://www.flickr.com/photos/trailrunz/5553487301/ 

Lead 4, early in the day (photo knicked from G Guise collection)

 So after Kerry had run solo for 2 years, there were now 4 under 10 hours, with 2 under 9 and the field was getting bigger. So what next?

2012 – Vibram have come on board (vTUM is now the unofficial name), rumours circulated about a big American name turning up and with that, nearly everyman and his dog who could potentially run fast hve entered. The only names missing, Sam Wreford (in Africa attempting to get an Olympic Marathon slot), Grant Guise (family and Salomon commitments) and Phil Costley (yeah I know he’s never run 100k, but he once said he would).

How good is the Mens Field?
I think it’s the best ever assembled in NZ. Open for debate but that’s my opinion. The Kepler has 450 entrants, so is currently about 4x the Size of the 100k. 1/2 of the Kepler top 10 have entered including 1st and 2nd. At least 2 more within 10 minutes of that are entered. The Aussie 100k Champion is entered, another Aussie rep is in, two National reps from the UK are in as is Anton Krupicka from the US and a top athlete from Japan. Then there’s another 1/2 dozen or so who should/could run well under 10 hours. Now having trawled through my copy of “Tear along the dotted Line” I can’t find a field that strong. There have been plenty of races with 1 or 2 more talented runners, but no races with this much depth. The New Brighton 50 had some good fields and Yannis Kouros has also run here. Marty did point out to me a late 1990′s Kepler when He, Keith Murray, Colin Rolfe and Andriy Reyyer were all under 5 hours.

So my List of contenders with a selection of races stalked from the internet. The winner (and Podium) will come from this lot. The rest of us are just dreaming all we’ve got is time and maybe some scalping to run for.

Martin Cox – UK 2:27:27 Marathon, 30:10 10k. Easily at the Shotover Moonlight Marathon, has extensive experience in New Zealand, has represented the UK and wins a lot of races. Has speed and technical skills, possibly unknown over 100k.

Stu Mills NZ/UK 2:38 Marathon, 2011 IAU Trail World Cup 15^th,2008 London to Brighton 1^st, 2009 UTMB, expat Kiwi who has represented Great Britain, distance won’t be a problem.

David Eadie Aus Coast to Koszciosku 28:08  hours 234km,100k 7:34, National 100k Champion, was 1st of the serious contenders to enter and perhaps started the ball rolling.

Mick Donges Aus represented Australia at the commonwealth Trail championships beating Vajin Armstrong, has also pipped Grant Guise at 100k. Was convinced to enter when Krupicka confirmed http://mickdonges.blogspot.co.nz/

Anton Krupicka US gets on the podium/wins/breaks course record at nearly everything he enters. Loves to run, and writes well. http://www.antonkrupicka.blogspot.co.nz/ hopefully his leg is right in time. 

Martin Lukes NZ 6:46:50 100k Enough said. That came a few months after someone asked when would he run a decent 100k time. Just incase Marty thinks I’m making stuff up (I’d never do that). The only person who could justifiably make such a statement did so near Christopher Hut on the St James walkway after Marty turned up late.

Vajin Armstrong NZ 2nd place last year, won the last two Keplers.

Hiroki Ishikawa JPN has run a 5:17 Kepler

The also rans – these guys could turn up at most races and get on a podium, make a top 5 and win a bunch of events. With 8 in the list above, top 5 would be a good result.
Julian Davidson- 7th 2011 Kepler
Dave Heatley- won the 60k, just won Cradle Mountain
Dennis de Monchy- head of a long list of people who want to beat me. Hopefully he’s in good form. Was once a Halberg Nominee.
Kristian Day- 4th last year, sits down to pee.
Brendon Keenan- Who? might be the dark horse of the field
Shaun Collins- The Running Beast, looks like he’s coming back to running form, current Hilary Trail title holder at 10:10
Andrew Howse- Who? Fastest age grouper at Ironman Taupo, ran a 3:03 marathon to get there!!!!! Could be another scalp collector.

Anyone else?

Me- could be staring down the barrel of 16th place. Looks like I’ll get the training done that I want to and have certainly got the long runs on board this year. Last 5 weeks have been 6, 13, 6, rest, 4. So I won’t have any excuses. And that is why I’m finally turning up. A field like this you can only learn from and get better. It’ll be fun. Might try to get a couple of guest posts (Vajin loves that).

Why no female commentary?
I hate to say it but the size (20 entrants so far) and depth of field does not exist. Nicola Gildersleeve with an 11th at Western States is probably a standout favorite. Tracey Benjamin will be there in the mix as well.

Adrian Bailey and the Team at ActiveQT have struck gold with this. There is something for everyone making it a more enjoyable day for those that usually only get to support the obsessive other halves. Stunning scenery, camping at Moke Lake, technical running, fast sections for the roadies, hills, water race, history, food, beer and friends. 5k, 10k, 1/2 and Full Marathons to choose from and to cap it all off you get to take home mud to eat.

