Table of contents for October - November 2018 in Trail Run

Where: The Te Waihou Walkway and Blue Spring is nestled in the lush farming country of South Waikato, near Putaruru. It is just one of the many great trails and waterways in the area. Distance: Close to 5km one way, however, a much shorter option is to leave from the Leslie Road carpark. Degree of difficulty: Te Waihou Walkway ranges from easy running on tracks and the boardwalk through wetland areas, to moderately difficult with a few steeper areas and some stiles and steps to manoeuvre. Access: The walkway is situated off Whites Road (State Highway 28), with upstream access from Leslie Road, Putaruru. The downstream entrance is just past Leslie Road, and the Blue Spring end is 3.6km along Leslie Road. The most scenic route is to run to…

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‘I just saw your post about your trip on the Inca Road, I live in Huanchaco, Trujillo. I checked the map and found that one road of the Qhapaq Ñan passes close to Huanchaco and continues to Chiquitoy, at the bottom of Apu Campana Hill’. Wen Sulem contacted me after I posted on my Facebook page about an upcoming running adventure in South America. A complete stranger by every measure except one – the passion for trails that binds us all. In my post I mentioned that I would like to explore an ancient road network. Without the benefit of gels, protein whey and electrolyte powders, Incan and pre-Incan road runners (called Chaquis) could travel for days relaying messages throughout villages using this network. It is reported that a team…

There is a real shift towards mindfulness in the health and wellness sector. Everyone is talking about being ‘present’. Most health-related magazines I read have a piece on mindfulness with a different perspective. Sometimes the mindfulness message gets complicated, getting lost in new age hippie translation. Practising mindfulness will help in all aspects of our lives including dominating running moments on the trail. I wanted to break it down so mindfulness can be applied right away in your day-to-day existence. Being present on your task at hand will allow you to move towards the best you can be in life and in running, plus the world will benefit. Most of us have several different roles that we must flit between - sometimes on a moment to moment basis. Living and…

Your hips and pelvis are the centre point, or powerhouse of your body. If you have any weakness or instability around your hips it will vastly impact the rest of your body. Your ‘normal’ alignment that displaces load consistently around the body becomes unbalanced. And in terms of running, this means that other joints will endure more uneven load and impact, mainly spine, knees, ankles and feet. Addressing hip stability imbalances may be as minor as strengthening the inner stability muscles of the hips, the glutes and the core or it may be more serious with major issues such as hip dysplasia, labral tears, femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) or ligament damage. Here are a few signs and symptoms to watch out for each of these. Bony anatomy is particularly important. If…

1 : Sleep more. If there was one thing we can all do to immediately improve our recovery and energy levels, it is to go to bed earlier. 2 : Accept you are unlikely to ever run the perfect race and that almost certainly something will go wrong. If you accept that, it makes it easier to cope when things do go wrong and means that you should have made a contingency plan. 3 : Have a family member or friend take a video of you at the finish of a major event. Talk to the camera, be honest about how you are feeling and use that as motivation to enter more events. 4 : If you are injured stop running. Seriously, this shouldn’t have to be said but the…

This is the ultramarathon of internet surfing, but if you are ever at a loose end, check out the top 60 running Youtube channels for videos on running tips, techniques, training, nutrition and fitness. At https://blog.feedspot.com/running_youtube_channels/, someone has even taken the time to blog about the various channels, including Running Raw – this is not necessarily about running or eating a raw diet like you might expect – it’s more about being open, honest, vulnerable and on the living edge of experience. Happy surfing.…

Arguably, Tom Cruise running his goddamn ass off is the glue that holds the Mission: Impossible franchise together. And now, we have math to prove it. In celebration of the most recent addition to the franchise, Mission: Impossible - Fallout, Rotten Tomatoes has crunched the numbers to find out exactly how much the man has sprinted throughout his nearly four-decade long career, and whether his running has a net positive effect for his films. Spoiler alert: Tom Cruise’s running sells more tickets than Forrest Gump could ever hope to. Our guy is sure to put your Fitbit record to shame because he’s run more than 24,000 feet on screen. The study found a generally positive correlation when comparing the distances he ran for the box office and Tomatometer ratings for…

Where: The trail around and up Mount Dromedary to the summit is located in the picturesque Magra/Black Hills area outside of New Norfolk in Southern Tasmania. Distance: Mount Dromedary trail takes approximately four hours (walking) and it is 15km return. Degree of difficulty: Mount Dromedary is at an altitude of about 956m above sea level. The Trail is moderately challenging and follows fire trails and forestry roads for most of it, with only one significant climb required towards the summit. Access: Beginning just north of New Norfolk, the Mount Dromedary trail is not indicated on any road signs along the way. From Hobart, head northwest on the Brooker Highway (A10) to New Norfolk. Once at New Norfolk, turn right onto the Lyell Highway at the roundabout. Directly after crossing the…

