🥔The Bonus Fritter 10/04/25
Time to GET FKT
Welcome to ‘The Bonus Fritter’.
The “I only paid for one potato fritter, but I got 3” edition of the Trail Running NZ newsletter.
Here’s what’s come out of the deep fryer this week:
🎁GET FKT Summit Challenge
⛰️Mountain Skag Update
💩Ranga’s Ramble: 2+ Years
❓5 Watts
Firstly, a big THANKYOU to you all, the paid subscribers who keep this thing humming.
Without you, I couldn’t afford 100g of carbs per hour come race day, AKA dual-wielding double-stuffed Vitasport soft flasks😂.
Daylight savings has gone, and winter is on the doorstep. I don't know about you, but this time of the year has some of the best trail running conditions.
With a bit of extra rain, some of the trails that have become concrete over summer start to loosen up and become a lot of fun, and the slightly cool early morning or late afternoon air is a perfect temperature for this overheating engine.
Anyway, let’s get this thing into gear.
GET FKT Summit Challenge
It’s here! The Trail Running NZ GET FKT Summit Challenge💪.
I was working on it when I sent out the last Bonus Fritter at the start of March, and I can now reveal that I’m working with Merrell NZ on this one.
They wanted to collaborate on something other than paying to put Merrell in front of a part of the Newsletter—as much as I would jump at taking money for adding 7 letters, I was grabbed by the idea of creating something a touch more interesting.
The brief was pretty simple. Merrell NZ wants to get its name out there as one of the cool kids on the trail running block in NZ. It’s traditionally known as an American hiking brand. I initially knew them as the people who made ‘kind of bare feet’ trail shoes.
They’ve been very aggressive in the last 12 months. They’re the name sponsor of Race Tekapo, possibly the fastest-growing event in the country. They’ve assembled our biggest performance team, signing several members of the last two NZ Mountain & Trail Running Teams, including the two current NZ Short Course Champs, Weston Hill and Katie Morgan.
After banging our heads together, I returned to the idea of the old Strava Segment Showdown that my old friend Joe Murphy helped me put together back in 2023. Everyone who entered seemed to have a great time, but getting it popping outside of Wellington was a struggle.
So here we have it: The Trail Running NZ GET FKT Summit Challenge brought to you by Merrell.
Is it perfect? No.
Will people try to cheat? Yes.
Will there be bugs with GPS, etc? 100%.
Is it intended to be fun and give you a chance to win some free sh💩t that isn’t just click this button to win. The more you sweat, the higher your chance of winning.
I’m always trying to find new ways to provide extra value to the army of paid subscribers behind me. So, for the challenge as a paid subscriber, you get:
Double entries into the prize pool
$100 instead of $50 if you beat the segment’s goal time.
Click through and take a read. I’ve embedded this awkward video of me explaining its basics below, too.
These things are only as good as the people who take part. I’ve tried to make something a bit of fun heading into the darker months. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we can get some good banter and friendly competition going over the next three or so weeks.
⛰️Mountain Skag Update
We’re still waiting on products, and we’re having a lot of fun trying to figure all this sh💩t out, so we don’t have a launch date yet.
BUT, I thought I would give you a taste of some of our ideas and the feel for the brand.
I mentioned we are extending the tongue in cheek, a little un PC vibe of Trail Running NZ into Mountain Skag, channeling the late 90s skate and surf brands to a degree.
Here are a couple of mock-ups of designs for some of the first drops we plan to do once we iron out the wrinkles with our base offering of T-shirts, Sweatshirts, Caps and Beanies
Everything seems a bit serious these days, so we’re looking to bring some of the fun, from product descriptions to unique features.
Hopefully, the next update will be … with some actual product!
Ranga’s Ramble(Me)
This week, I was rifling through my top “just chuck it in there” drawer when I came across a crumpled piece of paper. I started screwing it up to throw out when the words “Mountain Skag Pic” caught my eye.
On closer inspection, I had pulled out the first handwritten plan for the newsletter. It’s mainly just an outline, but there it was—the first piece of action I took to take an idea that was pinballing around my skull and set it free into the world to annoy the f🤬ck out of you every Monday.
When I started, I didn’t have too much of a plan. I knew I liked trail running, and I knew there was only Dirt Church doing their podcast. It made sense to me that such a passionate bunch as trail runners would be keen to hear about all the different races and news each week.
It turns out that the hypothesis was pretty accurate. Along the way, I’ve rubbed some people up the wrong way, got countless names wrong and just made up details out of thin air that I swore I had read.
But overall, it’s been an awesome experience. I’ve met, chatted with, and sent memes to so many awesome people around the country, and it helps me keep a positive outlook on life.
It is a reminder that no matter what the media pumps out at us full volume every day, most people are generally good.
This is getting particularly rambly now, so the main point of what I’m trying to get to is below.
4 Things I’ve Learnt Writing A Newsletter Every Week (ish) for 2 Years+
✅ You Have To Get It Out Of Your Head
Ideas are like tinder (not that tinder😫) — full of potential, but they won’t catch fire on their own.