We had a relatively short drive over from Dunedin on Friday night in time for gear check at Outside Sports then another quick stop to visit the Guise clan slumming at the Crown Plaza and pick up some Speedcross and a variety of packs to play with. On to Moke Lake and set up camp 200m from the finish and a mere 50m from bus pick-up in the morning.

Xmas Present - Easier to travel with. Sleeps 4 in comfort.

5am, Bacon, Eggs, Coffee and then onto the Bus for the ride up the Shotover river to the Site of the Old Pipeline Bungy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUOvcMtZIFI&context=C3490a86ADOEgsToPDskIzZq1HzBCNaofpt-HWzUEw

The Run

The 1st half is more or less runable with a couple of short steep climbs up onto sections of water race. Old Mining relics are passed and there’s a couple of sections where “you fall you die”, much like the Shotover road video above, expect only wide enough for one person to stand. For me it all went to pieces on the nice easy climb up Murphy’s Creek to the short loop section. That was the beginning of a procession of people cruising effortlessly by. Oh well, Enjoy. A stunning section of Beech Forest followed with a new MTB/Walking track being cut through it.

Halfway was reached at or about the New Lodge, another fall you die section, the older lodge and then a long grovel up a road to the ridge section. This would be awesome if I’d been able to move. Very technical running on sheep tracks following a fence line to the high point of the race before plummeting down a fence line at walking speed to the Stock Bridge. Then yet another grovel up onto the Moonlight Track only to turn straight back down to Moke Creek and the last 10k Home checking over my shoulder expecting Young Mal Law to come trotting by at any stage. If the race was any longer, he would have. Beers from Wanaka Beer were well received and a very cool touch to have them labelled for the race.

The Good – Scenery, organisation, people, level of difficulty, Moke lake, camping, runs for everyone, Ollie coming 7th in the 5k, beer, ActiveQT, The Foster family (owners of Ben Lomond), bonus km’s, Martin Cox and Anna Frost, marshalls, Pure South Mud, lot’s of water stations.

TheBad - Me.

Improvements – I think starting the 5, 10 and 1/2 at 1pm and having everyone finish at a similar time would be good. Those runners wouldn’t have to wait around so long before prize giving. Possibly trying a direct line up a spur on to the ridge section might be nicer and bring the race back from near 44km to 42km, not complaining about extras though, see the good .

We’ll be back as a family for sure. Plenty of unfinished business for me. Ann won’t need to supervise Ollie in the 5k next time and will be after redemption. Camping at Moke Lake is fantastic and those of us who stayed there both nights really enjoyed the peacefulness of the place. It’s nice to have found a place so close to the bustle of Queenstown and still so far from reality.

A number of times through the day I was reminded that this is why we run.

Photo’s/Videos

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.288420817878888.75570.196159077105063&type=1

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.287064341347869.75325.196159077105063&type=1

and keep an eye out for Mal Law somewhere on the interwebs with a video of the 1st half.

We were frustratingly denied a lot of the information that follows and if anyone wants more, I can try to provide or at the very least point you in the right direction. A lot of the things we learnt, were on the mountain, from the local climbing community as we were moving up and down. It was fantastic to be able to share their playground and see the passion they had.

Timeline

Sometime in December – I get an e-mail from Grant Guise asking about routes on the mountain and then follows an invite from Anna Frost  on behalf of Salomon for me to join them in a weekend exploring Mt Taranaki, breaking and setting records that appealed to us. Google Earth got a work out in the following two months.

Thursday – Fly in with Anna and wait for Paul Petch from www.outdoorphotography.co.nz 90 minute run up the Puffer around and down another track. 1st set of photos, 1st and only blood for the weekend.

Friday – Salomon gear arrives at Frontrunner, sans Shoes, Pick up Grant, 90 minute run from Dawson Falls to Camphouse. Heavy discussion on who was doing what on which day and when.

Saturday – 6:30am Anna & I start our work. 30s later I hear, “Anna, you’re going too slow, Matt you’re going too fast.”

Immediately before we started on our planned route up The Puffer to Tahurangi Lodge, Anna was informed by a local guide that we should use “The Razorback” instead. Too late, we didn’t really know the route and how it related to the upper sections. 32 Minutes to Tahurangi and then into the Hongi Valley and the Stairs to the lower scree slope. Worked efficiently up the scree to the bottom of “The Lizard” and good progress resumed on what is essentially a Rock Climb/Scramble.

The Lizard however showed us that a 24 hour effort was not an option. Slick ice-covered most surfaces and at night with a fatigued and foggy mind would become lethal. It did improve during the day, but I have no idea what would have happened at night. Best to save that for another more settled day. Wind in the Summit Crater might be described as fierce, it was very cold with Rime ice on all the windward surfaces. As I approached the crater I could hear Frosty hooting and hollering after her 1:29 ascent. High Five and then tagged my 1st in 1:39.

