Nicola Gildersleeve – Tarawera
Time for some balance in the bio’s. With most of the talk being directed at the quality of the mens field it’s nice to see one of the top North American women turning up for a holiday as well. Nicola Gildersleeve. In 2010 she finished up F11 at Western States, last year she ran one of the fastest 50 mile times in the US with a 6:37 (Ellie Greenwood had the fastest with 6:25). Dodgy list though because Frosty’s 6:56 isn’t on it.
Whichever way you look at it, 6:37 for 81km is sharp and it’s the kind of strength and speed that will be difficult for some of the other contenders to beat. Vicky Plaistowe with an 11 hour Hilary trail should be there or there about and then there are a few Aussies dotted amongst the 30 Entrants who could surprise. Perfect opportunity for those in the know to make some comments and fill in more details about the experience and skills of the woman’s field. My standard “name results site:.nz” turns up so many blanks for the women.
Anyway, here’s Nicola’s views.
I was asked to do a little Bio and thoughts on the race so here goes….
I kind of got into running by fluke. I grew up playing team sports and have always been very athletic but running wasn’t always my favourite thing. I was even caught cheating on my runs in high school. After a couple of years of playing varsity basketball at my College I decided to try something new and signed up for the Vancouver Marathon (2005). My brother’s girlfriend at the time was signed up to train with North Shore Athletics, the local running store in North Vancouver. Everyone kept telling me that I was going to get hooked and hooked I did get!
After that I did 3 other marathons with my best time being 3:02 but before I could focus on going sub 3…I got into Ultra Marathons (2006) and I pretty much haven’t looked back. I quickly found that I had a huge passion for mountain running, especially ultra’s and have since done dozens. As it turns out, I also do fairly well. I am not driven to win however and do not follow a strict training schedule. I just get out there because I love it. I also love sharing the trails with others and nothing beats a good adventure with friends.
I love running on technical rocky and rooty surfaces (especially downhill) so I think I will fare pretty well on NZ’s single track! The gnarlier the better! I am super pumped for the Tarawera 100 and interacting with all the other crazies who are coming out to do it. The trail running community is so awesome and it’s what keeps me coming back to race after race. I am currently travelling through NZ for the next 2 months and if anyone wants to head out for a run let me know! I will slowly be making my way down south after the race and would love to meet as many people as I can along the way.
www.ngildersleeve.blogspot.com/
Nicola at Orcas Island 50k (photo Glen Tachiyama)
Mick Donges and Odds
Who is excited about running Tarawera Ultra Marathon? I am excited… Cannot hardly wait.
I’ve been experimenting with Ultras for maybe about 4 years now. I have slowly been getting better but still have a long way to go. My passion outweighs my ability and travelling to a beautiful place to race just makes me too excited to sleep at night. My running highlight so far was probably the Commonwealth Championships in Wales, September 2011, It was great. An excellent race, excellent atmosphere and a multiple-sensory experience.
The Australian team stayed at the Broadway hotel and it also happened to be where the New Zealand athletes were staying. I got to meet James Kuegler, Matt Bixley and Vajin Armstrong amongst others. I liked them and once we got past the language barrier we realised that we have much in common. In the race itself i ran in a group that starred James and Vajin. Eventually Vajin and myself split from the group and we ran the first 30k-40k of the 56k race together stride by stride. We shared water bottles and worked together to reel in many of the closely knit Northern Hemispherian Commonwealth Runners (i don’t know if anyone else have ever used that term before) What a great experience running with Vajin and i’m looking forward to it once again.
For Australians New Zealand is highly regarded as a trail running destination. Everyone who visits returns with tales of adventure and stories of large mountain ranges, beautiful lakes, never-ending trails along pristine wilderness and views of snow capped mountains. they say it looks just like the ‘Lord of the rings’ (the movie). Just saying you’ve been to NZ makes you instantly a more developed person and a true trail running enthusiast. I’ve wanted to come across for a l o n g time. I missed my chance with Kepler as i had a foot injury.. but now i’m fit and fighting and raring to go.
