Your weekly fix of NZ trail running news

Welcome to Trail Running NZ. Think of this as a cross between a David Attenborough documentary and the yaboyscottjurek meme page. The collaboration no one asked for.

Here's what’s in the drop bag this week:

🏃‍♀️🏃Western States Recap

👆Things You May Have Missed

☠️VERTual July

⛰️💊Mountain Skag of The Week

Note: Due to the length, some email browsers will hide some of the content - make sure you click ‘view entire email’ or click through to substack.

IF I SEEM A LITTLE RUSHED AND STRESSED THIS WEEK, PLEASE FORGIVE ME. I’M NOT SO QUIETLY FREAKING OUT WITH THE VERTUAL JULY CHALLENGE STARTING AT MIDNIGHT TONIGHT.

I’M STARTING TO SECOND-GUESS WHETHER ANY OF MY IDEAS ARE ACTUALLY GOOD OR JUST A CRY FOR HELP.

IT’S PROBABLY JUST THE LACK OF SLEEP AFTER STAYING UP TO WATCH THE START OF WESTERN STATES... WHICH SUDDENLY TURNED INTO BREAKFAST.

ANYWAY, LET’S BARREL INTO THE RESULTS DESK AND SEE WHAT WENT DOWN OVER IN THE GREAT EWE ESS OF EH.

Western States Recap

12 AM Sunday morning (5 AM local time), the most highly anticipated Western States ever got underway. With the sound of a shotgun, we’d finally find out who was sandbagging, who was lollygagging, and who was just sagging😂.

The usual hot weather got turned around at customs and sent back to Europe, so athletes suddenly found themselves scrambling for jackets. It was about 2 inches cold, with 80 km/h wind gusts ripping across the escarpment🥶.

The race got off to the fast start everyone expected. With no snow in the high country and cool temperatures, it was no surprise to see both the women’s and men’s fields pressing their collective girth up against the course records early.

Let’s take a look at what happened in the women’s race.

Women’s Top 10

🥇Jenn Lichter - 15:28:05

🥈Riley Brady - 15:42:14

🥉Marianne Hogan -15:51:44

4th - Caitlin Fielder -15:57:09

5th - Lotti Brinks - 6:04:38

6th - Tara Dower - 16:13:07

7th - Fu-Zhao Xiang - 16:25:59

8th - Fiona Pascall - 16:32:05

9th - Hậu Hà -16:40:38

10th - Hannah Allgood - 16:45:56

BREAKING:

Jen “Hannibal” Lichter was last seen in Auburn enjoying a bottle of Chianti after consuming Courtney Dauwalter's 2023 course record with a side of fava beans.

Wow. What a race. The women's race at Western States is just like marriage. Every year you think it can't get any better, then it somehow does😜. (Hey babe!)

Last week’s prediction:

Well, I'll give myself a B- on this one. Lichter led the pack up the escarpment, with Brady just seconds back and the top 10 within 2 minutes. This was far from a kamikaze mission though.

Marianne "Hulk" Hogan and Hậu "Ha" Hà took turns forcing the early pace, while Lichter, Młynarczyk the Pole, defending champ Abbey Hall, and Hannah "Shelby" Allgood kept the lasso tight.

At Bernard Robinson's Flat, 50-odd k's into the race, Lichter made her great escape, with Brady the only one able to go with her.

The pair shared the lead and pulled away from the chase pack through the canyons before the pivotal moment arrived. Lichter absolutely peeled the face off Devil's Thumb, opening a 5 minute gap on her unsuspecting victim by the aid station.

Lotti "On The" Brinks was next through after Brady, with Hogan, Hall and Tara Dower still fighting hard to stay in touch. The race was by no means over, but it was starting to feel like Lichter vs Brady, with everyone else fighting for next year's party invite.

Just as you thought Lichter had run away with it, Brady rallied, dragging the lead back under 2 minutes. Down into Rucky Chucky, across the Murican River, only 90s separated the 2 leaders. Officially, it was the closest the race had been this late.

With the cheers for Brady at the river ringing in her ears, Lichter once again proved her prowess on the climb, powering away into Green Gate aid station. Brady was no longer the target. Her eyes shifted from the rear-view to the splits as she set about consuming Dauwalter’s course record, one bite at a time.

With Lichter now out of sight, Brady had bigger problems. Hogan was sizing her up for a last-minute clothesline in Auburn.

Brady was able to duck under it, but they couldn’t make any ground on Lichter. With about 1km to go, she was just 36 seconds ahead of the course record.

With a track full of horrified onlookers, Lichter opened up her stride, streaking home to swallow the last piece of Dauwalter's course record before popping open the Chianti.

Brady held on for 2nd and recorded the 3rd fastest time in Western States history, finishing 9 minutes ahead of Hogan, who, for the second year running, chopped an hour off her PB and somehow still finished 3rd.

Kiwi Spotlight

🥝Caitlin Fielder - 15:57:09 - 4th

Well, maybe not the 1st place I picked in Fantasy Free Trail, but you've gotta say she gave it a red hot shot💪.

Caitlin took 1 hour and 50 minutes off her time from last year. Now, yes, she didn't have a quadastrophe this year and had to claw her way in over the last 50 k's, but wow, what a race she put together. Before the weekend, only Dauwalter and Schide had run under 16 hours, and here's our girl Caitlin running 15:57.

How good! Keep in mind she's only shifted her eyes towards these longer races over the last 2 years.

Just like I thought, she started a bit further up the field with the slow cooker on high. She worked with her Terrex teammate "Insert Sweedy name here" to keep in touch through the canyons inside the top 10 before transforming into a heat-seeking missile, Mario Kart style, shooting her way through the field into 4th, with the finish line arriving just in time for Hogan.

This is one of the greatest 100-mile performances by a Kiwi. Ever.

Ruth lays claim to 4 of the top spots with her 2 UTMBs and 2 Western States performances, while Frosty’s 2 Hardrock wins are all up in there too. Chuck in Scotty Hawkers UTMB Bronze and we’re starting to fill this top 10 out.

Now add Caitlin’s run to go with Danny Jones’ last 3 years at Western States.

What a time to be a Kiwi following the big races😎.

🥇Vincent Bouillard - 13:46:15

🥈Francesco Puppi - 13:51:08

🥉Ryan Montgomery - 13:53:55

4th - Thomas Cardin -14:07:58

5th - Zach Miller - 14:20:09

6th - Adam Peterman - 14:26:11

7th - Jeff Mogavero - 14:38:36

8th - Canyon Woodward - 14:45:24

9th - Will Murray -15:23:12

10th - Hiroki Kai - 15:26:34

Vincent "The Hamburglar" Bouillard ran a perfectly paced race to become the first man under 14 hours at Western States, swiping America's biggest burger back to Europe and leaving the Muricans empty-handed once again.

If you’re scratching your head wondering, “Who the fark is this guy?”, you might remember him from 2024, when he came from complete obscurity to snaffle the UTMB title while working as a footwear engineer at HOKA.

This year, hardly anyone was talking about the Frenchman. Probably because of his DNF here last year. And, well... this was supposed to be the Walmsley vs Jornet battle for the ages!

If you tuned into the live stream over breakfast on Sunday, you’d be forgiven for wondering how this even happened. Bouillard was there or thereabouts, but the storyline was HANS TROYER, YOUNG AND FIT, running 20 minutes under course record pace with Jim Walmsley and Francesco Puppi in pursuit.

The threesome were absolutely pouring it on, and it looked like no one would be able to match them.

Maybe Troyer was getting a bit high on his own supply, over-revving the canyons. By the time they reached Foresthill, he was still in the lead, but Puppi looked set to take control of the race.

Somewhere out in the badlands after Cal 1, Puppi hit the front and Hans went from 10 ft tall Hans “The Destroyer” to Hans the Human Vomit Cannon.

That looked like where the story would end. I'm sure iRunFar had already written the headline: "Francesco the Hans Party Puppier."

Now, if you’ve ever heard a toddler gasp and then scream after unwrapping a remote-control monster truck, imagine that sound coming out of Dylan Bowman in commentary when Vincent Bouillard magically appeared at the river, moments after Puppi had crossed.

He looked like a man on a mission, charging straight through the aid station and into the river. Suddenly, it was game on again. The cougar might yet have a different bed to lie in by the end of the night.

Then one of the most dramatic dodgy handheld-cam scenes unfolded. Crop tops. Tassels. Enough skin exposed to make you think you’d stumbled onto some bizarre OnlyFans trail running fetish account. But it was just Scott Jurek on bottle duty.

DBo and Corinne Malcolm were losing their minds in commentary, trying to figure out if Bouillard had taken the lead, when Tim Tofflesssssson jumped in front of the camera with one finger in the air.

The men’s race has been a good watch in recent years, but this was the first time in a long time it felt like it hadn’t been decided by the river. To top it all off, Ryan Montgomery, the 100-mile specialist, was absolutely on one, having the race of his life just 2 minutes behind Puppi, who was now in chase mode.

Bouillard kept the momentum rolling, running onto the track to once again shock the trail running world, smashing Jim Walmsley's seemingly untouchable course record, becoming the first man to break the mythical 14-hour barrier, and joining the exclusive "Clocked Trail Running" club as just the 7th person to win both Western States and UTMB.

Puppi held off Montgomery to also finish under the previous course record, becoming the second-fastest man ever in not only his first Western States, but his first ever 100-mile race.

Montgomery completed the fairytale, taking Bronze to become the 3rd person to break the 14-hour barrier in what, given his previous performances, has to be one of the greatest Western States runs of the modern era. He’s finished as high as 7th last year in 15:54:29, but he’d always felt like a “top-10 filler, 5th on a dream day” type of runner. To go under 14 hours is just something else.

Oh, and somewhere along the way, the two main attractions at the Western States circus, Kilian and Jim Walmsley, blew up. But it didn't even matter. To be honest, I reckon it worked out better this way.

Kiwi Spotlight

🥝Danny Jones - DNF

IT’S OUR YEAR!

NEXT YEAR IS OUR YEAR!

WILL THERE BE A NEXT YEAR?

I’m sure this one will sting for a long time. I’ve gotta admit, I got a bit emotional watching his name slowly drift down the rankings😢. I haven’t heard if there’s been an official reason for the DNF. To be honest, I don’t even really care what it was. Sometimes it’s OK to say it just farking sucked and it was time to pull the pin.

I’m not sure what the game plan was, but Dan looked off the pace from fairly early on. Through Michigan Bluff he was about 5 minutes behind last year’s split, which doesn’t sound like much, but when the front of the race is well under course record pace, you’re suddenly running for an invite back.

Credit to Dan, he kept grinding it out for a decent way even when it was obvious it just wasn’t his day. I’m sure he’ll bounce back. Whether that’s the end of the Western States push, I guess we’ll keep an eye on his Substack👀.

If anything, he should take heart from seeing Montgomery run under 14 hours. This is a guy Dan buried in his first-ever Tarawera Golden Ticket-winning performance. There’s no doubt he has all the skills and ability. Maybe he just needs to do a few papers in astronomy to get all the stars to line up🤔.

🥝Max Yanzick - DNF

Max was our other hope on the men’s side after winning a Golden Ticket at Tarawera this year. All the early signs were good, with Max matching the early sub-course record pace. Halfway through the canyons, he was only 5 or so minutes behind DJ.

Unfortunately for Max, his stomach imploded, as is so often the case in a debut 100-mile race, forcing him to pull the pin at Foresthill🤢.

Plenty to like from this performance. He ran with the fearlessness only a 23-year-old from OMGamaru can. Watch this space. There’s plenty more to come.

🥝Travis Stull - 26:45:05 - 151st

Travis was our unlikely highest-placed Kiwi male at Western States this year. He was stull out there while many of us had switched off the live stream. But don’t you worry, this man has plenty of fans. I got six different DMs telling me how well he was going.

Way to go, Travis. You just got to tick off one of those bucket-list experiences🥳.

Fantasy Free Trail Results

Firstly, apologies. I coked this one up a touch. I said in the last newsletter that the top two in the TRNZ Fantasy Free Trail league would win cookies... but I stuffed up linking it.

I chucked it up on Instagram and got a handful more people involved, but I reckon we can really get this thing pumping for UTMB.

Congratulations Toby! Hopefully you’re back in Auckland. I'm not sending myself cookies, so just like a Golden Ticket, this thing is rolling down. I know Jub's in New Mexico... but I do love a challenge. If anyone knows a place doing good vegan cookies in New Mexico, let me know.

Click Here to join for next time

That’s a rap on Western States again for another year.

If you’re struggling to deal with the comedown, iRunFar, Singletrack and Freetrail all have a million interviews up right now.

CLICK HERE for the full results

This Week’s Newsletter Is Brought To You By…

It’s not too late to join the trail running party in the capital at The Wuu2K

Come join the fun on Saturday July 18th

Entries are still open for the 21, 45, and 65k.

Banged up at the moment? No worries. Bank some trail karma instead by volunteering and lying to runners out on course.

“You’re just 2 minutes behind” and “you’re almost there” are my go-to lines.

ENTER HERE

REGISTER AS A VOLUNTEER HERE

Things You May Have Missed

Sophie Grant Tells Ageing To Get FKT

Sophie Grant is taking on the Via Alpina, a casual 2000 km, 120,000 m of vert, and all going well, targeting the FKT. Things kick off on the 4th of July, keep an eye on her gram for any dot watching details.

Weston Hill Sits 2nd

Weston Hill sits 2nd halfway through the Skyrunner World Series. If you don't already follow what he's up to, get in behind him. He's a hell of a runner and makes some genuinely thoughtful content.

Sam Macaulay’s Big Day At Broken Arrow

Our current Tarawera 50k champ Sam Macaulay had himself a day at the Broken Arrow 23k last weekend. It was one of the most competitive elite short-course fields ever assembled, and our boy came home in 29th. He looks pretty chuffed with that!

Cochrane To Compete At Longest Mile

This one caught my attention. I’d never heard of this race concept until now. It’s a backyard-style format, but instead of hourly laps, you run 1 mile (2 × 800 m laps of a race track).

You get 15 minutes for the first mile, then the time limit drops by 10 seconds every lap until there’s only one person left. Sounds intriguing. Who’s up for putting one of these on in NZ?

VERTual July is HERE

This is not a drill! VERTual July kicks off in roughly 16 hours, depending on when I manage to push send on this email!

I’ve been a bit spammy with this so I’m sure most people know what it’s about, but incase you missed the memo, the TLDR is below.

How Do I Join?

CLICK HERE

Hit ‘Request To Join’ to join the Strava Club.

No activity tracking = no play.

The numbers are kind of important.

How Can I Follow Along?

Tom Peck, one of the TRNZ crew who's much smarter than me, has put on his robe and wizard hat and built a leaderboard that automatically pulls the daily vert data from the Strava Club, showing who's still in and who's out.

I’ve got full faith in Tom, but we’ve never done this before, so please be patient if things don’t go seamlessly those first couple of days.

Click Here for the leaderboard

PRIZES!!!!

That’s $2235 of value!

Now that’s a prize pack worth finding your inner Goggins for.

Rules

#1 - You must always talk about Vertclub.

#2 - No treadmills. No stair machines. No escalators. No lifts. Run, hike, walk or crawl outside.

#3 - Miss a day and you’re out. No catch-ups. No banking vert. No IOUs.

#4 - It’s the daily total that count, you can split it into multiple activities.

#5 If more than 1 person makes it to Day 31, the winner is whoever hits 3,100m fastest, or, if both parties agree beforehand, the battle continues into August.

#6 - Be nice and have fun! Remember, we’re all just out here trying to make our way through winter.

Cost

Free - If you’d like to leave a koha to TRNZ, it’ll go towards operational costs. AKA coffee and beer to keep me sane throughout July.

Leave Koha for VERTual July

#Mountain Skag Pic Of The Week

This week’s hit is from Bridie Macky - I just love the lines and layers in this image. The way the figures are dwarfed by the climb ahead, and how the ridge twists and turns with all the spurs stacked up behind the next.

She’s now in the running for the monthly $70 voucher - check out www.mountainskag.com to see what you could be walking away with.

Tag @trailrunning.nz (NOTE THE “.”) and use #mountainskag. DM on Instagram or email trailrunningnz@gmail.com to enter (email is the most reliable).

Picking up what I’m putting down? Send it to a mate who you know will be into it too!

Share

Or leave a tip

Tip TRNZ

PS: Whoops! Just saw Cougar Trail Run is back next weekend, the 2nd biggest Cougar race in Tokoroa.

Your weekly fix of NZ trail running news

Welcome to Trail Running NZ - Welcome to Trail Running NZ - The one-man Kiwi Western States Hype Machine. LESS GO KIWIS! 🥳

Here's what’s in the drop bag this week:

🔥Western States Preview

⛰️VERTual July

⛰️💊Mountain Skag of The Week

Note: Due to the length, some email browsers will hide some of the content - make sure you click ‘view entire email’ or click through to substack.

Alright party people. It’s Western States week. Nothing else really matters, so I’ve cleared the decks. Well, apart from the latest on the upcoming VERTual July, of course😎.

So we’re going full hotdog-flavoured water and nerding out with our 🌭Murican brothers and sisters. Let’s all take a big ol’ dive into the Murican River and see if we can make it through to the other side.

Western States Preview

If you’ve never heard of Western States, it’s pretty simple.

You know how Murica loves calling the final of every sport the World Champs? Like the World Series of baseball? Well yeah, this is pretty much that, but for trail running.

It’s the oldest 100-mile trail race in the Ew Es Of Eh. Originally a horse race (yep 😮), now a GOAT race where the beastest trail runners on the planet throw down to sear their name into trail running history.

We’re spoilt again this year, with 3 Kiwis in the elite field throwing elbows up the escarpment.

Caitlin Fielder is back after last year’s debut over the 100-mile distance. She ran a smart race from the back, heading up the guts of the field and into the top 10 before a quadtastrophe slowed her final assault on the top 5.

Danny ‘MF’ Jones is back for round 4, and this time he’s packed the family. Maybe sleep deprivation will be his secret sauce?🤔

And then there’s young gun Max Yanzick from the big smoke of OMGamaru.

Let’s fire up the iRunFartGPT and see what incoherent hot mess I can spit out.

Women’s preview:

“Insert the annual comment about how this is the most competitive field in Western States history here”

9 out of 10 from last year’s top 10 (including our very own Caitlin Fielder) are coming back for another serving of Cougar Pie, with the added side dish of Molly Seidel (Olympic marathon bronze medallist), along with Jennifer ‘Hannibal’ Lichter, who earlier this year farked up half the top 10 at Black Canyon 100k while obliterating the course record🔥.

As always, there are a few speedy Euros coming to give Dylan Bowman fits in the commentary box😆, most notably the shiny Pole that is 2025 CCC champ Martyna Młynarczyk, who last year led parts of the race before ultimately dropping out.

MY PREDICTION:

Riley Brady leads a pack of 3-4 athletes, including defending champ Abby Hall, Martyna The Pole, and Hannibal Lichter, up the escarpment well under course record pace. It turns into a kamikaze mission through the canyons, with our girl Caitlin picking up the pieces after starting further up the field this year😎.

My Top 5 Picks

1st - 🥝Caitlin Fielder

Come on, let’s go. I’m coming in full Warriors mode.

“IT’S OUR YEAR!”

Are any of the flappyheads picking her?

No.

Did anyone pick Abby Hall to win last year?

No.

Does Caitlin have as good a chance as anyone else on the start line?

I think so.

My hippopotathesis is Caitlin is going to intentionally start further up the field this year, keeping in touch with the leaders without redlining it through the canyons, before taking over the lead at Foresthill and running for her life with her good friend and pride of Carnarduh, Marianne ‘Hulk’ Hogan, trying to chase her down.

Last year she got a taste for what the distance is about. She proved she can suffer and didn’t pull the pin just because things got tough.

She gave Crofty another good push along at Tarawera in tough conditions this year, and from the outside looking in, she’s just been ticking up the k’s ready to peak on race day.

All aboard the Caitlin train💪.

2nd - 🥞Marianne Hogan

The pride of Carnarduh, Marianne ‘Hulk’ Hogan, has big-match pedigree. She always turns up when the lights are brightest, finishing 3rd here last year and in 2022, with a UTMB silver and bronze also clogging up the sock drawer.

Unfortunately for her, our girl is gonna deny her a shot at landing one of the big 2 title belts for the first time. She’ll have to settle for another close-but-no-surprise.

3rd - 🐼Fu-Zhao Xiang

Fu-Zhao Xiang has been tantalisingly close to becoming the first Chinese athlete to win Western States. She’s been so consistently good that Dylan Bowman even says her name instead of just calling her “the Chinese athlete”.

She ran the 3rd-fastest time in history in 2024, only to run into the Great Wall that is Katie ‘West’ Schide to finish 2nd.

Last year she ran a completely different race, starting outside the top 10 before systematically dismantling every runner in front of her to once again finish 2nd behind Abby Hall.

Will she swing back to a more aggressive tactic like in 2024, or look for a happy medium between the two?

4th - 🌭Tara Dower

Tara Dower’s 2025 States campaign was dismantled by the sniffles, so we didn’t get to see what she’s capable of on this course.

She bounced back in style, jabsoultely jestroying jhe Javalina Jundred J100 JMiler jin ja jourse jecord jime jof j13:31.