Summit #1

Turned back down and time to learn the route off the mountain. The Lizard is slow to get down, on the left (looking down) is a snow slope ending in a gorge. On the right is another snow slope leading to the upper scree. So I looked to get to the edge of that has high as possible which is maybe 1/2 way to 2/3 down the Lizard. The upper scree section is a bit thin and boney compared to the lower parts, but progress is much faster than the rocks and once the true scree is hit it’s all on to the stairs, most of which can be avoided by more scree on the left of them. It may also be possible to take a direct route across a grassy/moss section and short gully to the road. I saw one group heading that way and could be a good option and worth several minutes. It goes straight ahead instead of a slight right turn onto the stairs.

Back at the Camphouse in 2:31 and on target for both the 3 and 4 summits records as well as setting a standard for 2. For some reason there was no recorded time for 2 summits???? See the table below for the other summit times. I hope it makes sense.

2nd was about right, 3rd was incredibly difficult. Frosty came 3/4 of the way back up with me and carried my gear for a large portion of it. All I wanted to do was sit down. I was struggling to eat, no 3 summit record for me. That one will be tough to beat.

So tired and so steep.

While I was out doing #2 and #3 Grant had tagged a summit via the now infamous Razorback and so I had more info and more confidence in giving it a go. On the return from 3 I got my now regular phone call while Bombing the Scree and an order was placed for Crispy Bacon, 1 egg omelette and Kumara Chips and I had a solid break at the bottom in an attempt to pull myself together. The Bacon and Eggs were Gold. Grant was happy as I didn’t touch the Kumara Chips.

So up the Razorback which is actually closed, across the round the mountain track and cross over to above the top of Humphries Castle. This was a great place to be, alone on the mountain and quite at peace with myself. I stopped to smell the roses a couple of times.

Humphries Castle

I think I lost the track above here but have subsequently learnt that there are left and right (as you look up) variations. I took the left angling towards where I knew the polled route up the scree was. I entered the scree about half way up. Both Grant and Chris Morrissey took more right hand options and both got to the scree higher up. Well worth a day walk to try to sort out the right hand variation which would have you avoid the scree almost completely.

I topped out for the final time and then had a final glorious descent on the scree, the best of the day and hammered the run down the road in around 16 minutes. Immensely satisfied with what I’d achieved and the people I’d talked to during the day. 13:39:23 took 2 hours and 26 minutes of the old record, although if you believe the Ian MacAlpine quote in the paper, only Anna broke records, Grant and I just made up new ones.

No Caption Required

Without Grants idea, the support from Anna Frost and Greg Vollet from Salomon I wouldn’t have been able to go and play. It goes without saying, but Family let me do it. Thank You.

Finally, a map. I’ll post it as an edit later. I’d like to draw in the route options and don’t want to rush it.

One More finally – Good luck to Alistair McDowell who is going to give the 2 Summits standard a nudge. I think he’s having his 1st recce tonight.

edit: Route Map

Anna, Grant, Paul and I are off to Taranaki on Thursday to have some fun and hopefully push a few boundaries. Very weather dependant and good old NZ is terrible for trying to predict weather. Everyone knows that but it hasn’t stopped me looking at long-range forecasts since the middle of the week when next Thursday 1st came up on the radar. Back then a Thursday night start was looking good. Not now though. Both metservice and metvuw (the better of the two) are predicting rain for Friday and Saturday.

Nth Island 1pm Friday

Big Deal, that will change and as long as I can get a stable 24 hours, I’ll be happy. The downside may be that Anna and Grant will be doing their runs at the same time. Time will tell, should be fun and if worst comes to the worst, we’ll drink an enormous amount of coffee, eat food, and explore a bunch of day walks around the place.

The following weekend (bad timing after a 24 hour run) is the inaugural Moonlight Marathon being put on by Adrian Bailey and the team at ActiveQT. They were out today and have posted some more stunning pictures of the course https://www.facebook.com/ActiveQT Can’t wait. Will hopefully get a start list from Adrian next week and try to write-up something. From what I’ve been able to pick up, it should be a solid field.

Beyond that, look out for some writing about the Tarawera Ultramarathon, for those who thought last years pointy end was good, this year is looking to have even more depth with an early guess that there’ll be 6+ who break 10 hours (last year 4).

More with pictures from Thursday. Thanks all for the encouragement, really looking forward to doing something hard again.

BEER

I have been told I should be brewing once a month this year, so that there’s always something well conditioned and ready to drink. I sometimes do as I’m told. So McEwans IPA (a Scottish 80 Shilling) was put down today. Mash went well, Boil even better, ended up hitting the correct Starting Gravity (1.046) but a couple of litres short. Will go into the bottle next week and be ready to drink at the start of March.