I don’t know much about who else is racing in Tarawera. I mean, i read it in the all the newspapers and loving the talk-up.I just don’t personally know, you know. I’m waiting for ‘AnotherRunningGeek’ to release an intimate comprehensive updated athlete guide with fast facts and odds on the runners.
David Eadie is trying to confuse everyone by pointing the finger at me. He is the Australian Ultra runner of the year 2011. Don’t let him out of your sight for a second! I’ve never raced David but i’m really looking forward to the experience. He is a great all rounder. Very fast but also truckloads of endurance. He should have his speed back after his 2nd place in Coast to Kosciuszko (240k) in December (whoa!!). Mike Le Roux will be red, red hot in the 60k. I also have not had a chance to race against him, or meet him yet too. He is a proper athlete, just one look at his blog humbles me to silence. Many of the Australian runners i am unfamiliar with but this doesn’t mean that they won’t be deadly.
Internationals are sounding top shelf. Much Speculation with Anton Krupicka. I hope he does run 100k and doesn’t have issues with his shin. Would be like a dream to run with him. When i first started ultras i read his blog like a bible and it wasn’t just because he looked like Jesus. Geez…I hope Anton doesn’t read this. I think he already thinks me a fool. I wrote to him recently to ask if he wanted to be a part of an Alliance against you hardened New Zealanders. I think i just further promoted the image of Australians as bogan-racists who don’t like to lose. I don’t know if this is against race rules to form international alliances, but If no-one knows ….
Don’t think that I haven’t noticed that there is a strong troop on New Zealanders champing at the bit. I won’t name names, but there are many of you. My feeling is one of excitement, looking forward to strategic play and eager for some enjoyable fast running and bit of to and fro-ing on the trail. Last I looked there were roughly 30 Australians on the start list across the races.
Micks thoughts on a Trans-Tasman type Championship, and I for one fully agree it should happen. Top 2 placings from each country at Tarawera and then TNF combined.
Look. We really should be having some more healthy Trans-tasman trail competition. This isn’t my idea but i’m happy to take credit for it and claim it as my own. I think it’s Matt Bixley’s idea or Grant Guise. Basically some of your best races and some of ours. Some of your best runners and some of ours. Championship style racing, Prizes, Champagne (for the podium), partying, some running. It would surely build a stronger bond between our great nations. Anyway, think about it.
Bogong-Hotham 2012 (credit: dandyrunner)
Tarawera Odds – NO HATING JUST BECAUSE YOU DON’T LIKE THE NUMBER
$1.01 Vajin Armstrong – if Prasasta reads this.
$3.00 Fit Anton Krupicka
$3.50 Mick Donges – wears white lycra so we have to give Salomon some love
$4.00 Vajin Armstrong – if Prasasta doesn’t read this
$4.50 Martin Lukes – because he wouldn’t give me any training advice and because Vajin has beaten him in the last two Keplers
$6.00 Martin Cox – I think the best money will be made here. Odds reflect the inexperience at 100k
I don’t think Hiroki and David could beat ALL of the others. They should/could beat some of them though.
$8 – Hiroki Ishikawa
$10 David Eadie
For the Women
$1.01 Nicola Gildersleeve – she ran 6:37 for 50 miles last year and finished 11th at Western States, unless Paul has had some late entries she will be hard to beat.
