Motatapu Offroad Marathon 2019

10 March 2019

Lake Wanaka (Glendhu Bay) to Arrowtown

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/3448912947
https://www.sportsplits.com/m3/race?c=34&r=1138&l=en-US
https://www.strava.com/activities/2202578388

The first event of the year, and it couldn't come soon enough for Steve, Mike, Tracey and me!
Tracey was keen to do a marathon before turning 50, and the rest of us somehow thought it was a good idea at some stage to join her.

Mike and I flew down on Saturday and stayed with Steve and Tracey for two nights. Enormous amounts of Thai were consumed to fuel us.

Mike and Steve had given themselves fairly impressive tapers... over two weeks for Steve and seemingly 2 months for Mike. Tracey in contrast was following a very structured training program.

Race Day
We got up at 4:30 to get over to Arrowtown early for the bus. As it turned out, the bus took 90+ minutes to drive to the start off Wanaka's Glendhu Bay, and by the time we disembarked and waited in the long toilet queue, the 7:30am race was starting! We just made it up the big hill to the start line for the go gun.

I decided to wear my back-mounted camelbak, since it was more comfortable (ie faster) than the front mounted weight system. Definitely a good decision. I only took 500ml of water, but the day was not hot (actually excellent overcast, still, running conditions) and there were 4 aid stations that I drank 1.5 to 2 cups at each. I lived completely on Replace Gels - one every 40 minutes (ie, 6 of them) plus one beforehand.

The trail was 80% gravel, and 20% long grass - very comfy to run on. I wore my normal Asics running shoes (not trail shoes). If anything, even softer shoes would be fine (eg Hoka's) to protect my legs more.

I started my run conservatively. I had been training well, and pretty hard leading up to this event, but hadn't done many long runs. (only 2 over 30km). After 12km, I felt good, and started to crank up the speed. I knew that if I crested the high point at 28km, then it was 'just' 14km of downhill.

I traded places with a few older guys at times, who I think might have been my age group rivals, but moved ahead of them over time. One of those guys (I think) turned out to be the top 60+'er, who I didn't beat by much in the end.

There were many stream crossing from about the 22km mark. I kept my feet dry for some time by hopping the rocks etc, but eventually succumbed at about 25km mark. Damp feet - yuck..

My legs started getting extremely weak and flabby with about 6km to go. The big downhill sections created such pounding that eventually all elasticity and resilience failed. The last 5km and last 2km especially involved many (20?) stream crossings - some up to mid thigh. These slowed the progress a lot, and my feet got *so cold!* when crossing that they were seriously numb for minutes after each crossing. I mean numb like "oh my God, I'm running on ankle stumps that are only theoretically connected to my nervous system and quite possibly my feet have fallen off!". But it wasn't sore, so I stumbled onwards as you do!

Near the end, we merged with other runners doing the shorter length courses.

I finished in 4:06:40, which was much better than I expected (I did 4:30 in 2013), so very happy with my race. 32nd overall, and I won $50 for 2nd in over 50 male age group.

Tracey completed her first marathon (before turning 50 - Yay!) in 5:30:52

Steve and Mike were not too far from each other throughout the run, and Mike caught up to Steve at about the 30km mark, after which they ran together to the end, finishing in 6:31:41.

Pam kindly came to cheers us onto the finish at Arrowtown with the boys.

How to run faster?
I could perhaps have gone a bit harder in the first 15km. Also, I had two (quick) toilet breaks, which I should have reduced to one. Of course, some other long training runs would have helped. (although I never bonked and aerobically felt fine throughout).

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Motatapu Offroad Marathon 2019

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