Distance Run and Cycled per Year

Going into December I had no real idea about anything to set as a major goal, then a couple of e-mails turned up. Robert Jarvis let me know we’d managed to qualify for the World Rogaine Championships to be held in the Czech Republic. I denied all interest, having said I didn’t want to raise money this year. That lasted about two days. So we’re off to Karlovy-Vary at the end of August in an attempt to win the Vet Mens World Championship (I turn 40 just before hand) and try to improve upon our 7th on the Open Mens.

Between the 2010 World Championships and now, we haven’t competed together, but Robert has gone on to win the Heights of Winter and place well in a bunch of other events. So looks like his Navigation is even better, I’m fitter and stronger so hopefully that will make us a better all round team. Between now and then we’ll have TWALK (a 24 hour rogaine) plus two or three 12 hour events to get back in tune and try not to annoy the crap out of each other. Should be fun, as mountains and maps are a hell of a lot more enjoyable than 1k loops.

About the same time that was getting organised, Adrian Bailey from ActiveQT www.activeqt.co.nz announced a marathon to be held out in the wilds behind Queenstown. It’s created a bit of a buzz and looks like it will be a stunning event. Can’t wait to do it, although it now looks like I’ll be hugely over cooked for it.

Mid December saw an e-mail from Grant Guise turn up, asking for details about the Round the Mountain Track (Mt Taranaki). Turns out he was looking for some fun things to do as well. Sometime in the last year Ian McAlpine and his brother created a website with details about Mt Taranaki speed records. www.taranakispeedrecords.wordpress.com their goal was to generate some interest in breaking the records, seems to have worked. What Grant didn’t know when he e-mailed was that about 15 years ago (before I started running) I’d read A.B. Scalans 1961 book, “Egmont, the story of a mountain”. It covered all the history of the mountain including some speed and endurance records. I’d read it while staying at Dawson Falls. Once I did start running, Mum and Dad had lived within 1km of the Kahui Track end, so I’d also done a pile of running on the western side of the mountain.

I was jealous as buggery that he was going to go and run it. So it was a very pleasant surprise to get a message from Frosty asking what I was doing at the end of January, did I want to some along. “Umm Yes, let me check…….. Yes”. Joining in with Salomon, getting out there to do something just because it’s there and not because it’s a race, should be a blast. Except that we all know I’m not so good with speed, so it’ll be a big endurance run for me.

On the website are two 4 summit records, 4 different routes or any 4. Currently they are both the same record at 16:05 and include the North Egmont, Dawson Falls, Stratford Plateau and the longer Kahui Hut routes. I think it would be nice to do all those, but lack of knowledge of the mountain and logistics mean I’ll most likely stick to the easy routes. I also suspect that the 4 summit record may have come about because that was how many were completed or attempted in one day (at least in the beginning). So I’d like to stretch it out to a more traditional 24 hours and try to bag as many as I can in one day. 6 Should be possible, maybe even 7. The round trip from North Egmont is about 12-13km and contains just over 1500m climb. So 6 summits is a mere 75km and 10,000m of climb.

Don’t even bother to ask why. There is no reason.

Green = Round the Mountain, Blue = North Egmont, Yellow = Other Summit Routes

It will just be a hell of a lot of fun to spend time with a bunch of like-minded people and pushing boundaries. If there weather is rubbish we may do no more than dream up something even sillier to do. But if the weather does play nice, then some company for some of the summits would be nice. Alistair McDowell has indicated he’s keen for a bit of fun and will be in the area around the end of January. Grant and Anna will be keen for a summit, and Paul Petch (http://www.outdoorphotography.co.nz/) who’s coming along to take some pictures/footage will no doubt be coming up for one. My guess is that Sun Rise and Sunset would be good fun on top.

List of some other silly things to do in NZ that aren’t races and do or will have recorded times.

Putara-Kaitoke ~70km, 23.5 Hours? Colin Rolfe

Otago Rail Trail ~156km, 23:59, Graham Sinnamon.

Hilary Trail ~75km, Alastair McDowell & Kristian Day, 11:56.

Te Araroa ~ 3000kms

Length of NZ ~ 2100km, Sigi Bauer 18 Day 5 Hours 1 Minute and 58.3 seconds

Run from Queenstown-Dunedin, Frosty is doing that as I type. Silly Girl.

Last Link, just because we had a good time. On our way back from Marahau, we stopped in to see the new addition to the Guise Clan. Wee Isabella is very cute. But that was just a good excuse to go out and bag Hamilton peak with Grant.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GJnviqsEPs&context=C3490a86ADOEgsToPDskIzZq1HzBCNaofpt-HWzUEw

So I’ve got 3 and maybe 4 24Hour events planned for the year. Should be fun.

edit: Just as I was about to publish, I got an e-mail asking about the World 24 Hour Championships. Luckily I suck and haven’t qualified, also it’s the week after the World Rogaine Championships which will be more fun.

