As I promised here is all the goings on that aren’t a race. As many of you are aware I’ve entered the 50km Tarawera Ultramarathon, which of course requires a fair amount of training and preparation. I also have been getting a lot of sideways looks and “say that again” from people. Oh and I’ve been getting a ton of new cool gear too.
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.
Long Day At The Office
After suffering so much envy of the longer course scenery at the Waitomo Trail Run last year, I decided I wasn’t going to miss out this year and I entered the 35km super long event. I certainly was not let down by the natural beauty of the region, which helped some ways towards making up for some of the disappointment felt along the way.
What’s Going On
It’s been 6 weeks since I made the decision to enter the Tarawera 50km Ultramarathon, so how are things going? Pretty well, thanks for asking. Well, so far anyway. Continue reading “What’s Going On”
Poor Life Decisions
-Start line of the 2017 Tarawera 50km Ultramarathon Race-
*Record Scratch*
*Freeze Frame*
Yup, that’s me. Now you’re probably wondering how I got here…
Big Hills, Blow Outs, Blisters, Beers and Tears.
I’m still not sure why I did it, and over the space of nearly 7 and a half hours I thought about it a lot … a hell of a lot. Why The Hillary event? Why the 34km event? And I’m sure I wasn’t alone out there questioning our (poor?) choices at some point. But life wasn’t all bad, the views and scenery was breathtaking, watermelon at aid stations is awesome, everybody out there was amazing and the beer afterwards was quite simply #thetits. There was even a very special moment that I’m certain left no eye dry.
Continue reading “Big Hills, Blow Outs, Blisters, Beers and Tears.”
My How Time Flies
So it feels like just a few weeks ago that I was running walking slogging my way towards to the Blue Lake in Rotorua, but as it turns out it was nearly four months ago (and two months since my last blog post). In contrast it felt like the Hillary event was ages away, there would be heaps of time to get ready. Well surprise Brent, it’s in a week!! And you’re not ready.
The Rare Kiwi Trail Snail 