The UltrAspire Big 'O' is a trail run, organised by Lactic Turkey Events, which takes in the scenic tracks around Lake Okataina, near Rotorua. There are 35km, 21km, or 10km options, and I chose to participate in the 21km event; or at least that's what I thought...
The race had a leisurely start time of 10am; so after registering at 9am it was back to the car to tune in to RadioSport and keep up to date with what was happening in the America's Cup. The weather couldn't have been more different to what was happening in San Francisco. While Team NZ's America's Cup race being called off after exceeding the race time limit due to light winds; we were sat in the car sheltering from what were some wet, windy, and generally wild, weather conditions. Still, my race had to go on.
The race began on farmland. We headed out on what was a nice undulating course... for the first 5-10mins. Then we started hitting the hills. The first hill we reached was so steep it was a lot quicker to power walk up it, rather than run. While scrambling up the hills in the farm land, lungs going full-bore, one of the guys in our leading bunch looked across to me and said “Holy sh*t I didn’t expect to be walking this early!” I found this quite funny at the time (even though I was feeling a decent amount of 'hurt'). Little did we know that there were many more 'scrambling' hills to some!
After the farmland, there was a section of gravel road and we made our way up to the top of a range of hills. Unfortunately, due to the inclement weather conditions, the probable view was blocked by mist and clouds. It was still a nice run along the top. We then entered a section of recently felled forest and had to do a bit of climbing over trees and branches, before heading into some native bush. There was no obvious track through most of the bush sections, and instead we followed tape markers which were tied to the trees. There was quite a bit of supplejack which meant we were often climbing through vines and canes. The bush was so awesome; so beautiful and lush. You really can't beat running freely through bush like that. The wet weather, and extremely muddy track just added to the adventure!
After about 1hour 20min of running through what was largely bush, we popped out to a camp where the drinks station was placed. I was getting a bit concerned about the time at this stage as I remember hearing that the drinks station was about half way around the course... 1hour 20min...halfway!? This is when I first realised I may be in for a bigger day than I had expected!
Never mind though! Soldier on :)
I grabbed a bit of R-line sports drink from the station, and headed off towards yet another big uphill. Within 10mins I found myself walk/running/scrambling on all fours. The steep and muddy terrain meant that the climb was slow and hard work. At the top, it was a bit more bush, before climbing a fence or two, and heading out onto more farmland. This farmland section was quite long and exposed, and by now the weather had worsened; so it was just a case of head down and keep going!
The course did not follow any track, instead you had to run to each marker. The course was actually marked very well by the organisers; with markers every 5-20 metres. However despite this, at times it was a struggle to see the next marker in the dense misty weather. Up a few more hills (including one covered in gorse - ouch!) and we eventually started feeling as though we were getting closer to civilisation.
I was watching the time on my watch; 2 hr 15min… 2hr 30mins… 2 hour 40min… surely we are getting close?!
At 2 hour 50mins I arrived back at camp, third person home and first female home. After crossing the finish line I went over and joined the two guys who finished before me. They looked how I felt; pretty spent; they then told me I had just run 27.5km not 21km?! I was actually kind of relieved to hear this as that explained the massive race time!! (I was getting worried I was just very very slow!) Many of the people coming across the finish line looked exhausted and saturated, but happy (and relieved) to see the finish. This was the longest distance I have run before so I was pretty happy to hold up the whole race. I think many people had the same feeling!
My hat goes off to those who completed the 35km run, which turned out to be 51km…WOW. What a distance! Awesome achievement.
Again, a big thanks to the organisers and sponsors. A great event, and I might just have to come back next year so perhaps I can finally see that view from the top of the range :)
It is now almost exactly one month until Xterra! Eeek! The nervous excitement is building...but first, it's time to shift my focus to the Motu Challenge, where I will reunite with my Lysaght Consultants team-mate 'Crazy' Craig Jones.
Looking forward to it!
The course did not follow any track, instead you had to run to each marker. The course was actually marked very well by the organisers; with markers every 5-20 metres. However despite this, at times it was a struggle to see the next marker in the dense misty weather. Up a few more hills (including one covered in gorse - ouch!) and we eventually started feeling as though we were getting closer to civilisation.
I was watching the time on my watch; 2 hr 15min… 2hr 30mins… 2 hour 40min… surely we are getting close?!
At 2 hour 50mins I arrived back at camp, third person home and first female home. After crossing the finish line I went over and joined the two guys who finished before me. They looked how I felt; pretty spent; they then told me I had just run 27.5km not 21km?! I was actually kind of relieved to hear this as that explained the massive race time!! (I was getting worried I was just very very slow!) Many of the people coming across the finish line looked exhausted and saturated, but happy (and relieved) to see the finish. This was the longest distance I have run before so I was pretty happy to hold up the whole race. I think many people had the same feeling!
My hat goes off to those who completed the 35km run, which turned out to be 51km…WOW. What a distance! Awesome achievement.
Again, a big thanks to the organisers and sponsors. A great event, and I might just have to come back next year so perhaps I can finally see that view from the top of the range :)
It is now almost exactly one month until Xterra! Eeek! The nervous excitement is building...but first, it's time to shift my focus to the Motu Challenge, where I will reunite with my Lysaght Consultants team-mate 'Crazy' Craig Jones.
Looking forward to it!
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