🏃🏃♀️Motatapu Results & 2 Jaffa's go for a long stroll
"...you’ll be wanting a change of undies!”
Your weekly fix of NZ trail running news
We’re here for you like Rainbows End. A little bit sh💩t, but the best option you’ve got🤣.
Here's what’s in the drop bag this week:
🏃🏃♀️Motatapu Results
🎯Things You May Have Missed
📰SK News Desk
🏁Upcoming events: Tararua Mountain Race
⛰️💊Mountain Skag February & The Week
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Motatapu Results
Motatapu Ultra:📏52.5KM | ⛰️3300M
Women's podium:
🥇Crystal Brindle - 7:48:19
🥈Hannah Wall - 8:09:18
🥉Michelle Ashley - 8:38:04
Crystal Brindle led every km of the Motatapu Ultra. She carved out a 7 minute lead over Hannah Wall through the first 25K. Sophie Grant was a further 17 minutes back.
By the 44K mark, the trophy engraver had started to check the spelling of her name. Brindle had increased her lead by 11 minutes.
Wall was still holding on to the silver, but Michelle Ashley had moved past Sophie Grant by 2 minutes with 7km to go.
Brindle went on to win by 21 minutes over Wall, with Ashley holding off Grant to take the bronze.
Men's podium:
🥇Cameron Kerr - 6:27:31
🥈Luke Wilson - 7:10:19
🥉Will Jones - 7:33:27
Much like Crystal Brindle, Cameron Kerr dominated the Motatapu Ultra. He lead from start to finish. At 25K, he had built up a 20-minute lead over Luke Wilson, who was 13 minutes ahead of Peter Menis in 3rd.
Through 44K, it was all but over. Kerr had a 35-minute buffer with 7 km to go. Wilson had one mitt on the silver medal. He was 24 minutes clear of Will Jones, who had swallowed up Menis (now in 4th.)
No changes through the final 7 km. A scintillating victory for Kerr. It’s not every day you drop 43 minutes on your closest rival😎.
Motatapu Off-road Marathon: 📏42.2KM | ⛰️1022M
Men's podium:
🥇Ben Gatting - 3:03:01
🥈Ben Wardhaugh - 3:25:16
🥉Cameron Holden - 3:26:45
Ben Gatting gapped the field early to win back-to-back titles at the Motatapu Trail Marathon.
At the 17km mark, he was already 6 minutes ahead of Ben Wardhaugh. He wouldn’t look back from there. The question wasn’t if he was going to win, it was is he going to dip under his 3:01:18 from last year.
Wardhaugh ran in 2nd all day, finishing 1m30s ahead of a fast-finishing Cameron Holden. With 7 km to go, Wardhaugh was 7 minutes ahead of 4th-placed Holden.
Either the splits have sh@t themselves on the results website, or Cameron stopped ‘Holden’ back and emptied the tank. He moved into 3rd, clawing back 5m29s on Wardhaugh over the last 7km😮.
Women's podium:
🥇Ella McCartney - 3:27:29
🥈Nina Rillstone - 4:07:56
🥉Charlotte Cahill - 4:11:14
Ella McCartney from Straya🦘 channelled her inner Cameron Green (cricket nerd reference🤓) and knocked it out of the park. Through the 17km split, she was already 12 minutes ahead of Nina Rillstone.
She kept her foot firmly on the gas, taking victory by over 40 minutes and finishing 4th overall.
Charlotte Cahill paced herself right onto the podium. Through 17km, she was back in 9th (+9 minutes). With 7km to go, Cahill moved into 3rd but ran out of runway to chase down Rillstone, who held on to 2nd.
Miners Trail: 📏15.7KM | ⛰️927M
Women's podium:
🥇Ella Smit - 1:31:37
🥈Emma Bramley - 1:32:09
🥉Claudia Sole - 1:33:04
In a tight race, Ella Smit bombed💣 it up the 2nd climb and then held on for dear life.
Emma Bramley and Claudia Sole couldn’t catch her, but gapped the chase pack in the process to secure the silver and bronze.
Men's podium:
🥇Ross Gollan - 1:10:55
🥈Dan Jones - 1:11:54
🥉Benje Patterson - 1:16:14
Ross Gollan, the travelling Scotsman, knocked over Dan Jones.
Benje Patterson added to his 3rd in the Ultra last year by taking the bronze.
Shout out to Ryan Carr, who was back giving it beans after a significant layoff (finishing 4th).
Click here for the full results
Things You May Have Missed
There’s hardcore. Then there’s Timaru hardcore. Paul Forbes, the RD of Scenic Circles taking things to the next level fundraising for Speedfreaks.
SK News Desk
It was a busy week at the SK News desk🥵.
On Tuesday, Kelly Davenport ripped the heart out of the Female Valleys FKT. She lowered the time by over 3 hours. That puts her in 10th overall.
14:49 is now the time to beat.
Well done, Kelly. You’re an absolute boss. Looking forward to seeing you back up on the Main Range.
Speaking of the Main Range SK … Kerry Bennet (⛰️Naki Hardcore) knows that the Tararua don’t wait for the weekend☀️.
He set off on his Main Range attempt, Friday 3 AM.
Unfortunately, Kerry bailed out to Otaki (still a massive day, 📏69km & ⛰️5.5k) and took the weather with him like a true Crowded House fan.