She is however doing the States-Hardrock boogie, so I’m expecting her to roll with the slow-start, run-through-the-field approach, which I’m bullish on this year.

5th - Hậu Hà

Maybe the happiest runner in the elite line-up, Vietnam’s Hậu ‘Ha’ Hà is back after debuting over the 100-mile distance here last year and finishing 6th.

She went on to place 16th at CCC before getting back in the jungle and dominating the Chiang Mai Thailand 100k.

I farking love Vietnam, so by default I love Hậu Hà.

Men’s preview:

Last year was cast as Unbreakable 2. Then, well, some people turned out to be breakable. Awkward.

Kilian was chasing a win 14 years after his last Western States title, but Caleb Olson and Chris Myers didn’t get the script. They got a lead on Kilian midway through the race and held on for dear life.

Neither of those 2 are back this year, making Kilian the top-seeded returknee among the 6 coming back from last year’s top 10. Or soreknee, judging by his social media posts😂.

He’s put on an absolute masterclass in how to sandbag a race.

Jim Walmsley has managed to wrangle his way through a side door with a sponsor spot after sitting out all of the Golden Ticket races with a pissistant knee kniggle of his own.

Hayden Hawks, Adam Peterman, Zach Miller, and Francesco Puppi are the biggest names of those who’ve raced their way back onto the start line legitamatly.

My prediction:

Walmsley’s knee is more overcooked than Kilian’s paella. But he can’t handle the thought of missing Western States 2 years in a row, so he races anyway. They end up in a pity party in Ward 4.

Zach Miller goes ballistic early doors, leading to a mid-race blow-up, with Danny ‘MF’ Jones running into the lead on Cal Street, winning in the 2nd fastest ever time🥳.

My Top 5 Picks

“But Bradley, where are Kilian, Jim, and Zach?!?!?!”

I’m predicting full carnage this year, mainly because that’s a lot more fun😂.

Feel free to show me how wrong all my picks are by firing up the Free Trail Fantasy League and joining the TRNZ league (ignore the bit where it says Tarawera).

Top 2 win cookies!

(Greeny, I owe you cookies from last time. Get in touch. I have no idea who you are.)

Now, of course, we’ve got another Golden Ticket winner in the fight.

Mr Max Yanzick.

He may not be featuring in many of the international previews, but this boy can run. He finished 3rd at Tarawera this year, levitating across the mud and chasing down all the other Wonkas trying to get their hands on the Golden Ticket.

He was also 4th in the 50k in 2025.

Did I mention he’s only 23?

He’s been training the house down in the build-up, and I thought we’d better find out a little bit more about Max before we see him line up in Olympic Valley this weekend:

Hey Max, where are you from?

“So I’m an outdoor adventure lover who grew up a first generation kiwi in rural North Otago along with my parents and three older siblings!”

How old are you, and how long have you been running?

“I’m 23 and I have been running most my life but have just entered the ultra running scene at the start of 2025 so western states will be my 3rd official ultra and first hundred miler!”

What do you see as your biggest strength as a runner?

“So as stated above I grew up rural meaning the majority of my training has been by myself so I think being dropped by a group doesn’t bother me and I am comfortable in my ability to still perform for big chunks on my own and reel people back in later on if necessary! Also I am a big believer in making my actions in races do the talking!”

What do you see as your biggest weakness?

“So one thing I have learned from running is if you make yourself think you have weaknesses especially in long ultras it puts unnecessary burdens on my mindset in races! So I generally go into it feeling 10 feet tall and built proof even though a bunch of that will be lying to myself on purpose!”

What is your guilty pleasure running song?

“So music I’m a fan of many types but I don’t mind a bit of country on those long 4hr runs!”

Were you targeting a golden ticket at Tarawera, or was it just a bonus to the end of a great race?

“To be honest I went into Tarawera with a bunch of false confidence and after an absolute nightmare of travelling to get there I was just happy to make the start line!”

“Then to add to my chaos they didn’t get two of my drop bags out despite being clearly numbered so I was forced to eat a bunch of random aid station nutrition till I got to the first crewed aid station!”

“But I didn’t really think about placing until 70km when I started to figure out where I was in the placings!”

When did it first feel real that you were actually going to Auburn?

“To be honest Tarawera was a whirlwind and I’m still shocked how well it managed to turn out even when I felt everything was against me!”

“So getting a golden ticket is a pleasant surprise but I like to keep all the crazy hype out of my head and treat it as another race!”

What was the biggest thing you got right at Tarawera?

“Taraweras biggest learning was solving constant problems on the fly and knowing I can have a solid day even when everything is telling me it’s not gonna happen!”

“Biggest thing I got right was my mind set in a world of problems!”

What’s one thing you’ve deliberately improved since Tarawera?

“I have improved since then the confidence that even with some of the best in the world I can do things my way and still contend with everyone!”

What’s the part of the course you’re most excited for?

“For western states I’m excited for the whole thing and just to embrace the whole race in a positive light and not think of it as this huge life changing deal because from experience that mind set doesn’t work well for me and doesn’t get results!”

Whats the part you’re most nervous about?

“I don’t really get to nervous till just before the race and like to have a clear head as long as possible!”

“So I wouldn’t say Western States is this big dream of mine but I do see it as a chance to learn and improve against the absolute best in the sport and to see what I am made of by testing my limits against the top dogs!”

Who’s on your crew on race day?

“So my amazing cousin Zane and his Wife Anna will be crewing me along with a couple of awesome pacers!”

Who do you want to shoutout for helping this dream happen

“Would love a big shout out to my Parents and siblings back home they have always had my back when doing this sport also Benny my brother for coaching me!”

“Plus my awesome American family for their support too!”

Thanks for that, Max! All the best for race day. Looks like you’ve been getting to some awesome spots to train.

I think you just triggered hundreds of Kiwis waiting another year in the lottery with the “not really a dream of mine” comment😝.

I predicted he’d get a ticket at Tarawera, so I’ll be rubbing my crystal balls together all week hoping my 10th-place fantasy pick comes true.

Kick-off is Sunday at midnight (as in Saturday night), as per usual. I think I’ll stay up and watch the first hour, then set the alarm every hour to check how it’s going!

To watch the live stream just go to youtube and the algorythm overlords should take care of the rest.

If you’re like me and need some appetisers for the main event, graze your way through the below between now and Sunday to keep yourself satiated.

• Unbreakable - it’s like the Home Alone of Western States.

• Found on 49 - Jim Walmsleys now famous wrong turn

• An almost perfect race - Dauwalters DNF

• The Last Mile - Kaytlyn Gerbins finish for the ages

• Golden Hour - One for the feels

• Lucys Dad - Another one for the feels

• Life In A Day - A Billy Yang Classic

This Week’s Newsletter Is Brought To You By…

The Trail Running NZ Community!

Cheesy, I know.

But this has grown into something so much more than a weekly newsletter since I started this thing 3 and a half years ago.

At times it’s a real struggle to keep up with all the messages, emails, inside tips, rumours, results and everything else that gets sent my way.

I just want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who reads, shares, supports, contributes, and puts up with the occasional ghosting each week.

It genuinely means a lot.

Chur.

VERTual July

Alright folks, hold on to your Huntaways and unseize your Leki poles.

We are only 7 sleeps away from VERTual July kicking off and I’ve got some BIG-ish news.

PRIZES!!!!

🏆 Overall Winner

• $500 Cash from TRNZ

• That’s It Primo Prize Pack worth $539
  Anti-Chafe Gel 25ml x 5, First Aid Gel 25ml, Blister Stop Wool, Hot Rub 80ml, Insect Repel 70g, SPF30 Manuka Oil Lip Balm, T-Shirt, Dry Fit Running Shirt, Cap, Hoodie

• Leki Ultra Trail Poles from Kinisi Running worth $430

• Pick any Merrell trail shoes worth up to $379

• 1 x Foster 01 Shorts from Huntaway Run Co worth $119

• $100 Creepy voucher from Creepers

• Hearty As Tee + Insane In The Memebrain Tee from Mountain Skag $158

• Free entry to Crush the Cargill 200 miler

That’s $2235 of value!

Now that’s a prize pack worth finding your inner Goggins for.

Rewards For Mere Mortals

Complete Day 7

• That’s It Anti-Chafe worth $23.90

• Merrell NZ $70 Voucher

• Kinisi Running 10% discount code

• Huntaway Run Co 10% discount code

• Free Entry to Crush The Cargill 24hr Challenge

Complete Day 14

• Merrell NZ $140 Voucher (replaces $70)

• Kinisi 15% discount code (replaces 10%)

• Huntaway Run Co 20% discount (replaces 10%)

• 20% Mountain Skag discount code

• Free Entry to Crush The Cargill 100 Miler

Complete Day 21

• Kinisi 20% discount code (replaces 15%)

• Free pair of Creepers Socks

• Mountain Skag Speed Lid

Girls Only!

• Nic Ayson from Singletrack Collective is offering a free training consult for the top female finisher.

  

So What Is VERTual July?

It’s simple.

July 1: Run 100m of vertical gain

July 2: Run 200m of vertical gain

July 3: Run 300m of vertical gain

...

July 31: Run 3100m of vertical gain

Add another 100m every day for the entire month.

How long can you survive?

Rules

#1

You must always talk about Vertclub.

#2

No treadmills.

No stair machines.

No escalators.

No lifts.

Run, hike, walk or crawl outside.

What goes up must come down.

#3

Miss a day and you’re out.

No catch-ups.

No banking vert.

No IOUs.

#4

It’s the daily total that counts.

For example:

On Day 11 you run:

• 700m before work

• 450m after work

Total = 1,150m

You’re still in.

#5

If more than 1 person makes it to Day 31, the winner is whoever hits 3,100m the fastest.

#6

Be nice and have fun! Remember, we’re all just out here trying to make our way through winter.

What If People Cheat?

This will be governed by mob mentality.

You might get away with it for a while.

But there’s always one person who absolutely loves investigating runners.

You will get found out.

And you will be publicly shamed.

Forever👆.

How Do I Join?

CLICK HERE

Join the VERTual July Strava Club and hit ‘Request To Join’.

Not on Strava?

Reply to this email and we’ll figure something out.

No activity tracking = no play.

The numbers are kind of important.

Cost

Free.

If you’d like to leave a koha to TRNZ it’ll go towards:

• Prizes

• Beer

• Operational costs

• New carbon plates

• More prizes

• Possibly more beer

Leave Koha for VERTual July

#Mountain Skag Pic Of The Week

Tony Sharpe is this week’s winner with this shot from his backyard - cause who doesn’t love a good scree slope!

He’s now in the running for the monthly $70 voucher - check out www.mountainskag.com to see what you could be walking away with.

Tag @trailrunning.nz (NOTE THE “.”) and use #mountainskag. DM on Instagram or email trailrunningnz@gmail.com to enter (email is the most reliable).

Picking up what I’m putting down? Send it to a mate who you know will be into it too!

Share

Or leave a tip

Tip TRNZ

PS: Double Western States win with Caitlin and DJ both taking down the title.

I would take this over the All Blacks ever winning the World Cup again, the Blackcaps winning the ODI World Cup, I think I would even doom the Warriors to never win the NRL to see this happen.

Come at me!

P.P.S: Thanks to Brent Robinson for the hot tip we’ve also got Travis Stull from Tauranga lining up at Western States, so keep an eye out on his travels also!

Your weekly fix of NZ trail running news

Welcome to Trail Running NZ - Think of this like a Strava Segment. Completely pointless, full of local legends and a few people taking it far too seriously😂

Here's what’s in the drop bag this week:

⛰️Mt Difficulty Results

🗳️Mountain Skag Winner For May

🕴️The Names Blande, James Blande

🎯Things You May Have Missed

🏁Upcoming events: Frapaki?

⛰️💊Mountain Skag of The Week

Note: Due to the length, some email browsers will hide some of the content - make sure you click ‘view entire email’ or click through to substack.

Thank Kilian for Mt. Difficulty! We’re back to regular programming this week, covering all the results from what is undisputedly the hardest marathong in the country.

We’ve also got May’s Mountain Skag winner, which was separated by just 1 vote, and James Blande is back from Taiwan to fill us in on his time racing the Taiwania 100K.

Things are still a little thin on the ground over the next few weeks, but stay with me. We can get through winter together.

In just 2 weeks we get some respite, with Caitlin Fielder, Danny MF Jones, and Max Yanzick flying the Kiwi flag at Western States.

IT’S OUR YEAR!

Mt. Difficulty Results

Saturday, June 13

Alas!

There was no dramatic inversion layer or dusting of the white stuff this year at Mt. Difficulty.

The 120-odd followers of Terry The Sadist had to make do with running in what some would long-windedly describe as “primo conditions”.

Yeah, that’s right.

I said primo.

In a trail running world where Ep🤬c gets thrown around more than "game changer" did in 2020, it’s about time primo made a resurgence.

With conditions that good, it’s no surprise we saw some fantastic racing up front, while the mere mortals got to experience the harsh beauty of the nus-puckering ascents and descents on offer with full views.

This has to be a contender for the highest skag-to-km ratio in the country🤔.

Just check out some of the race photos.

Alright, enough oogling.

Time to rip on into the results:

📏44KM | ⛰️3000M

Women’s podium:

🥇Isabella Reid - 5:35:24

🥈Molly Spark - 5:51:55

🥉Katie Wright - 5:57:30

Isabella Reid stepped up to the 44k after leaving her footprints all over the 25k podium the last couple years.

She ran with Molly ‘Mute’ Spark through the first half before seizing an opportunity to scoot away on the 2nd climb while Spark took a breath.

That proved to be the pivotal move.

Reid opened a big enough gap that her inferior descending ability became null and void. The final margin was 16 minutes. A dominant victory for Isabella, who is SO BACK!💪

Katie Wright once again proved her versatility - #notjustamiler, finishing just 6 minutes behind Spark in 3rd.

Here’s what Isabella had to say about her day on the Mountain:

How did the race play out at the front?

“We went out pretty fast at the start, which is what usually happens. I was a bit worried about how to pace it as I’d id only done the 25km previously and thought that was hard enough but I was pleased to not run an extra 5km at the start this time.”

“I was racing molly for the first half and I knew she would be tough competition when she started telling me about all her other races as an adventure sport athlete! She was great on the downhills (my weak point).”

“But I love climbing and I knew the downhills would be easier in the second half. So I got away from her on the second climb and just hoped for the best.”

What does it mean to you to take home the trophy in the 44k and what keeps bringing you back year after year?

“This was the first race where I actually stuck to my fueling/hydrating plan and it paid off big time. Easily the best I’ve felt in a race, l just felt good the whole time!”

“It’s a nice feeling to have hard work pay off, I’ve been on a slow build for the last couple of years after injuries and its nice to feel like I’m back in the game.”

“This race was also a birthday present from hannah!
Which just made it even better.”

“Honestly I love the climbs even though I got a bit scared in some places.”

“I always meet nice people at this race, people who just like to get out there and do hard things!”

Men’s podium:

🥇Tom Blackburn - 5:01:30

🥈Tom Barnes - 5:20:44

🥉Peter Smit - 5:23:18

Tom Blackburn vs Tom Barnes

Shiiiiiet.

The last time I saw tom toms this good, I was half-cut at a War On Drugs gig.

Front Cap Blackburn from Da Norf of Englund defied the laws of trail running by beating out Backwards Cap Barnesy.

Or did he?

What’s happening here?

That’s Blackburn leading in the #10 bib, with Tom Barnes without his trademark backwards cap.

I’m...

I’m...

Shocked to my core.

It’s like seeing Superman without his tight little red speedos on.

If this is what moving to the trail running Mecca of New Zealand does to a man, I don’t want to live in this world no more😭.

The wardrobe malfunction didn’t surface until halfway through as the two Toms ran together through the first half, before Blackburn unsheathed his drumsticks and laid down a beat up Mt. Difficulty that Barnesy just couldn’t match.

The damage was done.

Blackburn double-kicked on to take a dominant 19-minute victory, coming up just short of the revered Mt. Difficulty sub-5.

Barnesy had plenty of work to do, with Peter ‘Silent H” Smit’ finishing strong, just 3 minutes back and 34 seconds ahead of Chris Jervis in a tight finish for the Bronze.

Thanks to Alan Crowe for being the man on the ground and putting me in touch with Tom Blackburn.

Here’s what Tom had to say about his day:

You won the battle of the Tom’s; how did the race play out at the front?

“Tom and I ran together for pretty much all of the first half until the big climb which was where we separated. I settled into a constant effort and didn't allow myself to stop until the summit.”

“For most of the first half we had Chester flying off in front I wasn't aware he was doing the 25k until the top of mt difficulty I just assumed he was well ahead of us and out of sight.”

“From the top of Mt difficulty I didn't see anyone and just settled into a rhythm of running what I could and walking what I couldn't which at that point was most of the remaining climbs. Towards the end I realised sub 5 could be doable so began to dig deep but couldn't quite break that barrier.”

How does someone from the North of England find their way to the start line of Mt. Difficulty and have you ever raced anything like it?

“I am over in NZ on a working holiday visa for the year and having explored the north island was keen to get to the mountains and get involved with all the running and biking down here.”

“I have found it pretty tricky finding races over the winter so I was pretty interested when last week my friend Eloise mentioned she was doing the rustic run and when I googled it I discovered mt Difficulty and was instantly keen for the challenge so signed up only a few days before the race.”

“The race reminded me of fell racing back in the lakes not that I did many of them but racing up and down a steep mountain not on the path as fast as you can felt pretty similar even without the mud. Even a few of the trail races that I have done in the UK like lakes in a day have had technical climbs and descents in them which always give you that adrenaline rush.”

📏25KM | ⛰️1700M

Men’s podium:

🥇Chester Holt-Quick - 2:38:08

🥈Mathieu Chanteduc - 2:50:33

🥉Matt Barton - 2:52:12

Chester Holy-Quick Batman! flicked the Bat mobile into 4WD and dominated the 25km from start to finish, crossing the line 12 minutes clear of the name-of-the-day winner, Mathieu Chanteduc, all the way from Embrun, Carnarduh.

Matt Barton kept his purple patch rolling, finding the podium once again after a 2nd place in the capital at The Faultline Miler at the end of April.

Here’s Chester with the Lowdown:

What was your plan coming into the event, and how did it play out at the front on the day?

“Plan coming in was to just to enjoy it as a destination event, but still give it a good blast. I’m focusing on some flat speed work currently (will do my first road marathon later this year and Welly 1/2 in two weeks).”

“For this reason, plus seeing Barnsey on the start list I opted not to do the 44km. Turns out that was a pretty reasonable move as the 25km is packed with all the good technical stuff like the very steep climb and the cliff rope descent.”

“I went out with an honest pace to start but didn’t have any other takers in the 25km for that recklessness. The two Toms in the 44km were with me for a while until I guess they realised they had twice as far as me to run. So was just me and the wild goats after that. I made a silly nav error after the rope descent and did an extra 1.5km or so but that didn’t bother me, managed to bring it home.”

You’ve been focusing on longer races in the last 18-24 months; how did it feel to come and let rip on a shorter distance? And what were your impressions of the 25k course?

“I like to keep balanced with my running distances, so try to keep some higher intensity stuff in the mix with workouts and a few races in the 5-20km range, even though I’m trying to focus more towards that 100km distance as the main.”

”Absolutely loved the course, exceeded my expectations: Some property technical descents, steep mountain climbs, a few fast flats, and alpine vibes. Really recommend this one. I think it will be any annual fixture for me, definitely back next year probably for the 44km and hopefully a good amount of snow.”

Women’s podium:

🥇Stephanie Wilson - 3:07:14

🥈Amanda Hale - 3:17:59.42

🥉Claudia Sole - 3:18:00.41

Stiffknee Wilson returned to Mt. Difficulty to chase the one that got away in 2024.

Isabella Reid, who pipped her that day, was off chasing the win in the 44km, so there would be no sequel to 2024.

Wilson ran just over 1 minute faster, but more importantly, finished 1 place higher to take gold in the 25k.

Behind her, I couldn’t figure out whether it was hand-holding or elbows-throwing, with Amanda Hale and Claudia Sole barrelling over the line just 1 second apart, and Emma Trolove only 11 seconds further back.

Here’s Steph on her win:

What was your plan coming into the race, and how did it play out on race day?

“Plan coming into race day was to just enjoy the scramble and views on the way up and not to break an ankle on the way down (I hate descents!!)”

In 2024 you came in 2nd- how does it feel to take the victory over the weekend?

“In 2024 I spent most of the race chatting to Isabella (who went on to win) so luckily for me this year I could enjoy a quick catch up with her again out on the trails before she took off to win the 44km so I’m sure this years victory had something to do with that!”

Well, that’s another year of Mt. Difficulty in the books.

Every year I hear from someone who’s made the long trip down and sworn it’s the best race they’ve ever run.

The community vibes. The scenery. The ridiculous gradients of the ascents and descents.

And, of course, being serenaded by Steve Tripp singing “Terry Is A Sadist” (check out the video).

This year was no exception. In fact, it even hosted a WoRM Runners (Wellington Run Group) conference, with members from across the country attending!

If it’s not on your matrix, it might be time to slot it near the top.

Click here for the full Mt. Difficulty & the Rustic Run results

This Week’s Newsletter Is Brought To You By…

Transform your running game and turn your athletic dreams into reality.