David Eadie – Thoughts on Tarawera & Ultras
Instead of stalking the internets to find info on some of the visitors coming for Tarawera I straight out begged a couple of them to write a piece. Here’s David Eadies thoughts on his upcoming trip. With a 29:06 time for 10k a few years back, he is probably the fastest guy in the field. Lucky for the rest of us this isn’t a 10k race. Here’s the rest of his PB’s
- 240km 28hrs 08mins
- 160km 16hrs 44min
- 100km 7hrs 34mins
- 50km 3 hrs 24min
- Marathon 2.31.15
- 1/2 Marathon 67.07mins
- 10,000m 29.06mins
- 5000m 13.52mins
- 3000m 7.59.7mins
- 1500 3.49.8
- Ironman Triathlon 9.32 (2.58 – Marathon)
- ½ Ironman 4.12 (72min – ½ Marathon)
Well here we go, just under 12 days until the Tarawera 100km race. It promises to be a great race and an amazing field Paul has organised for the event. I am very excited about the trip and a great opportunity to race in such a high quality field. At last count I think I had it at 15 runners with amazing credentials who I had heard of and have the utmost respect for. It is going take a great run just to make the top 10′. But that’s racing and what we live for, the dog fight, the pressure of the day and executing your race plan.
Having recently come over to watch the Kepler Challenge and support my wife who was running, I have to say the Kiwi runners look the goods and have some impressive times and race results to their names. Throw in Anton Krupricka, a couple of Poms and our Japanese visitor it’s a fair line up. I think the x factor is Aussie Mick Donges and he is a real up and comer. Enough about the competition as it’s a super hot field and far too hard to pick a top 5 let along a top 3.
For me the race has some significance as one I have always had on the radar. Race director Paul Charteris was my pacer at the Western States 100 Mile Endurance run in 2007 (California USA). Paul was amazing help during the event. Although I didn’t run to what I felt I was capable of, having Paul there help me finish. He knew the course and was a huge help. He told me about Tarawera way back in 2007 and I made a promise to come and run it one day. So I decided to come for the 2012 event. After coming over to support my wife Kim at the 2011 Kepler Challenge I was very impressed. I realized what an awesome country NZ is and what wonderful people and scenery you have.
My journey to Ultra running came after many years as an elite distance runner (5000 meters to 15km Road). In 2002 I made the move to Ironman Triathlon and was fortune to qualify and finish the 2003 Hawaiian Ironman Triathlon in 9 hrs 59 mins. It was after watching a video of the legendary Western States 100 Miles Endurance run in 2006 that I decided to give Ultra running a crack. It’s been a great journey and I have been fortunate to achieve some reasonable results. I am excitedly looking forward to Tarawera and then the Badwater Ultra Marathon which I have been selected to run on July 16th. Crazy I know but an event that has attracted me for a few years and one on my bucket list I just want to run and enjoy if that’s possible in the heat of Death Valley.
I have recently moved into coaching and advising runners (predominantly ultra marathon runners) providing an online service via www.therunningman.com.au This has been fantastic experience and I think the biggest thing for me is the importance of tapering for, and recovering from an ultra event. My philosophies to training for Ultra marathons aren’t built around running mega mileage each week. I believe the strength and endurance required can be built with a combination of basic marathon training and some key long runs or races. I like to think of it as training smarter not harder to gain improvement.
I was recently asked ‘what I get out of running 100km’. You know what, that’s a great question. I guess it’s all about the journey, the process of setting the goal, training for it and ultimately achieving it win lose or draw. In ultra marathon running everyone one is a winner/champion in my eyes, we all suffer and go through many good and bad patches during a race, it’s not just about being the fastest, it’s about the achieving a goal. Sure for us elite it’s about a fast time and or placing, but it’s also about the journey, the time out there alone on the trails, just you and your own thoughts and feelings to deal with.
What is great to see is the growth in trail / ultra marathon running all around the world. In Australia for years it’s been pretty much the same faces but in recent years there has been a massive influx of runners from all walks of life and sports crossing over to ultra running. In terms of the Aussies heading over I think we will do reasonable well. My word of warning is watch out for Mick Donges, he’s the x factor in the race. If you get a chance, have a chat with Aussie Mike LeRoux. Mike is running the 60k event at Tarawera on route to completing in the US 100 Mile Grand Slam. Mike ran the fastest ever 100 mile time by an Australian (15.38) at the Glasshouse 100 Miler in September last year.
