Ruth Croft Takes 1st at Pugspits & Worst Run Ever
"Yup, it got me alright. Enough to draw blood."
Your weekly fix of NZ trail running news
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Here's what’s in the drop bag this week:
📰International Results Desk
📅Halfway Highlights
🎯Things You May Have Missed
🥳June Paid Subscriber Giveaway
🐶Worst Run Ever
⛰️💊Mountain Skag of The Week
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International Results Desk
Ruth “Struth” Croft has done it again. Over the weekend, she took the 🥇win (with only four Bratwurst ahead of her) in the 68km Moustache Trail at Germany's biggest trail run event, Pugspits UltraTrail.
The question remains: Is the course 69km, and they didn’t want to put 69 on the marketing or was someone tasked with chopping out a kilometre to avoid drawing the wrong crowd?
“Challenge yourself and finish first in the gruelling 69. It’s EPIC”😂
Caitlyn Fielder spiced things up, jumping into the 21km at Andorra by UTMB. Now, my third-form geography has let me down. I thought Andorra was in North Africa. It turns out that it's a tiny country squeezed between Spain and France. It’s only 480 km2 with a population of 70k. Oh, and it's got big mountains, of course.
She finished 🥈2nd, 20 minutes behind local Annedorra Esplorer but a whopping 36 minutes ahead of 3rd. I will call that as good as 1st since she was beaten by a local who trains on the course all the time.
Michael Sutton kicks off his Mountain Running World Cup in 2 weeks at Grossglockner, Austria. He got a taste of how deep the field will be, as he took on Neirivue Moléson (📏10.5km / 👆1220m) in Switzerland.
Hammering it off the start line to beat the horde to the climb, he had the pleasure of watching Remi Bonnet glide away and into the horizon, never to be seen again. Last time I checked, they don’t give out 23rd place medals, but I would guess that Michael raced harder and learnt more from this race than any of his previous podiums on this trip.
"I got 23rd, just mind boggling how good the field was (one of the medallists from European champs two weeks ago was 6th).”
“The running felt great I was holding on well at 10-15% grade, but the climbing wasn't my strong suit.”
“A bunch of super strong ski-mountaineering guys who run bolt upright with tiny strides and almost no bend in their legs went flying past from about halfway in.”
“Whoa, we're halfway there
Whoa oh, livin' on a prayer”
Don’t panic—we’re almost halfway through the year😮. There hasn’t been much happening locally this week, so I thought we could take a gander at some of the highlights of the last couple of months.
👋Mt. Oxford Odyssey Says Au Revoir
Mt. Oxford Oddysey’s reign as NZ’s toughest mountain marathon is officially over. With the Doc concession closing, a decision was made to move on to smoother trails.
A more “runnable” 50k course was used for the final year. Julia Chamberlain and George Murray won the race to become the first and last names on the Mt. Oxford 50K trophies.
With Oxford Odyssey hanging up its Hokas, there’s a hole in the running calendar and in the Christchurch area for a new wilderness race to take its place.
Fingers crossed, some enthusiastic and beautifully ignorant individual gets inspired to put on a race. How hard can it be🤣?
🌏Faultline Ultra Here To Stay
The Faultline Ultra pulled it off. They’ve restored trust that new events can come along and not spontaneously combust (along with your money).
There will always be a lot to improve on after the first running of an event, but they got the basics right.
👌The courses were marked well (mostly)
🍌The aid stations didn’t run out of aids
😎The finish line on the waterfront was mint
Will Faultline knock off Tarawera as the premier NZ event?
They’ve got a lot of catching up to do, but in 10 years time, if we are all so stupid to be still running way too far for a way too long, I can see that.
😵💫Musical Chairs In The NZ Backyard Team
Jane McAlpine claimed her spot on the NZ Backyard team with a belter of a run at Dead Cow Gully, running 39 laps for 261km. Jane finished as the top female and new course record holder💪.
Enter Kings Backyard Ultra.
Kings flipped the script and proved you don’t need a big entry list to go long. All you need is a flat course with a handful of crazies keen to waste a long weekend.
Anthony Kerr-Taylor (52 laps / 348.92KM), with the help of Simon McLean (51 laps 342.21KM), took out the inaugural Kings backyard and, in the process, restored the sausage party, pushing Jane out of the NZ team.
I’ve since had Shaun Collins confirm that Jane is back on the team, as Stuart Lynch will be away during the World Champs doing far more exciting things than running in circles😵💫.
All eyes move to Krayzies Midwinter Backyard. It’s the final Silver Ticket. Win Krayzies and you will get automatic entry into the team. Will Jane still be on the NZ team come July 1st, or will someone new run 40 laps plus🤔?
Nelson Is Punching Above It’s Weight
Nelson has had some great events in its surrounding area for several years, but it’s never really had the ultra-trail events that the city’s trails deserve.
Well, that’s started to change. The inaugural ‘The Bay’ was run at the end of May. Based around the Cable Bay adventure park, the courses have a little for everyone, as long as you love VERT.
It had a great turnout, headlined by local runners Nancy Jiang and Louis Schindler. Fingers crossed, this is only the beginning for The Bay.
Next up? The Testicle Spectacle. The hype is building for this one, and I'm excited to see how it all takes shape.
🐆There are only 11 sleeps to Christmas Western States
F🤬ck me I hope Dan Jones gets his mits on that Cougar. How good would that be? He’s certainly done the work, but it won’t be easy. A relatively unknown runner called Jim Walmsley will be there, and the only person who beats Walmsley is himself.