What you’ll experience working with Nic Ayson:

✅ An individually tailored, adaptive training plan

✅ Unlimited contact + constant feedback

✅ Steady, sustainable progress

✅ RESULTS

What you won’t experience working with Nic Ayson:

❌Generic non-collaborative training plan

❌Unsustainable workload expectations

❌Impersonal, sporadic communication

❌Short term results at the expense of longevity

Contact Nic for an obligation-free chat to see if Singletrack Collective is the perfect fit for you.

Email: singletrackcollective@gmail.com

Instagram: @singletrackcollective

Mountain Skag Winner For May

In a tight contest separated by just 1 vote, Chris Taylor is walking away with the $70 Mountain Skag Voucher.

It ticks a lot of boxes.

✅Sexy ridge line

✅Snow while still having definition

✅Someone in action soaking it all in

The Names Blande, James Bland

As promised last week, Whanganui double agent James Blande is here this week to fill us in on how a boy from Whanganui won a 100k race in Taiwan running in the green and gold.

How does a member of Whanganui hardcore end up racing for Australia in a race in Taiwan?

“This was luck and consistency.
Trailsplus, Victoria's premier trail running company, who hosts a legit 10-100km+ race every 3 weeks or so sent me over to Taiwan as part of sister city program. Over the last 3 years I've been part of the community and done a lot of their races as tune ups for UTMB and Tarawera. A Instagram post popped up with a opportunity to go with less than a day to enter and less then a week later I was in.”

Have you ever raced over there before? Was the terrain similar to anything you’ve run previously?

“I’ve never raced in anything like that region, I’ve done WSER in 40 degrees (5th hottest year on record) but this was a humid hot where the rain just added to the heat. Luckily I sauna most days just to be ready for anything so the head and the humidity wasn’t really a factor on the day.”

What was the race plan heading in and how did your race play out? Did you hit the front early or hang on or was there a bit of a battle up front?

“This was a race where the 77km and the 100km started at the same time so I wasn't sure who I was actually racing, but the plan was to push the first 39km of up hills and use my long legs on the downhills to catch up to anyone ahead of me. Out the gate we all went out pretty hard to set the tone. there was a pack of about 5 of us, with one guy who just left us all out in the dust.”

“At 24km 6 of use all met back up for a major aid station for a gear check which I happened to get through pretty quick and made a point of pushing pretty hard out of to get as much of a gap as I could. This paid off as when I hit that aid again on the way back they said I was first and by the time I hit the 2nd turn around (78km) I had around 40min on 2nd.”

How do you rate your performance against other wins and big races you’ve had in the past?

This was a big +1 to confidence after RoF that I still have it in the tank where I might have come up short. I think this is really cool to travel somewhere else and not know anyone else who is racing and still come out on top somehow.

In terms of rankings this will still in my top five for sure:

WSER
Finishing UTMB
Tarawera Miler top 10
Taiwania 100km
Bluelake 24hr 3rd?

What’s next for Mr Bland?

YouYangs 100km.
and then I have to try get back into UTMB so the only race around here would be Kosci 100mile 3rd place so I might try shoot for that.

Shoutouts to Tarkine for providing my new racing shoe the “bandicoot”
CurraNZ keeping my quads together on the downhills
GarminAU for tacking my race and pace throughout the course
and mainly for CTAU and Trailsplus for sending us over there for this life changing experience not just for myself but everyone involved.
it’s caused a real problem as now I want to live in Taiwan now.

Thanks for that James!

Amazing where one snap decision to put yourself out there can take your life. What an experience!

Things You May Have Missed

Kaweka Challenge Reveal All

There’s been a lot of excitement and chatter about the Kaweka Challenge returning after ending up on the red-tape scrap heap.

Well, over the weekend the 50ish-kilometre, 4000m of uppies-and-downies course was revealed. No, it’s not the original course. Yes, it will still take many souls.

It sounds like it’ll be a “tell us how hardcore you are” situation to get on the 50k start line. If that sounds like far too much fun and you’re after a smaller hit, there will also be 12.5km and 25km options.

Continue to watch this space. This is an evolving situation.

River Run Entries Open

Keeping with the Hawkes Bay theme, River Run Backyard Ultra opened entries over the weekend. This year they’ve capped it at 250 runners and were already down to just 100 spots left at the time of writing. By the time this lands in your inbox, that number will probably be much smaller.

I’m not sure if you can call it a sell-out when it’s free to enter, but whatever you call it, it’s bloody popular. Who would’ve guessed that giving people a free event would attract a crowd?😆

Rumour has it the infamous TRNZ “Last Ranga Standing”🔥 trophy might be packing its bags for another roadie to Waipukurau.

International Results Desk

Liam McKenzie took the Silver over in Japan in a weather-shortened Biwako Valley Long course Skyrace, which is part of the Merrell Japan Skyrunning Series.

David Haunschmidt also took the Silver at the Madeira Skyrace, adding to his 1st at Transylvania just a couple of weeks ago.

Oink Running Planner Tool

Alright, if you’ve ever found yourself with 6 group chats open trying to organise a long run, explain which carpark to meet at, compare training plans, and remember what race everyone is supposedly training for...

Someone has gone and built an app for that.

OINK (Organise. Invite. Notify. Konfirm.) is a free platform that helps you plan your training, organise group runs, and keep all your running admin in one place without the endless back-and-forth.

It looks particularly handy for social runners, clubs, and that person who always ends up having to organise everyone.

It’s free to use. You can see the 7 am summits and some Wellington group runs are already live on there. I’ve only had a quick nosey so far, but if you’re into shiny new running toys, give it a nudge and let me know what you reckon.

Click Here to check it out

Win A Trip To Your Dream Race

Fractel Straya are running a competition to win a trip to your dream race to the value of $5000 Strayan. Now that’s a prize worth entering. Check it out on Da Gram or here’s the official link. It says in the T’s and C’s that it’s open to participants worldwide.

Upcoming Events: Frapaki - Friday 7am

Without a local event to spotlight, I thought I would give the floor to Mayo Edmondson to give us a rundown on the latest “Friday 7am meet at the summit” development.

Take it away Mayo!

“Christchurch may have been late to the Friday summit party, perhaps that’s because we couldn’t decide which hill deserved the honour.”

“Inspired by Wanaka’s famous “Froyday”. Other cities have embraced their own versions. Dunedin has Frigill, Wellington has Frictoria and Auckland Freden. Christchurch, however, remained suspiciously quiet.”

“Then on Thursday evening Crush the Cargill FB page floated Frapaki: a Friday run up Rapaki! A few comments suggested Sugarloaf might make a better summit (Friloaf, Frugarloaf?), another suggested Fragley.”

“But trail runners do tend to believe every run should involve at least one unnecessary hill, and Hagley’s speed bumps don’t quite cut it. Expecting at least one other trail runner to take the bait, I hinted that I’d be there the next morning.”

“At 5:59am I set off up Rapaki for the inaugural Fripaki, scanning the darkness for other headtorches. None appeared.”

“Undeterred, I continued to Sugarloaf, deliberately taking the longer route to maximise my chances of spotting fellow runners.”

“Still nothing.”

“At 7am I waited at the summit of Sugarloaf for 10 minutes, eating Vegemite on toast and watching the sunrise. Eventually I accepted that perhaps Christchurch wasn’t quite ready for Friday hill traditions.”

“Just to be safe, I returned via Mt Vernon - Frivernon, in case everyone had somehow agreed there’s was best. Again, no one.”

“In the end it was a glorious solo morning in the hills: 20km/800m vert, sunrise and three summits. Not a bad way to finish the week.”

“If others decide to join future editions, my route is Rapaki (convenience of toilets), then along Summit Rd to Sugarloaf then back via Crater Rim trail to Mt Vernon and down Montgomery for funnies, followed by coffee at Cocoa Black St Martins. But if you tag along, the route and café are entirely negotiable.”

“After all, every running tradition has to start somewhere.”

Thanks for that Mayo!

If you’re a doom scroller from Churchur and are keen to join in on the Friday 7 am Summit trend - get in touch with Mayo Edmondson.

#Mountain Skag Pic Of The Week

Andrew Roxburgh is this week’s winner with this shot of 3 young mountain addicts getting an early hit at sunrise leaning into the wind.

He’s now in the running for the monthly $70 voucher - check out www.mountainskag.com to see what you could be walking away with.

Tag @trailrunning.nz (NOTE THE “.”) and use #mountainskag. DM on Instagram or email trailrunningnz@gmail.com to enter (email is the most reliable).

Picking up what I’m putting down? Send it to a mate who you know will be into it too!

Share

Or leave a tip

Tip TRNZ

PS: Western States Preview as well next week? Yay or Nay?

Your weekly fix of NZ trail running news

Welcome to Trail Running NZ Afflettuce NZ.
Just like Athletics NZ, but we're vaguely interested in trail and mountain running😎

Here’s what’s in the drop bag this week:

🏆The Road To Cape Town

👆Things You May Have Missed

🗳️Mountain Skag Vote 4 May

⛰️VERTual July

🏁Upcoming Races: Mt Difficulty Ascent

⛰️💊Mountain Skag Pic Of The Week

Note: Due to the length, some email browsers will hide some of the content - make sure you click ‘view entire email’ or click through to substack.

Alright team, I’m coming in short and sharp like a midgets … pinky.

Cos there’s no results desk this week, I’m really rooting around, getting my fingers dirty and putting on my Affletuce NZ Cap.

This should take the doom scrollers all of 0.6s!

🏆The Road To Cape Town

The World Mountain and Trail World Champs will be back before we know it. They’re held every 2nd year, and this time round they’re in Cape Town, Sahf Efrika, from 6-10 October 2027.

“That’s ages away mate, I’ve got three injury cycles to work through between now and then.”

Yes, it’s still 17 months away, but don’t forget it’s an athlete-funded event. Aka 17 monthly sausage sizzles selling approximately 14,000 sausages to cover the cool $3-4k for accommodation, transport, management beersies, meals in Cape Town, plus the airfares to get there.

So if you’re serious about pinning the bib on the black singlet in 17 months’ time, it’s time to start planning.

I’d forgotten the selection criteria hadn’t been set until Jack Harris posted on da gram that Aftheletics NZ had posted them on their news site back on May 12.

Now, I’d been regularly checking the site until recently, so my bad for missing it. But I presumed they’d also be making a bit of noise about it to spread the word, so I figured I must have missed something on the old Insta page.

Oh wait, the most important thing that day was a throwback to 2024 Oceania Athletic Champs, of course!

Anyway, I digress. Lettuce romain on topic.

Who’s soft flasks do you need to fill? What races do you need to throw down at to catch the selectors' attention?

Now I’m not fluent in boardroom lingo, but I translate that first line as:
“Race at these races, but if you win and we think you’re still a bit slow, and some of our pros are available, we might select them instead.”

I get it. Having a firm line in the sand means that some of our top internationals are likely ineligible.

If I look at last year’s team, Caitlin Fielder, Jackson Cole, and I’m sure others wouldn’t have been part of it. Having some of our young athletes get the chance to be around an athlete like Caitlin or Ruth and see how they handle themselves and prepare is invaluable.

But at the same time, because it’s athlete-funded, having a crystal-clear path to qualification would help people finance the experience. It probably already works a bit like this, but maybe a hybrid Golden Ticket system would work better🤔?

What if each race has Golden Tickets, and they roll down if someone already has one, leaving the remaining spots on the roster for pure selection calls. The results from the selection races are weighted more heavily than other local races.

The team spots available are below:

Now, I’m probably misinterpreting this, and I’ve left it too late to phone a friend😆. If we maxed out the Mountain Running roster, with nobody doubling up across events, we could have 32 athletes between the Seniors and Juniors. (I’m aware that often athletes want to run both the Classic and the Uphill.)

So for the Mountain Running team, the top 3 in the National Champs in Nelson get a Golden Ticket. Then, in the top-secret undisclosed-location event, there are another 3 Golden Tickets.

That’s six for each division.

24 spots out of 32.

Leaving 8 open for bribes.

2 in each division.

In the trail team, there are 24 roster spots. With 3 selection races, it does become a bit more complicated though.

Let’s take a closer look.

• NZ 50km Championships (on Trail in 2026) – Legends of the Peaks 50km – Saturday 7 November 2026, Rotorua.

Why we’re now running the NZ 50K champs on trail, while still running a Short Course Trail Championship that’s usually between 50-60km, is a bit beyond me.

Also, it doesn’t say if this race gets you consideration for the short or long course team. But what I do know is the Legends of the Peaks 50K distance is brand new, and it will be a fast, runnable course with climbs that the front of the field will actually run.

It suits your marathon-come-trail-runner hybrids. Not exactly what makes sense if you’re heading to the technical Cape Town trails, but if you win here, you’ve got wheels.

Michael ‘The Boss’ Voss has dominated the marathon here, so expect him, or someone in that mold, to take this out. I also think this course would suit someone like Mel Brandon if she wanted to try to make the team on the Short Course this time around.

If the lineup runs deep, this could be a fiery, lactic, lung-busting race regardless of how suitable it is for Cape Town.

If they’re going to run this 3-selection-race schedule, I’d say 1st at LoTP should be a Golden Ticket winner.

• NZ Short Trail Championships – Tussock Traverse 32km – Saturday 27 March 2027, Tongariro National Park, Ruapehu

Next up, the Short Trail Champs... which look a bit... well... shorter than recent years.

3 Peaks +1 (55km) has had a lock on this race in recent years, but now it finds itself bang smack in the middle of the North Island. Now, this to me is an interesting choice. The Tussock Traverse has had a very up-and-down existence since C🤬🤬🤬ID.

It was back this year and ran at the same time as Ring of Fire.

It’s a great race.

On some amazing terrain.

But I just don’t think it’s the right course for a World Champs selection race.

It needs to be longer, with at least one big sustained climb. Yes, there is some vert, but it comes in the form of a couple of grinds and pinches (there must be a bad nightclub joke in there somewhere😝).

Then there’s the fact that this event is highly weather-dependent. It was only two years ago that it couldn’t go ahead because the winds were so strong the safety chopper couldn’t fly.

Now, I’m sure they’d just name another race if that happened.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the area, and while I haven’t specifically run Tussock Traverse, I have covered the course before.

It’s awesome.

It just feels like an odd choice for a selection race.

If you were going to take it to the Central Plateau, the 60K Ring of Fire would make so much more sense. The back half of that race goes through one of the most technical sections to race on in the country, with sustained climbing and descending. Perfect selection terrain for what’s to come in Cape Town.

Because this is specifically the Short Course Trail Champs, and that’s what it’s called at Worlds, I’d put two Golden Tickets up for this event.

That leaves 3 “selection” spots in the short course team, because I’m counting LoTP as a Short Course event.

• NZ Long Trail Championships – The Spectacle 100km – Saturday 5 December 2026, Nelson

Now this one makes the most sense to me.

It’s a long, hearty, technical-in-parts 100k race that will test wannabe NZ reps more closely to what they’re going to face in Cape Town than most races in NZ.

Keep It Simple Sally.

The top 3 book the ticket to rep NZ in the Long Trail, leaving 3 spots for the selectors to earn their keep.

To go one step further, imagine if this year they said:

“Short Course and Long Course are now The Spectacle 50k and 100k.”

“F🤬ck the 50K champs. That’s going back on the pavement doing laps at Hagley Park.”

“And while we’re at it.”

“Nelson, congratulations.”

“You’re now hosting the Mountain Running National Champs on Sunday the same weekend, because The Spectacle is all wrapped up by Saturday.”

Now THAT would be a Spectacle.

Food for thought.

Thought for food.

Maybe I’m just talking more shite than normal.

Let me know your thoughts.

Just in case none of this made any sense - CLICK HERE for the official selection criteria.)

This Week’s Newsletter Is Brought To You By…

Hearty As - The New T From Mountain Skag

PRE ORDER NOW FOR JULY

Things You May Have Missed

Ken Raureti has passed away

Ken had a large impact on shaping Tarawera Ultra, and the community that surrounds it. Below is a copy of Paul Charteris Facebook post and photo:

Blande Wins The Taniwha Taiwania 100

One of Whanganui Hardcore’s finest, James Blande, somehow found himself in a green and gold singlet running across the line in 1st at the Taiwania 100k in Taiwan over the weekend.

I can’t find the actual results, and James is off seeing the sights, but with a bit of luck we’ll have a recap from the man himself next week.

Squadrun Offering 6 Week Trial

This isn’t a paid ad. I got this in my inbox this week and saw they’re offering a 6-week free trial. No credit card. No strings attached.

Seems like a pretty fair suck on the saveloy if you’re looking for training options, especially in this cost-of-running crisis. Could be worth a message.

Race Tekapo Competition

Also not an ad!

Race Tekapo have an “all expenses kind of paid” trip up for grabs for you and a friend.

Who wouldn’t want a free trip to Tekapo with their running bestie, whether they’re planning to race hard or enter the 6k and sink beers at the hotel?

Friday 7 AM Summits Is Definitely A Thing

Okay, so apparently meeting on top of a summit on a Friday at 7am is a thing.

Wanaka have been cranking it for a while with Froydays, based out of the Kinisi Running store. Dunedin was next with Frigill. Then we really started stretching the name with Frictoria in Wellington. Frid Knob was next, and finally the mecca of trail running in NZ replied with Freden.

It might sound a bit silly, but getting up on a summit early on a Friday morning, with a group of people, must move the needle on the happiness index a touch?

Currently the regular runs are:

• Roys Peak
• Mt Cargill
• Mt Victoria

I’m not sure if Mt Eden was a one-and-done, but I guess you can find out on Friday 7am at the top.

If you’re keen to start a regular 7 am Friday summit group run - let me know and I’ll chuck it up.

Mountain Skag Vote 4 May

It’s time to decide who’s walking away with the Mountain Skag trophy for May.

Here are your contenders:

Vote for your favourite below! One of them will be stumbling away with a $70 Mountain Skag Voucher. I’ve removed the names so it isn’t a popularity contest.

VERTual July

If you missed the announcement last week - here’s the TLDR version of the new VERT based event kicking off 1st of July.

The challenge is simple.

Day 1: Run, hike, walk or crawl 100m of vert.

Day 2: 200m.

Day 3: 300m.

You just keep adding another 100m every single day for the rest of the month.

• Week1: 100M, 200M, 300M, 400M, 500M, 600M, 700M = 2,800M

• Week 2: 800M, 900M, 1000M, 1100M, 1200M, 1300M, 1400M = 7,700M

• Week 3: 1500M, 1600M, 1700M, 1800M, 1900M, 2000M, 2100M = 12,600M

• Week 4: 2200M, 2300M, 2400M, 2500M, 2600M, 2700M, 2800M = 17,500M

And if somehow someone makes it …

• Week 5: 2900M, 3000M, 3100M … Glory. = 9,000M

That’s a cool 49,602M for the month🤯.

For context, that’s roughly five-and-a-half Everest’s worth of climbing.

The idea is that it starts very accessible but progressively gets harder.

Eventually, it becomes less about fitness and more about consistency, motivation, and time management.

The rules I’ve got so far which I’m sure I’ll add to before kick off:

1. The 1st rule of Vertclub is you must always talk about Vertclub

2. No treadmills, stair machines, escalators or lifts up the Sky Tower etc. It must be a walk/run/hike/crawl outside. What goes up, must come down

3. Miss a day and you’re out. No catch-ups. No banking vert. No IOUs.
   
   The challenge isn’t the vert. The challenge is knowing you have to do it again tomorrow

4. It is the daily total of vert that counts. For example on Day 11 - If you run 2 hours before work for 700M vertical gain and another hour after work for 450M your total is 1150M and you would still be in the challenge

5. If somehow there are more than 1 lining up on the last day, it will come down to who’s fastest on the day to hit the 3100m

Yes, I realise this sounds hard. That’s why I called it a challenge.

This week I’m hoping to get together a bit more detail on some sponsorship offerings and prizes etc so watch this space.

I over complicated it last week:

CLICK HERE and it will take you to the VERTual July Strava Club and click “Request to join”

If you’re some kind of weirdo not using Strava, reply to this email to say you’re keen and I’ll work out the best way to monitor your progress - If you don’t have a way to record your activities, sorry you can’t really play as the numbers are quite important.

It’s free to enter, but you can leave a Koha to TRNZ which will be used on prizes, beer and new carbon plates operating costs and prizes etc.

Leave Koha for VERTual July

Upcoming Events:

Mt Difficulty

Saturday, June 13

We touched on it last week, but Mt. Difficulty Ascent is the feature race next weekend, and it can’t come soon enough. Long live the Results Desk!

There’s always something happening at Mt. Difficulty. Whether it’s a fresh blanket of snow on the course or a dodgy arrow sending the lead runners back to the start, fingers crossed some tight, safe racing is the main focal point this weekend.

• Sat 13/6 - Bridge to Bridge Ultra - Canterbury

• Sun 14/6 - The Mount Vernon Grand Traverse - Blenheim

• Sun 14/6 - Gizzy Trail Run Series: Pouawa Farm - Gisborne

• Sun 14/6 - Canterbury Winter Trail Run Series 2: Mount Cass Station

#Mountain Skag Pic Of The Week

Alex Gilbert is the man supplying the hit this week. He had a few to pick from, but I do love a bit of ominous-looking clag.

