53km and over 2500m of vertical.
16th October 2022
https://www.strava.com/activities/7969329625https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/9797835393
Prep
I flew down to Christchurch on Saturday to tackle this race for a third time (after previously swearing never to do it again!).
I had run plenty of miles over the last few months, with no injuries. However after my overseas tripping I had been eating like crazy.... So I would say that I was healthy and fit, but feeling heavy and off my peak condition.
This race is the Athletics NZ National Trail Running Champs.
I decided to take the GoPro and record my adventure, since I didn't have very high hopes of success in the coveted 50+ age group.
The plan was to run with somewhat reduced water (to save weight) and rely on the aid stations. (more on this later...). In addition, no gels today - I would rely on real food (like Snickers and chips).
Race Day
The weather was fantastic throughout the day. It started cool and overcast for an hour or so, but then cleared to mostly blue skies.
We caught the event bus and ferry over from Littleton to the start at Diamond Head. (after a 5am start which necessitated a 4:10am wakeup!)
We started at 7:15am with a lap around the football field.
We then headed up the 920 meter high Mt Herbert. This is a long, 75 minute climb through farmland and open pasture with about half of it runnable and the rest too steep to sensibly run.
It started cloudy, but then we magically climbed up above the clouds.
It wasn't cold (and I'm surprised to see on the images how sweaty I already look! No wonder I ended up so dehydrated!)
 |
| Sweaty Mess going up Mt Herbert |
 |
| Above the Clouds on Mt Herbert |
It was great to summit Mt Herbert. This took me 74 minutes, which was 3 minutes slower than in 2019, but faster than in 2018. Fluffing around with using the camera and videoing takes up a bit of time also.
 |
| Mt Herbert Summit |
The track coming down from Mt Herbert starts off as an easy gravel track.
But then we do the section off behind Mt Herbert, which was muddy and slippery and very technical. My trail shoes (the fabulous Hoka Tecton X) are wonderful at everything except mud... I was slipping around like crazy and fell twice. I was also trying to avoid the larger mud pools to avoid getting wet feet. Thank goodness the weather had been very dry for 5 days - otherwise it would have been even trickier. Having said that, this was one of the most fun running bits! No videos of this section, as I concentrated on staying upright.
After a while the terrain flattens off and there is beautiful single track to descend.
We ran into a nice pine forest (shade, yay!) and the soft pine needles underfoot were pleasant after the last dose of downhill pounding. I was feeling decent at this stage, well warmed up and without any particular aches or pains. I had drunk all my 700ml? of water in my drinks bladder.
We had nearly reached the first aid station (Gebbies Pass at 20km), and my fellow runner Dan and I chatted a bit.
This aid station was where my drop bag was delivered. So I drank my 500ml of flat coke and had a half banana. No need to change my shoes, which were muddy but comfortable and mostly dry. I stocked up on some more snacks and somewhat filled my water bottle. I got my sunhat and sunglasses, as the day was already really heating up by 10:00am.
It wasn't far past here that we started the second really big climb of the day - about 500meters up through a pine forest (Waibls Hill). Here I had a snack of vegemite and chippy sandwiches. Very nice :)
I picked up some pine branches to use as running poles and used them for the next 5 or 6 km up the hill. They were actually super helpful, and made me realise that I should have used my proper running poles all day (especially up Mt Herbert). I overtook 4 or 5 people on this section, largely due to my poling. (or was it the rush from the 500ml of coke??)
 |
| Homemade Running Poles |
At the 30km aid station (the 'Sign of the Bellbird'), I drank lots of water, but didn't fill up my (mostly empty) camelbak. Due to the arrangement of my water bladder, it takes a few minutes to get it out and fill it and replace it, so I hoped that just sculling some cups of water would be enough to see me through the next 10km. (it wasn't).
So heading off on the 30km to 40km section I was conserving water, which was pretty dumb. The day was getting quite scorchio and although I wasn't overheating, I could imagine that I was getting a bit dehydrated. Anyway, the running was going fine and at the 34km mark we ran down the 'road to hell and back'. (Worsley Spur Road). This is a 4km rough gravel road section that descends over 200m and then just comes up again. For no good reason. In the hot sun.
At the bottom of this (fast) descent, I turned to come back up and got immediate serious cramp in my right adductor. This is a muscle that you can't 'stretch', and stopping to attempt it merely triggered immediate serious cramp in my left adductor and then my right hamstring and then my left hamstring. Unfortunately there were a couple of young women walking up this section of the path, who must have thought that I was seriously ill or deranged as I was sticking my legs out in all funny directions trying to alleviate the cramps. They certainly gave me a wide berth as I desperately tried to walk rather than fall over. I got out my magic vinegar anti-cramp stuff, and swigged it until I could at least walk the uphill slowly.
I thought that the cramping problems might prevent me from doing much more running, but actually by the time I'd walked back up the 200m climb, I was able to gingerly run and although cramp often threatened to return I was always able to prevent it by assaulting my mouth with the vinegar and/or salt and vinegar chips.
From here onwards was always going to be a struggle. I could run the flats and downs, but it didn't take much of a hill to send me back to walking. But this was expected, and overall I kept trucking along pretty well. My legs and ankles and feet and hips were all fine. I was happy but I was just getting tired! The run was mostly downhill for quite a while here as we lost a lot of altitude.
We ran out on the Montgomery Spur loop track. This is a lovely ridge/spur which has great views and pleasant single track. I had been running most of the last 10km with a woman in green (the 4th one to finish it turned out), who kept me honest throughout this section. She had also suffered from some cramping problems early on.
Finally we returned back out onto the gravel road to complete the fast 250m descent down the hill. I pounded down this pretty fast. (with no thought given to long term knee joint issues... man the legs take a beating...!)
After getting down onto the flat and the local roads right near the finish, I noticed a slightly oldish guy a bit ahead of me and realised that he could be in my age group. So I sped up more, hoping that this would not trigger the cramp that was always lurking in the background for me if I made a wrong move... I gained rapidly on him (Alistair), and made quiet little pixie footfalls as I approached him from behind, basically sneaking up on him :) I needn't have worried, as I swept past him with 300m to go to the finish and crushed him by 20 seconds.
It turned out that this put me into 1st place in the over 50s championship (and him into second place). Yay!
I had previously come second twice in the over 50's champs (in 2018 and 2019), so I'm rather pleased with myself for finally winning it!😀😀😀
Wrap
The race is brilliantly run and organised - the marshals etc are super helpful and fun, and the trail markings numerous!
I finished in a shade under 7 hours, which was just a few minutes slower than the 2 previous runs here.
My race fueling strategy worked brilliantly. No gels, just muesli bars, snickers bars, sandwiches. I couldn't say the same about my drinking schedule since I stupidly ran out of fluid at times, but fortunately replacing it with coke and tailwind gave me quite an energy boost. I was able to run right through to the end of the race, and I didn't feel as ill in the tummy as I often do during ultra runs. (I did feel mildly nauseous throughout the following evening, but not too bad). My legs continued to cramp up randomly and intermittently for hours after the race - who knows why?
Comments
Post a Comment