It will be interesting to see how DJ approaches the race. There are some seriously aggressive runners in the field. Will he run his own race and see where that gets him, or will he try to lead from the front, fire his shot, and hope he’s got the goods🤔?
Andrew McDowall (that dude who made the Dirt Church jingle) will also be there after years of trying to get in. Strangely, he might feel more pressure to perform than DJ after spending so long trying to get in the race.
You can read more about Andrew’s thoughts on Western States in the article below (now free!) from the latest edition of the Long Run Ezine.
Things You May Have Missed
Leading the Anti-Trail news desk this week …
Emma Timmis has set the 7-day treadmill Guinness World Record(pending approval) by ‘travelling’ 846.16km, beating the record by 13.11km. Emma is raising money for Speedfreaks. Txt the word "run" to 4741 to donate $3 or go to https://treadyworldrecord.raiselysite.com/
From 7 days on the treadmill … to 6 days running around a 443m indoor track. WTF is going on🤯. Trail royalty, Flying Fiona Hayvice, is competing at an event in Milawauke, Murica🌭 called 6 Days In A Dome (maybe a cult?). Come on, people. We’ve got perfectly good trails here in NZ!
Naomi Brand is taking a bet on herself, stepping away from being a Vet for a couple of months to fulfil her dream of running full-time. No, she didn’t win the $50 million Powerball; this is a self-funded dream from working her arse off💪. All the best Naomi, looking forward to following along.
1 runner is dead, and 3 injured after falling at the Ultra-Trail du Haut Giffre in France. The incident is believed to have occurred around 4.30 AM as conditions deteriorated, with reports that the trails turned into torrents of water. This is a timely reminder that conditions change fast, especially in the mountains.
There are a lot of Hardrock 100 YouTube videos out there. This is one of the better ones. Instead of your usual “Murica, F🤬ck Yeah”, it has a Japanese director and follows Japanese ultra runner Kimino Miyazaki (🥈2nd at Tarawera Miler 2023)
🥳June Paid Subscriber Giveaway
Last week, I said 3 lucky subscribers would win 10 x Maurten Gels to test and review.
But with the current Cost of Running Crisis, I’ll have to go back on my word.
We’re supersizing this biaarrrrrch and giving away 4 lots instead!
Drum roll, please …
Congratulations to:
🥳Phil “Upper Hutt Hardcore” Secker
🥳Hadani “Pussy Riot” Woodruff
🥳Ian “Whoops, Didn’t Charge My Headlamp” Tulloch
🥳Jennifer “Insatiable Vert Addict” Tregurtha
You’ve won 10 x Maurten Gel 100s
Supplied thanks to the Wild Things Shop
$5.10 with your VIP Discount
My Worst Run Ever
WARNING: If you’re scared of dogs, you might want to skip this one. It’s a real pain in the arse🍑.
Yuuuus. We are on a roll with the Worst Run Evers. Keep em’ comin.
Everything started out so well. It was an awesome day for a run. The sun was out, there was a cool breeze, and the cicadas were screeching. I was loving it, feeling good, I started pushing the pace. New PB, who dis?😎
I was halfway back down from the summit, back in the bush and smashing my quads like a MF. I raced around a corner and there it was. I was face to snout with one of the scariest dogs I’ve ever seen😧.
It was like someone had ripped the head off a Pitbull (the dog not that bald headed creeper) and plonked it on a Great Danes body with the physique of Arnie in his prime.
Now, I don’t have a problem with dogs, but this monster was riding solo, riding solo. It started growling and then let out a terrifying bark. Pants were shat, HR strap fried, and my instinct kicked in and I just bolted.
As I flew past, I felt a sharp pain right on my arse— that f🤬cker had bitten me! To scared to look back if it was chasing me I just absolutely legged it.
After what felt like minutes the lactic acid built up, and the adrenaline eased. I ran a bit more, putting as much distance as I could between us before slowing down. Thank god the dog hadn’t chased me.
I stopped for a second to asses (padumcich😂) the damage. Yup, it got me alright. Enough to draw blood. That’s when who I presume was the owner came around the corner.
He was possibly the biggest human I have ever seen. Maybe there is something to the whole “dogs look like there owners” thing.
Never the less, I thought I better let him know what his mut had got up to while he was struggling up the trail.“Your dog just bit me!”
“Oh true, he’s usually pretty friendly eh bro”
I saw red. No apology, no nothing.
“Keep your dog under control,
you c*nt!”Ok, I said the last bit in my head. I didn’t want a broken nose to go with my bleeding arse.
I didn’t wait for his reply. I turned and ran down the trail, absolutely fuming that this frankenstein dog and owner had not only taken a piece of my arse as a trophy, but they had stolen a 🥇Strava PB away from me.
Worst Run Ever.
Greg
Keep the stories coming in!
Send them to trailrunningnz@gmail.com.
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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.
#Mountain Skag Pic Of The Week
This week’s #mountainskag is from Michael Sutton looking towards Le Moleson in Switzerland.
Musicians tour Europe, play every night and get high AF on whatever they can find.
Michael Sutton tours Europe, races every weekend, and gets high AF on mountain skag😎.
Tag @trailrunning.nz (NOTE THE “.”) and use #mountainskag. DM on Instagram or email trailrunningnz@gmail.com to enter (email is the most reliable method).
You could look as cool as Alastair McDowell.
Every entry has a chance to win the monthly giveaway of a Mountain Skag T-shirt or hat.
We will be back next Monday with a look at Krayzies Midwinter Backyard Ultra and a Western States preview.
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PS - I’m looking for a few peeps who are keen to write some articles. Email trailrunningnz@gmail.com for more info.