This was from a recent adventure into the Kaimanawas doing “The Big Loop”. One of the most underrated loops in the country, I reckon.

He’s now in the running for the monthly $70 voucher - check out www.mountainskag.com to see what you could be walking away with.

Tag @trailrunning.nz (NOTE THE “.”) and use #mountainskag. DM on Instagram or email trailrunningnz@gmail.com to enter (email is the most reliable).

Picking up what I’m putting down? Send it to a mate who you know will be into it too!

Share

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PS:

It’s been over two months since Ring of Fire.

Long enough for the legs to recover.

Not long enough for the ankles to forgive me.

I meant to write this weeks ago, but between life, work, and keeping the weekly newsletter fed, it’s been a struggle to rub two minutes together.

The race was equal parts spectacular, brutal, and hilarious.

Anyway.

This is how I remember it.

🏔️RING OF FIRE 100KM

WTF IS GOING ON?

“I must’ve gone through some kind of battery Bermuda Blackhole of doom on the way here.”

“What in the actual holy helmet am I going to do?”

It’s 8.00pm the night before Ring of Fire 100k.

The biggest challenge I’ve taken on since my last haircut.

I’m staring down at the backup headlamp that was supposed to be in my drop bag, and here it is, staring right back at me.

Weird. It worked this morning. Chuck in a spare battery. Same story.

Hmm, not ideal, but I’ve got my main headlamp and a spare battery. I’ll just triple che... whaaaaaaaat.

Same story.

Even my gear doesn’t believe in me.

Cue a mild panic attack.

I get everyone else in the house involved and fire off a flurry of messages. If I’ve got no light, I can’t start the race. Not ideal. What is the definition of a headlamp anyway?

Thank God Hillary answered the bell and was only a street over.

By the time I got back with the new headlamp, Tom had managed to get one unit going, but nobody really knew what the hell was happening. My batteries worked in another unit. Their batteries didn’t work in mine. Yet somehow it would run straight off power.

Anyway, crisis averted.

I go to bed knowing I actually have to run this motherfucker, and my deepest, darkest self-sabotaging efforts haven’t been enough to stop it.

Fuck.

Read more

Your weekly fix of NZ trail running news

Welcome to Trail Running NZ. We're like the Royal Family of the NZ trail running scene. Long, unnecessary, mildly confusing, but everyone's secretly watching.

Here's what’s in the drop bag this week:

🏇Kings Backyard Recap

⛰️New Challenge Detected

🎯Things You May Have Missed

🏁Upcoming events:

⛰️💊Mountain Skag of The Week

Note: Due to the length, some email browsers will hide some of the content - make sure you click ‘view entire email’ or click through to substack.

Kings Backyard Ultra Results

Kings Backyard Ultra was back on over the long weekend for its third trot around the Whangarei Showgrounds. This year was touted as "The Golden Year", with runners who have competed at all three events being presented with… you guessed it, a golden horseshoe. In Northland folklore, it's a sign of prosperity and good health😎.

Now I’m not your biggest Backyard fanboy, but I was PUMPED to see how this one was gonna shake out. The course is a goody, and the starting list was stacked with historically good thoroughbreds. Also, I’m just a big ol fan of Helen and Chris from His & Her Events.

If you're unfamiliar with all this Backyard baloney, it's probably best you ignore it before you're sucked in too. But if you must, take a geeze at Backyard NZ.
Here’s the basic recipe:

• Run a 6.71 KM loop on the hour every hour.

• The race goes on until only 1 person is left.

Alright, let’s take a look at how it all went down.

Overall Winner:

🏆Anthony Kerr-Taylor - 41 laps (275.11KM)

Top DNFs - Men 🏃‍♂️🏃‍♂️🏃‍♂️

☠️Jeremy Whitten - 40 laps (268.40km)

☠️Alex Nicholson - 38 laps (254.98km)

☠️Simon McLean - 36 laps (241.56km)

Last Women Standing:

👑Shannon-Leigh Litt - 37 laps (248.27KM)

Top DNFs - Women 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️

☠️Emma Steadman - 31 laps (208.01km)

☠️Roberta Meksraityte - 30 laps (201.30km)

☠️Jade Overy - 26 laps (167.75km)

Saturday 9am, 128 pumped-up pony lovers saddled up to show their love for old King Big Ears by riding in circles, some for days on end. The Winterless North was kind of... wintery, serving up wind, rain, and the occasional fine patch🌧️.

The early laps ticked by uneventfully There was a bit of early controversy with Hamish Johnstone shown a red card for forgetting his bib after a quick costume change. Doh! 😫I'm sure it's happened before and I've missed it, but that's the first time I've seen the DQ icon in the results.

By loop 15 aka 100km, multiple railings were dropping every lap. 78 reached the milestone, while 13 headed for the stables for a bag of hay and a cold one. That's the same number that saddled up for the inaugural event😮.

The headlight hours played their usual games, and the conditions began to take their toll. By the time the 100-mile grim reaper reared its head, the field was down to 26. Just 4 pulled up lame, leaving 22 to see if they could take the party into Monday.

One of the most touching moments of the day came next, with Roberta Meksraityt officially earning a spot on the Lithuanian Satellite Team upon completing her 28th lap (she'd go on to finish with 30). She ran lap 28 with her coach AWT and came down the finishing chute under the Lithuanian flag and national anthem. Absolute class😎.

6 more fell on the way to the Two Hundy Club. Then came one of the biggest moments of the weekend. Local legend Emma Steadman unknowingly broke the rules while attending to her shoelaces and failed to leave the starting corral on time. Chris had no choice but to dig into his pocket once again and show the red card.

Last year Emma ran 30 before pulling the pin, so to reach 31 laps (208.01km) and then get forced out must have been an absolute mind f🤬ck. Fuel for the fire, I guess.

That handed Shannon-Leigh Litt the Last Women Standing title, but you got the feeling she was chasing more.

Lap 33 (221.43km) put a major dent in the mission to take this thing into Monday, with a double Troytastrophe.

Defending champ Troy ‘Left’ Field and Troy Dunsimer bowed out, while Kieran ‘Temu Goggins’ Horne and Ryan Guttenbeil were also bucked off on lap 33.

The Mean Machine Simon McLean was next to fall. 36 laps deep and well short of his 90-yard PB, it suddenly felt like this thing wasn’t going to see a second sunrise.

That left 4 with Monday still on the cards:

🏃Jeremy Whitten, 🏃Anythong Wah-Taylor, 🏃Shannon-Leigh Litt , 🏃Alex Nicholson

Shannon-Leigh pulled up a lap later. She must have been weighing up whether it was worth staying awake and carrying on to knock out 3 days’ worth of her ultra-a-day record.

Let’s just take a moment to acknowledge, celebrate, and vomit in our mouths a little that Shannon is now 850,000 days into running an ultra a day and just knocked out 37 laps at a backyard, knowing full well she still had another 50km to put down on Monday🤯.

I was half expecting her to win the whole thing and announce she was ending the streak after taking the overall victory😂.

Whangarei’s favourite stripper firefighter, Alex Nicholson was next to fall after clinching the local bragging rights. That left a jump-off between backyard vet and 2024 champ AWT and Jeremy Whitten, who was now well beyond his previous PB.

Helensville Hard vs Tuakau

Beard vs Gillette Mach 3

Been There Done That vs Holy Shirt Whats going on

The showdown only lasted 2 jumps before Whitten faltered.

Wah-Taylor made no mistake on his victory lap, securing his second Kings title. It may not have been the PB he was chasing, but taking down plenty of scalps in tough conditions will help fill the cookie jar.

Congratulations to Anthony Wah-Taylor, your 2026 Kings Backyard champion.

Here’s the recap of the post-race interview:

“Yeah nah, it was a game of two halves, full credit to the boys they got good go forward up the middle of the park early so my days were easy. Once we started breaking the advantage line we swung it outwide for me to score in the corner. Thanks to Chris & Helen for putting on a mean spread.”

Now, admittedly, the event didn’t quite live up to my expectations in length, but I think I found the culprits. Inch event’s Steve Tripp, Chris Taylor, and Adam Keen made their way up from Dunedin and somehow managed to smuggle on the weather in their carry-on.

They’ve run a few backyard loops between them, so I thought I’d hear what they had to say about Kings Backyard:

You’ve seen a few Backyards in your time - give us your take on the King’s Backyard course, event setup and people as a whole.

Chris: “Awesome event, Chris and Helen put on a really good show!
The course is super natural to find your rhythm on, the only down side was the wet weather which created a fair amount of mud. No doubt it would have gone further should the conditions have remained dry.”

Steve: “Great event. Good course. Well organised. Conditions were tough. Only 3 of us were complaining about the heat. The rain was the last straw for me.”

Adam: “We had a great time! Was essentially a boys trip with a few kms thrown in. Loved the Kings atmosphere and course, I had done Best Dam Backyard a couple of weeks back and both courses felt like good easy loops for NZ backyards.”

“Temperature at Kings was great for us Southerners, it was nice to be able to run through the nite and not have to wrap up. Chris & Helen have done a great job creating a class event so definitely check it out for next year!”

A big congratulations to the His & Her Events crew once again for bringing the pain to the Far North - next stop, The Northland 100.

Click Here for the full results

Follow King’s Backyard and His & Hers on Instagram for more content

Check out the Chafing The Dream Podcast released this morning, talking all things Kings.

This Week’s Newsletter Is Brought To You By…

Are you all fizzed up the bung after reading the King’s Backyard results?

Are you wondering how it's even possible to run 20, 30, or 40+ yards?

If you'd like to find out, this might be worth a look.

Breaking Limits is a BYU-specific coaching programme from Teresa Noble (Team Noble Coaching) and Hannah Presswood (Real Health Sports Nutrition) covering the four pillars of Backyard Ultra success:

• Training & Strength
• Nutrition
• Mindset
• Race Planning

The pilot group saw all 6 athletes run 100km+ and 5 set new PBs.

The next intake starts on the 11th of July for runners targeting River Run, Arrowtown, and the World Satellite Championships.

If you're serious about your next Backyard Ultra, sign up below.

Find Out More

New Challenge Detected

Forget Dry July - it’s time for VERTual July!

I’ve been soft pitching this for the last couple of weeks, and after floating it on Instagram last week, it’s pretty much official. Bleeting on about it in the newsletter is the final commitment😂.

It kicks off on Wednesday 1st of July.

It’s so easy that anyone can start.

I’m just not sure anyone can finish it🤔.

The challenge is simple.

Day 1: Run, hike, walk or crawl 100m of vert.

Day 2: 200m.

Day 3: 300m.

You just keep adding another 100m every single day for the rest of the month.

• Week1: 100M, 200M, 300M, 400M, 500M, 600M, 700M = 2,800M

• Week 2: 800M, 900M, 1000M, 1100M, 1200M, 1300M, 1400M = 7,700M

• Week 3: 1500M, 1600M, 1700M, 1800M, 1900M, 2000M, 2100M = 12,600M

• Week 4: 2200M, 2300M, 2400M, 2500M, 2600M, 2700M, 2800M = 17,500M

And if somehow someone makes it …

• Week 5: 2900M, 3000M, 3100M … Glory. = 9,000M

That’s a cool 49,602M for the month🤯.

For context, that's roughly five-and-a-half Everests worth of climbing.

The idea is that it starts very accessible but progressively gets harder.
Eventually, it becomes less about fitness and more about consistency, motivation, and time management.

The rules I’ve got so far which I’m sure I’ll add to before kick off:

1. The 1st rule of Vertclub is you must always talk about Vertclub

2. No treadmills, stair machines, escalators or lifts up the Sky Tower etc. It must be a walk/run/hike/crawl outside. What goes up, must come down

3. Miss a day and you're out. No catch-ups. No banking vert. No IOUs.
   The challenge isn't the vert. The challenge is knowing you have to do it again tomorrow

4. It is the daily total of vert that counts. For example on Day 11 - If you run 2 hours before work for 700M vertical gain and another hour after work for 450M your total is 1150M and you would still be in the challenge

5. If somehow there are more than 1 lining up on the last day, it will come down to who’s fastest on the day to hit the 3100m

Yes, I realise this sounds hard. That’s why I called it a challenge.

So far thatsit.nz and Merrell have said they’ll get on board (details TBC). Let me know who else you’d like to see involved and we can get some peer pressure going.

This is still being written on the back of a hanky, but I’m thinking:

• Complete 7 days = unlock a mint discount or offer from each sponsor.

• Complete 14 days = unlock an even minter discount or offer from each sponsor.

After that, you’re fighting to be the last person standing, whether that’s July 31 or earlier.

I’ll put together a prize for the last person standing and a stupid trophy for the pool room.

With a bit of luck, there’ll be random spot prizes throughout the month to give everyone a reason to keep pushing for just one more day.

To enter, reply to this email with:

• Full name

• Location

• Link to your Strava profile

I’ll then send you an invite to the VERTual July TRNZ Strava Club.

It’s free to enter, but you can leave a Koha to TRNZ which will be used on prizes, beer and new carbon plates operating costs and prizes etc.

Leave Koha for VERTual July

Things You May Have Missed

The Return Of The Kaweka Challenge 1 Step Closer

Back in 2024, I ran an article on the murmurings that one of the all-time classics, The Kaweka Challenge, was set to return. Well, we’re one step closer.

Check out the video above from the brand-new Kaweka Challenge Instagram account.

Here’s the TLDR:

December 5th. Grassroots. Non-profit. DOC blessing. 12.5km, 25km and 50km.

You heard that right. 50 km with 5,000m of vert.

I don’t know much more than that, but I suspect this is a bit of a “don’t call us, we’ll call you” soft launch in year one. I’ll leave it there for this week, but I have a feeling I’m going to be digging a little deeper over the coming weeks.

The Spectacle Schedule Is Out Pt 2

You can’t argue with a poll. You’ll end up with a black eye and a dentist bill🤕.

It seems that lots of people are considering not running The Spectacle because of the early (or late?) start times. I got plenty of rage mail last week from people who had already booked flights and entries, only to cop a start time they weren’t expecting.

From the responses I’ve seen from The Spectacle team, it seems that in trying to please everyone, they may have pissed off everyone. Well, not quite everyone, but you get the point.

The two pieces of feedback that appear to have driven the schedule changes were:

• Trail runners felt forgotten when they finished amongst the fanfare of the road races and concert.

• Some runners didn’t like missing out on the festivities altogether.

Unfortunately, that appears to have led to things like the midnight start time for the 50k B wave. This has now been adjusted to 1am, with the finish-line cut-off moved to 3pm, and the A wave brought forward from 6am to 5am.

Cue the salty elites who now have to get up an hour earlier😝.

I understand people’s desire to be part of “The Spectacle” at The Spectacle. My advice would be to either run a shorter race and enjoy the festivities, or fully embrace the bigger challenge of the longer distance and load up The Black Seeds on your phone.

Mal “Munro” Law Knocks 282 Bastards Off

It’s been 50 years in the making, but the original Mr Trail Running NZ, Mal Law, has knocked off his 282nd Munro back in the homeland to become a “Compleater”, following in the footsteps of his father.

50 years. 282 Munros.

What a mission.

What’s next?

All the knobs in NZ?

Ruth Croft Back In The Winning Circle

Ruth Croft was back on the start line and back on top of the podium at the Adidas Terrex Maxirace 57km in her first race of the European season.

Great to see her recapture that winning feeling ahead of the big loop in a couple of months.

Jane McAlpine Injured At Dead Cow

Jane was also in action over at the Dead Cow Gully BYU looking to go large and improve on her 53-yard PB.

Unfortunately, a knee injury brought her race to an end after 27 laps.

A tough call when you’ve put so much into it and travelled all that way, but no doubt the right one.

All the best with the recovery, Jane. We all look forward to seeing you back on the start line when the time’s right.

Upcoming Events:

Nadda next week.

Winter is coming alright, and it looks like a brutal one on the events front.

We’ve got some big ol’ gaps coming up.

We’re going to have to get creative to plug them.

Western States will help, but there’s only so much Danny MF Jones quad content I can put out.

So let’s take a look at some of the feature events coming up as we enter peak shrinkage.

Mt Difficulty - Saturday June 13th

Another Terry Davis special.

With the demise of the Mega Munter and the Mt Oxford Odyssey, Mt Difficulty now sits firmly on top of the pile as the country’s toughest marathon🥵.

Everyone focuses on the kilometre with 500m of climbing and the potential falling rocks that could end your day. But what will really derail your race is the race marshal just a few k in.

Think of them as your first test. Did you actually study the map and listen to the briefing, or are you just following everyone else?

WUU2K - Saturday July 18th

The WUU2K has been the centrepiece of winter running in the capital for over a decade, and its legend continues to grow. If the post-beer war stories are to be believed, the Tip Track climb is now running at a casual 50% gradient😆.

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what makes the WUU2K so good. It’s one of those D) All Of The Above multiple-choice questions I always gravitated towards when guessing my way through an exam.

It’s got some great scenery. Fantastic flowing runnable trails. It’s equal parts hard and achievable. And it has a warm, welcoming community that wraps itself around the entire event.

I’ll be at the expo again this year selling the skag, so come say hi, buy some shit, or throw some shit at me. Either way is all good😎.

I’m also looking for 4-6 runners who aren’t already running or volunteering and would be keen to help me cover more of the race this year.

I’d love a roving reporter to track the leading women and men in the 45km and 65km races throughout the day. Running alongside them where possible, lurking around aid stations, knocking on portaloos. Western States style.

If you’re keen, get in touch. No video experience required. You just need a phone and the ability to chase some speedsters.

Nothland 100 - Saturday July 25th

Last year I headed up and ran the 55km at the inaugural Northland 100. I had to see firsthand what makes these Northlanders so bloody fast🔥.

Unfortunately, my theory that there was something in the water was false, as it had 0 effect on me🤨.

I’m heading up again this year, but this time on a family trip.
I’ll be on daddy daycare duties while Brooke runs, which is pretty exciting.

I’m looking forward to catching up with a lot of the fine folk I met up in Whangārei last year.

If you’re looking for something to train for, or a way to find your running mojo heading into winter, chuck this one in the mix.

Great running. Great people. Put on by a couple of very dedicated locals in Chris and Helen.

Release Radar

This is your quick reminder that entries opened this week for:

• The WAI2K

• River Run Backyard Ultra

• Old Ghost Ultra

#Mountain Skag Pic Of The Week

Sarah Mackey is this weeks winner. If you’ve heard the phrase “bluebird” but never understood what it is, this is it!

I can feel my Vitamin D levels overflowing just looking at this!

She’s now in the running for the monthly $70 voucher - check out www.mountainskag.com to see what you could be walking away with.

Tag @trailrunning.nz (NOTE THE “.”) and use #mountainskag. DM on Instagram or email trailrunningnz@gmail.com to enter (email is the most reliable).

Picking up what I’m putting down? Send it to a mate who you know will be into it too!

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PS: Whoops it’s Wednesday!

Your weekly fix of NZ trail running news

Welcome to Trail Running NZ. We’re the Pic’s Peanut butter of the trail running world. Started by a nutter, jam packed full of the finest nutters doing nutty af things.

Here's what’s in the drop bag this week:

🏃‍♀️🏃The Bay Results

🏃‍♀️🏃The Taniwha Results

👆Vert Day Recap

🎯Things You May Have Missed

📰SK News

🏁Upcoming events: Kings Backyard Ultra

⛰️💊Mountain Skag of The Week

Note: Due to the length, some email browsers will hide some of the content - make sure you click ‘view entire email’ or click through to substack.

The Bay Results - Nelson

Saturday, May 23

‘The Bay’ was back for its third bite of the cherry and once again hit the weather lottery down in sunny Nelson. I got hold of Matthew Moloney from the organising crew to hear how things went from his side of the fence.

“It was an ep🤬c one! Over 300 on course over the distances with great weather, good views and amazing views. A whole bunch of money was raised for the Cable Bay environment.”

“From an organising perspective, it went off basically without a hitch - being in the third year of the event we felt like it was a much smoother year. All the lessons from the first two have helped make it easy to organise and something we can now look to build off.”

“Surprise of the day was a sick baby goat being rescued on the course and quickly rushed off to the vet after finishing the event. Overall a cool day out that we hope everyone enjoyed.”

Thanks for the recap Matt! We’ll forgive you for dropping an E bomb😝.

📏50KM | ⛰️3000M

Women’s podium:

🥇Naomi Brand - 06:07:41 🔥NEW CR

🥈Francesca Harris - 6:15:51

🥉Kate Annan - 7:04:43

Naomi Brand is back on top of the podium, smashing the previous 50km course record and beating out local running BFFs Francesca Harris and Katie ‘Titch’ Annan.

Now this is only the third year of The Bay, and the first year was a 55km course, but you’ve still gotta claim the CR when you get it.

Francesca Harris kept Brand honest the whole way round, ready to pounce if she veered off course (too soon?) or simply ran out of gas.

Great signs for Annan, who’s returning from injury and managed to snuffle 3rd place for the 2nd time after also coming in on the bottom step in the 2024 edition.

I managed to sneak an answer out of Naomi before she got shat on and clawed to death by an angry kitten going in for surgery. Sounds like ideal recovery!

You’ve raced all around NZ and the world - How do the hills of Cable Bay stack up to other races you’ve run and what were your impressions of The Bay as a whole

“The climbs were long and surprisingly steep/brutal, but with mostly runnable downhills which makes the effort worth the while. The views of the bay were incredible- especially from Pepin island.”