Whilst on the topic of Australian events, I do ask you consider coming across the ditch for a few of ours and I highly recommend our National 100km event on the Gold Coast in June each year or any other of out great ultra races www.aura.asn.au
David Eadie
Never one to miss an opportunity to correct statistical errors. Mike leRoux’s 100 mile time might be the fastest on TRAILS, but Jo Blake, Martyn Fryer, Mick Francis and others who’ve run 240+ in 24 Hours will have clocked faster 100 mile times. Martin and Jo recorded 14:43 and 15:03 respectively at Keswick in 2009. Jo then clocked ~14:42 in Brive, 2010 and we’d better not forget Yannis. He’s as much Australian as most of the current Australian Reps.
Races, Races and more Races
In this episode we have vTUM, Northburn, 1500m, 800m, a Triathlon and even some training.
vTUM – so is it or isn’t it the race of the century/millenium/year or maybe the race of the week? New Zealand doesn’t have a long history of Ultra Races, but what we do have is pretty high quality. With a number of Open World Records being held by Kiwi’s over the years and some of the best runners (Yannis Kouros) coming here to run. A lot of that history is documented in a book by Roger W. Alcorn, Tear Along The Dotted Line. He originally set out to document the history of the New Brighton 50. But it ended up being a more complete history of Ultras from around 1961 onwards, finishing just about the time the Kepler started.
So the very best have run here and there have been some great races. But looking back at that history and trying to limit things to races in the 50k-100k range for some sense of apples with apples, winning times haven’t changed that much. Nor have the abilities of those who are winning the races. The New Brighton 50 was the most competitive race during the 60′s and 70′s. Roger Alcorn holds the record at 5:18 next best is 24 Hour record holder Richard Tout with 5:24. The fastest 50 miles has been run by Russell Prince with 5:06, he also holds the 100k record at 6:38 and that’s followed by Martin Lukes with 6:47. Some of those races were tight battles between one or two athletes, but more often than not they were one-sided affairs with very small fields and never have we had so many high quality Internationals turn up for one event.
Marty is a great gauge of how everyone compares today to those of previous years. At 40, he’s now been running at the pointy end of New Zealand and World Championships for 15 years and has run times comparable to most if not all race records as evidenced by his 6th place at the World Championships with is 6:47. His best Kepler was only 7 or so minutes of Russell Hurrings best and even now with a reduced training effort is he’s still keeping Vajin Armstrong honest. When Marty ran that 6:47 in Winschoten his 1st 8 laps were +/- 30′s of each other at 40 minutes then dropped to 42 and 45 I think.
Vajin has had the better of him in the last 2 Keplers and then Mick got the better of Vajin at the Commonwealths. Those three alone should run in the 8:30 range. Anton is a big IF. We can only hope that his shin settles a little more and he can really enjoy his down under trip. His trail record speaks for itself, as does that of UK representative Martin Cox. But even he won’t know what he’s capable of having never run this far. It’s a shame that Stu Mills has a broken foot, that does weaken the field. Hopefully the Aussie Mike le Roux will fill his place and run the full 100k.
So who knows if it’s the best race or not. There’s no doubt that there have been better runners around (just) but I don’t think there have been so many with a real chance of winning in one place at one time.
Some races that might be worth googling or going to the library and looking up the old newspapers. Port Hills 100k during the 80′s. New Brighton 50 milers. Tree to See 80k. Symon and Lowther 100km and I know there was a 100k race run in Rotorua once as well.
Northburn - didn’t want to run it this year. Stupidity got the better of me and I’ve managed to find myself on the start list a week after Tarawera. Andre Blumberg from Hong Kong is also backing up. Nutters. If Tarawera is all about the mens race, then Northburn is all about the womans. With Susanna Harvey-Jamieson from Australia going up against Jean Beaumont. Jean has a string of Kepler tops 5′s and a number of longer events under her belt. This will be the longest she’s ever gone and is up against the very experienced Aussie 24 hour Rep Susanna. Being tired, I’m expecting to get chicked this time round. More about the field when I’ve actually had a decent look at it now that I’m entered.