At the end of the 2010 race I said I’d turn up the following year injury free and focussed on it for the 1^st time. No Molesworth, Heaphy or 24 Hour events the week or two before. Time to see what I should be able to do on the course and to minimise the ribbing for getting chicked every year. So between the Commonwealth 24 Hour Championships at the end of September until race day there were to be no other long races.

 Commonwealths threw a bit of a spanner in the works with a torn calf muscle. The plan had been to have a month of recovery anyway so three weeks on the bike meant no great loss of fitness although it did mean some loss of impact conditioning.

Week 1 – I managed to limit myself to just once a day runs and included a 5k race at near PB pace, great, no loss of speed after months of slowness. Could still feel the calf a little, it was perhaps 90% right.

Week 2 – 120km, 10 hours, none of this 10% increase rule, I didn’t have the time. Pretty tired and sore at the end of it due to a bit of speed work.

Week 3 – 149km, much slower but included a 4 hour 48k run with a 21k trail race in the middle. End of the run was with friends doing the Grunt and the Kepler. I kept getting dropped on the hills.

Week 4 – 132km, and the 1^st of two epics around the Dunedin hills with Frosty and Shireen. 52km in 5 hours at race pace. See the video again, you know it’s good. I was quite useless at home that afternoon. 3000m PB this week.

http://www.youtube.com/user/FlyingKiwi72#p/a/u/0/ZMf9a6h1lSA

Week 5 – 135km, more of the same and more uselessness on the Sunday after nearly 5 hours of grovel in the rain with Frosty. She’d been doing 20 hours/week, I was doing about 13!!! 5000m PB this time.

Weeks 6/7 – Taper and Race.

Kepler 2011

This is always a great weekend for the family. Camping in Te Anau for 4 nights, eating, sleeping, playing etc. Friday was pretty relaxed. Grant turned up, plenty of banter some gear sorting and trying on some tight lycra with a few quiet ones to relax (it worked at Naseby so why not here). Race morning was the usual early start, two egg omelette, salmon and coffee. Vanilla Bean Gu just before the start. Also smashed water bottle just before the start, Guise had a spare.

Toed the line in the 2^nd row with Kristian Day, and would be within 2 minutes of the boy all day. Some big unit was on the front row and when the gun/hooter went we all had to run around him. Also forgot to bring a watch, oh well, run to feel was the plan and that’s much easier without one. I’ve never run with the front bunch (about 10 this year) before, but this time it seemed fine. K and I sat in at the back and just got dragged along. 21 minutes for the 5.6km to Brod Bay, not a lot of chatter. I eased off the back as we got there to settle down for the climb.

Exited Brod Bay in front of Marty and let him know settled into my own pace and ran the entire hill for the 1^st time. Adam Keen who’d set the pace with Vajin immediately dropped into a walk and was out the back. Tony Fattorini (Tony FatFat) went past early on his way to 4^th, Terence Bell lurked and then went past up near the bluffs, he’d be close all day as well.  Out of the bush and K Day was a couple of minutes up (turns out poos were an issue for the rest of the day), T Bell about a minute. Luxmore in record time of 1:18, 7 minutes down on the leaders sitting in 10^th or 11^th.

Up and over Luxmore past T Bell (Achilles injury in buildup) and caught up with K Day having a ‘sits down to pee’, a bit of smack talk about Spelt Bread and then he was gone again. Straight through Forest Burn and reached Hanging Valley in 2:20. Fuel routine had been, Gu on the approximate hour and a Jelly snake about every 20-30 minutes with a piece of Banana at some of the Aid Stations. Ended up sticking with that until Rainboe Reach when all was swapped for coke.

Was passed by Ant Rodger and a flying Dave Heatley on the down and completed that section in an easy 35 minutes, 2:55 for the 1^st half, 20 minutes down on Guise, Luke, Clendon, with Vajin maybe 2 minutes in front of that. Perfect and felt the best ever, dirty big smile pretty much all day. With that I hoped all would hold together for the way home.

Terence Bell was on a mission, he came into Iris Burn about 30s back having taken it really easy as well. As soon as we’d completed the climb out of Iris Burn he was gone, quickly got past Ant here and started a nice comfortable pace that lasted all the way to Moturau. Caught K Day by surprise again at Rocky Point and we ran together for a while even getting in some conversation this time. K was now resigned to losing the spelt loaf bet as I had a 10 minute handicap. Of he went again, but about 3k short of Moturau I caught him, Dave Heatley and one other all at the same time. 12^th-9^th in about 1 minute. 45 and 45 for the two sections to Moturau.

Had my 1^st serious walk on the rise out of Moturau taking in Fluid and Food to try to ward of any impending doom. Felt I was still moving really well on this section until a yahooing, jubilant Mike Beaumont came roaring past doing about 4:20 min/km. Bastard, thought I had him this year, he ended up smashing a 20 minute PB. John-Paul Lilburne came by at the same time although didn’t get away. 11^th going into Rainbow Reach.

