26th February 2022
Pirongia !
I drove Barnaby, Neville and Brett down to Pirongia for our first official race in ages. Yeehaa!
The Pirongi trail runs had been delayed from their normal October date (covid, you know?), and the day was sunny and warm. (and even a bit foggy on the way down)
The Event
We had signed up to the Grunter, a 13.5km mash up and down the north-eastern slopes of Mt Pirongia.
We drove to Te Pahu schools for the shuttle bus up the hill to the Pirongia Forest Lodge, which is a great location with lovely views.
The Run
It was a lovely late start (10:15am) for our wave, and off we went immediately into gentle uphill which only got steeper and steeper.
We climbed and climbed. The first woman was running with us, and she and Neville slowly moved ahead of Barnaby and I.
After a half hour or so, I was really going strong, and I edged away from Barnaby. From this point on, I hardly saw any runners for the rest of the day. (Apart from a few marshalls at checkpoints). I was running solo, working hard on the uphills but not ruining myself since I knew it was going to be a 3 hour run.
The scenery was fantastic, with steep, rooty tracks requiring walking and in some cases climbing with the aid of chains.
At the top of a ridge the Grunter run turns off to the right, avoiding the final short distance to the actual top point of Mt Pirongia. (Definitely I need to complete that journey some day...)
From here the trail undulates between super steep downhills and super steep uphills.
It was tricky to stay upright and still make a good pace, and I had several near ankle-experiences and several near falls before I finally actually tripped and tumbled head over heels down the trail. I rolled pretty well, and apart from a small cut on my hand didn't hurt myself.
Soon after this point, I crested a ridge (Mt Ruapane) where the last (and only) aid station was attended by a few marshalls. Here (in full view of the marshalls), I managed to veer off the trail and follow some pest control bait trail tree markings down the hill. After 100m or so, as the trail disintegrated into a morass of vines, I realised that I must have taken a wrong turn, and I retraced my path back to the marshalls. They calmly watched as I re-emerged from the bush and ran off down the correct trail. (At this point I had some fairly harsh thoughts in my mind about their lack of advice to me, but chose not to vocalise them....)
But at least I didn't do what Barnaby managed, which was to run off the trail for a full 1500m, losing 300m elevation in the process, before realising his mistake and turning around! I think at that point I would have sat down and just felt sorry for myself! Fortunately there was cell phone coverage, and Barnaby messaged us to let us know that he would be late home...
Barnaby was thus the inaugural winner of the 'Great Grunter' optional event.
The trails improved greatly over the last portion of the course, leading to some nice fast downhill sections that were actually runnable.
A short uphill bit at the end brought the finish line into sight :)
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| My mate John, who is getting faster every year! |
We were all super stuffed, but no injuries, and it was an awesome event.
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| Grunters listen in awe as fastest Great Grunter tells of hours spent searching for a way out of impenetrable forests |
Wrap
Neville was very fast on this course, finishing in 9th overall in 2:41. This would nearly have won the race last year (when the October start date presumably meant treacherous underfoot conditions).
I did 2:56, which I was very happy with.
Brett took out the 60+ category (presumably) with 3:33.
Barnaby did 3:43, due to his unusual decision to do some extra sightseeing along the way.
It is amazing that 13.5km can take 3 hours.
I can see why the boyz are super keen to do the Munter option (36km) in October
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