🏃🏃♀️Naseby, Lake Dunstan & 49 Kiwis at UTMB
"...you didn't have to be a doctor to know that something was wrong"
Your weekly fix of NZ trail running news
We’re the UTMB of the trail running newsletter game. Long and soul destroying with a 40% DNF rate😝
Here's what’s in the drop bag this week:
🏃🏃♀️The Great Naseby Water Race Results
🏃🏃♀️Dunstan Trail Marathon Results
🥝Kiwi UTMB Results
🍹August Paid Subscriber Winners
🟣Worst Run Ever
🏁Upcoming events: Scenic Circles Backyard Ultra & Kinloch Offroad
⛰️💊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.
The Great Naseby Water Race
This week, the Great Naseby Buffet took place Wednesday through Sunday. No race crams more distances into a week than Naseby- so let’s kick into the results.
200 MILES!
Wednesday morning, 8 AM, 13 brave souls stood around the Naseby start line, wondering WTF they were doing there while we were all thinking,
“I wonder what job they have that they would rather run 200 miles than go to work.”
Seriously though, big ups to anyone who steps up to run 200 miles. I can’t quite wrap my grey matter around it.
I’m trying to decide what sounds worse: 2 x 100 miles, 320 km, 3200 rugby fields, or 320,000m
Regardless, it’s a loooooong way.
🥇Glenn Sutton - 50:16:07
🥈Mark Doohan - 53:14:55
🥉Jannik Schroder - 55:39:59
💪Bradley Aldridge - 58:05:14
💪Andy Smith - 62:15:18
💪Josh Lloyd - 64:38:15
💪Daniel De Rose - 64:58:50
💪Jason Botting - 65:36:51
💪Josh Kingsbury - 67:18:41
💪Andrew Aitken - 75:28:05
💪Dougie Kyle - 80:17:37
💪Karen Aulelio - DNF
💪Lesley Wilson - DNF
Glenn Sutton and Mark Doohan went at it like two seagulls fighting over the last chip.
Sutton led out the first 4 loops before Doohan took his crack at it, grinding out a 16-minute lead over the next 4 laps. Lap 9 saw Sutton take the chip back, never to be seen again … well, until he started lapping everyone.
Sutton’s lead would bloat out as far as 5 hours before Doohan finished strongly, bringing it back to 3 hours.
Jannik Schroder had 3rd locked down like it was 2020. He ran the last 3 laps faster than anyone to finish a further 2 hours back of Doohan.
A shoutout to my pre-race pick, Josh Lloyd. He may not have won the race, but he won the prize for the most disgusting shoey this year.
200km
It was a small but perfectly formed field for 200km this year.
🥇Kieran Philip - 23:27:17
🥈Jesse Rhodes - 26:29:19
🥉Hamish Tyson - 33:18:45
Kirean Philip was having a great Monday until it was announced that John “Mr. Naseby” Bayne had entered the 200km.
He looked to bury Bayne early, running the first 50km in 4h30m, smashing out a 30-minute lead.
That’s where things got interesting. Bayne reeled Philip in over the next 6 laps before building his own 30-minute lead by the 100-mile mark. Bayne then pulled the pin (I don’t have a diagnosis), and Philip was back on top and would kick on to take the win.
Jesse Rhodes had himself a day, staying in the fight and taking full advantage of the Bayne drop to take a well-deserved 2nd.
Hamish Tyson rounded out the podium to get himself a new shiny golden belt buckle.
*Shannon-Leigh Litt was also in this race. She hasn’t been listed as a finisher or DNF so that these results may be inaccurate (more than usual).
100Miles
Men’s Podium
🥇Connor Edwards - 17:05:38
🥈Shannon Rhodes - 17:32:20
🥉Jared Van Vianen - 18:42:28
Jared Van Vianen set the early pace. Through 80km, he had a 40-minute lead over Shannon Rhodes and Connor Edwards. These 2 would eat that up as Vianen began to wobble, with Rhodes initially taking the lead at 130km before Edwards put the hammer down, running the final 30km in 3:16:39 to take the win.
Women’s Podium
🥇Maggi Forsyth - 19:34:15
🥈Jaime Stevenson - 23:30:44
🥉Ketina Chivasa - 26:12:05
It was a different story on the women’s side of the race. Maggi Forsyth led from start to finish. She ran the fastest lap in the field for 15/16 laps before letting her foot off the gas on the final victory lap.