Enter Shaun Collins & Scott Bougen. The 2 battle-hardened JAFA’s mentioned last week.
They flew down Friday and decided to start at 8 PM, attempting to get through the bum puckery bits before the forecast high winds set in🌪️.
It was a bold move that would see them navigate the most challenging sections in the dark and miss out on some of the best views in the Tararua.
However, their dream of a sub-24-hour Main Range was brought to a screaming halt. With the gnarly chains and ladder to come, high winds and clag meant the tough decision was made to bail out to the valley floor😭.
Bailing out still involved another 11 hours, 30km, and one of the steepest descents in the range.
We will score this 1‐1. The weather gods punched them in the mouth to send them to the valley floor. But they showed their grit and found a bail-out option on the fly. They ground it out for another 11 hours, still completing a full traverse of the range.
Here is what they thought of the whole experience.
“Adventure you say!! Main Ridge SK is an adventure on steroids!!
”It’s one sure fire way to shock the body into performing and add some high winds and you’ll be wanting a change of undies!! Makes UTMB look easy!”
“This is the sh$t I live for! Epic adventures with good mates!! And what I needed to light the fire under my ass as I build for this year’s UTMB.”
“Till next time SK we’ve got some beef to sort!”
“Huge appreciation for all GC’s in the BSR community who helped with advice/transport etc 👊🏻”
Scott Bougen
“For me, the SK was a true adventure run. A beautifully ugly experience! I had respect for the challenge beforehand, but it was even harder/rougher/wetter than I expected.”
“Massive hats off to the peeps that have done it and in the times they can do at the pointy end. Maybe we’d have caught lost time from the full night section in the north, with more daylight running but 18hrs or whatever sounds mighty fast.”
“An awesome session for the body and definitely rougher than any other mission I’ve done.
“We’ll be back to finish it up next time…after you’ve ordered better weather for us and trimmed or paved the tracks 😂. We have to come back - we didn’t see any views the whole time except the inside of clouds/mist, with the exception of a few pockets of time in the early evening when we saw a clear sky with stars and the moon.”
"‘
“Massive thanks to all the peeps from BSR who helped with advice/transport etc”
Shaun Collins
They came for the Tararua experience, and boy, did they get it. Looking forward to round 2💪.
Read more about the Tararua SK here if you think this looks like your flavour of jam.
Upcoming Events
Tararua Mountain Race
Saturday, March 9
It’s been 4 long years. But it’s finally back.
The relaunch of the Tararua Mountain Race.
This weekend, Andy Carruthers goes from mountain runner to mountain race director.
He goes from worrying about making sure he’s lubed his nipples to worrying about runners getting lost, snapping limbs, and not burying their poo💩.
Race directors are the true endurance athletes!
Let’s take a quick look at what’s on offer this Saturday.
Field Dash: 📏13KM | ⛰️770M
The Kime Climb: 📏24KM | ⛰️1300M
There are now 2 new shorter races starting from Otaki Forks.
Both options are great for getting a taste of what the Tararua is all about and shouldn’t be taken lightly.
The Field Dash, in particular, is a great option if you’re just getting into mountain running.
Southern Crossing: 📏36KM | ⛰️2300M
Then we have the Big Kahuna, AKA The Southern Crossing.
The stats look tough, but painting the whole picture is impossible.
This MIGHT be the toughest 36 km mountain race in the lower North Island.
Earlier this year, Andy was kind enough to answer a few questions as part of a preview for The Long Run quarterly ezine.
You can read the full preview here, but here is a snippet below.
What sets the TMR course apart from others you’ve experienced around the country?
“The Southern Crossing is a wild historic tramping route, it has a great variety of terrain and there is something special about traversing the range from Kaitoke to Otaki where on a good day you can see most of the lower North Island and the top of the South.”
What does ‘Success’ look like for the first year of the new TMR?
“Success for the first year looks like the community enjoying a swim in the river and a sausage at the finish after a hard day’s adventure in one of our special wilderness places that we all wish we spent more time in.”
Is there anything else you would like to say to the NZ trail-running community?
“Thank you to the community who have supported the event this year and in the past. The event supports LandSAR who keep us safe in the outdoors. I hope to see you swimming in the river after some blood sweat and tears that the Tararua Mountain Race always delivers.”
Click here for more details. Follow along on Instagram.
PS. I’m putting the race bib on for the first time since Tarawera 2023.
If there’s no newsletter Monday morning, I’m in the foetal position somewhere in the Tararua.
#Mountain Skag Pic Of February
There have been some next-level photos coming in this summer.
Vote for your favourite #mountainskag winner from February.
#Mountain Skag Pic Of The Week
This week’s #mountainskag fix is from Ben Taylor on his Craigieburn Round attempt.
I reckon it would’ve been worth the pain for this view alone!
“The setting sun on Mt Willis, the southern end of the Craigieburn Range.”
Tag @trailrunning.nz (NOTE THE “.”) and use #mountainskag, DM on Instagram, or email trailrunningnz@gmail.com to enter.
Every entry has a chance to win the monthly giveaway of a Mountain Skag T-shirt or hat.
Next week, we will have results from the Tararua Mountain race and a look at 3 Peaks Dunedin.
It takes hours to write this newsletter but only 8 seconds to forward it to a friend.
PS. The paid subscriber giveaway for March will be in next week’s edition. Fire through your prize suggestions this week.