Krayzie Midwinter Backyard Results
Is there any stopping Sam Harvey💪?
Your weekly fix of NZ trail running news
We’re here every Monday morning - just like the thought that pops into your brain when the alarm goes off. “Do you really NEED to run this morning?”
Here's what’s in the drop bag this week:
Krayzie Midwinter Backyard Ultra
How to enter Western States
Sox Footwear NZ giveaway
My Worst Run EverThings You May Have Missed
Mountain Skag Pic of the Week
Preview: Cougar Trail Run
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Krayzie Midwinter Backyard Ultra
7:30 AM Saturday, 203 Krayzie🤪 runners lined up in the starting box for the 2nd edition of the Krayzie Midwinter Backyard Ultra. An increase from 119 last year and possibly NZ’s biggest starting field for a backyard.
Some targeted 60 laps to qualify for Bigs Backyard; others just wanted to find out what this backyard ultra buzz is about.
Overall Winner:
🥇 Sam Harvey - 43 loops - 288.53 km
Top DNFs
☠️ Brandon Purdue - 42 loops (+8 PB) - 281.82 km
☠️ Jeremy Pelvin - 37 loops (+7 PB) 248.27 km
☠️ Glenn Sutton - 34 loops - 228.14 km
☠️ Shannon Rhodes - 33 loops (+5 PB) - 221.43 km
Yes, that’s right. You read that correctly. Sam Harvey. The same Sam Harvey that ran over 4 days, clocking up 676 km all but 9 days before the start of Krayzies🤯.
Now, there are a couple of plausible explanations for this.
Sam has an identical twin that no one knows about🤔.
Robotics Plus NZ is trialing its new android🤖 and has teamed up with Sam to demonstrate how realistic their new robots are.
Both of these options sit more comfortably in my mind than Sam flying back from Australia, recovering from the beginnings of pneumonia, and running another 288.53 km to win another backyard ultra.
All jokes aside, this is just a crazy result. It’s almost as impressive as his 101 loops! Full credit to Brandon Purdue, who took the assist and improved his last year’s 3rd place total of 34 up to 42 loops.
Backyards operate like a pyramid. The wider the base, the higher it goes. With over 200 runners this year, seeing the course record go is not surprising. A couple of points show this quite clearly.
Last year seven runners hit the 100-mile mark. This year it was almost double, with 13 runners completing the first 24 hours.
This year 7 runners hit the 200 km milestone, while last year, it was just the top 3.
Last year Sam won with 35 loops; this year, it took 43.
Even though only one person is left with the glory🏆, getting them there takes a collaborative effort.
KMBU also had a team category. Teams comprised of 4 runners, their combined total being the team’s score. This is an excellent way to involve more runners and encourage them to push for one more lap.
Team Results
Krayzie Chicks🏃♀️🏃♀️🏃♀️🏃♀️
🥇Ultra My Best - 56 Loops - 375.76 km
Emma Timmis - 100.65 km
Janey Gibbons -100.65 km
Vicky Havill -100.65 km
Emma Morar - 73.81 km
Krayzie Dudes🏃♂️🏃♂️🏃♂️🏃♂️
🥇Soul Crusher - 677.71 km
Sam Harvey - 288.53 km
Chris Newson -140.91 km
Adam Keen - 147.62 km
Kelvyn Pugh - 100.65 km
Mixed🏃♀️🏃♀️🏃♂️🏃♂️
🥇Team Arrowtown Backyard Ultra - 590.48 km
Brandon Purdue - 281.82 km
Lesley Wilson 107.36 km
James Mountier - 100.65 km
Liz McDougall - 100.65 km
Check out the full results here. Great coverage and highlights on their Facebook and, as always Aerobicedge
Qualifying for Western States
If you were inspired by watching the performances at Western States and wondering how on earth you can get on the start line, I’ve got you covered.
There are 4 paths to qualifying; the first is the most simple.
Option 1 - Run fast
Win a Golden Ticket at a qualifying event. I said simple, not easy!
Tarawera 102 km was a golden ticket race back in February, but you’ll need to travel to one of the below races to win a ticket for 2024.
CCC by UTMB 100K France, Italy, Switzerland, September 1, 2023
Grindstone by UTMB 100K Virginia, September 23, 2023
Nice Côte d’Azur by UTMB 115K France, September 30, 2023
Javelina Jundred Presented by HOKA 100M Arizona, October 28, 2023
Doi Inthanon Thailand by UTMB 100M Thailand, December 8, 2023
Black Canyon Presented by HOKA 100K, Arizona, February 10, 2024 (top 3 M/F)
The Canyons by UTMB Presented by HOKA 100K, California, April 27, 2024
Option 2 - Get lucky at the lottery
Run one of the 2 NZ qualifying races under the qualifying times, or head over to Straya🦘.
NZ
Tarawera 102km - 17 hoursTarawera 100 mile - 36 hours
Taupo 100km - 17hours
Straya🦘
Blackall 100k 100km - 18 hoursGuzzler Ultra 100km - 24 hours
Kosciusko by UTMB 100km - 18 hours
Kosciusko by UTMB 100M - 36 hours
Surf Coast Century 100k - 16 hours
Ultra-Trail Australia by UTMB 100km - 19 hoursThen enter your name into the Western States Lottery.
Every lottery applicant will receive 2^(n-1) tickets in the hat for each failure to gain entry, where n is the number of years applied.