Jamie Stevenson hit the magical sub-24 to take 2nd, with the ever-present Ketina Chivasa taking the bronze with a strong finish after a few struggles around the 100km mark.
100km
Women’s Podium
🥇Julia Chamberlain - 9:27:03
🥈Anna O'Bryne - 10:51:55
🥉Lydia Pattillo - 11:32:40
Julia Chamberlain added the Naseby 100km trophy to her 2024 collection, which includes Mt.Oxford Odyssey & Mt. Difficulty.
This was a drag race, with all 3 top women running in their final position throughout the whole race. Chamberlain had it all but sewn up at the 50km mark, with Anna O’Bryne and Lydia Pattillo 24 & 32 minutes back.
Men’s Podium
🥇Johan Bergman - 9:06:59
🥈Fynn Thompson - 10:13:30
🥉Paul Simpson - 10:32:20
Johan Bergman was like a human metronome. He paced this to perfection. He only had an 8-minute spread between his slowest and fastest laps and never once cracked the 60-minute mark.
Fynn Thompson kept in the fight all day. Bergman’s lead only blew to double digits at the 70km mark. Paul Simpson also had himself a day, picking up the bronze.
Fun fact: 2nd & 3rd in both fields ran fast enough to win last year.
80km
Women’s Podium
🥇Crystal Brindle - 7:27:53 (Overall win)
🥈Kirsty Gilmour - 8:43:23
🥉Agnetha Korevaar - 9:01:44
Crystal Brindle shot off like a woman possessed and streaked away from the rest of the women’s field.
Kirsty Gilmour and Agnetha Korevaar did their best to keep in the race, but Brindle was in a league of her own. She would top the women’s podium by over an hour and take the overall win, beating out Jason Sweney ‘Todd’ by 9 minutes.
Men’s Podium
🥇Jason Sweney - 7:36:54
🥈Tom Turtle - 8:32:07
🥉Adam Clarke - 9:53:11
Like in the women’s race, Jason Sweney had a dominant win, stopping the Casio close to an hour ahead of Tom Turtle.
However, this became all about Sweney vs Brindle for the overall win, and Sweney got all he could handle and more.
Brindle eeked out a 36-second lead in the first lap, and she never looked back. Sweney would stay hot on her heels all day, heading into the final lap only 1:50 back. Brindle then dropped a 55-minute hot lap to secure the overall victory by 9 minutes.
50km
Men’s Podium
🥇Simon Cromarty - 3:25:08
🥈Sam Whitaker - TBC
🥉Adam Keen - 4:24:06
WTF 3:25:08, this is Sparta! Madness.
Simon Cromarty took 25 minutes off his already scintillating 2022 winning time of 3:49:06.
Look at these lap times: 38:14, 39:58, 40:49, 41:50, 44:14
Sam Whitaker did all he could, even bypassing the timing mat on the 2nd lap to lower his time (website results are missing the 2nd lap and have Sam winning in 3:12:21).
Adam Keen from AerobicEdge backed up his slogan, #bemoresavage, taking the bronze.
Women’s Podium
🥇Annise Boothroyd - 5:28:31
🥈Sue Hendry - 5:43:11
🥉Colleen Thompson - 5:55:42
Click here for the full results, including the 60km teams event.
Lake Dunstan Trail Marathon Results
I still can’t quite put my finger on it. But something just doesn’t feel right. Everything just looks too bright and shiny.
Is it possible that this event is an elaborate trap to lure fresh meat to Northburn, thinking they’ll get the same Mr. Nice Race Director with beautifully groomed trails?
To Be Determined.
Regardless, 155 keen beans lined up to put Terry’s latest race through its pacers.
Men’s Podium
🥇Ben Twyman - 2:56:22
🥈James Millar - 3:06:32
🥉Jack Brownie - 3:09:42
Local Cromwellian Ben Twyman is the first to get his name on the Dunstan Trail Marathon trophy.
No stranger to running sub 3 at this distance, he’s set the bar high to start.
James Millar and Jack Brownie from Churchur battled it out for first loser, with Millar coming away with the bragging rights.
Women’s Podium
🥇Moira Macdonald - 3:25:59
🥈Caris Teo - 3:33:31
🥉Sue Crowley - 3:35:21
What a day for Moira Macdonald. She takes the win in her first marathon and can claim the CR (looks like a solid time to beat).
Caris Teo from Whangarei and Sue Crowley from Rotovegas battled it out for the next best spot on the podium.
It will be interesting to see how this time stacks up over the next few years.