Ollie was out spotting, passed the message to Sam, who had my coke held out for the quick change. She was delighted when I dumped 5 unneeded mini-moros at her feet. No kisses for anyone this time, I was pretty focussed and starting to struggle. Words of encouragement from Deb Nichol (you’re a bit late), straight past JPL and downed some coke. Always a buzz to see the family and it got me through the next 3k well.

Two young guys caught me just before the 5k station and I couldn’t hold on. Lot’s of bad words said as I was really pissed to have lost 10^th place (we need M10 & F10 numbers like Western States). 2.4km to go and still running well but a check suggested another pair including the lead woman Victoria Beck were doing better. That was the spur I was looking for, buggered if I was going to get abused for the next year about getting chicked again. White line fever set in and I pushed hard, quickly caught sight of the other two and flew by with about 7-800m to go. Bugger me, got 10^th place back right at the end.

5:50:36 a PB by 29 minutes, finally breaking 6 hours and finishing in the same time zone as the winner. About as satisfied with a result as I’ve ever been.

Enough about me. I’m a big fan of looking at what the best do and seeing how I can repeat it. So as far as I can tell from conversations and other bits of writing and results, here are some splits for the two halves and some other bits of information.

The front group of about 10 reached Brod Bay in 21 Minutes, only Terence Bell, Tony Fattorini and Mike Beaumont would move into that group. Terence and Tony were probably only 30-60s back. Adam Keen (raced to his plan), Kristian Day (poos) and one other (looked injured) dropped back.

I don’t have times for the other guys. Grants time stands out as being a big positive split, that’s what can happen when you bust your arse and try get on the podium. Sometimes to be successful you actually have to put it on the line rather than hope for others to fail. The reverse is Mike Beaumont, super easy in the 1^st half and a big negative split for the 2^nd. I’d bet money he could run 5:30 just by running the 1^st half a bit harder. I think the leading women all came in at about 3:05, not 100% sure on that, but course knowledge and no exams should help Victoria pick up some time next year. As will staying on her feet. Really disappointed for Shireen to take a tumble and end up on crutches. I think the two of them could have pushed each other quite hard in the closing stages.

Sub 6 – this is the magic number for the alsorans. No chance of us ever winning or even making the podium. Although having progressed from 225^th to 10^th and still taking ½ hour of my time, maybe there are still some dreams to be had. The 1^st plot below shows the progress of the mens 1^st, 3^rd and 10^th Positions, with the women’s winning time shown as a Pink Dot. Below that is a plot with the number of Sub 6 Finishers each year. Prior to 2004 the field size was increasing, 2004 was the alternate course and had 67 sub 6 finishers, until 2010 the field was capped at 400 and this year that was raised to 450 (462 officially started)

And lastly, the plot below is my slow but steady progress through the field, the number at the bottom right is obviously the one that gives most people satisfaction. Or perhaps gives me the most satisfaction as no one can take the piss for the next 12 months. I am the fastest Woman in 2011 :-) but I’m going to have to train my arse of to maintain that next year.

Post Script: I’ve never really trained much with others. This time around I was lucky to spend time training time with Anna Frost and Shireen Crumpton and a handfull of others. Then there were some times with Grant Guise, Gary Melhuish and Martin Lukes. Plenty of beers and talk that kept motivation high and provided insights into strategy and training.

Plus I had my Semi-pro team. Between them they now have about 3 Keplers, 2 Grunts, some Motatapu’s, various MTB races, Rogaines and an Adventure Race. One of them did it pretty tough on Saturday afternoon and spent it in bed, only getting out to spew.

Thanks to all of the above and family for providing the time and inspiration.

The Hardrock 100 lottery is this weekend and Grant has put his name in, Western States is next weekend and Kristian is down for that. Nerd boy simulated 10,000 years worth of lotteries

Kristian has about an 11% chance of being drawn in the lottery, but gets a 2nd chance if none of the other 3 Kiwi’s are drawn and could get selected as an international. Also difficult to get exact figures on the number that will be drawn. Kristian has 1 ticket so is in the red spots.

Grant has about the same chance but not  not shown in the image are those with 4-6 tickets (WSER only had a 3 ticket system) as it just gets messy.

One of those who gets his name bandied around a bit and forced his way into the poll, so we all know he coming is Kristian Day. He’s managed to bribe his way up to 3rd so far.

He’s had some good runs up North and made a bit of a name for himself by running with the lead group for the first 45+km at Tarawera and holding on for a good 4th. Clearly likes to have a good time out on the course and won the Xterra Marathon in Waihi under the name of Capt Yakuta Nakimori. Needs to beat Vajin to be the fastest vegetarian and needs to beat me by 10:44 to win a loaf of Spelt Bread. I’ve already been studying the recipes

So here’s his take on things for this weekend, images stolen from K Days facebook page.

