🏃🏃♀️The Goat Results, Revenant Recap
“Honestly the most difficult race I’ve ever done and probably the most rewarding.”
Your weekly fix of NZ trail running news
We’re here for you like the Wellington Water Network. A bit leaky, but we’ll charge you anyway😂.
Here's what’s in the drop bag this week:
🏃🏃♀️The Goat Results
🏃🏃♀️Revenant Recap
🥵The Long Run, Out Now
🎯Things You May Have Missed
🏁Upcoming events: Jumbo Holdsworth Trail Race, Mavora Explorer
⛰️💊Mountain Skag Pic winner for December and 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 GOAT RESULTS
Saturday, January 20
📏20km | ⛰️1200m
🏃♀️ Women's Podium
🥇Johanna Ridefelt - 2:17:59
🥈Maia Flint - 2:23:59
🥉Miriam Clark - 2:35:33
Ohakune is famous for its carrots🥕, but a Swede stole the show.
Maia Flint threw everything at Johana Ridefelt, running the 2nd fastest Young Goat (under 23) time in Goat History (behind Ruby Muir’s 2:19:28) and 7th fastest female overall.
But Ridefelt was too strong on the broken terrain, showing why she is the 14th-ranked orienteer in the world. She built a handy 4-minute lead through Mangaturuturu Hut, which she extended to take the victory by 6 minutes over Flint.
Maia can hold her head up high. She ran 13 minutes faster than her winning time in 2022 and a big bounce back from last year’s 5th place in 2:48:43💪.
Miriam Clark went 1 minute better than last year, swapping Silver for a Bronze and finishing ahead of 3 x former champ Sabrina Grogan in 4th.
🏃 Men's Podium
🥇Kaya Corporaal - 1:55:22
🥈Sjors Corporaal - 1:57:01
🥉Albin Ridefelt - 2:05:53
I can’t quite billy’eve it. The G.O.A.T of The Goat was beaten by his kid🐐.
The world's fastest 47-year-old (Sjors Corporaal, 15:10 @5000m) laid down his 8th sub-2-hour performance, but it wasn’t enough🤯.
Kaya had the run of his life, building a slender 33-second lead over his old man through to Mangaturuturu Hut. However, it was far from job done, with the iconic waterfall climb and Mamma’s mile still to go.
Fortunately, he still had gas in the tank and showed a clean pair of hoofs as he powered up Mamma’s mile to take the tape and the family bragging rights for the day.
It was an excellent return for Sjors after missing 2021 with a foot injury. I’m sure once he congratulated Kaya, he reminded him of his 1:52:27 in 2015.
Albin Ridefelt (6th ranked orienteer in the world) also had a great showing, placing 3rd.
He was in the hunt early, trailing Sjors by 1:30 heading into the Hut, but the Corporaal’s familiarity with the course proved too much, with Ridefelt dropping 6 minutes on the pair heading up the big waterfall climb.
Someone else who had a great race was Brendon Varty. The Goat 2023 was his first-ever trail race.
Since then, he has raced like a madman with impressive results at Jumbo Holdsworth, Wuu2k, Mukamuka Munter and the Aorangi Undulator.
“Last year, this was your first ever trail race; how does it feel to come back 12 months later and finish in the top 10?”
“Well, the goal was to shave 10 mins off last year’s time and get in the top 10. I did both... just! So I'm wrapped, and I think it sums up my year as a "runner" quite nicely: set goals and smash them!
Make no mistake; this was just a "training run" for bigger missions to come!”
Brendan “Mcgregor” Varty
Did you know for less than the price of 4 little purple pills a month, Trailrunning NZ offers:
A quarterly e-zine with bonus content that is kind of “scientifically” proven to improve your recovery🤔.
A Monthly giveaway. It could be Hell’s Pizza, or it could be Moustache Cookies. I tried books. We also gave away some Funky Pants vouchers😋.
Guaranteed to sleep 5% better knowing you’re helping me get one step closer to my Ferrari😴.
THE REVENANT RECAP
Thursday to Sunday, January 18 to 21
They came. They saw. Only 2 conquered.
Champions
💪Fynn Mitchell
💪Darron Jones
Sunday morning, Fynn Mitchell, an 18-year-old from Lumsden and Darron Jones from Nelson became The Revenant's 5th & 6th finishers.
That’s 59 hours of hiking, clawing, running, and suffering through 📏200km/⛰️ 16,000m of Southland’s most challenging terrain with almost 0 sleep.
Oh, and did I mention It pissed down for some of it too?
I suddenly feel ashamed of what I’ve achieved since Thursday night😂
Mike White from The Post has a great write-up with more detail and pics
There is no results page for The Revenant, but a huge congratulations to everyone who started. It takes some serious kahunas to step on that start line😎.
Someone who made the trip from the Wairarapa to try to get a taste of the Whisky was Fabiano Petroni.
Here’s what he had to say about his experience.
“Honestly the most difficult race I’ve ever done and probably the most rewarding.”
“Well conditions started amazing way through the night no rain and a bright half moon, we started roughly around 10:30 to 11 pm with the sound of rocknroll band and a haka, so needless to say I was pumped.”
