🏃🏃♀️Rocky Point Results & Big's Backyard
"That 3rd fireball shot is really starting to feel like a bad idea.”
Your weekly fix of NZ trail running news
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Here's what’s in the drop bag this week:
🏃🏃♀️Rocky Point Trail Run Results
😵💫Bigs Backyard Underway
🎯Things You May Have Missed
🤢Worst Run Ever
🏁Upcoming events: Cape Kidnappers Trail Run, Mission Mt Somers, River Run Backyard Ultra
⛰️💊Mountain Skag Pic of the Week
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Rocky Point Trail Run
Sunday, 22nd of October
The Gutbuster -📏25KM | ⛰️1M
🏃♀️Women’s Podium
🥇Cath Casey - 2:19:43
🥈Lynn Irving - 2:20:48
🥉Dee Young - 2:22:41
Cath Casey and Dee Young set the early pace, with only a few seconds separating them at the 5km mark. Lynn Irving was within shouting distance, 45 seconds back, ready to pounce if the lead two had gone out too hot🥵.
Casey started to stretch the elastic, 20 odd seconds up by the 14 km mark, and Irving was moving in on Young. Over the next 3 km, Irving passed Young and set her targets on Casey.
Young failed to make inroads on Casey but pulled clear of Young, and that’s how it finished. Shout out to Cath Casey, taking home 1st overall and 1st Vet (50-59)💪.
🏃Men’s Podium
🥇Steven Gibson - 1:42:17
🥈Mark Boon - 1:47:14
🥉Shaun Clark - 1:48:06
Steven Gibsbon🐒 went ape sh💩t over the first 5K, but Mark ‘The Ba’ Boon was close on his tail. Shaun Clark wasn’t monkeying around either, as he clung to Boon like a baby spider monkey… okay, I think I’ve got that all out of the system.
Gibson slowly increased his lead with every kilometre. The real action was the battle for 2nd and 3rd. Boon and Clark ran stride for stride over the first 20 km before Boon made like a banana🍌 and split, finishing just under 1 minute ahead of Clark.
Not The Gutbuster -📏12.5KM | ⛰️0.5M
🏃Men’s Podium
🥇Silas Carey - 0:49:10
🥈Brian Grant - 0:49:11
🥉Hamish Wohlers - 0:52:15
At first glance, I presumed this was a couple of mates going for a bit of a blast together on a Sunday. But, a closer look revealed it was an intergenerational battle for the ages😮.
Silas ‘Who’s Going To’ Carey the boats took the early initiative, up by 17 seconds on Brian Grant over the first 5 km. That is as far as Carey would get ahead, as Grant had the tow rope firmly in place.
With 3 km to go, Grant had pulled to within 5 seconds of Carey. He wasn’t going anywhere. In fact, the tow rope turned into a slingshot maneuver, which almost came off, falling just 1 second short of scoring a second overall victory for Team Veteran (50-59)😎.
Hamish Wohlers found himself in no man’s land, just off the pace to challenge for the lead but just ahead of the chasing pack. Still, an impressive time and a spot on the podium nonetheless.
🏃♀️Women’s Podium
🥇Robyn Deane - 0:57:17
🥈Aj Venner - 1:00:34
🥉Mary-Clare Delahunty - 1:02:36
It was a 3 way drag race in the women’s field (best not to google that🤣). Robyn Deane was first out of the blocks and slowly pulled away from the field with every step.
AJ Venner did her best to keep pace, only down 1 minute through the first 5 km. However, the gap continued to grow. With Deane out of sight, Venner’s attention turned to what was happening behind her. However, she had done enough to take home 2nd place.
Mary-Clare Delahunty took the final spot on the podium and 1st overall Legend (60+)💪.
Check out the full results here, and Rockypoint Facebook has a few pictures up.
Big’s Back Yard
Big’s Backyard kicked off at 1 AM Sunday, NZ time. This is the OG Backyard Ultra. It’s the Olympics for crazies, with nothing better to do than run around in circles for days😵💫.
Our top dog, Sam Harvey, is over there doing his thing. Sam has been very clear: he is there to win. Nothing else will suffice. Who would bet against him at this stage?
Adam Keen, NZ’s celebrity Backyard Ultra Reporter, also made the trip. He’s crewing for Ryan Ingram, aka The White Kenyan from Straya🦘 and providing live updates on his Instagram page Aerobicedge.
The race started with 75 people from over 20 countries competing. Interestingly, 3 runners dropped before 100 miles. Maybe they were eating an awesome burger between laps and got distracted? Who knows🤔.
The first 2 days have been like watching high jumpers who can clear a 2m bar jump over a Coke can. I guess you can’t skip the first part like they do in the high jump.
Anyway, I digress. As you read this (Tuesday morning), they have been looping for 55 hours / 365 km🤯. Now’s about the time you want to tune in. Up until now, everything has been a warm-up.
I was going to list all of the remaining athletes, but there are still 40 runners. To put that into context, the NZ event record is 46 loops. With such a big base to build on, surely we will see the world record (102) broken.
The runners are now back on the day loop, and with the heat of the day, and trickier underfoot conditions, those numbers should start dropping every lap.
If you’re working in the office today, keep an eye on the action every hour here, or follow Aerobicedge for live updates or TrailrunningNZ for slightly delayed Aerobicedge updates😂.
Good luck to Sam Harvey for the next 2 weeks. I hope you’ve packed enough undies🩲.
Things You May Have Missed
Worst Run Ever
There are two ways of gaining experience. We can either learn from our own mistakes or learn from others. I suggest learning from John’s mistake on this one.
