Auckland Trail Series Riverhead 2025
(aka xterra)
7 September 2025
21.31km, 599m, 2:02:03
Nev, Jack and I were driven out by Will for this race, which had been delayed by a week due to high winds in the pine forest last Sunday.
There had been some decent recent rain, but the day was dry enough and quite a pleasant temperature.
Michal was backing up from the previous week's marathon, and we also met Michael R again.
Mr Barker had been convinced to run due to the attraction of winning the series (only best of 4 races now required) and pushing the rest of us down a position :)!
I really enjoyed the race - much muddy pine needly fun, with sections of gravel road. I started with Nev and we kept Will mostly in sight for a few kilometers. After about 5km I moved ahead from Nev a bit, and later overtook the fast-starting Michal. I zigzagged back and forward with the first woman (Grace) as she struggled on the mud and then crushed me on the flat bits. I caught Will several times on hills throughout the middle of the race, without actually overtaking him, with my Salomon SpeedCross doing their normal brilliant thing. With about 4 km to go, Will increased his speed and although I was running comfortably fast he disappeared off ahead to beat me by 2 minutes.
Overall, super fun and in spite of weighing pretty much 74kg, I had plenty of strength and power for the squelchy clay running.
Jack came in second overall in the mid course!
We (Run Like Crazy) have wrapped up the team's prize money, and Will took out the 50+ series with Michael R second and me third.
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