Mt. Oxford Results & The Perfect Runcation
Never in any other race have I had to stop to try to figure out how to descend a mountain
Your weekly fix of NZ trail running news
We are like your trail-running sherpa. We'll guide you through the race results and make sure you don't get lost in the fog of FOMO.
Here's what’s in the drop bag this week:
Mt. Oxford Odyssey Results
Routeburn Classic Changes Hands
My Worst Run Ever
The Perfect Runcation Doesn’t Exist…
Stuff You May Have Missed
Mountain Skag Pic Of The Week
Mt.Oxford Results
6 AM, Saturday the 15th of April, saw 61 brave souls line up to take on NZ’s toughest marathon. Across all 4 distances, there were over 350 runners. The biggest field to date - great to see the word is spreading. If you want pain, this is the place to come
Mountain Marathon: 📏42KM | ⛰️ 3500M
Women's podium:
🥇Nancy Jiang - 7:07:28
🥈Josie Dixon - 7:30:39
🥉Sia Svendsen - 8:08:18
Nancy Jiang continued her winning ways in 2023, picking up the win. The margin was comfortable, but there is no easy way around this course.
Men's podium:
🥇Ben Williams - 5:32:09
🥈Richard Melton - 5:55:29
🥉George Hedley - 6:02:54
Ben Williams put in an impressive display to take home the title of ‘NZ’s toughest Marathon. He can put the trophy next to his Mt. Oxford Half Marathon win from 2018
Everyone who starts this race is an absolute legend. Fabiano Petroni was one of them and here is what he had to say.
It was the hardest thing I ever had to do in my life. Never in any other race have I had to stop to try to figure out how to descend a mountain, and I ran some tough technical races like The Northburn and the WAI2k. This one definitely takes the cake, I honestly love to push myself to the limits and yea Mt Oxford Odyssey definitely delivered
Fabiano Petroni
Mountain Challenge: 📏33KM | ⛰️ 2000M
Men's podium:
🥇George Guerin - 3:30:00
🥈Daniele Danesin - 3:36:10
🥉Steven Melton - 3:38:13
George Guerin came out on top of one of the tighter races of the day. He edged out the 2021 Daniele Danesin Champ and set the new CR. Last year Guerin ran 4.09 - he smashed off 39 minutes!
Women’s podium:
🥇Katie Morgan - 3:55:21
🥈Julia Chamberlain - 4:16:51
🥉Katie Wright - 4:39:20
Katie Morgan is in red hot form. She backed up her national title defense at 3 Peaks Dunedin by taking out the 33KM challenge. This is her 2nd victory at the event, lowering her 2021 winning time by over 7 minutes.
Oxford Half Marathon: 📏21KM | ⛰️ 1500M
Women’s podium:
🥇Julia Tully - 3:05:30
🥈Nicole Cameron - 3:07:44
🥉Brooke Cox - 3:08:33
Men's podium:
🥇Gyuri Varga - 2:35:23
🥈Sanjeev Deo - 2:40:36
🥉Jared Cox - 2:52:24
15KM Trail Run/Tramp: 📏15KM | ⛰️ 1000M
Men’s podium:
🥇Ocean Faloon-Cavander - 1:22:15
🥈Ryan Kiesanowski - 1:23:30
🥉Dallas Wichman - 1:35:52
Women's podium:
🥇Eva Pringle - 1:25:56
🥈Kate Woods - 1:41:52
🥉Sophie Lampe - 1:47:13
Congratulations to everyone who suffered through Mt.Oxford Odyssey over the weekend. A big shout out to The Speedfreaks who had several members finding new limits out there on the course.
Routeburn Classic Changes Hands
The Routeburn classic has been acquired by the owners of the Coast to Coast, Ultimate Events. It’s been running since 2006 and has had a lot of bad luck in recent years. Three years in a row, it was canceled for bad weather (2018-2020), and last year was canceled due to C🤬vid. With the way the weather has been this year, I would probably be on the phone looking for someone to take it off my hands too!
Big Noel from Ultimate Events had this to say.
