Krayzie Midwinter Backyard Results & Western States Recap
“That night, I was up all night. Both ends."
Your weekly fix of NZ trail running news
We’re here for you, like the Western States live stream. Improving every time, getting so much right, but dropping the ball at the crucial moment for no apparent reason🤣
Here's what’s in the drop bag this week:
🏁Krayzies Midwinter Backyard Ultra Results
🏁Western States Recap
🎯Things You May Have Missed
🤢Worst Run Ever
⛰️💊Mountain Skag of The Week
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Krayzie Midwinter Backyard Ultra Results
Check out the Backyard Ultra NZ site if you’ve never read about Backyard Ultras.
Here is how the format works.
Run a 6.71 KM loop on the hour every hour.
The race goes on until only 1 person is left.
And yes, if you think it sounds like a Krayzie way to spend a weekend, you’d be about right😮.
The Christchurch weather played ball, and the anticipation was high. 7:30 AM Saturday, 233 Krayzie🤪 runners lined up in the starting corral for the 3rd edition of the Krayzie Midwinter Backyard Ultra.
That’s almost triple the number of runners who started at the recent record-setting Kings Backyard (52 laps). They got the numbers, but could they break the NZ record?
Like I mentioned last week, the last Silver ticket was up for grabs, and 40 was the magic number of laps needed to secure a place to steal Jane McAlpine’s spot on the NZ Backyard team for the World Champs (provided she didn’t do the same).
12 hours in and a couple of laps in the dark, the 233-person party had roughly halved. It wasn’t long until the long, cold, miserable night started murdering innocent victims every lap.
Lap 14 was a massacre. 13 runners met their maker that lap alone. Then lap 16… AKA The Red Wedding 2.0. 26 runners were disembowed by the warm fuzzy feeling of the 100km milestone.
20 more runners completed 17 laps, only to be cut down, realising how far away the next milestone was. In the blink of an eye, the field was down to 46.
22 runners would survive the night to the warm, welcoming arms of 100 miles. The women’s CR of 21 was buried in the dunes, with 5 runners bettering the old mark.
17 runners (up from 7 in 2023) would join the 200 club. Lap 33, Jane McAlpine and Ketina Chevisa both dropped, handing Julia Chamberlain the last female standing trophy. However, she wasn’t here for a trophy. She had her eyes on the NZ Backyard team.
The final 4 were Sam Harvey, Jeremy Pelvin, Julia Chamberlian and Glenn Tomlinson. They stayed steady for a few laps before Julia dropped on 40, and Glenn on 41. That looks like it’s enough to nab a spot on the NZ team, pushing out Jane McAlpine and Steve Tripp (unless someone pulls out).
So as I write this, it’s down to Sam Harvey (101lap PB) vs. Jeremy Pelvin (50lap PB). Will Jeremy have the mental game to take on Sam?
Overall Winner: 🏆Sam Harvey - 46 laps (308.66KM)
Morning update: Sam has made it 3/3 victories at Krayzies Midwinter Backyard Ultra. Jeremey lasted most of the night, but it looks like the 300km milestone snuck up on him a few hours before sunrise and got him.
Top DNFs - Men 🏃♂️🏃♂️🏃♂️
☠️Jeremy Pelvin - 45 laps (301.95KM)
☠️Glenn Tomlinson - 41 laps (275.11KM)
☠️Brion Matthews - 38 laps (254.98KM)
Last Women Standing:
👑Julia Chamberlain - 40 laps (268.40KM)
Top DNFs - Women 🏃♀️🏃♀️🏃♀️
☠️Jane McAlpine - 33 laps (221.43KM)
☠️Ketina Chevisa - 33 laps (221.43KM
☠️Hadani Wooruff - 30 laps (201.30KM)
KMBU also has a team competition to award spot prizes. Teams consist of 4 runners, and their combined total is the team’s score.
Team Results:
Krayzie Chicks🏃♀️🏃♀️🏃♀️🏃♀️
🥇Pussy Riot - 74 Laps - 496.54km
Hadani Woodruff - 30 yds / 201.30km
Sally Fitzgerald - 15 yds / 100.65km
Maria Cairns - 17 yds / 114.07km
Raechel Keepa -12 yds / 80.52km
Krayzie Dudes🏃♂️🏃♂️🏃♂️🏃♂️
🥇Chasing The Sunrise - 141 Laps - 946.11km
Jeremy Pelvin - 45 laps (301.95KM)
Brion Matthews - 38 laps / 254.98km
Glenn Tomlinson - 41 laps / 275.11km
Jayden Anker - 17 laps / 114.07km
Mixed🏃♀️🏃♀️🏃♂️🏃♂️
🥇The Bone Conductors - 139 Laps - 932.69km
Sam Harvey - 46 laps / 308.66KM
Jula Chamberlain - 41 laps / 275.11KM
Adam Keen - 20yds / 134.20km
Jane McAlpine - 33yds / 221.43km
KMBU promised a lot this year, and it delivered. The women’s CR was shattered, almost doubling to 41 laps, and Sam Harvey was pushed further than he ever has been at this event, with the CR now sitting over the 300km mark—a big shout-out to Stephanie Grace and her team for putting on another successful event.