Kristian Day

Round Ruapehu for Fun - Hopefully the other person in the photo can run as she would just make the event that much stronger

There has been a lot of semi “official” banter surrounding this race for quite some time now. Well at least official in the fact that Matt has taken it upon himself to display his Pre Kepler ramblings to the world, and when he asked me to write a piece about myself for his blog, well, how could I resist a chunk of the pie??

Going into the event this year my mindset has been completely changed since the same time last December. The most obvious thing being I have had at least 8 months of pain-free running, all of which as seen me run between 140 and 180km most weeks with at least a dozen runs over the 42km mark including a sweet 70km solo and a few 7hr bashes in the Kawekas.

This has me feeling pretty happy on a personal level, one because I love running so much and two, because last year seemed like a never-ending battle against injuries, which included a 3 month stand down after my first marathon with a stress fracture in my tibia. This left me with around 3 months to build up some sort of running fitness before I joined Mal law on 3 of his 7in7 runs (Kepler being the final).

This will be my second go at the beast, but also my first anniversary as an Ultra runner, and pretty close to my second anniversary as a runner full stop, having run my first 10km in October 2009. This also means I’m the fittest I’ve ever felt, although in the grand scheme of things means very little given the apparent calibre of the men lining up this saturday. However I’m pretty excited to see how I can run, and feel as though I could run a lot faster than the 6:16ish I did last year, minus the 120km warmup and broken leg.

What excites me the most though is having a sweet chinwag with some good friends, drinking some piss and catching up with Grant again, perhaps even managing to hold on for more than 45km this time

P.S Don’t worry about the poll Grant, I’m only beating you because I got my mum to vote for me so that I could piss Bixley off =]

The Poll – just like the election, the poll will have been completely useless as we still don’t even know who’s running and/or with what degree of injury. So my prediction and I said I wouldn’t do it (I’d be a good politician because I lie). Marty and Vajin are the favorites, no surprises there. I think Scott Winton would have been hard to beat if he was fit. Still don’t know if Norman is running or gone Kayaking either way, he’ll be enjoying himself. So that leaves 3rd to be a battle between Norman, Grant, Dan Clendon and most likely Kristian. To get it they’ll have to run 5:05 or better I think.

The women, I’ll go with Shireen and Vic Beck for a dead heat and Vanessa Haverd in 3rd. Shireen has been training solidly and Vic was supposed to join us a couple of times but sneaked of and did her own thing.

Weather looks perfect at least that’s what two blokes who went for a run on Saturday were hoping for.

Forecast for 1pm Saturday, image from MetVUW

Finally – all the best to our other training hack, Anna Frost who put us all to shame with 20 hour weeks (yes she is professional so has more time), she’s running with the Salomon Team at the North Face 50 in San Francisco as the defending champion. She’s up against Lizzy Hawker again, but having run with/against both of them in the last couple of months, I think it’ll be closer than most people think. Frosty is running as well as anyone and has done a ton of work.

Well, thanks Matt for the impromptu invite to your blog….

Less than a week out from the Kepler and I am pretty excited about getting down to Te Anau and having a good time out on the track with a few friends. This year is going to be very different to last year when I was terrified about running for 60km and carrying injuries. This year 60km seems like a breeze and I am more or less injury free and ready to go. What excites me the most about the Kepler Challenge is the deep and competitive field that the Kepler attracts. New Zealand is a small place- 4.4mil folks or so, with a small running community, even smaller trail running wise. But the Kepler, with a rich history more often than not has a strong field at the pointy end. This year is looking good, as Matt as already talked about in his last post.

It will be great to see Vajin’s attempt to defend his title, while Marty is turning up for his 10th race and looking for a big one. Fats is back and would expect him to make up for last years shocker. Hopefully Norman is going to be on the start line after a calf injury. Running with DanC again after our Tararua race earlier this month should be fun, as will catching up with KDay after spending 45odd k’s with him at Tarawera 100k.

For me, after last years rough 5h30, 4th, I am looking to have a relaxing race and a good day in the hills, what will be will be, as long as its not any where near YapYap.

See you at the Moose on Saturday night for some apres brews!

Sorry, no pretty pictures, gingers are just scary and he’s also a bit miffed that Kristian has been getting more love in the poll than he has.

a) More talent on show

b) 4 minutes from 1-3 last year is nothing

c) too scared (death threats have been received

So you lot get to do the job for me and the only thing I’m going to do is provide some form. There will however be no poll for the women. They’ve either withdrawn, are injured or I just don’t know if they’re running, but there’s something at the bottom anyway.

edit: if you vote for other, could you write their name in the box so we can see who the dark horses are

edit#2: the others that have been voted for are Elliot O’Sullivan, another Hill City member, if he is actually running he’d be capable of sub 5:30 I think, so yeah worth a shot in the dark. Looks like my Mum has voted for me to make the podium, thanks Mum but the podium will take sub 5.

edit#3: poll is suffering from road runners pulling the pin (maybe). Donges is out (confirmed with e-mail) Winton is on crutches. Guise keeps finding new computers to vote for himself. K Day has a 2nd fan. Top 3 are the same as the top 3 from last year.

