Crater Rim Ultra 2018

Crater Rim Ultra 2018

14th October 2018
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/3087346979
https://www.strava.com/activities/1903142040
http://www.craterrimtrailrun.com/



Phew! I made it!
I was pretty apprehensive going into this run - 52km and 2600m of ascending sounded brutal (and it was)....

Me, Nikki, Daniel and Amelia flew down to Christchurch for a brief holiday at the end of the school holidays. We hadn't visited  ChCh before, so that was neat. Friday was freezing! It hailed on us several times when trying to sightsee around ChCh!
Saturday was much better though, with fine and cold weather. We drove out to Sumner beach.

We drove up part of the port hills to see the sights. Yes, that is some snow glimpsed on the distant Mt Herbert (more on this later!)

Race Day

Sunday started at 4:40am (eek!), and Nikki kindly dropped me off at the race headquarters for the bus and ferry ride over Lyttleton Harbour to the beautiful start location at Diamond Head.

 My friend Mike was also down from Auckland for the run.

The race started at 7:15am

The weather was heavily overcast, windy and with a bitterly cold wind. Luckily the rain held off all day, which was a huge relief.
I like to run 'cool', and I've seldom (if ever) needed to run in jacket, hat, gloves, etc, but even with these layers, I was barely warm enough.
The run started with a gruesome 8km climb from Diamond Harbour straight up to the summit of Mt Herbert (921m). I took things pretty conservatively, knowing that it was a long day.

It got colder and colder as we got higher.

It was a relief to get to the summit of Mt Herbert. No views today, though.

After Mt Herbert, the track descended somewhat on the most technical section of the day, pretty rooty, slippery and muddy paths. I was wearing my trail shoes here, which was definitely the right decision. (there had been some heavy rain on Friday, but even so, trail shoes good here). The path weaved its way slowly down, through beautiful single track, heading through pine forests and farmland and was lovely to run on.
I got to the 20km mark, where my drop bag provided me with a change of shoes (into my road shoes), and a stock up of food. It was great to change socks and get dry shoes. After this, the trail ran across some dodgy farms, with still a few somewhat muddy sections and I was unsure about my shoe choice. Overall though, this was the right strategy (trail then road shoes), and my feet survived the whole day with no issues :)

The track had few flat sections, and contained boulders/stones/pebbles/rocks almost the entire way, which required huge concentration to avoid mis-stepping.

It was good to get to the top of the last major hill, with 9km to go. (actually, there were a few ups still after this, as it turned out)

The marshals out on the course were excellent! Many were dressed up in costumes, and they were very helpful and encouraging. Thanks guys! The race overall was very well organised and the track markings were numerous. (I still managed to deviate off the trail at one point, but saw another runner a hundred meters to my left, and moved over to meet up with him without losing much time)

There was a soul destroying out-and-back section which involved running 5km down a gravel road (from 460m altitude down to 100m and then back up), which was where I saw Mike powering uphill (as I descended).

Throughout the day, I kept myself fed with Replace gels (about 6 eaten) and muesli bars (3). I was muchly dreading getting calf cramps, which has been a problem for me previously, but my calves were all good! I got a bit of cramp in my left adductor muscle with 8 km to go, but I walked for a short while, and swigged some of my vinegary CrampStop, and this seemed to work ok. :)

With 6km (of downhill) to go, I really hit a low. I could barely stumble down the gravel road. 3 or 4 people passed me on this section, including (as it turned out), the eventual winner of the 50+ category. Damn it! I was feeling quite faint, and my vision was getting a bit splotchy. I'm not sure how I could have gone any faster overall - my race pace seemed pretty good, and I had a fair bit of food. Perhaps some caffeine or more sugar near the end might have helped?

Finally the finish line was in sight! I had used Garmin LiveTrack and carried my mobile phone, so the family was kept up-to-date of my whereabouts. This worked perfectly.

I came second in the Athletics New Zealand Trail Running Championships for 2018 in the 50+ category. Very pleased with that. I got a nice medal :)
I had some crisps and coke after the run, sitting in the (now) sunshine, which revived me after 15 minutes. Very pleased to suffer only cold and tiredness - my feet great, my left ankle only moderately achy, and my legs not too sore.

My time was 6:50.
Mike smashed it in 5:48.