Sometimes an aid station is just that, a table with some liquid on it, with a couple of hardy volunteers handing out said liquid and offering encouragement. Some aid stations are much grander affairs. These aid stations become almost as famous as the course itself, like Mt Luxmore in the Kepler, the rolling buffets that are the Tarawera 100 km aid stations or the literal Shangri-La of Kroger’s Canteen at Hard Rock. Don’t even get me started about the bedrunkening Marathon Du Medoc, with it’s 23 aid stations dispensing wine, steak, ice cream and oysters (think you are tough completing a beer mile, homey? The French do it right). I would argue most strongly that the grandness of said aid station may not be congruent to the amount of A)…

When I first started running, I didn’t even know ‘trail running’ was a thing. I knew people ran on football fields, athletic tracks and roads, and that was pretty much the extent of my knowledge on the subject of running. I’d done my home town’s big annual fun run a few times and like 99 per cent of the rest of those 40,000 or so people, did that once a year, then very little else the other 355 days. I ‘jogged’ (yes, I know it’s a dirty word to serious runners) every now and then to feel like I was doing something to stay fit, and that was about it. Then in 2010 in an effort to drop a few kilos I’d stacked on while living overseas and doing not…

1 Boardwalks under forest canopy away from the sun’s bleaching rays build up an organic layer that is notoriously slippery. Smaller sectioned boardwalks can be unstable and wobble or flip when you stand on one end. 2 Tree roots aligned parallel to the trail can send you for a nasty slide. Use roots aligned perpendicular to the trail to check speed downhill, or provide traction uphill. 3 After high winds, deadfall can litter the track. Take care stepping on large soft pieces of deadfall such as ponga fronds that may obscure debris lying below. 4 Shorten stride length to maintain control on technical descents. 5 Wind chill and exposure can increase exponentially as you leave the shelter of the treeline and venture onto an exposed ridge. Be prepared with extra…

NORTH ISLAND October 6 Cape Kidnappers Trail Run, Hawke's Bay, 45k, 32k, off-road 6 Great Barrier Island Wharf to Wharf, 42k, 21k, 10k, 5km, off-road 7 Kamo Round The Mountain Fun Run, 10k, 4k, road 13 Kahuterawa Classic, 14k, 7k, 3.5k, off-road 13 Taupo Ultramarathon, 100k solo/relay, 74k, 50k, 24k, off-road 14 TransWorks Pukekohe Half Marathon, 21k, 10k, 6k, road 14 Wairarapa Country Marathon, 42k, 21k, 10k, 5k, road 27 Kawerau King of the Mountain, 8k, off-road 28Auckland Marathon, 42k, 21k, 12k, 5k, kids 2k, road November 2-4 Aorangi 100, Wairarapa, 50k, 32k, 25k over three days, off-road 2 Taranaki Steelformers Around the Mountain, New Plymouth, 100m, 50m, relay 2x50m, 150k, road 3 Aorangi Undulator, Wairarapa, 33k, off-road 3 Feilding Marathon, 42k, 21k, 10k, 5k, road 3 The Loaded Taniwha…

The Goat, held on the Western Slopes of Mt Ruapehu in Tongariro National Park, is one of the most challenging races on the off road calendar. Celebrating its 15th year in 2018 the event, held in early December sells out quickly. The run, which is measured at a nominal 20 kilometres means this is relatively achievable for a relatively large proportion of the trail running community. The race starts at Whakapapa ski field and finishes over on Turoa ski field. The underfoot terrain is varied and includes road, rock, scree, mud, boardwalk, river crossings, tree roots and everything in between. While the distance is around 20km, this race is not for the faint of heart, completion times ranging from two to seven hours-plus. Ideally, training for an event like the…

Monster walks – Tie a band snuggly around your thighs at hip width apart and try to keep the band as flat as possible to avoid pinching/hair plucking/ circulation constriction. Sink your hips back as if sitting on an imaginary stool behind you. The weight should be in your heels and not your toes. Take five steps out to the right adding more resistance onto the band as you step out and maintaining some resistance as you step the left foot towards right. Repeat five steps to the left side. Repeat this process for one minute or as much as you can tolerate to start. Try to not stand out of your squat and maintain a low position as you step. Step back lunge to knee lift heel raise –…

Men dressed in white and wearing ancient tarbooka drums around their necks stand on the edges of the ancient hills of the Shomron. Then, the sound of the shofar breaks the silence and with its blast a pack of runners begin their journey through the lavish orchards, aromatic vineyards and layers of voluptuous greenery that was once – and is still today – the heart of Israel. The event is the Bible Marathon, and this year, it took place on September 28 with the same Israeli flags, balloons and loads of energy that has marked the modern version of this ancient running challenge for the past four years. The full marathon route runs from Rosh Ha’ayin (Eben Ezer in the Bible) to Shiloh, as described in the Book of Samuel.…

I’m recently back from the annual Events Conference, a fairly full-on two-day affair where a couple of hundred event people from all over New Zealand congregate. Over those two days we do a lot of listening, quite a bit of thinking, some question-asking, and we reconnect with old friends and colleagues and we make new ones. There’s not normally a huge amount of people that are involved with the kind of events that we at Total Sport put on, but we are all connected by this pretty overwhelming passion and (mostly) joy of being a part of the events industry. Something we do pretty well in this country, just in case you were wondering how we stack up. The theme at this year’s conference was disruption, so I spent a…