Trying to work out how many tickets you’ve got in the lottery
Now, your boy did cabbage math at school, but to put it plainly, you get double the amount of entries each year you don’t get in. In the first year, you have roughly a 1% chance of getting in😔.
That’s why it pays to start entering well before you want to race it. On average, it takes 4 years to get in! If you get in the first time, clean up your undies💩 and start training!
To give you an idea, this is what the last lottery looked like
5 runners - 256 tickets, each have a 92.4% of getting in.
37 runners, with 128 tickets, each has a 72.5 %
127 runners, with 64 tickets, each has a 47.6 %
232 runners with 32 tickets, each has a 27.6%
374 runners with 16 tickets, each has a 14.9 %
525 runners with 8 tickets, each has a 7.7 %
731 runners with 4 tickets, each has a 3.9 %
1578 runners with 2 tickets, each has a 2.0%
3560 runners with 1 ticket, each has a 1.0 %
Imagine finally getting in after 9 years😌. The paranoia in the last 2-3 weeks before the race worried about rolling an ankle would be off the charts!
Option 3 - Get lucky at the raffle
Twice a year, there is a Western States raffle where 5 lucky punters get an entry.
How is this different from the lottery? You pay for the tickets🎟️, and you can buy as many as you like, and the race entries are also transferrable (the runner still needs to have qualified). The money goes to the WSER Foundation.
Option 4 - Volunteer at the race and suck up to everyone
Each club that runs an aid station gets to designate an entry each year.
It usually goes to long-standing volunteers. Hard to pull off if you’re living in NZ. These clubs must receive a few boxes of crafties🍻 every year around selection time 😂.
Sox Footwear NZ Giveaway
Now I’ve been a fan of Sox🧦 since the all-seeing algorithm brought them into my life earlier this year. I’ve got the tigers🐯 and the lemurs. If I’m going to be a mediocre runner, at least I can bring an above-par sock game.
In the last couple of weeks, they’ve got their website up and running, so it’s now much easier to get your hands on them feet in them.
They have been generous enough to make a discount code for Trail Running NZ readers.
Use TRAILNZ25. You’ll get 25% off and free shipping if you go bananas🍌🍌🍌 and drop over $100.
To be clear, this is not an affiliate ad. I’m just a guy who appreciates an exciting pair of socks.
For you paid subscribers out there - visit the Sox site and comment below or email with what pair is your favorite to go into the draw to win them.
Worst Run Ever
No Worst Run Ever this week😥. Please keep sending them to trailrunningnz@gmail.com; it’s the highlight of my week!
Remember, we can make it anonymous if it’s a tad on the embarrassing side🙈.
Things You May Have Missed
Sam Harvey’s “I AM HOPE” givealittle page closed at $19,453. Someone made an anonymous $10K donation. How good🤑.
The highly professional, data-driven, hard question asking -Crush the Cargill Podcast is back😎. Listen here
Scott Bougen completed his 24 trails in 24 hours challenge. He ran 167 km on 24 trails from the Wildthings trail directory in Auckland, including 5 hours of driving. He completed the challenge with 5 minutes to spare🦾. Scott is fundraising to get him to the start line of UTMB. If you want to make a donation, you can here.
Upcoming Events
Cougar Run
Saturday 8th of July
The Cougar Trail Run is one of the latest offerings from the team at Total Sport. It started in 2020 before all the sh💩t hit the fan.
You can race 7 km, 14 km, or 21 km on Saturday. You can also double down on Sunday and enter either the 2 or 4-hour lapped race mountain bike event🚵♂️.
Now first things first. It’s called The Cougar Trail Run, but correct me if I’m wrong; I’m no Zoologist but isn’t the below cat a black panther?
Growing up in Rotorua, we used to poke fun at Tokoroa. Yes, Rotorua smelt like rotten eggs, but have you seen how much of a sh💩t hole Tokoroa is?
If someone said they were doing a cougar run in Tok, it meant something very different😜 … as for “Two days in Tok”, I would have said that’s 3 too many.
Now as a fully grown, functioning adult who now appreciates things other than video games and chucking camelia buds at passing trucks - I’m willing to give Tokoroa another chance.
Custom-built mountain bike trails, you say? I’m a bit of a sucker for sneaking onto downhill mountain bike trails pretending I'm in the Jamaican bobsled team. You good mon’?
Overall, it looks like a cool event, especially if you’re also into 2 wheels 🚴. The trails will be fast, and there are enough hills to make it interesting.
Entries are still open, and you can register here.
Be quick, though; the Intercon Tokoroa is probably almost booked out.
#Mountain Skag Pic Of The Week
This week we’ve got 2 contrasting entries.
One beaming in from Italy, pure deluxy Dolomite skag from Jessica Campbell.
The other is local mid-quality skag contaminated by clag and freezing temps from Joe Benbow. I know which one I would prefer!
Tag @trailrunning.nz and use #mountainskag on Instagram or email trailrunningnz@gmail.com to enter.
Every entry goes into the monthly draw to win a Mountain Skag T-Shirt or hat.
We will be back next week with more trail-running news, yarns, and glory.
It takes hours to write this newsletter but only 8 seconds to forward it to a friend.
PS - Do you think Backyard Ultras should operate as a Last Man and Last Women standing, or does the combined race work well?
Let me know what you think in the comments or reply to this email.
I've got the Tiger and the Lemurs - I think the Flamingos might be next
Designer Activewear? It has to be flamingos