“The race is definitely up there with the harder races I have done locally- definitely a sufferfest, especially if you’ve started the first climb like a race horse, and your legs are somewhat jelly from the start.”

“Not as technical as South African mountain trails or as muddy as some of the island trails; or as groomed as some of the European trails- somewhere inbetween. For me personally it compares well to WUU2k and Northburn I’ve done locally.”

Thanks for that Naomi, that certainly helps paint the brutality picture.

Men’s podium:

🥇Aditya Kesarcodi-Waston - 5:15:59 🔥NEW CR

🥈Dan Moore - 5:38:35

🥉Nick Crocker - 5:43:32

Aditya Kesarcodi-Waston made sure there’s still just one person’s bodily fluids stained into the top of The Bay men’s podium, mixed with a little bit of sand. For the third year on the trot, Aditya Adidit.

Even more impressive was his post-UTA 100 blues Instagram post. This is sandbagging at its full creative best and far too long to quote here, but I’ll distill it down to:

“Running sucks, I’m getting old, why do I think I can do this, I quit racing, I’m just gonna run for fun etc.”

I feel ya Aditya. Except most of us don’t run 12:20:49 at UTA 100 as a 50-year-old, then turn up to our local 50km and break the CR😂.

I can’t believe he sucked me in with that post!

Turns out Aditya was just working on his latest single.

Kudos to anyone who had a Britney Spears mash-up on their bingo card this week!

Behind Aditya Spears, it turned into a bit of a time trial, with Dan Moore next over the line 23 minutes back but still comfortably 5 minutes ahead of Nick Crocker.

Here’s Nick filling us in on how his day went chasing Spears around the course while battling it out with Dan Moore. This man can spin a yarn!

“Started with a few mates and the pace was leisurely. Noticing no one really giving it a go the temptation became too much and I wandered up the front for a look as we hit the first incline. Just as I was starting to wonder if Aditya the previous champ x 2 had even showed up - he snuck from the shadows and disappeared into the shadows at a tempo I didn’t even contemplate trying to match. A quick look behind and that was that. The race for second place was on.”

“I knew the first 17 km like the back of my hand having worked at the adventure park a couple of children ago. After that it was strangely all new terrain. And it was TERRAIN. Heaps of micro navigation, good fun stuff, keeping you on your toes focusing on where you were putting your feet, which was a great alternate to looking at a Garmin showing numbers like 12 min km.”

“There’s about 2650m vert in this badboy, so it was all up and down - Each brutal hill climbed gave a rewarding view and later on an unpredictable spell of cramp that delayed any downhill running for a couple of minutes each time it struck.”

“Dan Moore popped up out of nowhere near the top of Peppin Island, striding up the hill with strength that made me feel sorry for any population of deer in the top of the south island - we cruised along no more than a rugby field away from each other for an hour I guess until the top of the final shitter of a climb where the cramp had it’s final say and he opened up a gap I couldn’t scramble back.”

“I had mentally started checking out at this stage and was pretty post event lager focused, but physically kept it moving and was stoked to finish pretty strongly and grab the last spot on the podium.”

“It really is such a fantastic genuine community event. So close to town but feels a million miles away. The volunteers were all amazing and knew exactly what you needed, they weren’t just clapping and watching - you could throw them a drink bottle and they’d fill it and come and jam it on your pack and tell you the split to the guy in front - the course is so well supported and the landowners have been so generous to make the course work and adapt a few wee re routes.”

“On a personal note it was the first real time I’ve seen both my kids while out on course which was unbelievably rewarding and keeps things right in perspective - If you have kids you’ll know the feeling. If you don’t I’d recommend getting some, it’s really motivating stuff. Obviously do your own research, you’d have to race a lot for the benefits to really make economic sense. Big shout out to all the partners of runners dragging the kids round at running events though.”

Thanks for that Nick! Great to hear you’re starting to get some return on investment😂.

📏35KM | ⛰️2442

Women’s podium:

🥇Sarah Carr - 4:20:00

🥈Chloe Quilliam - 4:33:23

🥉Maddie Brown - 4:34:00

Sarah Carr had herself a day, using the steep ascents to her advantage, powering her way to a “comfy” 13-minute victory ahead of Chloe Quilliam, who got to the top of the last hill and went wee wee wee wee all the way home, right past Maddie Brown and Esme Justo.

Here’s Chloe with a recap on the race and some thoughts on The Bay:

How did the race play out at the front?

“I think top 4 were all fairly close for most of the race (give or take a hill between..) Sarah the winner dropped us about half way with the steep power hike she was gone! My strength is in the dowhill so there was a bit of overtaking done there to be caught again on the ups..but digged deep at the end once i saw 2nd and 3rd in view to catch up and push past.”

What are the first 3 words that come to mind you would use to describe The Bay events?

“Rollercoaster - (mentally and literally with the elevation profile !!) The 35km was a great challenge to pick your battles and suffer up the hills or hike mode on and enjoy the ocean views.

“Community - real good people behind the event with so much to give. local relaxed feel but also seamlessly executed.”

“Unique - I loved the variety of the terrain from river crossing, farmland, bush, circumnavigate a private island..! all in this small pocket of Nelson.”

Thanks, Chloe. Sounds like a fun way to finish a race!

Men’s podium:

🥇Jonas Konggaard - 3:47:06

🥈Ethan Helliwell - 3:54:23

🥉Jimmy King- 4:06:55

Jonas “The Great Dane” Konggard has been racing up a storm since moving here 12 months ago. A 2nd place at the WAI2K 25km at the back end of 2025, with appearances at Jumbo Holdsworth, Tum50K, Motatapu Ultra, Northburn, The Routeburn and The Faultline 50k just last month. A debut victory to reward some consistent racing.

Ethan Helliwell swapped out 2 wheels for trail shoes and was next over the line in 2nd, 7 minutes back from Konggaard. He’s no stranger to the podium either, taking out the Coast to Coast Mountain Run in 2022.

Jimmy King rounded out the podium a further 12 minutes back. I’m sure there’s a joke here somewhere with Jimmy King and Jonas Konggaard both being on the podium, but I used up all my play-on-words juice on the Aditya segment. Send in your best attempt and let me know what I should’ve said!

That’s all I’ve got on The Bay this year. It looks and sounds like a very demanding event. Great to see it continuing, and it looks like an event worthy of traveling to given Nelson is always a great place to go. Plus who doesn’t like a 4Square finish line aid station?

Click Here for the full results, including the 25 km & 9 km races.

You can follow The Bay on Facebook to check out some of the event photos

This Week’s Newsletter Is Brought To You By…

Hearty As - The New T From Mountain Skag

PRE ORDER NOW FOR JULY

The Taniwha Results

Saturday, May 23

“One day a taniwha
Went swimming in the moana
He whispered in my taringa
‘Won’t you come along with me
There’s such a lot of trail race results to see
Underneath all the e-bike results.’”

“I said ‘Oh no no no
You’d better go go go
Although I know we could be friends
I ran out of time to collate it together
At my desk late at night in my garage
Taniwha, haere rā.’

Alright, I admit it. I dropped the ball on the Taniwha AGAIN this year😣.
I just haven’t managed to give it a good tug on the ponytail as of yet.

Here’s how the podium looked in the trail marathon:

📏42KM Results

🏃‍♀️Women’s Podium

🥇Kelly Dickey - 4:19:02 4:14:02

🥈Nikki Watson - 4:21:46 4:06:46

🥉Bessie Clarke - 4:25:43 4:10:43

It looked like a tight affair in the Women’s race with Kelly Dickey having Nikki right up her Watson in 2nd with Bessie Clarke only a few minutes back in 3rd.

🏃Men’s Podium

🥇Glenn Sexton - 3:40:04 3:25:04

🥈Jack Foley - 3:48:01 3:33:10

🥉Oliver Donald - 3:52:20 3:37:20

Glenn “Double N” Sutton Sexton proved once again that old man strength is definitely a thing, not only winning his age group but taking the overall win ahead of Jack Foley and Oliver Donald.

William Kelly was boots on the ground and dropped me the below intel on the men’s race:

“I had a bit of fun today at the Taniwha marathon, stellar conditions. Just a heads up that the start was delayed by about 15 minutes for no apparent reason, and all the times are therefore out by about that. Glenn Sexton the vet flew past me around 10km and put everyone to shame. Huge from him.”

“Then Jack Foley made the move on me to jump into 3rd. Not sure of the fella who was leading for the first bit, but he blew up and I came past him around 25ish km, with Jack and Glenn obviously passing him a bit sooner. Then it was my turn to implode and crawl my way home with Oliver Donald running a well paced race into 3rd.”

Thanks for that Will! Sounds like a cracking day out. I’m guessing the Race Director was trapped in the portaloo causing a bit of a back log hence the 15 minute delay💩😝.

Check out the Full Results here, including the 22km,16km & 7km races

Vert Day Wrap-Up

At 6AM on Saturday, Vertographers across New Zealand kicked off the 7th edition of Vert Day.

Forget average minutes per k, max HR or GAP.

On Vert Day VP24H is the only metric that matters - Vertical Meters Per 24 Hour.

Traditionally a Wellington and Christchurch Big Sunday Run event, there are now people all around NZ doing hill repeats all in the name of a Kudos.

Let’s take a look at the top individual results:

Women’s Podium

🥇Olivia Lawrence - 11,622M - 👑OVERALL WINNER👑

🥈Liz Palmer - 5,051M

🥉Marta Zanetti- 4,900M

Men’s Podium

🥇Brendan Varty - 11,154M

🥈Bogdan State - 7,033M

🥉Al Cross - 7,000M

Ahhh McCainOlivia, you’ve done it again.

All hail the Vert Queen and overall ruler of Vert Day for the 2nd year running.

If you’ve never heard of her, welcome to Trail Running NZ. I hope you enjoy the roller coaster.

She’s a frequent flier on the SK News Desk, was the Last Ranga Standing at River Run 2025, has won the WUU2K and just generally does some bonkers sh💩t.

Here is what Olivia had to say about her efforts:

Last year, you topped out for 10,375M in 22 hours - was this a full 24-hour effort?

“This year was pretty close to the full 24 hours (23.49). I considered ending on 24 hours at the top of Te Whiti firebreak at 6am, but I figured I'd done enough to take my time on the descent of the 37th lap then go home.”

Did doing 10K last year make it easier or harder mentally this year?

“I enjoy Vert Day and I don't find it mentally challenging after all my solo missions. Having people around for a chunk of the day makes it easier. I did most my laps by myself. but I still stopped to chat a lot and had someone join me for the last 3 laps, so I didn't experience any mental lows. I didn't have a vert goal per se - my goal this year was to do what I could without injuring myself, so it didn't feel daunting because I could stop whenever.”

Congratulations Olivia … I think🤯.

Brendan Varty was 2nd overall, and top donger on the day, also breaking the 11k mark with 500M less on 11,154M … on a spur in the Tararua of course.

Vert Day Team Results:

In recent years, there’s been a big focus on inter-city warfare, with the Wellington BSR faction taking on Canterbury. But that rivalry seems to have faded.

Maybe in Christchurch they’ve finally acknowledged the Pipe of Pain hasn’t got sh💩t on the Dawn Wall in Chamonaenae.

Last year, Queenstown ran Wellington surprisingly close, and it required some careful spreadsheet work to make sure Wellington held onto the title.

Will another city enter the chat next year? Dunedin? Wanaka? Nelson? Or even Auckland, the trail running mecca of New Zealand?

Remember, Dirt Church is alright, but the Vert Church has the answers to everything you seek😎.

Things You May Have Missed

The Spectacle Schedule Is Out

There was a nice pretty infographic explaining all this, but it has since disappeared off the internet, I’m guessing due to “constructive criticism.”

Anyway, the rough gist of it is:

The Miler has three start times:
• Midnight Tomorrow for the back-of-the-packers
• 3AM Friday 4/12
• 8AM Friday 4/12

The 100K:
• A Wave starts 6AM Friday 4/12
• B Wave starts 12PM Friday 4/12

The 50K:
• Midnight Saturday 5/12 if you expect to run 8+ hours
• 6AM Saturday 5/12 for the A Wave

There’s a bit to process there.

I’ll try to play the ball, not the player, and maybe the start times were a bit shit last year too. I understand the average finish times for the 100 miler and 100K are substantially slower than most races… but 3AM? That’s basically a 1AM wake-up call. Which means you probably want to be there on Thursday morning. Maybe even Wednesday night if you’re traveling. That starts becoming a week-long holiday.

And then there’s the Midnight 50K.

I’ve personally always dreamed of running the first seven hours of my 50K entirely by headlamp. I assume that’s what they meant by “an unforgettable experience.”

What it does for participation numbers, I’ve got no idea. There were 158 runners in the 50K last year who finished after 8 hours. How many would want to run it again entirely in the dark?

The aim seems to be to have every dirty, infectious trail racer finished by 2PM so the streets can be scrubbed clean before the elite milers grace everyone with their presence that evening.

I understand what they’re trying to achieve with the big finish-line atmosphere, the concert, and the road race integration. I understand that organising an event like this is way above my IQ, but at the moment it feels like the trail runners customer experience is taking a hit so the rest of the event can work🤔.

Inaugural Winter Trail Series Canterbury

358 runners turned up on Sunday to turn Sam Manson’s dream of the Winter Trail Series Canterbury into reality. The opening event had it all. Dry trails, the Sprint was won by a couple of up-and-coming 12-year-olds, and there were only 6 seconds separating the front of the men’s race.

Check out the full results here

Broken Backs, Bears and Kiwis At Transylvania 100

4 Kiwis thought it would be fun to go run around in the woods from Dracula’s Castle.

The Fun.

That turned into chaos.

Apparently, the rest of the course was fine if you made it through the first 20k of snowy chaos and dodged all the bears. 55 DNF’d out of 230 starters in the 100K, with a lot of 20-hour-plus times. Oh, and in amongst this chaos, David Haunschmidt won the 50K.

Sam Macauley Heading To Broken Arrow

Tarawera 50 champ Sam Macauley has announced he’s heading to Olympic Valley to compete in the 23KM Broken Arrow race. He’ll be lining up in the elite men’s field, and it’s part of the WMRA World Cup series, so it should be a banger.

SK News Desk

Leading the news desk this week is the SK Awards.

The muddied red carpet was rolled out Tuesday night. The who’s who of Wellington running, dressed in their finest sneans and puffer jackets, slipped past the bar staff at the Southern Cross and into the back room to pay homage to all who had achieved SK glory in the last 12 months.

We heard from several inspiring people, with talks ranging from fastpacking across Europe to “I was the human sacrifice at Northburn.”

The man behind it all is Chris ‘Martini’ Martin. He was presented with the SK mayoral chains in honour of his passion and drive to keep this whole thing going.

I asked him what runs through his mind when he sees a room full of people coming together to celebrate the SK and everything that comes with it?

A quality Martini musing.

Now, I’ve only been banging on about the SK for 3 years, BUT in case you’ve scrolled past that section every time I bring it up:

• Think of it as the “Bob Graham Round” of the Tararua range. Finish under 24 hours for glory.

• There are 4 main routes: the Main Range, The Tarn, the Valley, and the more recent Carkeek route. All 4 start in S’Putara (silent S) and finish in Kaitokie.

• The distance varies between 70-80K and 3-8K of vert, depending on the flavour of your run and how generous your watch is.

Check out the Tararua FKT website for more intel, or watch Andy Carruthers award-winning SK Film.

It was another lean season on the Main Range, with just 2 successful attempts. There were some repeat customers and plenty of failed attempts, but we’re just here for the first timers under the magical 24. 24:00:1 isn’t 23:59:59.

A big congratulations too …

💪Alex Lark - 23h15m
💪Chester Holt-Quick - 21h10m

2 incredible efforts, and great to see both being able to make it to the awards to accept their certificates.

The Patupaiarehe Award

The Patupaiarehe Award is for extraordinary endeavours in the Tararua.

It is reserved for only the most amazing efforts in the range. It doesn’t just go to the top achievement for the year; if no one does anything worthy of the award, it remains untouched.

Olivia Lawrence

It was no surprise to see Olivia receive this award after a rampant last 12 months in the range.

• She had a redo of the Main Range lowering her time and moving into 2nd all time female.

• Knocked off the new Carkeek Route

• Set the Tarn FKT

Then she completed her season in style with the crowning achievement of the 1500’s, summiting all 1500m peaks in the Tararua Range and getting to a road end in one push.

Congratulations Olivia, what an amazing 12 months. I’m a little bit scared of what might come next😂.

Now, someone who might be on this list 12 months from now is Ryan Tait.

It’s been 3 years since he knocked off the SK Valleys. What better inspiration than the SK Awards the following Tuesday to get you out into the wilderness?

2 Weekends ago, Ryan traversed his way down the SK Tarn in a time of 19h15m.

Here’s Ryan’s post about his day out below:

Will we see Ryan receiving a certificate for the Main Range next year?
Only time will tell.

If you’re interested in learning more about what’s involved or need help with logistics, get in touch or visit the Wellington Big Sunday Run crew on Facebook. There is always someone keen to help🙂.

Remember—Don’t watch the dot. Be the dot.

Upcoming Events:

Kings Backyard Ultra, Whangarei

Saturday, May 30 … to Monday?

It feels like someone’s cranked the heater up on the NZ Backyard scene. We had a bit of a lull in the back end of last year, but since M*A*S*H things have been cranking.

Next up is Kings Backyard. Cast your mind back to 2024 when it was Anthony Wah-Taylor who outlasted The Mean Machine Simon McLean to break the NZ-venue record with 52 yards. Something that seemed unlikely heading in with just 50 runners on the start list.

Last year, the event was a sell-out with 100 entering the arena. Troy ‘Left’ Field from Hunua took the win with 40, while Ketina Chivasa was the last woman standing in 33.

Let’s take a look at 2026, which has 134 keen hobby horse jockeys ready to saddle up.

Here’s the starting list

Anthony Wah-Taylor is back. After making a token appearance last year, he’s back in the corral looking to take some souls, not satisfied with a PB-tying effort down at M*A*S*H in January.

His mate The Mean Machine Simon McLean is also back looking to go all in once again. With a PB of 90, it’s hard to look past him for the win.

You know the lineup is stacked when you don’t even start off with the defending champ, Troy ‘Left’ Field.

Crush The Cargill are taking their show on the road, with Chris Taylor, Steve Tripp, and Adam Keen all featuring amongst the top-ranked runners, with 14 starters having run 30 yards or greater. Whether they’re here to make the NZ team or are just on an extended pub tour is anyone’s guess. Watch this space.

Shannon ‘Just One More’ Leigh-Litt is the top-ranked woman coming in, but her goal seems firmly planted in the “just over 50km” department to keep her 50km-a-day streak going to 10,000 in a row.

Roberta Meksraityte was the 3rd female last year and ranks #2 this year with a 26-yard PB. With some experience under her belt, she’s got a good chance for Last Woman Standing.

My predictions:

Anthony Wah-Taylor gets the job done, breaking the Kings CR somewhere in the 60s - but it won’t be Simon McLean with the assist. Young Blake “Smashed em Bro” Schimanksi is chomping at the bit and is under the guidance of Sam Harvey. He’s run the length of NZ, he’s won The Spectacle Miler and has all the desire in the world for a big result here. He’s my dark horse in a race full of white horses? That surely can’t be the saying.

I think The Last Women Standing will jump well up from 26 last year into the mid-30s with someone like Emma Steedman dragging along Cara Pinny from Kerikeri with a PB of 24.

All the best to those who entered and the His & Her Events crew. This one is going to be yuuuuuuuge.

For more info, click here and follow along on Facebook

#Mountain Skag Pic Of The Week

Jub Bryant with this weeks hit of the good stuff. That was supposed to be me in the picture, but I was left on the bench looking after a sick toddler. Doh!

He’s now in the running for the monthly $70 voucher - check out www.mountainskag.com to see what you could be walking away with.

Tag @trailrunning.nz (NOTE THE “.”) and use #mountainskag. DM on Instagram or email trailrunningnz@gmail.com to enter (email is the most reliable).

Picking up what I’m putting down? Send it to a mate who you know will be into it too!

Share

Or leave a tip

Tip TRNZ

PS: Entries in the Mountain Skag have been a bit low the last couple of weeks. Make sure you send in your best pics from your Long Weekend adventure this weekend.

Your weekly fix of NZ trail running news

Welcome to Trail Running NZ. Think of me as Colleen from Home & Away. Annoying AF but well intentioned, and never too busy to dish out the goss.

Here's what’s in the drop bag this week:

🦘UTS Ultra Trail Straya Results

🎯Things You May Have Missed

🗳️Mountain Skag Winner For April

🏕️Mission Desk: North > South Kaimai’s

🏁Upcoming events: The Bay, The Taniwha

⛰️💊Mountain Skag of The Week

Note: Due to the length, some email browsers will hide some of the content - make sure you click ‘view entire email’ or click through to substack.

Alright party people, it’s announcement time!

Last week saw the return of the silly little intro at the start of the newsletter, which included a little jab at stuff.co.nz “willing to sell out for just $1!😝”.

Well, I was just telling the truth!