Check out the full results here. Great coverage and highlights on their Facebook and, as always, Aerobicedge
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Western States Recap
12 AM Sunday morning (5 AM in Murica🌭), one of the most highly anticipated Western States ever got underway. Dylan Bowman was frothing in the commentary booth. I think he said, “My mind is blown", 3 times before the starting gun went off.
It was a bit of a good news/bad news situation at the start. No snow in the high country this year made it easier to traverse the more technical part of the course. The bad news was there was no snow because it was a bit warm out. Not a record-setting year, but hot enough to make you sweat more than a Hoka fanboy at a Vibram 5 finger group run.
Let’s take a look at what happened in the Men’s race.
Men’s Podium
🥇Jim ‘Daddy Long Legs’ Walmsley - 14:13:45
🥈‘Lightening’ Rod Farvard - 14:24:15
🥉Hayden ‘Shake & Bake’ Hawks - 14:24:31
Jim Walmsley completed the fairy tale, returning to Western States and claiming his 4th bronze cougar to put his name beside the legends of the race.
However, this was far from your conventional Jim Walmsley victory.
The last time we saw him win this race, he sat down in a camp chair with 10 miles to go, changed his shoes and enjoyed a coke. He had a 90-minute lead and not a care in the world.
This year? He was in and out of the same aid station in 30 seconds with a rampant Rod Harvard on his tail. The 2 of them had been trading blows throughout the 2nd half of the race. It always felt like Walmsley was in control, but he always is until he’s not.
Walmsley managed to maintain his composure and pull away in the final 15 miles, taking the victory and, at one stage, looking like he may threaten his 2019 course record.
This has been a breakout year for Farvard, punching his ticket to the big dance by winning the 100K Canyons Ultra only 8 weeks prior. Not that you would know it.
The way he took the race to Walmsley, aggressively running out of the aid stations whenever Walmsley stopped, was awesome to see someone take him on.
With 5 miles to go, the 100K Canyons victory might have been catching up with him. Farvard was visibly suffering and Hawks was closing the gap.
It should have been one of the most tense finishes in Western States viewing history, with both Farvard and Hawks on the track at the finish.
Unfortunately for those watching live, the commentators were down at the finish line getting ready to interview Jim Walmsley as Farvard collapsed across the line, looking like a sack of sh💩t as Hawks came in full sprint only 15 seconds behind.
The coverage was much improved this year, but it felt like we were robbed of an amazing moment (yes, I know there’s footage you can watch on Instagram, but not the same as catching it live)
🥝Danny ‘MF’ Jones - 14:32:29 - 4th
Yeeeeeah boy. What a run💪. He may not have got his hands on the cougar, but he gave it everything. I’m sure if you told Dan Friday night that he would run 14:32:29, he would have fallen asleep a happy man.
On his perfect day, he believed breaking 14 hours was possible. Well, he may not have hit perfection, but he was pretty bloody close. The best part was seeing Jones show the world what he is capable of.
Although impressive last year, he never really looked like winning. He hurt his knee in a slip in the high country, which meant he lost touch with the leaders early. He spent most of his day between M7 and M10 before gobbling up some lost souls in the back end of the race.
This year, he ensured he was in the lead pack from the start, running as high as 2nd, leading the charge to close the gap on an early Walmsley break. Then, at one stage, he dropped off the face of the earth. Had he pushed too hard too early? Had he taken another fall?
It turns out he was fine; his chip just didn’t scan at a remote aid station.
He looked strong and composed right to the end. At one stage, it looked like the “Shake & Bake” might still happen as he got as close as 1.5 minutes to Hawks with 5 miles to go.
But 4th is where he would finish; he had Hawks running scared, so scared that Hawks almost found himself in 2nd.
It was an inspirational performance. I’m sure Dan will still have a bad case of the “What Ifs” over the next few days, but he should be proud of his achievements.
💪 He ran the 6th fastest time in Western States history (3 of the times faster being today’s podium.)
💪His time would be good enough to win at all but 3 Western States (2019,2021,2024)
💪He ran 50 minutes faster than last year.
You can watch him finish on Instagram, thanks to MountainOutpost
🥝Andrew McDowall - 22:51:26 - 74th (14th oldman)
He waited 9 years and 4 months, but Andrew McDowall finally crossed the Western States finish line. In his Q&A, he said he would try to run a patient race, getting to 50K, feeling like he was running way too slow and then working through the field.
Well, that looks like exactly what he did. He got to roughly the 50K mark in 6:31 in 115th place. Between there and the finish, he took 41 souls, including one in the final mile.
Well done Andrew. Enjoy the moment. It’s not often that we wait close to a decade before receiving the glory.
Women’s Podium
🥇Katie ‘West’ Schide - 15:46:57
🥈Fuzhao ‘Dont Get cancelled’ Xiang - 16:20:03
🥉Eszter ‘Shooting Star’ Csillag - 16:42:17
All the pre-race chat made it sound like there were 3 races to watch at the Western States this year: the men’s, the women’s and the Katie Schide time trial. As far as I could tell, there hasn’t been such a clear favourite since, well … last year, with Courtney Dawaulter.
