XTerra Hunua 2024

 

XTerra Hunua 2024

9 June 2024

21.71km, 900m, 2:24:08

https://www.strava.com/activities/11607517095/overview
https://my.raceresult.com/292585/results

Race Day

Hunua! Always keenly anticipated!

I drove Ed out, leaving at 7:00am which was plenty early. The normal racing crew were absent due to overseasness and other (lazy/disorganised) reasons.

It was great to chat to Ed about all things Songbirdy and land-managementy etc.

We met up with Adam (Hamish's friend) before the start and admired our Soloman SpeedCross 6's. 

At race start I headed out with my new running backpack, which was comfy but in retro I needed to pack it tighter to stop it wobbling so much. The weather had been dry for several days, and the trails were surprisingly dry and the least slippery that I remember them! 

I wasn't feeling super sprightly initially and kept an honest enough pace to be puffing without overdoing it.

The first 10km included several water crossing and some nice single track (and some not-so-nice gravel roads).

We hit the dreaded road climb for 2km and 250m climbing, which I managed to jog up, albeit slowly.

I felt reasonable as we trekked onto Pukapuka, and the dry-ish mud and roots were perfectly eaten up by my Speedcrosses. I felt stronger as we went along, and only had to resort to walking on a few smaller sharper hills   I got into a good rhythm, and it was fun to be regularly passing the Long runners.

I had a muesli bar at 40 mins and a gel at 1:20, as per plan. I didn't fall over, although I had a couple of near misses.

I passed the amazing Maria K.

Eventually I came out onto Lilburn road downhill, and my quads and appendages felt fine, and I trucked down pretty fast. I could see Glenn ahead of me, but I was barely catching him.

I overtook Ed just with 1km to go, just when I thought I wasn't going to. Ed had a very strong run and enjoyed the tougher underfoot conditions!

I caught Glenn with 400m to go. His words to me were "Oh shit, not you again!", since I have a habit of overtaking him in the latter part of races :) But he sprinted faster, and edged me by a few seconds at the finish line, which I didn't begrudge him.

Yii and Sophia were there.

I also bumped into Emily (who I couldn't place at all) and husband Dion from circus!! 

At the end it was neat to join up with more of the 'Run Like Crazy' team!

Me, Amanda (Mandy), Steve, Dean Ferguson, Helen, Daria Spence, Ed

I was 1st in 50+ SuperLong, and Ed third in 60+ Long. Amanda was 1st 50+ Short, and Steve 2nd 60+ Short.

Overall, a great run. I recorded an unexpectedly fast time (2:24), which is right up there with my quickest ever. Not sure why - I think that the dry course and good footing helped a lot. I didn't even feel ill afterwards - probably not having to compete with Will helped there !