Welcome to the new look results desk, Brought to yoU bY Kinisi Running.
Turns out they liKe reading thIs shit, aNd they know theIr Shit. And I need some money to buy their shit. So it’s a perfect match.

You shouldn’t notice anything different in the results segment. Definitely no subliminal messaging going on here😉.

With the obligations all done, bloody oath, let’s kick into some ULTRA TRAIL STRAAAAAAAYA MAAAAAAAAAYTE!

Ultra Trail Straya Results

Fair dinkum, that was quite the watch over the weekend! It was the second year of Ultra Trail Straya being a World Major and all the trimmings that come with it😎.

Yes, the livestream and coverage still need some work, but just remember UTMB itself and Western States have only really become watchable in the last couple of years. Having live footage of people breathing out their arse coming up the vertical Furber Stairs is bloody oresome stuff!

Last year, I put it out there that UTA and Tarawera are a bit like the Bledisloe Cup. We win most races and have the best runners. So with that in mind, I’ve tallied up the top 10 performances from all of the Tarawera races(1st = 10, 10th = 1 etc), and the score coming into UTS is NZ 206 - AUS 113.

Have we done enough to retain the Golden Pavlova Plate for another year?🤔

📏50KM | ⛰️2442M

Women’s podium:

🥇Miao Yao - 4:33:12

🥈Ruth Croft - 4:34:42

🥉Holly Ranson - 4:57:13

It was touted as the battle of the champions, with Miao “Meow” Yao, the 2025 OCC champ, taking on Queen Ruth, the reigning UTMB sovereign. It’s been a few haircuts since Ruth has raced hard and fast in an internationally competitive field, so it was going to be interesting to see how this one played out.

Well... this one didn’t disappoint. Croft and Yao went out the gate like a couple of coked-up cassowaries, with Jemima Cooper also joining the party. Through Narrow Neck, the trio were already 1 minute up on Caitlin Fielder’s split from last year, just 3.5km into the race!

Yao gave Croft and Cooper her best goose step heading towards Gordon Falls, giving them the slip and hitting the aid station with a 1m40s lead.

Running into Queen Victoria Hospital, Croft had plenty of work to do if she was going to catch Yao, whose lead was now 2 minutes, the same gap Croft had on Cooper. Further back, fellow Kiwis Hannah Wall, Katie Morgan and Lydia O’Donnell were all throwing elbows chasing that elusive OCC qualification and top 10 finish.

Croft found another gear on the long descent to the base of the Furby Steps, closing the gap on Yao before dropping one of her flasks and, in somewhat of a Mark Richardson moment, cramping up after stopping to pick it up.

Whether she had enough juju in the legs to power past Yao will never be known, but it’s great to see all that government spending in the 90s on “Be a Tidy Kiwi” has really paid off!

Yao powered up the stairs into the finish, winning the heavyweight bout by a minute and a half.

You gotta risk it for the biscuit, and unfortunately for Cooper, hanging with Croft and Yao early meant all she was left with was the crumbs, hanging in the fight to finish 5th.

Holly Ranson once again paced her race to perfection, stacking bodies through the back half to land on the bottom step of the podium, reminiscent of her Tarawera 100 performance that saw her grab the final Western States Golden Ticket.

Lydia O’Donnell, who hosts the popular Femmi podcast, made a great trail debut, placing 6th just ahead of Hannah Wall (7th), Katie Morgan (8th) and Kiri Atkin in 10th.

It’s not often that a “stacked field” lives up to the hype, but this race certainly delivered.

I flicked a message through to everyone’s favourite Hannah Wall to see how her race went:

From the outside looking in, it looks like you had a great day, running 23 minutes faster, battling it out with some fellow Kiwis - were you happy with how your race played out?

“Yea blink and you’ll miss it, that race was fast! I am happy, I went in with no expectations but wanting to run for myself and not get pressured into a pace that I can’t sustain, which is very easy to do in these high profile/world major races.”

“Yea super cool to be flying the flag (the little one printed on our race numbers) alongside some incredible kiwis that are absolutely dominating in ultra trail at the moment.”

“I’ve not got a lot of fuel for the fire today and I need a little break before I try poke and stoke it back to life again, gimme a few days and I’ll be funny again… promise. But struth, well done down under to all my fellow NZers that toed the line.”

Thanks for that, Hannah! Great result, and can’t wait to see how things stack up for OCC.

Men’s podium:

🥇Dan Jones - 4:04:11

🥈Hajime Kasagi- 4:15:59

🥉Blake Turner - 4:18:05

Danny “MF” Jones was the hot favourite to defend his title, but he doesn’t like making things easy for himself. With his eyes firmly on Western States, DJ was heading into this week’s race with plenty in the legs. Would someone rise from the fresh-AF tapered ranks and challenge Jones for the title?

Enter Hajime Kasagi. Now, if you’re not a trail running nerd like me, you’re probably thinking, who in the hell is Hajime Kasagi and where the bloody hell can I get myself a kick-arse name like that?

Well, you probably had every right not to know, most of Kasagi’s success has come in Japan. With an 801 UTMB ranking, he wasn’t even on the Top 10 Elite list, with fellow Japanese fan favourite Hiroki Kai seen as the top hope for Japan.

Jones and Kasagi swapped cooking tips through the first couple of hours of the race, entering the Queen Elizabeth Victoria Hospital aid station still connected at the hip. Was Jones just getting some pointers on cooking the perfect rice, or was the boil-over on?🤔

As we’re so accustomed to seeing, Jones flipped the switch and put his quadzillas to work, thundering down the long descent from QV. At the base of the Furber Steps, the gap was now as wide as the space between an opal miner’s front teeth!

There were no stumbles, dropped flasks or cramp attacks to hold him up, breaking the tape with enough time to thank the fans, 10 minutes clear of Kasagi, who held strong to take a well-deserved silver ahead of top Strayan, Blake Turner.

The Northland Express, AKA Sam Rout, couldn’t quite bottle the lightning of 2025. He kept pace early in 3rd before falling out of podium contention in the back half, but stayed in the fight to hang on to 6th place.

I managed to squeak a question into Dan as he was awaiting takeoff to Flagstaff for his final build to winning Western States:

You’ve been stacking some big 200k weeks, building towards Western States. What was the plan going into Ultra Trail Straya, and did you manage to tick off some boxes?

“Yea the plan was to keep training hard and make the most of altitude at Falls Creek. That was a massive week but I hoped with a travel day to Katoomba (10 hours) and a couple slightly easier days before the race, that the legs would show up. Wednesday we travelled, Thursday was a worry, Friday was reassuring and Saturday I was happy as with how strong I felt. That was a good race stimulus and I got to practice a couple new things.”

Thanks for that, Dan. All the best for that flight to Flagstaff with the family. That’s the real endurance test!😝

📏161.5KM | ⛰️7290M

Women’s podium:

🥇Antonina Iushina - 19:51:13

🥈Stephanie Auston - 22:01:47

🥉Emma Timmis - 22:57:49

Antonina Iushina’s red-hot form continued over the weekend, adding the Ultra Trail Straya miler win and course record to her 2026 shopping cart. Earlier this year, she also won the Dalat Ultra Trail 100K and The G.O.A.T 100-mile race in the UAE.

She took off from the start like a dingo after a baby. By Perry’s Lookdown (19km), her lead was already into double digits. Steph Auston from Straya was strong in 2nd, with our very own Emma Timmis locking down the Bronze position early.

Iushina was relentless. Any hope from behind that she was going to blow up faded as her lead ballooned to close to an hour at 6 Foot Track, more than 100km into the race. Her pace never dropped off. She bounded up the steps and across the tape over 2 hours ahead of Auston and last year’s inaugural Course Record.

Timmis was her usual picture of happiness, plugging her way around the course. She never made any ground on Auston in 2nd, but had a lock on the Bronze. Katie Wright moved through the rankings in the final third to take the chocolate fish in 4th, with Taupo 100K champ Steph Nevins also making the top 10 in 9th.

Emma took over an hour off her 2025 time and landed her 2nd UTMB series podium - here’s what she had to say about her big day out in the blueys:

You looked a picture of poise on the live stream - how did your race compare to 2025 and how does it feel to once again be on a UTMB Series podium again?

“It was definitely a race of two halves. The first half felt great and then the second was seriously hard work and painful. It’s just quite unimaginable how many stairs are packed into one race!!!”

“Last year I caught a virus on the plane so didn’t feel 100% through the race. I wanted to return and see how it felt being fresher. But it’s hard no matter what state you’re in!!”

“I’m really happy with the result and as always couldn’t have done it with out all the amazing people running around making the cogs turn- crew/pacers/volunteers”

Thanks for that, Emma - another great result. Look forward to seeing what’s next.

Men’s podium:

🥇Aleksei Tolstenko - 17:38:27

🥈Aleksei Beresnev - 17:44:08

🥉Chris Lenkic - 18:34:57

It sounded a bit like a James Bond villain audition up front, with Aleksei Tolstenko and Aleksei Beresnev running together for 99% of the course before Tolstenko took off like he’d left something on his bedside table heading into the base of the Furber Steps.

The final stair workout was all that separated the two, as Tolstenko took the win, 6 minutes ahead of Beresnev and 1h17m ahead of the previous CR.

Scotty Hawker was our top-ranked Kiwi heading into this one, and looked the goods through the first half of the race, running between 4th and 7th for most of the day. He left the Fairmont (130km) in 5th after moving up a couple of spots, then came a cropper and ultimately DNF’d at the Queen Victoria aid station, 140km deep.

It’s gutting to see. It’s been a tough ol battle for Scotty the last few years on the racing front. Fingers crossed, he can collect himself and get stuck into another big challenge.

On a different note, it would seem we are more than willing to be sceptical of top athletes from Mother Russia. The amount of juice box emojis and “2 Russians at the top of the podium, you do the math” messages caught me by surprise😂.

I think people are Russian to the wrong conclusion here. Yes, they dominated both the men’s and women’s races, but it’s not like they came out of obscurity to win Western States by an hour.

Do I think doping is happening in the world of Ultra & Trail? Yes.

Do I think you need more evidence than someone’s nationality and finishing place to accuse them of doping? Yes.

Do I also make other equally unfounded statements in this newsletter? Yes😎.

📏100KM | ⛰️4520M

Women’s podium:

🥇Katarzyna Dombrowska - 10:55:19

🥈Beth McKenzie - 11:14:04

🥉Emily Brunt - 11:25:29

I was gonna see if I could get away with posting the UTMB media release for this one... but then I read it and realised it was a bit shit, even by my standards, so I’ll add a few notes.

And by dominated throughout, I guess they mean running in 2nd for the first half of the race, at one point trailing Beth McKenzie by as much as 6 minutes, before turning things up a gear and dominating the next 49km. By Emergency Aid Station, with just 7km to run, she’d stretched the lead to 16 minutes.

I guess there’s not much wrong with this part. It’s more that they fail to acknowledge McKenzie is a returning champion. Also, referring to her as “the American” makes it sound like she’s just flown over from LA, rather than being based in Noosa since 2018 and well and truly entrenched in the Australian running scene.

Just out of view of the podium was our very own Julia Grant, who, for the 2nd year in a row, came away with 4th (but 1st master!), 13 minutes back from Emily Brunt. Another great performance, but I’m sure the flight home was also full of “What If’s”.

Here’s what Julia had to say:

You ran virtually the same time as last year- were you happy with how your day went and are you going to be back next year to chase that elusive podium?

“I was happy enough with the result, although 4th place is always a frustrating finish. It was still a much better experience than Kepler, where injury forced me out at 50 km and I ended up getting a ride back from a farmer.”

“I hit a tough patch around the 40 km mark this time, but managed my fueling better and was able to enjoy the final 40 km far more. It’s too early to decide about next year but the idea is definitely there. It is such a good event!”

Translation: I would have already booked my flights if I could this far out, and I've already got the podium on the vision board!

Men’s podium:

🥇Michael Dunstan- 9:04:19

🥈Guidu Qin - 9:09:41

🥉Adrian MacDonald - 9:32:47

Guiduo “The Situation” Qin set the early pace, and it was local boy Michael Dunstan who checked in to Foggy Knob (24km) in 2nd, 2 minutes back from Qin. Two-time Leadville champ Adrian MacDonald was a further 2 minutes behind.

Dunstan made his move on the 6 Foot Track section, flipping a 2-minute deficit into a 2-minute lead by the time he rolled into Katoomba Aquatic Centre.

That lead bobbed back and forth between 2-5 minutes throughout the back half of the race. Qin kept pushing hard, making Dunstan feel every one of those 951 steps.

A big breakthrough victory for Dunstan, who’s spent the last 2 years crewing and riding the bike for the livestream. A true Aussie battler story. Just a bloke who likes to run coming out on top against some fancy-pants opposition😎.

That just leaves one little matter to sort out. Who’s going home with the Golden Pavlova Plate this year?

Team Kiwi came in with a 206-113 advantage.

But Team Straya fought back hard over the weekend.

My final count has Straya scoring 306pts this weekend and NZ just 99!
Making the final score AUS 419 - NZ 305

Which means... we retained the Golden Pavlova Plate for another year! got waaaaaaaaaaasted by the Aussies. Doh!

Alright, that’s all I’ve got in me on Ultra Trail Straya this year. As always, a big congratulations to everyone who ran, walked or clawed their way around the Blueys. I know this was a big A race for several of you lot. Looks like you got every bloody cent’s worth.

Click Here for the full results, including the UTA22 & 11km

Check out the Ultra Trail Straya Instagram for videos and photos from the weekend.

This Week’s Newsletter Is Brought To You By…

Adam Allan!

He’s looking for Trail Runners to help with a study. I farked this one up last week by posting a broken link. If you tried last week, please try again as the link is now fixed!

Register Here

Things You May Have Missed

Vert Day Next Saturday

If you’re looking for an excuse to go up and down a hill over and over next weekend, you’re in luck. Vert Day is next Saturday. It’s a free virtual event where you challenge yourself to do as many vertical metres as you can between Saturday 6am and Sunday 6am. Not sure how much vert to aim for? Well, Vert @ Age is a good place to start.

If you are 20, that’s 2000m.
If you are 40, that’s 4000m.

It gets harder as you get older.
It gets easier as you get harder.

Pop your name on the spreadsheet here

Find others “running” on the FB Event Page here

Regional Trail Series Are Underway

All these big flash harry races are great, but here’s your reminder to support your local Trail series over winter if you’ve got one.

• The Auckland Trail Series kicked off over the weekend with close to 1000 people running around Tāwharanui Regional Park. There are another 5 events over the coming months.

• The Wellington Barefoot Trail Series is into its 2nd week this weekend at Belmont Regional Park. There are 3 more events in the series, including a night race.

• Last but definitely not least, the Canterbury Winter Trail Series, founded by Sam Manson, is kicking off this weekend in the Kaituna Valley as well.

Okataina Walkway Upgrade Announced

Excuse the politician post I just couldn’t find it announced anywhere else. A cool $1 milly has been announced to sort the Okataina to Tarawera trail out. Whether it happens or not being an election year and all that who knows but watch this space.

Sam Harvery Jnr

If you’re into your Backyarders, this ones for you. Kendall Picado Fallas who’s out of Sam Harvey’s stable returns to the BPN G1M Last Man Standing event after it was cancelled midway through the race the year before due to a storm. Some pretty raw footage in here.

Run Akaroa Debuts Over The Weekend

The inaugural Run Akaroa took place over the weekend. Now I don’t usually report on road races but this isn’t your usual pavement bashing affair with 900m of elevation and views over Akaroa Harbour. It attracted plenty of the usual trail running names with Frog AKA Frances Redmond beating out Penny Moaut and Byron Mann holding off Ehsan Lorestani.

Mountain Skag Winner For April

Congratulations to Jack “Nope” Thomson, who’s walking away with 70 Mountain Skag Smackeroos.

It was a close affair that came down to just a handful of votes!

Make sure you email in or Insta DM your Mountain Skag submissions to enter the weekly draw for your chance to win.

Mission Desk

Kaimai’s North To South

Alright, we’ve got a good thing rolling at the moment. Fresh off the back of last week’s Cragiebum round, we’ve got a north-to-south Kaimais expedition from Leonard “Pass The Worcester” Terry and Scott “The Boogeyman” Bougen.

The Kaimais run through the heart of the Bay of Plenty, and the route comes in at roughly 85km and 3500-4000m of vert, depending on your flavour or watch.

What it lacks in big peaks and runnable ridgelines, it makes up for with rogue weed crops and waterholes.

You went with your coach, Scott “The Boogeyman” Bougen. Did he just chuck this on your schedule last week, or has this been on the matrix for a while?

“We had the track on our radar for a while but finding time to fit it in between other races/events and general fitness was the challenge, the perfect window came up and we were both free so it all came together about a week before!”

What was the aim heading in?

“Aim was to go out and do a big mission, as it’s the closest place to Auckland with that kind of terrain. There is not a lot of info about the track out there so we were ready for an adventure - It’s fun having flexibility around structured training in the gap between races, and that’s exactly what this was!”

What were the mud levels like? 1 being Queen St and 10 being this years Tarawera finishers chute.

“Mud levels varied, there were defo some squishy bits we creeped around to keep the feet dry as long as possible, but at the river crossings the rocks were pretty slippy so it didn’t last for long! The terrain and bush density was what really slowed momentum.”

Tell us about a couple of your highlights

“The views up top were class, lots of scrambling needed and we passed by a heap of magical waterfalls and swimming holes scattered along the track!”

Any low points or was it all mushy peas and Worcester sauce?

“We psyched ourselves for a smooth downhill finish from the last hut but the reality was a bit different, at that point it was heads down and get it done!”

Lastly, relieve some tension for the gear nerds amoung us: hit us with what your gear setup looked like from top to bottom

“Our packs were pretty full! We took all the usual kit you’d expect for running an ultra, plus extra first aid, layers, battery pack, poles, etc. We had to carry enough nutrition and it was a good chance to experiment with that… MVP goes to the leggings base layer which stayed on all day and protected the legs!”

Thanks for that, Leonard - a good little tester for some bigger adventures to come no doubt.

Now this was very much a time-on-feet exercise, not an FKT attempt, coming in at just over 20 hours. Can anyone help me out with an official male and female FKT? Because the best I can find is:

“I know a couple dudes whose uncle went about 15ish hours”

Remember, don’t watch the dot, be the dot!
But more importantly, know your limits, respect the conditions and make sure you’ve got the right gear.

Upcoming Events:

The Bay, Nelson

Saturday, May 23

If you’re a bit confused as you thought ‘The Bay” was on over the weekend, that was ‘Da Bay’ AKA the Hawkes Bay Marathon. This one is down in the trail-running metropolis of Nelson, centred around the Cable Bay Adventure Park.

🏃🏃‍♀️Distances on offer:

📏50KM | ⛰️2500M
📏35KM | ⛰️1800M
📏25KM | ⛰️1400M
📏9KM | ⛰️400M

What should you expect from the course? I’ll let local and former champ do the talking. Aditya Kesarcodi-Watson.

As I write this, there are currently 302 entrants across the 4 distances on the Entrants List.

Entries look like they’re still open.

You can learn more about the event HERE and follow it on Facebook.

The Taniwha

Saturday, May 23

The Taniwha made a successful move on the trail running calendar in 2025, bouncing from the congestion of November to the wide rolling fields of May. The masses agreed, with close to 1000 runners and walkers taking part, up from 700-odd in 2024.

Now, I know I’ve given the event a bit of ribbing in the past for the quote,
“If too much amazing scenery were possible, this would be it!”
Part of getting this newsletter out each week is reading through event websites. I just find that way too many events default to the
“You won’t be able to contain yourself when you see the scenery”.

I think The Taniwha could focus on something that makes The Taniwha unique. How many other races have aid stations as good as this?

All jokes aside, it’s a fantastic off-road event with options for everyone, whether on 2 legs or 2 wheels.

🏃🏃‍♀️Distances on offer:

📏42.2KM
📏22KM
📏16KM
📏7KM

Entries are still open.
Check out the website for more info and follow on Facebook

#Mountain Skag Pic Of The Week

Ryan Tait with this cracking shot from his SK Tarn adventure over the weekend (more on that next week!)

He’s now in the running for the monthly $70 voucher - check out www.mountainskag.com to see what you could be walking away with.

Tag @trailrunning.nz (NOTE THE “.”) and use #mountainskag. DM on Instagram or email trailrunningnz@gmail.com to enter (email is the most reliable).

Picking up what I’m putting down? Send it to a mate who you know will be into it too!

Share

Or leave a tip

Tip TRNZ

PS: This is your reminder that the SK Awards are on tonight at the Southern Cross in Wellington at 8PM (or 6.45 if you’re keen on a group run.)

Your weekly fix of NZ trail running news

Okay … after numerous recent requests, the original intro to the newsletter is coming back … I got lazy, couldn’t think of new material, and presumed no one noticed, but turns out I was wrong … so here we go.

Welcome to Trail Running NZ! Think of us as the stuff.co.nz of the trail running world.
Full of typos, fake news and willing to sell out for just $1!😝

Here’s what’s in the drop bag this week:

🏃🏃‍♀️South Island Ultra Results

🏃🏃‍♀️Otematata Backyard Ultra Recap

👆Things You May Have Missed

🏕️Mission Corner: Craigiebum Round

🎁Fifty-Two Paid Crew Winners

🗳️Mountain Skag Vote 4 April

🏁Upcoming Events: Ultra Trail Straya

⛰️💊Mountain Skag Pic Of The Week

Note: Due to the length, some email browsers will hide some of the content - make sure you click ‘view entire email’ or click through to substack.