1500m/800m - ran a PB for the 1500m tonight, only thing that means is that I haven’t got slower and am possibly more efficient than I was
Triathlon - Started the weekend of with a kids Triathlon on Friday evening. What a blast. Sam and Ollie had a fantastic time and for a school fundraiser it was brilliantly organised and well run. Ollie ran and biked well in a big 8-10 boys field and Sam had a great result (3rd) in the 5-7 girls. Bring on the Weet-Bix. Paul can we shift the date of Tarawera so I can attend the kids race??
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Training – yeah, done some. Pretty happy with the consistency. Tarawera will be fun and it should all pay of in August/September
Vibram Tarawera Ultra Marathon 2012
most people – “Are you running Tarawera this year?”
some people – “When are you going to run Tarawera?”
a few people – “You can stay at our place to make it cheaper!”
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 15th,2008 London to Brighton 1st, 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.
Shotover Moonlight Marathon
This event ticks ALL the Boxes – at least it does for us.
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.
Mt Taranaki – Speed Record
This isn’t going to be a piece of elegant writing. We had way too much fun and were accepted so well by the local climbing community that I couldn’t do justice to it. So this is simply going to be a description of what I did and hopefully give some guidance for those who want to have a go at some of the Summit Records, a number of which I believe are achievable for people with a solid base and some determination. Some of the records are sturdier than others and would require a talented athlete, but they are all beatable by the current crop.
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.
| Summit | TimeBottom | TimeTop | Rest | RoundTrip | Up | Down |
| 1 | 2:31:00 | 1:39:00 | 0:00:00 | 2:31:00 | 1:39:00 | 0:52:00 |
| 2 | 5:39:00 | 4:39:00 | 0:01:00 | 3:07:00 | 2:07:00 | 1:00:00 |
| 3 | 9:41:00 | 8:26:00 | 0:05:00 | 3:57:00 | 2:42:00 | 1:15:00 |
| 4 | 13:39:23 | 12:41:00 | 0:16:00 | 3:42:23 | 2:44:00 | 0:58:23 |
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
- RED = Razorback, GREEN = My descent line, YELLOW = Possible Descent
The higher you can get using the Razorback the less scree you have to climb.
2 Weeks of Trail Bliss
Pretty excited about the next couple of weeks when it comes to running.
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.
2012 – Year of the 24 hour!!!
Long time no post, because on the most part there were no plans. But that pretty much changed without me needing to do anything. After a lot of specific training for the Commonwealth Championships and then the event itself, I’d hoped 2012 was going to be a year of having more fun. 24 Hours on the road just isn’t that much fun. The training did mean I ended up with plenty of k’s under the belt and a lot more consistency.
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.
Kepler – Review
At the end of the 2010 race I said I’d turn up the following year injury free and focussed on it for the 1st 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 1st 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 2nd 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 1st 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 4th, 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 10th or 11th.
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 1st 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. 12th-9th in about 1 minute. 45 and 45 for the two sections to Moturau.
Had my 1st 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. 11th 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 10th 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 10th 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.
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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.
| Start–Iris Burn | Iris Burn-Finish | Placing | |
| ~28.5km | ~32.5km | ||
| Vajin Armstrong | 2:35 | 2:27 | 1st |
| Martin Lukes | 2:36 | 2:32 | 2nd |
| Dan Clendon | 2:36 | 2:41 | 3rd |
| Grant Guise | 2:36 | 2:53 | 5th |
| Mike Beaumont | 3:05? | 2:37 | 8th |
| Terence Bell | 2:56 | 2:52 | 9th |
| Matt Bixley | 2:55 | 2:55 | 10th |
| Victoria Beck | 3:05? | 2:47 | 14th/1st Woman |
| Kristian Day | 2:53 | 3:00 | 16th |
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 1st half and a big negative split for the 2nd. I’d bet money he could run 5:30 just by running the 1st 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 225th to 10th and still taking ½ hour of my time, maybe there are still some dreams to be had. The 1st plot below shows the progress of the mens 1st, 3rd and 10th 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.
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