Kristian Day has voted for himself. No surprise there, he nearly made the original poll. Young guy from the Bay, the one and only true bay, Hawkes Bay. Ran 6:12ish last year 2 days after running the Rees-Dart with Mal Law. Really loves his running and getting out in the hills. 4th at Tarawera behind Wreford, Armstrong, Guise. His big motivation will be to finish in front of me.

Men – in no particular order but these are the ones who if they run well can go 5:15 or better and I know will be there at 6am.

Vajin Armstrong 1st – Read his post. 240km/week. Was beaten by Mick Donges at the Commonwealths in Wales. Beat Grant Guise at Bell Hill in Canterbury. Has trained hard and now has the experience that was missing last year and caused me to doubt him.

Norman Dunroy 2nd – Broke a rib out boarding in the Winter, but had a race with him a week or so ago and he looks like he’s in the same sort of form as last year. Unless something radical happens, he’ll win the $500 for getting to Luxmore hut 1st. It’s his strength. Talking to him during the winter he too would like to run under 5 hours. In a past life he was a professional bike rider in the UK.

Martin Lukes 3rd – Has been secretly ticking of the miles for what will be his 10th Challenge.“Have done enough 5 – 7 hr type trots to get thru Ok. Muscle memory will kick in I’m sure.” He will also be looking to emulate Russell Hurring with a total of Sub 50 hours and no doubt run sub 5 as the front of the field should. edit: forgot to add that he hasn’t lost any speed either. Winning the Masters National 10k Road title this year.

Grant Guise 4th – Dissappointed with his 5:30. Has had a big year and will be looking to have some fun. Mick Donges was spitting distance in front of him at the TNF100. He and the Training Hack put in an 8 hour session out at Castle Hill just for fun, then rubbed it in with some great photo’s. Speed work has been mentioned as has bulking up being a builder.

Mick Donges – Sandbagging. Got an e-mail a week or so ago to say he was injured hadn’t run for a while but would still come over just for a look around the track, but then he wrote this on his blog http://mickdonges.blogspot.com/ ”There is nothing like a few hard runs though to take the wind out of your sails. One of these runs was a 45km run…….”. He’s beaten both Vajin and Grant this year, so I really can’t see him coming to just have a look. Sorry Mick, outed. It would be a fair bet that he’ll enjoy a few beers while he’s here as well.

Bevan Stevens – Scratched. Just put his name in because he had entered but an Achilles injury has put him out. He’d have been right up the front somewhere.

Dan Clendon - 1st of the two strong North Islanders in the field. Won the Tararua Mountain Race by 5 Minutes over Grant (jeez sorry Grant not giving you much love here, at least you’ll kick my arse)

Scott Winton – 2nd of the North Islanders and a real threat to be the 1st one not from the South to Win*. Has run a 2:16 marathon which is a bit faster than anyone else in the field. Lucky for everyone that it’s not a marathon. A comment from Shireen was that he is really looking forward to the race and has done some longer runs. Has started to play down his chances by claiming a calf injury. Seems like everyone tries to claim injuries.

Soooo the Poll, you get to make 3 choices, essentially picking the podium with room left to name an outsider or someone I don’t know is running. As Vajin said in his comments it will most likely take something well under 5 hours to win this year. There could easily be 3 or 4 who break that mark. So although I listed guys capable of 5:15, that won’t cut it. Sorry to those who are going to run 5:30, that won’t get you in the prizes this year.

That’s about as good a field as there has been in the last 10-12 years. Only once in that time have two people run under 5 hours. Whp knows this time.

* When Mark Bright won the race he may have been living in the South Island

Women

Shireen Crumpton – 1st Injured, having surgery 4 days after the race, hates muddy trails apparently. http://www.youtube.com/user/FlyingKiwi72#p/a/u/0/ZMf9a6h1lSA

Vanessa Haverd – 2nd don’t know if she’s coming

Sarah Coglan – 3rd don’t know if she’s coming

Jean Beaumont – 4th don’t know if she’s coming

Beth Cardelli – Been injured, was coming, not sure now

Ruby Muir – Been injured, is injured, has made threats.

Deb Nichol – injured not coming anymore

Victoria Beck – not injured, is coming and with a 2:45 marathon (I think) this year will be on the podium

So now you can see why a poll would be pretty useless, however I will make a prediction for the women, a Hill City 1, 2 but I won’t pick between Victoria and Shireen, and hopefully I’ll be in front of both of them to which Shireen said “Oh God that would be awful”.

Should be a fun day out.