South Island Ultra Results

The weather was a little bit sh💩t on the West Coast for the South Island Ultra.

Surprise!

Shocking, I know🤯.

But that didn’t stop nearly 200 runners from getting outside into the fresh, coal-laden air, escaping their families and responsibilities all in the name of type 2 fun.

Now, I spent my weekend in the boonies, out of internet land, herding toddlers up hills and keeping them out of the fire, so I’m a bit short on details this week.

The South Island Ultra doesn’t have splits, but I managed to get a couple of smoke signals down South and track down the victors in the 54km & 100km.

Alright, enough excuses from me.

This is starting to sound like that guy’s Strava post.

Let’s take a proper gander at what happened down on the Best Coast.

📏100KM | Greymouth to Hokitika

Women’s podium:

🥇Sonia Panapa - 11:00:55

🥈Kate Alldred - 11:03:40

🥉Lauren Lanfear- 11:16:55

Sonia “The Professor” Panapa lined up for her first ever 100km, holding on both figuratively and physically to take the win ahead of Kate Alldred and Lauren Lanfear.

How good. I’ll let Sonia tell you about her big day out running triple digits for the first time.

“The South Island Ultra was my first 100km event and was really just about finishing and enjoying as much of it as I could. I don’t think I’ve run through a finishing ribbon ever so I certainly wasn’t thinking about a winning strategy. I just needed a strategy that would keep me putting one foot in front of the other, including eating and drinking without anything unexpectedly coming out of either end.”

“At the 46km mark an official yelled out, “yeah, the first lady!” and that was the first I knew. I didn’t dwell on it though; the real challenge was still just covering the distance. I ran the first 50km in 5 hours but by 60km, eating had become a struggle, which is always ironic to me: burning thousands of calories and suddenly food is the enemy, yet on a normal day I have absolutely no issue in chomping down the carbs.”

“At 70km I was really dizzy and thought I was in a bit of trouble - I needed sugar; a few dark chocolate coated pretzels got me to the next checkpoint, where I sculled some Coke and reset. With 20-odd km to go I just tried to hold a rhythm, albeit a noticeably slower one, and hold my stomach in (mildly successful - no other details required), cycling between podcasts, music and audiobooks to keep my mind off the guts.”

“I genuinely had no idea how close the next woman was, and honestly it was a much more pleasant experience not knowing (especially given how close she was!), just running at a pace I felt comfortable with, without the added stress of trying to win (or, let’s be honest, the pressure of pretending I had another gear). It did cross my mind as my Strava ticked over 100km how gutting (but kind of funny) it would be to lead a race for 99km and have someone storm past you on the home straight; in something this long it’s so easy to leak minutes all over the place.”

“To be fair, looking at past results, it was a pretty good year to be lining up. ;) Lucky it’s just names on the trophy and not times - puts me in a group of some amazing runners. It was a wonderful course even with the rain and some wind and I loved the laid back vibe of it all - it’s all about setting your own personal challenge and getting out there and doing it.”

Thanks for that Sonia. Might be time to retire. 1/1 victories. Forever undefeated at the 100km distance! 😎

There might have been faster results previously, but you can only beat those who show up on the start line!

Men’s podium:

🥇Cameron Day - 8:37:45

🥈Jason Sweeney - 8:58:53

🥉Sanjeev Deo - 9:25:11

Cameron “Gid” Day made it third time’s a charm, lining up at the South Island Ultra for the 3rd year in a row, this time stepping up to the 100km after previously finishing 3rd and 5th in the 54km.

A bit of extra distance to splash through puddles proved a great move as he ran away from early leader Sanjeev Deo in the back half, keeping a solid gap over Wild West Backyard champ Jason Sweeney “Todd”, who also moved past Deo to secure some more silverware to go with his Wild West Backyard win.

Here’s what Cameron had to say about his big day splashing his way to Hokitika Hardcore.

Tell us how your race played out at the front and how it feels to take down the South Island Ultra title?

“After running the 54km the last 2 years decided to step it up and attempt the 100km distance and couldn’t be more pleased with how it went.”

“The weather was rubbish but who doesn’t like running in the rain. Sanjeev and I shared the first 5km together before he speed of into the darkness I settled into my work. Made the pass at the 46km and solidified the move with a big 4km shift. Picked up Jordan for pacing duitys at the 76km mark things started getting significantly harder at this stage. 86km aid got word of roughly a 20min lead and growing this was music to my ears and made the last hour much more enjoyable.”

“Taking the tap felt amazing and was great to get rewarded for all the hours and kms training. Hoping to carry the momentum from the victory into Krayzies backyard later in the year.”

Awesome Cam! A great result - I look forward to seeing how you track at Krayzies later this year💪.

📏54KM | Old Christchurch Road to Hokitika

Men’s podium:

🥇Clinton Manderson - 4:00:05

🥈Aaron Sixtus - 4:43:39

🥉David Manning - 5:04:00

Clinton Manderson stepped out of the spikes and onto the trail, proving once again that if you’re fast on the road, you’ll be hard to beat at the South Island Ultra. Just a reminder, this is a 54km, not 50, so the time is even faster than it sounds. In fact, it’s the fastest time in SI Ultra history. Manderson managed to scoop the course record by just 10 seconds!

Here’s Clint on his record-setting day:

What was the plan going into the race and how did it play out on the day?

“I didn’t really have game plan going into the run as I’m more of a road runner so I thought I’ll chip away around 4.05 pace, but I didnt end up carrying water with me so my stomach started to cramp the last 10km so I ezzed up and tried to enjoy it abit more, but in the last 1 km I saw I might sneak under the cr so I put the hammer down.”

“Leading up to the race I tweaked my knee 2 weeks out from the race so I pretty much stayed off it and hopfully that would be enough rest for it to hold on, which it did so I was pretty happy with that.”

How does it feel to break the CR at the SI ultra by 10s?

“Tbh a win or a cr doesn’t worry me to much, just making a training plan and getting to do what I love each day leading toward a race is what I love the most and get amongst the race atmosphere is something special.”

Thanks for that Clint! Not bad for someone with a bung knee!

Women’s podium:

🥇Emily Chirnside - 5:00:32

🥈Olga Yugov - 5:04:21

🥉Aimee Burnard- 5:11:40

In a tight race, Emily Chirnside put it all together to honour her late father, narrowly missing sub 5 hours but, more importantly, outlasting Olya Yugov and Aimee Bunard to take the victory.

Here’s Emily talking about her race:

“Racing in such a beautiful part of Te Waipounamu was something special, even with the rain and wind. I came into it simply aiming to reach the finish line, but everything came together on the day.”

“With great support, the awesome volunteers, and my biggest supporter, my dad, in my thoughts, I was able to give it my all.”

Well done, Emily. I have no doubt that your Dad would be so proud of your victory!

Congratulations to John and Carol. It sounds like another well-run event put on by you and your team.

Click Here for the full results, including the 24KM race.

Check out the South Island Ultra Facebook & Instagram over the coming days for more event coverage.

This Week’s Newsletter Is Brought To You By…

Adam Allan!

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The Best Dam Backyard Ultra

Saturday, May 10th - Monday 12th

“I would have won if it wasn’t for that blasted girl Macee Latimer!”

That was the cry of Glenn “Double N” Sutton bellowing across the wetlands of Otematata last year as the crew packed up and made their way to the pub😂.

Well, it’s not often in life you get a rerun, but this year at the Best Dam Backyard Ultra, Double N got his wish. Macee wasn’t there to defend her crown, but the rest of the lineup looked eerily similar. In fact, 3 of the top 4 were also in the final 4 last year and are frequent flyers at Pigs Backyard Ultra. Talk about Groundhog Day.

TLDR:

Overall Winner

🏆👑🥇Macee Latimer Glenn Sutton - 46 yards (308.66KM)

Top DNFs - Men 🏃‍♂️🏃‍♂️🏃‍♂️

☠️Glenn Sutton Tom Turtle- 45 yards (301.95KM)

☠️Hunter Wight - 43 yards (288.53KM)

☠️Krisztian Kormos & Andy Smith - 38 yards (254.98KM)

Top DNFs - Women 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️

☠️Keryn Bell - 30 yards (201.30KM) Last Women Standing

☠️Maya Edmonson- 28 yards (187.88KM)

☠️Jenny Duffy - 24 yards (161.04KM)

How it went down:

85 sanity-challenged loopers descended on Otematata to be greeted by a relieved Steve and Chris from Inch Events. Saturday rose to a balmy bluebird day, a stark contrast to the poodles and angry gingers seen falling from the sky on Friday.

The first day was relatively uneventful, with the scorers kept busy enough by a few runners falling off every lap.

50 would make it through to celebrate the 100km mark, laying a great foundation for Glenn Sutton to make a big push deep into night 2 and see if he could rewrite his Otematata history.

With the headlamps on and the cool southern night baring its teeth, the expected collapse at 100km came and went, with 20 brave souls making it through the night to hit the full 24 hours.

9 brought up the double tonne, with Kerryn “Ding Dong” Bell bowing out satisfied with the 2 at the front and the Last Woman Standing title in the race belt.

That left the fantastic 5 of:

🏃Glenn Sutton 🏃Hunter Wight 🏃Tom Turtle 🏃Krisztian Kormos 🏃Andy Smith

No wonder they played Groundhog Day for the crew to watch. This really was starting to feel like a replay. All 5 were Dunedin Pub Runners. All 5 have run far too many km’s together. I’d be surprised if there was still much chat out there at this stage.

Kormos & Smith were first to crack after 8 laps of solidarity, both staggering away with new PB’s.

That left the familiar threesome of Sutton, Turtle and Wight.

Sutton had beaten Wight mano a mano twice at Pigs Backyard and, right on cue, Hunter pulled the pin, ticking up a new 5-yard PB of 43 (288.53km) and leaving Turtle as the only reptile between Sutton and his 4th (maybe 5th???) Backyard Ultra title.

Turtle vs Sutton

Pub glory on the line.

Turtle scurried his way across the sandy shore for 2 more yards, narrowly escaping being picked off by Sutton. But 45 was all his little reptilian heart could handle. Somewhere out on yard 46, Turtle failed to make it back to the safe haven of the sea, with Sutton picking him off and eating him as a victory snack on his lap of glory.

Game, set, match.

Congratulations to Glenn Sutton, you can now add Best Dam Ultra 2026 Champion to your long list of achievements.

Does anyone have someone on the inside at the Dunedin Council? Glenn is going to need a fast-tracked consent for the new extension to the pool room to fit yet another trophy on the mantle piece.

It looked like another entertaining weekend from the Inch Events team.

Here are a few snaps from the weekend.

Full Best Dam Ultra results here.

For more pictures and coverage, check out their Instagram.

Things You May Have Missed

International Results Desk

• The Flying Doctor took the show on the road, escaping the killer super bugs in the emergency department to line up at the Xterra World Champs in Bozo, Malta. Defending champ Sam Macaulay, who you’ll know from winning the Tarawera 50k, met him over there to see if they could replicate last year’s 1-2 finish. They didn’t quite pull it off, with Macaulay finding the 3rd step on the podium and The Doc just a few minutes behind in 4th.

• Michael Sutton and Toby Batchelor both ran the 7.5km, 1200m Transvulcania uphill race. Sutton got one over his NZ teammate, finishing 14th, 48 seconds ahead of Batchelor and 6 minutes off the winning pace. Sutton also backed up in the 24km race, coming in a respectable 15th.

• Weston Hill and Liam McKenzie also raced in Japan as part of the Merrell Skyrace World Series the weekend before. Heavy rain the day before turned the already crazy course (3100m+ vert over 27km) into a nightmare, with Hill coming 13th and McKenzie a bit further back in the field, unfortunately becoming a bit too well acquainted with his emergency bag at the finish. Liam is back on the mend and ready to rumble for the next round of racing, with Weston now heading home.

Rachel Entrekin The Queen Of Cocodona 250

If you somehow missed the chaos that is the Cocodona 250, here’s a quick recap for you.

• Rachel Entrekin farked everyone up. She took the OVERALL lead 50 miles into the 250-mile race across Arizona and ran away from the field, which included all of the top 200-mile runners, male and female, taking the overall win and setting the OVERALL course record in 56 hours, 9 minutes and 48 seconds. Let that sink in🤯.

• Robyn Lesh’Go has a first-hand account of Entrekin’s race on Substack as she had the honour of pacing her during a large chunk of the back half of the race. Read Here.

• These 2 dorks swung a couple of handbags during the race. I’m still not sure whether it was fabricated, but it's humorous nonetheless.

  

• This guy was the last finisher at Cocodona 250 this year. He was literally rolled over the line by supporters. I’m not sure what I think about that. Have we gone too far? I hope he has a chiropractor on speed dial.

Run The Bay Trail Marathon Results

Whoops! I forgot all about the Run The Bay Trail Marathon up North over the weekend.

In the Women’s race, Emma Steedman took the victory over Amy Howse’that! In the Men’s Dwayne “The Bridesmaid” Collecutt had too much gas for Trey “One Pole” Subritzky.

Click Here for the full results.

Mission Desk

Alright, as promised last week, we’ve got Hannah Lund and Molly Spark on their Craigieburn Round.

If you’re not familiar with the Craigieburn Round, it’s roughly 105km with well over 7k of vertical ascent and descent. Think of it as Canterbury’s version of the Bob Graham Round or the Tararua SK.

Hannah and Molly were both generous enough to answer my annoying questions, and just as importantly, send through some sweet pics!

Whose idea was it, and how long had it been smouldering away, waiting for the stars to align?

Hannah: “To be honest its been smoldering since I moved down here 4 or so years ago. But waiting for stars to align is no easy feat!”

“I think we have both independently had the round on our "to do lists" for a little while. Mollys uncle is the creator! A few weeks ago I reached out to Molly to see if she would be keen anzac weekend (that was our first attempt). We attempted it clockwise from Cass that weekend but bailed at Porters ski field due to loads of deep,slow,cold snow - and we never even got to the Torlesse Range and that looked waaaay more caked.”

Molly: “Hannah and I had both been looking at this round for a while. My uncle, Marty Lukes, actually created the route, so ever since 2021 it’s been a regular topic around family Christmas dinners. The stars really have to align for this one - weather, snow conditions, timing, fitness, health, so when we had the perfect window, it was hard to say no.”

“I’d pencilled in an attempt for Anzac weekend, and then a few weeks beforehand Hannah messaged me saying, “Are you keen?” The timing couldn’t have been better.”

What were the conditions like? Enough snow to cool you down, or too much snow slowed you down?

Molly: “Funny enough, we actually attempted the round on Anzac weekend first. There was snow around, but we definitely underestimated just how much. We started on the Craigieburn Range going anticlockwise because from the road that range looked “less snowy”. Once we got up there though, moving fast was almost impossible in those conditions, so we bailed at Porters Ski Field, we still get 46km through!! As soon as we finished, we were already saying, “Next weekend?”

“That whole week became weather obsessed, webcam checking every hour, and daily photo updates from my snow angel who lives in Carly Hill!! The Torlesse Range was our biggest concern because of the snow, so the next weekend we decided to go clockwise for safer snow and ice travel. It ended up being the right call.”

“We had absolutely unreal conditions - blue skies, a full moon, no wind, and patches of snow across the Craigieburn Range. There was still a decent amount of snow on the Torlesse side which definitely slowed things down, and the ice heading up to The Gap was pretty sketchy at times.”

Hannah: “The first weekend of May had another outrageously good forecast. A lot of snow had melted but the Torlesse Range still had quite a bit of white stuff. We were so hungry after the weekend prior attempt and really didnt want to wait another year so made an adjusted plan for the conditions and our limited days off.”

“Clockwise starting at Avoca Homestead first light saturday morning. Allowing us to deal with the most winteryConditions in daylight. This proved to be a good condition as the snow was very firm in places and I would not have wanted to be going the other direction or there in the dark. We mucked around a bit through the gap and I regretted not being a little better equiped.”

Tell us about a couple of your highlights

Hannah: “The full moon was INCREDIBLE. This made the night time spent along the craigieburns a real highlight and quite surreal. You could see snow capped peaks for miles. The dawn was incredible too and we were on such a high taking in the views.”

Molly: “The biggest highlight was definitely spending two weekends out there with such an awesome adventure buddy. Hannah and I had never really done any big training missions together before this, so it was pretty special getting to know each other through something so massive. I’m still buzzing a week later.”

“The full moon was incredible. It was so bright that if our head torches had died, we wouldn’t have needed them anyway. Seeing the clear skies, the Torlesse Range, and the lights of Christchurch, Castle Hill, and Mt Hutt shimmering in the distance was something really special.”

“Another moment I’ll never forget was sunrise and moon set around Broken River. My poppa actually founded Broken River Ski field, so being up there thinking about him during that moment made it feel even more meaningful.”

Any low points or was it all NoDoz and jelly snakes?

Molly: “There were definitely a lot of NoDoz inhaled by Hannah and a lot of lollies eaten by me. Honestly though, we never really had a major low patch. The main one would have been Baldy Hill - that descent can absolutely get in the bin. Great to climb, horrible to descend. Especially when it’s your final one off the range.”

“The last 25km on the gravel road were pretty torturous too. Hannah and I had chatted almost the entire way around the loop, but during that section I reckon we only said about five words to each other. It was a mental battle, and we love it. It definitely made the burger at the end taste about 100 times better though.”

Hannah: “My biggest low point was after the sun came up and it still took FOREVER to get to baldy hill where we decended off the Craigeburn range. Then it just got worse. The decent sucked so much more than the climb the weekend before. And the thought of the 30ish km of runnable river bed and gravel road (which we had promised not to think about) was very apparent and daunting. The gravel road was long, painful and mentally tough. There was very minimal chitter chatter. And 14 gates to open and shut.”

“Meeting Mollys parents and Nana and my boyfriend Alex at the Avoca homestead roadend (our start/finish) with a BBQ was pretty cool. We ate hot burgers and fries and the sandflies ate us.”

What a way to start your adventure buddy friendship!
Those conditions look tooooough af! But check out those views. Crazy stuff.

Remember, don’t watch the dot, be the dot! But more importantly, know your limits, respect the conditions and make sure you’ve got the right gear.

Click here for more info on the Craigiebum round

FIFTY-TWO Paid Crew Giveaway

Alright let’s find out who’s walking away with a copy of Campbell Forlong’s new book Fifty Two.

Drum roll please ….

Congratulations to:

🥳Paul Voorend

🥳Tony Sharpe

🥳Mike Keenan

🥳Debbie Ann

🥳Al Crowe

A big CHUR👍 to all the Paid Subs who are keeping this silly dream of mine alive!

If you want to be join the paid crew by financially supporting this train wreck and take part in giveaway – upgrade below.

Subscribe now

Mountain Skag Vote 4 April

It’s time to decide who’s walking away with the Mountain Skag trophy for April.

Here are your contenders:

Vote for your favourite below! One of them will be stumbling away with a $70 Mountain Skag Voucher. I’ve removed the names so it isn’t a popularity contest.

Upcoming Events:

🦘Ultra Trail Straya

Saturday, May 15th-17th

You little ripper! The NZ calendar might be drier than a dingo’s donger this weekend, but fair dinkum, over the ditch they’re chucking another rubbery Hoka on the UTS barbie😝.

Last year must have been deemed a success by the evil Ironman overlords, as it’s once again one of the 3 UTMB ‘Majors’.

This means more patchy streaming coverage, awkward filler chat, out-of-breath interviews and cringe Hoka ads on repeat. BUTTTT it does mean we get to see glimpses of not only the world’s best trail runners, but dozens of Kiwis showing those Ozzies how it’s done😎.

I know the real journalists over at Dirt Church Radio have done a preview show and I should probably just transcribe their episode, but I’m not that motivated or clever😣.

Now, we’ve always had great success over the ditch at Ultra Trail Straya. Just last year, we had Caitlin Fielder and Ali Wilson finish 1st and 2nd, and Dan Jones and Sam Rout 1st and 3rd in the 50.

I’m sure I’ve missed a few as the app is playing up, but here are a few of our best who are lining up this weekend to keep an eye out for.

Let’s start with the fiddy, as this is looking rather tantilising.

📏50km - 2400M:

Here for the Men’s Race:

Dan Jones: What does a professional runner do on his honeymoon? Run an ultra marathon, of course! Dan will be back to defend his title and put one hand on the Bledisloe Cup for the Kiwis.

Obviously Dan is building towards Western States Endurance Run and is coming in averaging well over 200km weeks at the moment, but I won’t bore you with all the sandbag details. What I’m trying to say is this is by no means a done deal. We saw Weston Hill get the better of Dan in a “B race” back in ’23, and there’s a quality field lining up once again.

Sam Rout: The Northland Express announced himself on the big stage last year with an impressive 3rd-place finish in this event before being derailed by a knee injury. That seems to be behind him now after a successful return to the tracks, picking up bronze at the Tarawera 50k earlier this year. Does he have enough coal on board to cause a boil over and knock off Jones?

Jack Harris: Jack has had an incredible 24 months, picking up multiple NZ titles, wearing the black singlet in Spain and posting a top-10 performance at Tarawera. Can the hot streak continue? Here’s hoping.