WHETHER IT IS JUST ANOTHER FAD OR AN ACTUAL LONG-LASTING LIFESTYLE CHANGE WITH MERIT, MORE AND MORE ATHLETES – PARTICULARLY ENDURANCE ATHLETES - ARE SWITCHING TO EATING PLANT-BASED DIETS AND ARE FULL VEGANS. THE LIKES OF ULTRA-RUNNER SCOTT JUREK AND ULTRAMAN ATHLETE RICH ROLL ARE HUGE ADVOCATES OF THE LIFESTYLE, AS IS THE RECENT WESTERN STATES THIRD-PLACE FEMALE LUCY BARTHOLOMEW. BODY BUILDERS TO FOOTBALL PLAYERS ARE ALSO TRANSFORMING THEIR LIVES THROUGH CUTTING OUT ANIMAL PRODUCTS FROM THEIR DIET – SO WHERE EXACTLY DO THEY GET ESSENTIAL NUTRIENTS FROM? DOES A PLANT-BASED/VEGAN DIET PROVIDE EVERYTHING AN ATHLETE REQUIRES TO FUNCTION AT THEIR BEST? TRAIL RUNNER MAGAZINE’S MICHELLE CURRAN DELVES DEEPER INTO THE LIFESTYLE CHANGE MANY ARE MAKING FOR BOTH ETHICAL AND PERFORMANCE REASONS. The story behind Rich Roll is one to…

WHETHER YOU ARE THERE FOR THE PHYSICAL AND MENTAL CHALLENGE, SCENERY, CAMARADERIE, OR JUST ALONG FOR THE RIDE, ADVENTURE RACING IS ON THE RISE IN AOTEAROA. THERE HAS BEEN AN EXPLOSION OF EVENTS AND IT CAN BE OVERWHELMING CHOOSING ONE TO ENTER - SOME LAST THE DISTANCE WHILE OTHERS FOLD AFTER THE HYPED-UP INAUGURAL RACE. ONE RACE MAKING WAVES LOCALLY AND INTERNATIONALLY IS GODZONE – EVEN THE GREAT ALL BLACK RICHIE MCCAW HAD A CRACK AT IT IN 2016 (TASMAN) AND 2018 (FORDLAND). TRAIL RUNNER’S MICHELLE CURRAN CHECKS OUT THE RISE IN ADVENTURE RACING, WHAT IT IS ALL ABOUT AND WHY IT COULD APPEAL TO TRAIL RUNNERS. Everyone is doing it – even Richie McCaw. In the last 10 years, adventure racing – a multi-disciplinary team sport involving navigation over…

Trail running is there, lurking in the shadows of the Olympic flame’s glare – but it has not quite hit the limelight, yet. It may be news to some, but trail running, in the form of cross country running, has been in the Olympics three times to date. The sport made its debut in the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm with 45 runners; was contested again at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp with 47 men; and at the Paris Games in 1924 as a team event. During the Paris race, 23 of the 38 starters dropped out because of “extreme heat and poisonous fumes from a nearby plant,” as reported by a story on www.insidethegames.biz. Following the Games that year, cross country running was dropped from the Olympic docket…

There is video footage of event organiser Shaun Collins orienteering at Woodhill a few years back. He runs up the sand dunes but suddenly pauses and swerves sharply out of sight. What was that about, asked the videographer later. Did he spot a control, or a shortcut? Well, I came over a wee sand dune top and came across a couple navigating each other without many race clothes on, explained Collins. Nothing to see here, so I moved along!” Orienteering can be full of surprises. Amid the usual running and mapwork, Hamilton’s Dot Larsen has found herself eating Weetbix, completing puzzles, and building rat cages for DoC within some events. “It’s a great sport for masters athletes,” says Larsen, an experienced club runner who’s only recently ventured into orienteering and…

Western Australia December 2 Wellington Forest Trail Ultra, Worsley, 45k, 30k, 15k, off-road 8 Vine Runner Christmas Half Marathon, Caversham, 21k, 10k, 5k, 2.5k, off-road 16 6 Inch Trail Marathon, North Dandalup to Dwellingup, 47k, 23k, off-road 31 New Year’s Eve Run, Perth, 8k, 4k, road January 9 Triple 8 Quest: Swan River Marathon and Half-Marathon, Burswood on Swan, Burswood, 42k, 21k, road 19 Australia Day Ultra, Australind Foreshore, 100k, 75k, 50k,25k, kids 6k, road 20 Perth Trail Summer Series: Snakes N Ladders, Serpentine National Park, 14.9k, 11.8k, off-road New South Wales / ACT October 7 Sri Chinmoy Trail Ultra, Canberra, solo/relay 105k, off-road 7 Stromlo Running Festival, 50k, 30k, 10k, kids, 2.5k, off-road 7 Water Works Ultra Marathon, Oakhampton Heights, solo/relay 100k, 50k, off-road 13 Hume and Hovell Ultramarathon,…