Follow along on Instagram & Facebook. I’m sure there will be more coverage in the next few days.
Kiwi’s At UTMB
Say what you like about UTMB, but they know how to put on The a spectacle.
It had me glued to my phone all week. It's a weird combination of elite athletes going hammer and tong with weekend warriors trying to fulfill a bucket list dream.
This year, 49 Kiwis (and ones we’ll claim) were in Chamonix to take on the iconic races.
The week started with TDS on Tuesday, the more technical, ‘almost’ a miler race.
It set the tone early for what to expect for the rest of the week. Carnage.
It was hot AF this year, which saw the DNF rate sky rocket increase a bit.
There were a lot of comments about the DNF rate this year. I ran the math, and yes, the DNFs are up, but not THAT much.
This year, there were 8,334 starters with 2619 DNFs, a 31% DNF rate.
Last year, there were 8298 starters with 2219 DNFs. That’s 27%.
I think it was just more pronounced this year, with many elites dropping out.
If you want to read a rundown of the races, check out iRunDMC’s summaries here.
Below, I’ve posted all the Kiwi results I could find.
Podium, middle of the pack, chasing the cutoffs, or DNF.
Hold your head high. You chased your dream and made it to the starting line, and that’s the toughest part.
UTMB: 176KM📏 | 10,000m👆️
We had to wait an extra year, but it was worth the wait.
Ruth Croft, 2nd at UTMB. How good? It would take a new CR from Katie Schide to keep Croft off the top of the podium.
I have no idea what her race plan was, but if it was, “Start slow. When the sun comes up, we hunt,” she executed it perfectly. At one stage I thought my stream was bugging out, she ran that fast out of Chamex Lac.
🥝Kiwi Women
🏃♀️Ruth Croft - 22:48:37 - 2nd
🏃♀️Sophie Grant - 28:38:05 - 22nd
🏃♀️Nancy Jiang - 30:12:26 - 28th
🏃♀️Naomi Brand - 33:33:36 - 44th
🏃♀️Emma McEwen - 38:35:35 - 78th
💪DNF: Brooke Thomas, Katie Wright, Sophia Kennelly
Unfortunately, Scotty Hawker and Benje Patterson dropped out early due to injury and illness. Cam Kerr didn’t get his redemption, so it was left to Simon Cochrane & Louis Schindler to carry the boats for the Kiwi men.
🥝Kiwi Men
🏃♂️Simon Cochrane- 27:30:04 - 86th
🏃♂️Louis Schindler - 28:38:26 - 113th
🏃♂️James Bland - 36:23:09 - 446th
🏃♂️Stu Heighway - 40:37:02 - 794th
🏃♂️John Molloy - 42:54:29 - 1053rd
🏃♂️Glen Browne - 43:18:18 - 446th
💪DNF: Bernard Robinson, Ben Walker, Dave Beeche, Cam Kerr, Andrew Macdonald, Benje Patterson, Andrew Stanley, Scott Hawker
CCC: 100KM📏 | 6100M👆️
Isla Smith (based in Mallorca) backed up her 50th in OCC last year with a 40th place in a solid debut at the 100km distance.
🥝Kiwi Women
🏃♀️Isla Smith - 16:09:34 - 40th
🏃♀️Courtney Molloy - 25:06:01 - 249th
💪DNF: Susan Mcgee
After a conservative start, Dan Jones got tantalizingly close to his first international podium.
He ran as high as 2nd in the final 1/3 of the race, but unfortunately, he got outgunned to the finish. It's still a massive result in what could be the most competitive 100k mountain race ever.
🥝Kiwi Men
🏃♂️Daniel Jones - 10:36:20 - 4th
🏃♂️Dane Danesin - 13:38:02 - 62nd
🏃♂️Jub Bryant -14:31:04 - 93rd
🏃♂️Keith Poore - 15:28:20 - 129th
🏃♂️Henry Barfoot - 24:32:49 - 980th
💪DNF: Steve Roberts, Craig Barth
OCC: 55.0KM📏 | 3500👆️
Caitlin Fielder struggled through the first 30 odd k’s of the race, but she hung tough, kept moving, and turned her day around. She ran through the field in the back half of the race to finish 5th in a stacked field.
Robyn Lesh continued her great season, closing strongly to place 14th.