"We're excited to add the Routeburn Classic to our portfolio of events. The event is a unique and challenging trail run that showcases some of the most spectacular scenery in New Zealand. We're looking forward to continuing the tradition of the Routeburn Classic and providing an unforgettable experience for participants and spectators alike.
Noel Saxon, Director
My Worst Run Ever
This week’s Worst Run Ever reminds you that you can have too much of a good thing!
Keep the stories coming in! Send them to [email protected]
They can be short or long. Funny😂 or sad😭. They can even have a happy ending.
This week I thought I would attempt a Van Gogh
I decided to have a go at my first backyard ultra in April 2022 at the Riverhead ReLaps event. Leading up to this, I put in some steady training but assumed my normal race diet would work on the day.
The event started out well, I had purchased all the saltiest/sweetest🍫🥨 treats I could find in the Kumeu New World and was hankering out for eating-time at the end of each lap. I was even bragging to other runners about my array of chocolate🍫, lollies🍬, waffles🧇, Nutella croissants🥐 and Pringles. Friends showed up with fresh pizza🍕 and someone cooked us a classic sausage sizzle. I even had a beer🍺 with dinner.
Nightfall🌙 arrived and my stomach was starting to say 'enough is enough'🤢. I began visiting the same portaloo💩 every lap, with my crew becoming accustomed to seeing me jog over the finish line and march straight to the toilets. This was the beginning of the end and by midnight I was needing some regular time alone in the forest to confront the issue. At around 4am, I wandered off course, tripped over and ended up lying in the dirt with my headtorch shining straight up into the trees.
One of the guys I had been running with saw this happen and yelled out, asking if I was alright. I made a vaguely human noise and he came over and helped me to my feet🦶. We agreed to finish this lap together and call it a day.
What followed was the most agonising sleep😴 of my life, curled up in the back of our rental van, assuming full fetal position, stomach churning away🤢. It took a good two weeks for everything to come right and my appreciation for those choc chip waffles hasn't been the same since, but I've done two more backyard ultras since and absolutely love the format.
Angus Ward
The Perfect Runcation Doesn’t Exist… Hold My Beer🍺
In the last week of March, Joe Benbow, Sean Martin & Stephen Molineux flew down from Wellington to run the Routeburn/Caples, Kepler, and Milford in a week. No race bibs, no thought of FKTs - just getting out there and enjoying some of the best scenery NZ has to offer. Races are great, but getting out into nature with your mates is unbeatable.
Below is a selection of Joe’s photos and thoughts.
Routeburn & Caples
Day 1 did not disappoint!! Absolutely phenomenal trails. The photos say it all. The Routeburn was as spectacular as I had hoped it would be, and the Caples even more so (a very runnable under-rated trail which I reckon is also one of the best).
Joe Benbow
Kepler
The weather gods answered our prayers and delivered a snowstorm on our rest day followed by a freezing but beautiful day for us to explore all 64k of the famous trail and all the side trips.
After the disappointment of the alternate course in the 2020 Kepler Challenge, I had unfinished business here and boy did we pick the right day for it…
This one had it all - gorgeous forest, mountains, snow, ridgelines to run, waterfalls, beaches. Beats everything else, maybe even Old Ghost.
Joe Benbow
Milford
Rounding off the end to a perfect week. 60k through the Milford Track, including a side trip to NZs highest waterfalls.
Amazing weather (again), scenery to die for, and enough time pressure to make the boat to make it a real challenge. Thanks Milford, you really delivered!
Well that wraps up one heck of an adventure. In 3 days, 182km ran, 5749m elevation gained, 25hrs running time and a million memories made.
It takes hours to write this newsletter but only 8 seconds to forward it to a friend.
Stuff you may have missed
Mountain Skag pic of the week
“It's not every day you get to run around (and over) an active volcano. An incredible experience! “- Heather Mcdonald
This week's Mountain Skag is from Heather Mcdonald. She made the most of Easter, getting around the Northern Circuit in style.
Tag @trailrunning.nz and use #mountainskag on Instagram or email [email protected] 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 goodness.
Tag us on Instagram @trailrunning.nz with all things trail running.
If you're picking up what I'm putting down, please subscribe 😀.
PS- If you want to look this awesome - make sure you enter Mountain Skag Pic of the Week
/