Here for the Women’s Race:

There’s a relatively unknown runner from the West Coast lining up for her first 50km race in some time. Ruth Craft, I think it is? I’ve been told she should go alright.

Alongside her are a number of our best.

Katie Morgan: Katie Morgan: She’s had a rough 2 years, with cankles, hernias and viruses knocking her out of multiple races. But the 20x Kepler and national champ is heading to Straya looking forward to just being back on the start line with 0 expectations. Fingers crossed we see Katie get over the line in one piece.

Hannah Wall: Hannah had a great race in her first UTMB series race last year, finishing 6th, and followed that up with a 4th at Tarawera this year. She’s only gotten faster. Here’s hoping we see Hannah on the podium and get a live interview with her at the finish on the livestream!

I managed to get hold of her to hear a little more on how she’s feeling going into this weekend:

Last year you ran UTA placing 6th in your first big international race, you’ve had some great results since then and have been chopping some serious wood- how fucking stoked are you to be back in the blueys lining up alongside some of the worlds best this weekend?

“I’ve been chopping wood, drying it out and stacking it. But of course you worry, will I have enough to burn in the depths of winter? Luckily I’ve got some time to fell a few more trees when I get back before heading away to Europe for OCC. yea I’m fired up, I keep hearing that phrase ‘stacked field’ again, and I’m thinking, of course it’s stacked, it’s a world major, we ain’t here to play pick up sticks!”

“But nah, what an absolute honour, I’m so stoked, ready to rumble. The race outcome itself is kind of irrelevant for me at this point, I’m just ready to line up with my fellow athletes, soak up that world major energy and see where I stack up. Apologies for all the firewood metaphors but you did start it…blue gum burns hot, slow and clean though, makes for an excellent firewood choice, we will be hoping the race will be 2/3 of those properties.”

Yeeeeoooow Fire up🔥! Pumped to see how this one plays out.

📏160km - 7200M

Here for the Women’s Race:

Emma Timmis: She’s won The Spectacle twice, stood on the podium at Tarawera and, in last year’s inaugural event, placed a highly respectable 5th. Emma is coming back from an ankle injury at OGU but seems to be back in the swing of things after a good hit-out at Skedaddle a couple of weeks ago.

Katie Wright: Katie has been one of our most consistent milers for a long time and has tasted success, most notably at Tarawera, as well as getting it done on the Backyard circuit. She’s always there or thereabouts. Watch for Katie to rise through the ranks in the back half.

Steph Nevins: Steph is the current Taupo 100k champ and also posted a 12:35 at Tarawera 100k this year, as well as running 13:49:31 in the Blueys last year. This looks like her 2nd go-round at the 100-mile distance after running Northburn 100 in 2024, so she should be well versed in type 2 fun by this weekend.

Here for the Men’s Race:

Scotty Hawker: Scotty’s made no secret of his injury and racing struggles over the last couple of years, but it doesn’t seem to have dented his enthusiasm for taking on a big challenge. His best races have always been on the biggest stage, so here’s hoping Scotty’s in the groove and his body does its part of the job. If he’s on the start line, he’s always a threat to take home all the beans.

📏100km - 4400M

Here for the Women’s Race:

Julia Grant: The GOAT of Mission Mt. Somers is heading back to the blueys after a successful campaign in 2025 where she came 4th. She’s a fierce competitor, and I see no reason why she isn’t a genuine threat to land the right way up on the podium.

Click here to learn more about Ultra Trail Straya.

Keep an eye on their Instagram next weekend, as the coverage is always top-notch on teh gram.

#Mountain Skag Pic Of The Week

This week’s photo from Allira Hanzchoewjetski is a great demonstration that Mountain Skag comes in various forms.

It’s not always bluebirds and sunsets. Nothing screams HIGH AF more than seeing someone posting up frozen tussock and clag rolling in on a Monday.

She’s now in the running for the monthly $70 voucher - check out www.mountainskag.com to see what you could be walking away with.

Tag @trailrunning.nz (NOTE THE “.”) and use #mountainskag. DM on Instagram or email trailrunningnz@gmail.com to enter (email is the most reliable).

Picking up what I’m putting down? Send it to a mate who you know will be into it too!

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PS: Watching Cocodona 250 last week got me thinking.

H&S BS and money aside – where would your ideal NZ 250mile race run?

Your weekly fix of NZ trail running news

Here’s what’s in the drop bag this week:

🗽The New Mecca Of Elite Trail Running

⚖️The State Of 100 Miles In NZ

👆Things You May Have Missed

🏕️Mission Desk

🎁Fifty-Two Paid Crew Giveaway

🏁Upcoming Races: South Island Ultra, Akunamatata Backyard Ultra

⛰️💊Mountain Skag Pic Of The Week

Note: Due to the length, some email browsers will hide some of the content - make sure you click ‘view entire email’ or click through to substack.

There were no events on over the weekend so this week it’s a chance to catch our collective breathe before spending a week dot watching Cocodona 250 which got underway over night.

No fancy intros this week, lets kick into it.

Auckland The New Mecca Of Elite Trail Running?

There I was.

Innocently minding my own business.

Beer in hand, sitting on the couch after a long week at work.

I think I’ll see what Dirt Church are going on about this week …

“Hot take #1, Auckland is now the elite trail running mecca of trail running …”

Now, if that doesn’t grab your attention, I don’t know what will. My first reaction was a big WwwwwwTtttttttFffffff😮.

I cleaned up the beer I spat across the lounge and had a longer think about it.

I’ll give them credit that they’re talking about running talent, not trail network talent … specifically how Aucklanders dominated the top 10 of Faultline.

Which got me thinking more about who would be our top milers? 🤔

Impromptu Power Rankings Time!

I’m going out on a limb and putting in my top 5 Female and Male Kiwis (Well, people who reside here, I’m not doing Visa checks, I’ll leave that to the politicians.)

Now, a couple of parameters - This is based on recentish form, like the last couple of years and this is actual 100 mile races, no backyard resting for a cup of tea type stuff.

🏃‍♀️Top 5 Female

1. Ruth Croft

2. Caitlin Fielder

3. Konoka Azumi

4. Naomi Brand

5. Emma Timmis

🏃Top 5 Male

1. Dan Jones

2. Sam Harvey

3. Simon Cochrane

4. Simon McLean

5. Louis Schindler

Now, I was never good at showing my workings in Math class, so I’ll leave it at that😝.

Who’s on your list?

Fire away in the comments of email through.

The State of 100 Miles In NZ

Now that you’ve got your T8 undies in a twist because I left your mate off my silly list, let’s talk 100-mile races in NZ.

It was also brought up on DCR, the small field in the Faultline miler, and I’ve got to be honest, it was on my mind all weekend.

The Faultline had a great big event vibe, the finish at the waterfront is unreal, and the courses have a good balance of challenging terrain while still allowing it to be a running race. You can fly in, race and leave; logistics are fairly simple with aid stations in very accessible areas.

You get a chance to run point to point which, outside of Tarawera and The Spectacle (to a degree), you don’t get anywhere else. Why was the field so small? I just don’t get it.

But then I took the time to look deeper at 100-mile races in NZ. Historically, 50 people lining up to run 100 miles is a good turnout. When you see a group of 50 people at a start line ready to run for the next 16-36 hours, it’s actually pretty mind-blowing🤯.

I think we suffer from some media-driven globalism where we hear how big trail running has become and how massive the sport is, so we presume everyone is running 100 miles. It’s simply not the case.

Here are the numbers for our main 100-mile races over recent years, from most recent left to right:

• Faultline: 57, 63, 76

• Spectacle: 35, 43

• Naseby Water Race: 42, 40, 27, 29, 16, 24, 16, 22, 43, 50, 43, 34

• Northland 100:19

• Northburn: 70, 58 … gets a bit ropey with broken links but about 40-50

• Krayzie K’s: 12, 15, 13, 10, 4

• Old Hanmer 100: 19, 18, 18, 14

Out of all those race fields, only Northburn has had one or two slightly bigger years, and they’ve got years of Terry Davis marketing prowess compounding behind it😂.

Now, what effect have Backyard Ultras had on entries into 100-mile events? It’s a bit like wondering if you ever walked in on your parents banging when you were younger and stopped them from conceiving another sibling, then wondering if you’re missing out on the best sibling ever or escaped a hellish childhood. Impossible to know.

Since Backyard records began in NZ, 165 individuals have a PB of 100 miles, although the data looks a couple of months out of date. But how many people between 120-154km set out to run 100 miles and failed? Who knows.

You could also view it the other way around. They’re more like a gateway drug. It gets people into the sport, and when they’re sick of running in circles, they spread their wings and find things like Naseby, Northland 100, etc.

“But Bradley, what about Tarawera?”

Ding ding. Yes, Tarawera is much bigger. Starting in 2018, there were 122 starters in its first year, but after several years of being the premium big event ultra in the country in a captive market, you’d say that wasn’t exactly an instant success either.

But look at it now, 508 entries this year and well into the 400s the last three years before that. What those totals don’t tell you is the NZ vs rest of world split. Now the data is a bit iffy because I couldn’t be bothered spending any more time on it, but out of the 307 finishes this year, 142 people selected NZ as their country. I’ve never worked out how to view the DNFs on the UTMB website, but I’m going to presume the proportion is similar, so out of 508 starters, let’s go with 233 who selected NZ.

Suddenly jumping from 50 odd to 200 doesn’t sound out of this world. I can see a world in 2029 where Faultline has 150-200 NZ starters and, with some savvy marketing, 100-odd internationals from Straya, Japan, China, etc. who would jump at the chance to run a point-to-point 100-mile race in the capital of NZ.

Now, where was I going with all of this? I don’t really have any farking idea to be honest, but it’s definitely time to wrap this ramble up. Maybe the field wasn’t small. Maybe we’ve just been gaslit by UTMB highlight reels into thinking every race should look like a music festival. The reality is 100 miles is still a long way to run, and most people don’t actually want to run that far😂.

This Week’s Newsletter Is Brought To You By…

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Things You May Have Missed

Old Ghost Ultra 2026 Race Video Is Out

Old Ghost sets the standard for live streams in the country, and they always make a bloody good race video. This year's out now, there’s lots of people in it, so see if you can see yourself!

Watch Here

Dunedin Council Responds To Trail Feedback

Last week I posted that there was a petition going to Dunedin Council concerned that access to the Dunedin trail network in the Silver Stream and Silver Peaks areas was going to become restricted.

The council has responded, saying they’re only seeking to formalise existing arrangements. That sounds positive, but what that exactly means is anyone’s guess. Watch this space.

Tarawera Announced As 2027 Golden Ticket

Western States has announced its Golden Ticket races for 2027, and Tarawera once again makes the grade. It’s been fantastic to see in recent years our top local talent beat out international athletes to secure tickets and race on the big dance. Hopefully, 2027 is no different.

Jim Walmsley’s Bigger Than Western States?

Speaking of Golden Tickets … Jim Walmsley announced this week he’s going to be on the start line of Western States, thanks to Hoka, the naming sponsor, who made sh💩t happen. I’m in two minds on this one. Yes, as a viewer, it’s great to see a stacked field, and if someone else wins, they don’t have to have an asterisk after their name saying *Jim Walmsley didn’t run this year.

But on the other hand, doesn’t it water down the Golden Ticket race system? Walmsley couldn’t get fit enough to chase a Golden Ticket and now gets to race anyway. You’ve got other pro athletes fighting tooth and nail, risking injury and, in some cases, their livelihoods to make the race. I think it sets a dangerous precedent.

Who else is a big enough name to get a pass? I’d say Courtney and Kilian would get to jump security. What about our very own Ruth Croft? We like to think trail running is a “pure sport”, but public reach arounds are a bit on the chin for me.

Mission Desk

It’s been a bit quiet on the Mission Desk as of late, but this week it was busier than the sandbag department at Bunnings the night before a big race.

The Masterton Kid, AKA Brendan Varty was back at it over the weekend. Don’t worry you lot who get sick of me spouting on about SK’s, this time it had nothing to do with an SK … but it was still in the Tararua!

For the first time ever (AFAIK) I present to you …’

The Southern, Middle and Northern Tararua Crossings all in one push without sleep.

Brendan has taken it from pub map banter to an actual living, breathing thing. I only know of one other previous attempt.

The route came in at 126 odd k and 11k elevation over what is considered about 11-12 days tramping in a time of 36h 36m 37s … to think he was that close to 36:36:36 and he blew it!

Anyway, I’ve gone on enough about it, here are a few questions I got through to Brendan on his lunch break.

How long has this been on the matrix, and what was it like planning for something that hadn’t yet been achieved?

“Well, funnily enough, you were the first person to ever mention the Triple Crossing to me back in 2024. Having done all eight SKs and then the 1500s at the end of the 24/25 season, the Tararua Triple Crossing immediately became my #1 goal for the 25/26 season, with the sub-20hr SKMR being the “B mission” for the year.”

“Planning something that had never been done before excited me more than anything and heightened my desire to get it done.”

“Back on April 1st and 2nd, I attempted it with a perfect weather window and a full moon. I fuelled poorly and paid the price, needing to stop at Anderson’s for a rest and then “quitting” at Otaki Forks.”

“Quitting is something I can’t stomach, so of course, the fact that I had failed was eating away at me, and I was looking for every opportunity to have another crack.”

“With a huge snow dump last week, I honestly thought the ship had sailed, and it was going to have to be next season’s mission. But the Tararua weather gods, as well as the farming gods—and even the moon gods—presented me with another opportunity on Saturday, the 2nd of May. So I was back at Poads Road at 4am more determined than ever to get it done.”

The weather in Wellington and the Waiarapa was mint- but how was it up in the range? Was there still decent snow?

“Saturday’s weather was perfect, with enough of a cold breeze to keep the temperature spot on. Saturday night was also perfect, with a huge full moon beaming down as I made my way through the Middle Crossing.”

“Sunday was an absolute bluebird day without a breath of wind, meaning it was a bit hot for my liking. But with some leftover snow between Bridge Peak and Hector, I was able to use ice to cool myself down by shoving it down my back and under my cap. I was too hot between Hector and Alpha, but for 36 hours spent in the range, it was close to ideal.”

Did you get close to pulling the pin at any time or were you tracking well the whole time?

“Unlike SKs and the 1500s, the Triple Crossing obviously sees you at road ends throughout the mission, making it easy to pull the pin if you’ve had enough. I asked myself some pretty big questions at each road end. At The Pines, it was an easy answer: keep going.”

“Holdsworth—not quite so easy, but yep, keep going. Otaki Forks, after that terrible Y2YY track, was a much harder answer, but I managed to talk myself into keeping moving.”

When you look at all you’ve achieved - where does this sit for you?

“There’s no doubt about it—this is my greatest mountain running achievement.”

Any thing you’d like to say to the readers or TRnZ?

“I don’t want to hit your readers with any cliché b*******, but I’d like to think I’m an example of not giving up after one try. We all fail, we all make mistakes, but it’s only a real failure if you don’t go back, right your wrongs, and get it done.”

Thanks for your time Brendan. It’s immense what you’ve achieved in the Tararua in the last 3 years.

I’ve also caught wind that the pride of Eketāhuna, Hannah Lund and Molly Spark knocked off the Craigieburn Round over the weekend too - hopefully I can get some more info on that for next weekend.

Remember, don’t watch the dot. Be the dot!

FIFTY-TWO Paid Crew Giveaway

This month, 5 x Lucky Paid Crew will win Campbell Forlong’s new book “Fifty-Two” + I’ll have some codes to give away for the audiobook recorded by the man himself.

If you’ve never heard of Campbell, he became world famous in Waikato for running 52 marathons in 52 weeks in his 52nd year.

You might know him as the infectiously enthusiastic guy who can’t get enough of The Goat and The Ring of Fire.

Regardless, you don’t need to know Campbell do enjoy his book.
I’m 3/4 of the way through, and it’s got me thinking about what big challenges I’ve been dodging.

How do you get your sticky mitts on it?

I’ve done a Q&A with Campbell HERE.

Read it, then answer this:

What’s Campbell’s biggest lesson from writing the book?

To enter:

• Become a Paid Subscriber below (if you’re not already)

• It’s $5 a month. That’s less than a litre of petrol

• Email your answer to trailrunningnz@gmail.com

Subscribe now

Not sure what the differences between the tiers are?

A big CHUR👍 to all the Paid Subs who are keeping this silly dream of mine alive!

Upcoming Events

The South Island Ultra

Saturday, May 9

Man, the Best Coast punches above its weight for events. Old Ghost Ultra, Paparoa Ultra, Wild West Backyard Ultra, Rocky Point, and of course this week, the South Island Ultra.

It’s been three years since the race directors made headlines around the trail running world. In my eyes, they’ve done their time, and we can all just move on and remember that they made a $10,000 donation to Dan Jones’ Western States 2023 campaign.

Here’s what’s on offer at South Island Ultra:

📏100KM| Greymouth to Hokitika

📏54KM | Old Christchurch Road to Hokitika

📏24KM | Lake Kaniere to Hokitika

Now unlike OGU and Paparoa Ultra, which show off the rugged terrain and gritty nature of the West Coast, the South Island Ultra is a touch more refined. It’s mainly on a relatively flat cycle trail, gaining just 700m of elevation over 100km.

What should you expect to see on your stroll along the cycle trail?

It’s not every race that you get to see a Western town!

As you’d expect from a cycle trail, the trails are well graded. Your finish time should be closer to your road-running time than in other trail races.

This would be up there for the fastest ultra in the country next to the new Wanaka Ultra, and definitely the fastest 100km.

Fingers crossed the famous West Coast weather holds off, and it’s another top year at the country's worst-named race, The South Island Ultra.

Sign up here and follow along on Facebook

The Best Dam Backyard Ultra

Saturday, May 9 - ???

Last year 90 runners and crew descended on Otematatatata for the inaugural Best Dam Ultra, eating the town out of bananas and drinking the pub dry - and that was only Steve Tripp on Friday night!😮.

You’re not alone if you have no idea where Otematatatata is.

I’ll leave Steve Tripp to explain.

“Otematata is the middle of everywhere - smacked roughly halfway between Dunedin, Christchurch and Wanaka. In other words the only places that really matter.”

“It has a wetlands walkway which is not wet. It’s got almost no vert and covers an area between the pub and Lake Aviemore - both have scenic value.”

“There’s a day course (looping around the wetlands) and a night course (out and back towards Benmore Dam). Both courses have between 17 and 27m of vert (flatter but much prettier than Blue Lake).”

You might also remember it as the host of the last Backyard Ultra NZ Teams Satellites World Champs thingymabob.

Last year, Macee Latimer announced herself on the scene, knocking off old salty sea dog Glenn Sutton to take the win. Macee isn’t back this year after qualifying for the NZ team at M*A*S*H, but the line-up of lunatics still looks like one of the deepest in the country.

There are currently 10 runners with a 30+ PB on the start list:

Julia Chamberlain - 51

Glenn Sutton - 49

Hunter Wight - 38

TomTurtle - 37

Krisztian Kormos - 36

Brent Fletcher, Andy Smith - 35

Maya Edmondson - 34

Chad Gillespie. Jeremy Solakof - 33

Simon Cromarty - 30

Add in another 8 runners with a 100-mile PB, and there are enough bruised old bananas here for a lip-smackingly good banana cake.

Here’s the Starters List of all the crazies starting this thing.

Follow the action along on Facebook or Instagram. Also, keep an eye on Mr. Backyard reporter AerobicEdge.

#Mountain Skag Pic Of The Week

This weeks hit is from Chris Taylor with this action shot from Mt.Peel.

He’s now in the running for the monthly $70 voucher - check out www.mountainskag.com to see what you could be walking away with.

Tag @trailrunning.nz (NOTE THE “.”) and use #mountainskag. DM on Instagram or email trailrunningnz@gmail.com to enter (email is the most reliable).

Picking up what I’m putting down? Send it to a mate who you know will be into it too!

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PS: Back in the meme game … Cocodona 250 has started and I don’t see much getting done at work this week.

Your weekly fix of NZ trail running news

Here’s what’s in the drop bag this week:

🏃🏃‍♀️Faultline Ultra Results

🏃🏃‍♀️Skedaddle Results

🏃🏃‍♀️Ultra Wanaka Results

👆Things You May Have Missed

🗳️Mountain Skag March Winner

🎁Fifty-Two Paid Crew Giveaway

🏁Upcoming Events: Sweet FA

⛰️💊Mountain Skag Pic Of The Week

Note: Due to the length, some email browsers will hide some of the content - make sure you click ‘view entire email’ or click through to substack.

This time last week the heavens had opened on Wellington and I had serious concerns about the trail network holding up well enough for the Faultline Ultra to take place.

Well, old nervous Nigel over here needen’t have worried. The rain farked off Wednesday night, the blue skies and light zephyrs whipped the course into shape, no Tarawera Mudtastrophe 2.0 detected.

We also have Skedaddle results, now into year 4 and continuing to impress anyone who makes the trip to Island Hills Station.

Last but not least, well it was the least because I was well out of steam by then🥵, is the inaugural Ultra Wanaka results.

This week’s going to be results-heavy, as I’m feeling a bit sh💩t with a wee bit of man flu and fomoitus after the weekend, I’ve got even less “bants” than normal😣.