Auckland Trail Tawharanui 2026
17 May 2026
20.09km, 651m vert, 1:55:20
Race Time!
The first of the year for the trail series was preceded by 10 days of beautiful dry autumn weather. The day was coolish with only a slight breeze. Conditions go!
I drove Juliette, Nev, Michal and Will out and we chatted to Evan G, Glenn (motorbike) and Mike H, as you do.
I started tired (after doing UTA), but interested to see how I would go with a hard race 2 days prior. Pretty slowly, it turned out!
We started off and cruised along the flat first bit before hitting the initial hillock. I was running with/near/behind Nev, and already breathing hard after 1km. Nev said afterwards that he could hear me puffing... and so could I! So I moved into survival mode pretty early, and "let" the others race off ahead.
Juliette was back from injury and setting the pace with Will and Michal, with Nev a little back.
The hills are pretty constant on this run - up and down multiple 60m climbs, most of which I was walking early. I was using the drink stations to drink well (several cups of water/Pure at most).
The beach section at the 14km mark is only 1km, but it feels much further! I still couldn't see anyone that I recognised ahead of me.
It turned out that Juliette put in a great run to gap Will over the last few hills, and ended up duelling with (and beating) Mike H. Michal was also running well and not far behind, then Nev who was pleased with a good run too.
I love the finish to this run, which is a long grassy downhill slope for fast quad smashing.
Ed did the Mid course (2nd in Legend age bracket. Sheesh Ed, 1st place only beat you by 3 seconds! What were you doing??), and Maria, Daniel and Sophia ran the short (super well!), and Carol walked the mid course at speed.
Takeaways
Hot chips lol. But mostly that I really cannot run hard twice in 48 hours. Fun times.
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