🥝Kiwi Women
🏃♀️ Caitlin Fielder - 6:05:46 - 5th
🏃♀️ Robyn Lesh - 6:24:44 - 14th
🏃♀️ Natasja Wilmot - 13:58:22 - 393rd
💪DNF: Pip Stewart
David Haunschmidt disappointingly picked up a niggle pre-race after some great results over the past month in Europe. Fingers crossed, he’s back next year, as I think we all want to see how he goes on the biggest stage at 100%.
Shout out to Neil Cameron, who is still getting it done over 70. #lifegoals!
🥝Kiwi Men
🏃♂️Neil Cameron - 13:45:31 - 980th (70-74!)
💪DNF: David Haunschmidt, James McMahon, Allan Lamb
TDS: 145📏 | 9100M👆️
I haven’t been as invested in watching a little man run across an elevation profile as I was in watching the people's champ, Fabiano Petroni, during TDS.
He has put EVERYTHING into this campaign, but it was always going to be a close battle. As the day wore on, his speed slowed, and the cut-offs got closer and closer.
After 114.2km, 7824m of elevation, and 35 odd hours, Fab timed out, missing the cut-off by 10 minutes. We’ll call this one a TKO and the first movie in the trilogy.
🥝Kiwi Men
🏃♂️Ben Seymour - 37:27:13 - 507th
🏃♂️Ben Cameron - 37:58:05 - 544th
🏃♂️Christian Stockle - 42:14:36 - 841st
🏃♂️Thomas Smiley - 42:14:54 - 842nd
💪DNF: Fabiano Petroni, Grant Pritchard, Wayne McIndoe, William Bielby, Peter Van Kampen
August Paid Subscriber Winners
I mixed it up this month. I asked ChatGPT to decide who would win in a fight to the death to win some Morwots.
“In a grim arena, fighters clashed, each vying for a 1kg pouch of Morwots drink mix.”
“It was a long bloody battle, now only 10 remained”
“Andrew McDowall quickly took down Kyle Malone, while Kevin Fink and Tony Sharpe formed a brief alliance to overpower Jacqui Haggland.”
“Chester Holt-Quick fought fiercely but was bested by Angus Ward. Sarah Mackey and Alina Junc went head-to-head, with Alina emerging victorious.”
“As the dust settled, Andrew, Kevin, Tony, Angus, and Alina stood as the last five standing, bloodied but victorious, clutching their hard-won Morwots amid the carnage.”
Congratulations Andrew, Kevin, Tony, Angus, and Alina
You’ve won yourself a 1 kg Pouch of Morwots Drink Mix.
Wondering how you can get your name in the draw for more awesome prizes?
A big THANK YOU to ALL the Paid Supporters who help keep this snowball rolling.
Worst Run Ever by UTMB 🟣CurraNZ
I’m happy to announce that 🟣CurraNZ has run out of Elite Athletes to sponsor and wants to help prop up the 7th best trail running newsletter in NZ.
Every entry will go into the monthly draw for your chance to win a 30-pack of CurraNZ.
Do they work? I have no f🟣cking idea. But most of you need all the help you can get, so get writing!
“Was it 17 hours of continuous rain during my first 100 miler at Naseby, nope. 40+ hours suffering during Northburn 100, nope. It was a short and sharp run around my local reserve on 1st January this year.”
“After struggling with niggles for a long time, I felt that I still had one more miler in me, so I slowly worked on my comeback while thinking about another "Naseby".”
“To start the new year and the plans off well, I decided to go for a little leg stretcher on new year's day , nothing major.I think I have done at least 20,000 km on this 2km loop, so I dare to say that I know the track well. Not well enough however to miss a tiny little tree root which made me, 200 metres into my run, trip over.”
“After a couple of stumbles, my left leg shot away underneath me on the gravel track, and here I was, like a 54-year-old ballerina, in a perfect forward split, flat on the ground. Although I felt an explosion of pins and needles in my left foot, there was otherwise no pain and after being recovered from the shock, I tried to get up , only to come down to earth with a bang again, my leg bending forwards like a flamingo.”
“Being it my local track, only a few kilometres from home, and only going out for a short 10er, I didn't have my phone with me. So, no other option that yelling on the top of my lungs in the hope that somebody would hear me., I knew by cars being parked in the car park, that there were people out on the loop.”
“Luckily enough, after 10 minutes or so on the ground, help arrived and they carried me out to my car and drove me home. Off to E&A at Kew hospital...where the diagnosis by the 15 ?? year old doctor was "just a strain", nothing some paracetamol wouldn't fix.”