Writing them down is the first spark. It’s small, but it’s action. It takes the idea from a theory banging around your skull into the real world. From there, it needs air — momentum, movement, more action — or it fizzles out. And that’s okay. Not every spark needs to become a wildfire.
But if you never strike the match, if you’re always waiting for the perfect idea before you act, you’ll never learn how to build a fire when it counts. Your ‘million dollar idea’ will flop because you haven’t had the reps blowing on the tiny flame.
✅A Lot Of Cliche Sh💩t Is True:
“You have to get out of your comfort zone”.
This has been a big one for me. Going on a podcast, talking in front of the camera for the GET FKT challenge, forwarding the original newsletter to all my friends to ask what they thought, turning on paid subscribers, voicing my opinion that isn’t always PC. These are all things that make me feel incredibly uncomfortable.
I’m starting to learn that discomfort is temporary. Regret lasts forever. Every time I’ve pushed through the discomfort, something good has been waiting on the other side. It’s never easy, but I’ve never once wished I’d stayed comfortable instead.
✅ Things ALWAYS Take Longer Than You Think:
That Bastard Hofstadter was right. He wrote the phrase:
“It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.”
When I first started writing the newsletter, I imagined I could sit down on a Sunday night and belt it out in 1-2 hours, which I did for the first few editions!
But things naturally grow; you add in trying to maintain an Instagram account, replying to emails, hatching together bad Photoshops, covering 4 events on the same weekend, etc, and it is the equivalent of having a part-time job. Not that I’m complaining. I love doing this!
✅ Time Kills Enthusiasm:
If I delay taking action on something, my enthusiasm for it slowly fades. It doesn’t mean it's a bad idea; you just have to strike while the emotion is high. Whether it’s a “That would be a funny segment” or “I should talk to this person about their cool adventure,” if it goes to the bottom of the pile, not the top, there’s a good chance it will never happen.
5 Watts
I thought I would try what all the cool cats do in their newsletters😺.
What I’m Cranking
If I’m sitting down to get creative, AKA make up some BS for the newsletter, I chuck this on. I can’t say I’ve ever been a big ODESZA fan, but for whatever reason, the all-seeing algorithm spewed this up on my feed recently, and it’s been hitting the spot.
What I’m Pondering
What does Trail Running in New Zealand look like in 5 years?
Are we at peak trail running from an event and race perspective?
Will Backyard Ultras still be here in 5 years?
Will we see the event industry collapse and a revival of the grassroots $50
races?
Will someone have finally Crushed The Cargrill?
I don’t really have much conviction either way, but these questions have slowly been ticking over in my brain lately.
I would love to hear your thoughts on some of those questions.
What I’m Reading
I’m not reading a book at the moment, but I’ve been reading a lot of blogs and newsletters. I read this yesterday by Justin Welsh.
Performative BS.
In this Strava—and Instagram-heavy trail running world, this blog is a good reality check—a reminder that actually doing the work is the most important part, not showing you “doing the work.”
What I’m Excited About
It’s the 2nd year of the relaunched Tararua Mountain Race, and I can’t wait. It’s one of those races I think it doesn’t matter how fit you’re feeling or how many times you’ve run the route - you just know it’s going to be an all hands to the pump kind of race.
I have had less than ideal training since I dominated The Flying Doctor in early March at the Xterra Marathon. Luckily, he’s scampered off to the Philippines, so I won’t have to defend the title belt this weekend🤣.
If you’re a Wellington local and are deciding whether to run, use the code TMR for 20% off. It's not too late to enter, and the forecast looks mint.
If you’re a bit further afield but this looks right up your alley - put it on the matrix for next year and keep an eye out for the 2026 date. It’s well worth the trip.
Merrell has also sent me a pair of their latest fancy race shoes to review. I feel like it’s only fair to give them a good, proper test and thrash them at the Tararua Mountain Race this weekend. Many pairs of shoes have seen their lives come to an end in a bin at a Tararua road end, so I’m excited to see how they handle the conditions.
What’s Made Me Laugh
I can’t say I’ve kept up with all the Tariff chat, but this video was pure gold from a creative standpoint.
Right—that’s enough from me. I hope you have a great rest of your week. If you're fit and able, please participate in the GET FKT Challenge!
Bradley, AKA ‘The Hot Mess’
PS. If you are racing at TMR this weekend, see you there!
Tshirts look great, enjoyed this one! We'll be getting a couple when you get them organised.
Are we at peak trail running from an event and race perspective? No...I think there's lots of room to squeeze. Trail running is still in its infant stage compared to other sports (and even endurance sports).
Will Backyard Ultras still be here in 5 years? I couldn't care less about BYU... maybe because I've never done one? This is a subset of trail/ultra that I think seems oversaturated.
Will we see the event industry collapse and a revival of the grassroots $50 races? If only...there is more and more money involved in the sport and everything will continue to get more expensive.
Will someone have finally Crushed The Cargrill? No.
Shirts look awesome. I’ll finally have a black tshirt to rival the 100s of heavy metal band ones my hubby has.
Re events the nerd in me will be interested to see if the change in Worksafe laws about responsibility to landowners will open up more grassroots events on private land.