If a man with a big orange beard and long hair suggests a run; it might be best to ignore him. If he is a man that thinks running the Hillary trail back to back to back; then you really shouldn’t go. If he’s planning to start at midnight, in the middle of winter, on a notoriously tough trail; hey that sounds like a great idea, I’m in. Continue reading “Well That Was a Big Weekend”
Category: Xterra Series
An Eye Opening At Waitawa
June 2018 will be one of those months I’ll remember for a wee while, but it won’t be for great race results. I go two great new event locations which were both awesome, and I’m going to say I did some growing as a runner.
After a Long Break, a Long Post.
What a start to the year, work and life have been next level crazy busy so I’ve been a bit slack on getting a blog post out since Raglan. Quite a few people that I’ve run into lately have asked if I’d given up on my blogs or what my plans for the year are. While it would have been more appropriate a month ago, because that’s when these things are done, here are my goals for this year.
So Close To Going Far
Oh my, oh my, the 11th of November is only a few weeks away, and that means toeing the line for 50kms of fun. This meant that labour weekend was to be my peak/hell week with back to back to back long runs planned, with the filling of the long run sandwich being the Total Sport Waihi event. But as with any well laid plan, it all went to hell in a hand bag. Continue reading “So Close To Going Far”
Hills and Hail
The hills of Hunua was where the final event in the Xterra series took place and boy was it a stunning day. Stunning how the weather changed over the 4 hours it took me to complete the 23km. It was like playing weather bingo. Continue reading “Hills and Hail”
Extremes of Events
As it was rightly pointed out to me by Facebook, WordPress, and a number of people, I’ve been a bit slack having not made a post in 6 weeks and 2 events. There has been a lot of goings ons, so rather than making one giant post I’m going to break it down to a twofer race recap of the Totara Park and Waharau events, and one of the non event developments. As it’s fresh in my mind, and legs, I’ll kick off with the events.
The Event That Almost Wasn’t.
They say to really know a man, you should walk a mile in their shoes. I would like to revise this statement; To really know a man, run 21km in their morphsuit. Then you will truly know the measure of their crazy.
Over, Around, and Over
Before I realized, it was the day of the second event in the Auckland Xterra series, this time at Shakespear Regional Park and this would be my first attempt at the super long distance. Two years ago Shakespear was the first event in the series and my first ever trail running event, and it damn near killed me at the time.
Ugh, Riverhead.
I’m not going to sugar coat it; I don’t like Riverhead Forest. It’s nothing personal, it’s not you, its me. Slow muddy runs, more time pushing than on my bike, car parking, and getting lost that one time has meant Riverhead has never done it for me. I never saw what others did in the sloppy mud and clay amongst the pine trees and fire roads. So with the first event of this years Auckland Xterra Series at Riverhead I gritted my teeth and thought of England.
Second Season Wrap
Last weekend saw the last race of the 2016 Xterra Trail Run Series with the Hunua event. I enjoyed my Hunua race last year as it had some awesome single trail. But this year there would be no awesome trail, in fact there would be no trail at all. Continue reading “Second Season Wrap”
The Rare Kiwi Trail Snail 