National Trail Running Champs 2023
18 March 2023
Mt Maunganui
6.5km, 373m vert, 35:38m
Pre-Race
Nikki, Daniel and I drove down to Tauranga / Mt Maunganui on Saturday morning in nice sunny weather.
Nikki, Daniel and I drove down to Tauranga / Mt Maunganui on Saturday morning in nice sunny weather.
I was probably still fatigued from last week's RoF 50km run, but was feeling 90% recovered, and looking forward to a strong run.
Race
The race started from the base of Mt Maunganui (Mauao) and headed off up around the gravel path.
I saw two guys ahead who looked likely to be 50+, so I stuck behind them as best I could. They both slowly gained on me. By the time I'd reached the top (235m), they were 10 or so seconds ahead of me.
Smashing down the hill was fun! Very hard on the quads.
I managed a 3:39 km on the way down, and reached the turn around to wave at Nikki and Daniel and start the second (smaller) lap.
By now I was pretty much exhausted, and my competitors moved ahead further from me as I tired more. I walked parts of the next uphill leg (as did they, to be fair), but was seriously knackered by now and the last couple of downhill kilometers were pretty useless. A better pacing strategy would likely have saved me some time overall!
So I came third in 55+, and third in 50+ due to there being no fast 50..54 entrants :)
I was beaten home in age group by Peter Caudwell (Taupo) and David Hosking (wellington scottish) by 70..90 seconds.
Post-Race
An ice-cream revived me after the run, but my quads took quite a few days to come right - they were well and truly pulverised!
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