“It’s the 2nd of January. My scheduled 7AM departure has now been rescheuled to 1PM, double hangover🤢. I jump in the car and cruise to the trail head. F🤬🤬k me it’s hot. Like, maybe I should go back home, and run on the dreadmill hot. Goggins taps me on the shoulder, he sends my inner b🤬tch packing.”
“The run doesn’t start off to badly. Weaving in and out of the bush, it’s surpinsgly cool. After 20 minutes or so I push out of the bush on to the farmland. BOOM, a wall of heat hits me. That 3rd fireball shot is really starting to feel like a bad idea.”
“Onwards and upwards. There’s no point stopping now. The trig is only another 45 odd minutes away… 1 hour later, time for some bliss balls and admire the view.”
“It’s absolutely roasting now🥵. Time to get going back down the hill. The grass is long, doing its best to hide the ankle breaking pot holes. Halfway down, my feet slip from underneath me, I land straight on my pack.”
“The air rushes from my lungs leaving me gasping, but that’s not the only issue. I feel cold and wet on my back. I catch my breathe and sit up. I open my pack and see that my hydration bladder has burst.”
“F🤬🤬K F🤬🤬K F🤬🤬K. It must be close to 30 out here and I’ve still got 50 minutes back to the car.”
“I can’t do anything about it. I just need to get back.”
“The cool bush, is now sweltering. I feel like I’m slowly suffocating. Finally, I can see the carpark. I make it back. The car is absolutely thermo nucler☢️. Mental note, park in the shade next time. To make matters worse, I can’t find my drink bottle anywhere.”
“Things couldn’t really get to much worse at this point. As I sit there, contemplating my life decisions over the last 72 hours, I look up into the rearview mirror. Holy Sh💩tballs. I completely forgot Sunblock. My face already resembles The Warehouse uniform …”
“WORST RUN EVER”
- John O’Donnell
Keep the stories coming in! The cupboard is now empty!
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
River Run Backyard Ultra
Saturday, 28th of October
River Run kicks off at 9 AM Saturday at the Waipukurau A&P showgrounds. It will run until only one runner is left, or the event gets kicked out for the Miss. Waipukarau the following weekend.
There are over 100 runners signed up, which shows you the increasing popularity of backyards in NZ. You can barely get 100 students to show up for a riot in Dunedin these days.
River Run was featured last month, and you can check it out here. Paid subs, you can check out the backyard article from this quarter's ‘The Long Run’ here.
If the Big’s backyard action has inspired you, it’s not too late to enter. Josh Lloyd and his team will be taking registrations right up until kick-off.
For more information and to follow along next weekend, check out their Facebook
Cape Kidnappers Trail Run
Saturday, 28th of October
Cape Kidnappers by Totalsport is the second act in the Hawkes Bay Double Banger Bonanza.
If you ever wanted to sneak up to Hawkes Bay and steal the Cape Kidnappers trophy, this would be the weekend to do it.
All the local Harry hardouts and Tessa tryhards will be throttling each other at River Run. Just don’t break the trophy and leave plaster dust on it …
There are 4 distances on offer:
📏34km 👆1384m (Increased from 28km last year)
📏21km 👆725m
📏15km 👆521m
📏6 km 👆175m
Judging from last year’s winning times, expect fast runnable trails with enough hills to let you know about it for a couple of days.
The long course has also seen a significant change. It’s been bumped from 28km to 34km. This makes a much better gap between the top 2 distances and technically means there is a lolly scramble to set the course record.
The best part of Cape Kidnappers Trail Run? It’s all on private land. You get to run and admire the view rather than run on private land and get shot at by the farmer.
Follow Cape Kidnappers Trail Run on Instagram or Facebook for coverage and results.
Mission Mt Somers
Saturday, 28th of October
Ignorant North Islander reporting in. I had never heard of Mission Mt Somer, or Stavely for that matter. When Methven is your reference, you know you’re in the whop-whops.
Well, it turns out that lots of people know all about it. It’s been going off since 2015. They are clearly on to a winner. Check out this list of former champions.
Dan Jones, Katie Morgan, Weston Hill, Julia Grant, Kate Loye, Ryan Carr and the great Sjors Corporaal.
There are 4 distances on offer:
📏42km
📏21km
📏10km
📏5 km
Check out Julia Grant’s video from 2013; it will give you a good idea of what to expect on race day
The Open Men & Women marathon winners will receive $500 and the half marathon winners $250. There is also an added carrot of $200 for the fastest half-marathon individual who can break 2 hours. I can’t quite remember what happened last time a South Island event offered prize money that favoured the men’s field …
Looking at the results, only 4 men have broken the 2-hour barrier. The closest women’s time is Britta Clark 2:27. I’m gonna throw it out there that the only ‘women’ going home with a $200 bonus would be DJan Jones.
Entries close at midnight on the 26th of October, 2023.
Follow EnduraNZ Events on Instagram or Facebook for coverage and results.
#Mountain Skag Pic Of The Week
This week’s entry is from Tim Sutton, who started the long weekend with a 2 day, 1-night fast pack of the Tararua Southern Crossing.
A cold night on the flanks of Pukemoumou / Mt. Hector was rewarded with the most fantastic sunrise.
Check out the rest of Tim’s trip here. He has another 50 photos as good as this!
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, there will be race results coming out of every orifice. What will finish first, River Run or Big’s Backyard?
It takes hours to write this newsletter but only 8 seconds to forward it to a friend.
PS. Is epic the most overused word in trail running event promotion?