“Charging down, I attached myself to Tony Sharpe, an amazing navigator and now a great friend, we sticked together.”
“The friendships and the lessons you learn are the greatest highlight for me, the lowlight is waking up the next day knowing you could’ve done a bit more, but that’s for next year because all my training focus will be towards this race , heck yeah I will be back!”
Fabiano Petroni
Check out The Revenant on Instagram over the coming days. I’m sure some more stories will surface, and they usually do a sweet video recap of the event.
The Long Run | Summer Edition Out Now
‘The Long Run’ is a collection of bonus material for Trail Running NZ Paid subscribers (free subscribers can read the Tararua Mountain Race preview.)
The full post is available here: but you can skip straight to the articles below.
Things You May Have Missed
With the release of the Dirt Church newsletter, Trail Running NZ has slumped to 9th in the latest NZ trail running newsletter polls. ‘Worst Run Ever’ vs ‘Best Run Ever’? What’s next? A Daily Crush The Cargill Newsletter?
In a leaked email, Killian and Zach Miller have asked the top 15 male & female ranked athletes to boycott UTMB this year. So you’re saying I have a chance?🧐
Upcoming Events
The Jumbo Holdsworth Trail Race 30th Anniversary 📏24km - 👆1500M
Saturday, January 27
Move over The Goat. 20 years? Cute😬. This weekend is the 30th anniversary of the Jumbo Holdsworth Trail Race.
It doesn’t have a race expo. There are no payment plans. You won’t find ‘buffet’ anywhere on the website. This is an old-school grassroots mountain race. It sells out every year for a reason. This year, they’ve even raised $770 for LandSAR Wairarapa.
It starts and finishes at Holdsworth Lodge on the eastern side of the Tararua, inland from Masterton.
It follows the tried and true formula of going up a steep bit, going along the ridge and looking at the pretty view, and then coming back down as fast as your quads will take you.
For more information on the course, check out this Run The Hills blog post.
This race has a real ‘it’ factor that attracts some of the fastest runners in the country.
Previous winners include Ali Wilson, Ruby Muir, Danny Jones and Chris Swallow.
Predictions:
You’ve heard me say it before, and I’ll say it again.
Ali Wilson races, Ali Wilson wins.
It’s hard to see anyone getting the better of her in the forms she’s in. But she won’t have it all her way.
The field is littered with former winners and place getters, with Piret Klade, Rachel Shackleton, Mel Brandon, and Genevieve Coffee set to make this a fight right to the swing bridge
🏃♀️🥇Ali Wilson, 🥈Genevieve Coffee, 🥉Mel Brandon
The men’s side of the draw is also stacked. But I think it will be a showdown of the two Toms.
Backwards Cap Barnesy vs The Other Fast Scottish Dude From Wellington.
But this won’t be a runaway. Young gun Max Doherty led the field to Kime Hut last year, and I expect him to be the first to summit Jumbo before being chased down on the ridge to Mt. Holdsworth.
Doherty will do enough to hold on to 3rd with the chase pack of Dan Clendon, Martin McCrudden, Josh Campbell, Brendon Varty and Kyle Malone in the mix.
🏃🥇Thomas Barnes, 🥈Thomas Callan, 🥉Max Doherty
The shorter 12km Hooper Loop will also be super competitive, with 95 starters this year.
Check the website for more details, and follow on Facebook or Instagram.
Mavora Explorer
Saturday, January 27
The Mavora Explorer might sound like a kid’s cartoon😂, but it is actually a dual running/walking/biking event held on the Marora Downs & Marora Station, Te Anua, both of which are private land.
Access is granted once a year for the event, which is a fundraiser for Mararoa School. Choice👍.
Being a fundraiser, participation is the focus. But I’m sure a few will have white-line fever come Saturday morning.
Races on offer:
Dale Dash 12km
Mararoa Half 21km
Both races look like they’ve got some punchy climbs but generally pretty fast, runnable terrain. To give some context, last year, the 12km was won by Sagar Khemani in 59:31 and the Half by Matt Green in 1:48:15.
“Heading through into Mararoa Downs, you start the climb, where you will be rewarded with fabulous scenery of the Te Anau Basin with Lake Manapouri and Fiordland Mountain Ranges.”
https://mavoraexplorer.co.nz/
It sounds like a great chance to fang around and explore a slice of the country you usually can’t access.
Check out the website for more details, and follow on Instagram & Facebook.
#Mountain Skag Pic Of December
The Tribe has spoken. Hami Tangiora takes out the vote for #mountainskag pic of December. Some sweet merch is heading your way😎.
#Mountain Skag Pic Of The Week
This week’s #mountainskag is from Thomas Callan. Getting his Ben Lomond Fix while building up to this week’s Jumbo Holdsworth Trail Race.
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, we will have The Jumbo Holdsworth Trail Race & The Mavora Explorer results and whatever else gets blown my way.
It takes hours to write this newsletter but only 8 seconds to forward it to a friend.
P.S. I’ve been thinking of doing an audio version of the newsletter. Not like a podcast, just pretty much the newsletter, but read out.