“All good and well, until I went to the toilet in the middle of the night, and I fainted, which is a pain in the leg if you are inmobile and can't get yourself of the floor. The next day, still no pain, but I couldn't stand on it., and every time I got up I kept getting light headed and dizzy.”
“Being a volunteer fire fighter in Edendale, I got the whisper out to the brigade to come along with the medical bag to check my vitals (but don't make a call out out of it for God's sake!!!) and that proofed that something wasn't right., every time I got up again, my heart rate went through the roof and my blood pressure through the floor (90/80), so something was obviously wrong.”
“Ignoring the wisdom and experience of the 15?? year old doctor , off to the GP I went the next day. However, by that time you didn't have to be a doctor to know that something was wrong, because the whole back of my leg was bruised from top to bottom., and a referral to the radiologist was organised to see what exactly was going on.”
“Although the new year was only 5 days old by then, I knew I wouldn't see anybody happier in the coming year than the radiologist. On the day that he had an apprentice in the clinic, I couldn't have brought a better injury in that this to show... top notch!!”
“Okay, after some scanning, it was obvious that there was some serious damage the only question really was "was the third muscle of the hamstring still attached or were they all completely ripped off", so back to Kew hospital for an MRI scan. It didn't take long to figure out that my hamstring was completely torn off and the decision was made to operate.”
“But this was not the end of the story, because what was supposed to be a one- or two-day hospital stay ended up to be 6 days, with two return trips due to reoccurring haemorrhages.”
“Now, 7 months later, I can finally say that I'm ready to "run" again, but it has been, physically and mentally, a long recovery! However.... the fire of that one more 100 Miler is still burning!”
Ruud Verplancke
Argh… I hope you sent a copy of that scan to the Doctor who effectively told you to take some concrete pills.
The good news is you’re now in the draw for some little purple pills.
They won't stitch your hamstring back together, but they might help you get back on the Naseby start line.
Keep the stories coming in! Send them to trailrunningnz@gmail.com
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.
Upcoming Events:
Kinloch Off-road Marathon
Saturday, September 7th
Up next is the Kinloch Offroad Challenge. Think of it as the Taupo Ultramarathon without the Ultra.
Distances on offer:
📏42KM
📏21KM
📏10KM
📏5KM
For roughly half the cost, you can run roughly half the same trails as the Taupo 50.
The cool thing about this event is they have 2 different courses for the full marathon and half marathon.
The marathon takes you out of Kinloch onto the Great Lake Trail. If you're running the Ultra in October, this will give you a great chance to see some of the course.
The half marathon heads in the other direction, taking you out onto the Kinloch Heads loop track, one of the best trails in the area and of the Taupo Ultra course.
However, another year has passed, and I still can’t figure out why people are paying $77 to run a 5km race along the stream in Kinloch. It’s essentially a $77 parkrun!
Click here for more info. Standard entries close on Thursday, but you can also enter on the day.
Scenic Cirles Backyard, Timaru
Saturday, 7th September
Scenic Circles is back this year for another spin around the block.
Today, Tomorrow, Timaru just makes so much more sense now.
Novice ultra runner Glenn Sutton had a surprise victory last year, outlasting Jayden Anker, winning with 37 laps / 248.3km.
It looks like he’s on the starters list again this year, but he also just won the Naseby 200 miler. Glenn, I think you might have a running problem.
85 other loop enthusiasts will join Glenn in the starting coral, up from 57 last year. There's a good mix of Dunedinites, Timarurians, and Churchur folk.
Some of the big dawgs in the field are Glenn Sutton, Shannon Rhodes, Mark Rigby, and Ketina Chivasa.
If you missed the biggest sporting event ever hosted in Timaru last year, here are a few snaps of the course.
Good luck to the Scenic Circles crew and everyone running.
Reception shouldn’t be an issue, so Facebook is probably the best place to follow along.
#Mountain Skag Pic Of The Week
This week's #Mountain Skag is from Fabiano Petroni, on the TDS course.
Whatever you do, don’t look down … eek thats a long way.
Tag @trailrunning.nz and use #mountainskag 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.
We will be back next week with Scenic Circles results (or an update if it’s still going), Kinloch Offroad results, and whatever else I find on my late-night doom scroll.
It takes hours to write this newsletter but only 8 seconds to forward it to a friend.
PS: I haven’t worked out the giveaway for September yet. Let me know in the comments what you’d like to see up for grabs.
So much to report on. Such a great week on endurance running to make me feel inadequate.