There was a massive focus on the women’s race this year, thanks to the work of Corrine Malcolm & Hilary Yang with their “I’m here for the women’s race” t-shirt movement.
The message was loud and clear as there were more “I’m here for the women’s race” t-shirts than you could shake a Leki pole at. But someone forgot to tell Katie Schide. The way she ran this race, she was hunting for man flesh.
She made her intentions clear from the gun. She was first to the top of the escarpment (16th overall) and never looked back. She was close to 30 minutes up on Dawaulters CR from last year at one stage.
As the miles rolled on, she started to bleed time back to the ghost of Dauwalter slowly. With a massive lead to the ever-changing chase pack, the course record came and went, and so did her time from last year. But what does a time matter when you’ve got your hands on a bronze cougar after blitzing the competition by 33 minutes?
It wasn’t just Schide setting the course alight either. The racing was hectic behind her. It felt like at every aid station, there were multiple position changes. It wasn’t until the final 10 miles of the race that some of the gaps started to stretch.
6 out of last year’s top 10 managed to repeat the same achievement, securing a spot on the 2025 start line.
Ironically, Schide was the only one who finished with a slower time this year, with all the other repeat top 10 runners finishing with massive 20min+ PB’s.
To put this year’s times in context, Ruth Crofts's winning 2022 would have been good for 8th this year!
That raps up another memorable year at Western States.
Check out iRunFar for post-race interviews and more in-depth race recaps.
Check out MountainOutpost on Instagram for highlights of the race weekend.
Worst Run Ever
This week’s Public Service Announcement. Don’t touch the discounted food.
“It was just another day on my regular 20km long run. Apart from today, I felt like sh💩t. I was hot🥵, my legs were stiff, and every step was a battle😣. By halfway, I hit the wall, completely bonked.”
“I don’t think I had ever quite hit the wall like this before. I was desperate for some sugary goodness. I stumbled into a bakery to grab anything I could get my hands on.”
“2 for 1 donuts, you say?”
“Don’t mind if I do. A bit different from my standard mid-run banana, but I wasn’t complaining.”
“With a stomach full of creamy, delicious donuts, I slowly meandered along and finished my run.”
“I would have just gotten my shoes off when the first warning shot was fired. My gut started to rumble. Uh oh. Nuff said.”
“That night, I was up all night. Both ends. To this day, I don’t eat donuts, no matter how hungry I am and how cheap they are..”
Worst Run Ever
Nigel
Keep the stories coming in!
Send them to trailrunningnz@gmail.com.
If you need a hand writing your story, I’m more than happy to help.
They can be short or long. Funny😂 or sad😭. You can own it, or it can be made anonymous. They can even have a happy ending.
Things You May Have Missed
Laverado (in the Pyrenees, Italy) was also on this weekend. Some mixed results for the Kiwis (and some we like to claim) being led by Sophie Grant and Nancy Jiang, finishing 6th & 8th in the 120km race and a DNS for Scotty Hawker (illness) and a DNF for Naomi Brand
Speed Freaks were broken into, and a lot of kit was stolen. If you have some kit that you would like to donate or make a donation to replace the kit, get in touch with Anna@speedfreaks.org.Nz, Kimberley@speedfreaks.org.Nz
Inia Raumati ticks off The Gobi March (250k/days), race 4 of his #8 races8continents challenge, finishing 12th overall
Upcoming Events
Cougar Run
Saturday 6th of July
This time last year, we previewed The Black Panther Cougar Run from Total Sport. The site has now expired, and it’s been dropped from the Total Sports site.
I don’t know if there were red tape issues or if they couldn’t bounce back from the revelation that their logo wasn’t actually a cougar. It did appear to have good numbers (280), but maybe they were finding it too hard to compete with all the other big events in the metropolis of Tokoroa.
The next trail racing event on the radar is the WUU2K on July 13th in Wellington, which we will preview next week.
Registration is still open, so if all the Western States action has inspired you but you don’t want to run nearly as far, CLICK HERE.
#Mountain Skag Pic Of The Week
Hayden Bell from the Run Adjacent podcast, Whangarei Hardcore, sent in this week’s #mountainskag.
Now, I know it’s not your classic scphinter stressing exposed ridge line, but I’m picking up what he’s putting down.
It was from his morning run in the Glenbervie Forest, looking towards Whangarei heads.
Some #mountainskag will melt your face off, while others will give you a gentle, warm glow, reminding you how good we’ve got it in NZ.
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 a WUU2K preview & more.
It takes hours to write this newsletter but only 8 seconds to forward it to a friend.
PS. Shower thought for the day: Is your running form ever as good as the first 10 minutes of a run after watching Jim Walmsley🤔? So smooooth.
And a great listen on DCR as well. Proud to be a front of midpacker.
Another good read mate. Such a cool weekend to be watching dots screens and timing sheets