🏃🏃‍♀️The Wild(ish),Crush The Cargill & The Valley Ultra

"Are you local, have you run these trails before... your pace is a little hot?!"

Dec 10, 2023

Your weekly fix of NZ trail running news

We’re here for you like the giant tin of Nescafe in the staff room. A little bit sh💩t, but gives you what you need to get the week started.

Here's what’s in the drop bag this week:

🏃🏃‍♀️The Wild Results

🏃🏃‍♀️ Crush The Cargill Results

🏃🏃‍♀️The Valley Ultra Results

🎯Things You May Have Missed

🥳Funky Pants Winners Announced

⛰️💊Mountain Skag Pic of December & 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 WILD RESULTS

Wednesday-Sunday, December 6th-10th

Mal Law & Co. pulled it off! They won’t have to flee the country. The Wild finally EXISTS!

I’m sure Mal Law had the most EPIC night’s sleep on Sunday for the first time in years.

Sure, he didn’t get the weather he wanted, but it was far from a disaster.

There is a stack of EPIC results, so let’s kick into it.

Beast of Beetham 9KM📏 | 550M⛰️

The Beast of Beetham time trial kicked things off on Friday afternoon, with the Beast of Brow running on Saturday morning.

🏃‍♀️ Women's Podium

🥇Kate Morrison - 55:01

🥈Caitlin Knox - 1:07:58

🥉Zoe Van Mil - 1:14:22

Kate Morrison showed why she wore the black singlet in Austria earlier this year, trashing this EPIC short course and her quads, coming 12 minutes ahead of Caitlin Knox in 2nd.

🏃 Men's Podium

🥇Jack Mckay - 50:18

🥈Matthew Gummer - 51:45

🥉Sam Hoskins - 51:53

It was tighter on the men’s side, with Jack McKay coming EPICLY close to going sub-50 minutes. Matthew Gummer, who’s no stranger to the podium, beat Sam Hoskin by 8 seconds to snaffle the silver

Beast of Brow 11KM📏 | 1050M⛰️

🏃 Men's Podium

🥇Finn Lydon - 1:21:50

🥈Tom Schenk - 1:27:54

🥉Laurie Harding - 1:33:52

Finn Lydon left it all out on course to become the first EPIC slayer of the Beast of Brow.

He dominated the climb, taking a 6-minute lead into the descent, where he rolled his way to victory.

Finn Lydon, Slayer of Beasts **Photo: The Wild**

🏃‍♀️ Women's Podium

🥇Kate Morrison - 1:36:05

🥈Ellen Crombie - 1:46:19

🥉Sonia Mariano - 2:10:58

Kate Morrison made it 2/2, successfully becoming the double beast slayer from the east.

Here is what Kate had to say about her weekend:

“I went into the weekend with some serious fatigue from a 5-day tramp, so I was a little worried about my quads lasting the weekend.”

“The Beetham was a real grunty race with a super painful gradual incline start followed by a short steep section. After the down, I hit the flatter trails on the way home, and my legs were just gone, but I ground it out and tried to chug as much protein as possible to prepare for the next day.”

“The Brow was definitely the highlight for me, though I started the day with very sore legs and honestly didn't think they'd pull through. I started out conservatively on this one and followed Ellen until we hit the VK section, and then I hit a second wind.”

“I'm a fiend for a VK. I spent the rest of the race trying to hang onto Sam and was stoked with how it went! Such good mountain courses and such an awesome event - kudos to all volunteers, marshalls and organizers.”

Kate Morrison

“V5000” 75KM📏 | 3900M⛰️

Unfortunately, the Fusion Events weather plan was never deleted when the new crew took over The Wild.

The call was made Friday that the V5000 would be run on the ‘B’ course due to gale-force wind warnings for Saturday. It was a disappointing way to start, but at least there was still a viable ‘B’ course option.

The new course took out the major climb of Vanguard Peak, with a much larger portion of the race being on 4WD tracks.

🏃‍♀️ Women's Podium

🥇Alison Wilson - 8:59:19

🥈Eszter Horanyi - 10:05:33

🥉Hannah Wall - 10:17:17

I’ve said it before, and I’ll repeat it.

Ali Wilson races and Ali Wilson wins.

She even made a decent attempt at sandbagging the week of the event. As soon as I saw this post, I knew she was a lock to take out the V5000, maybe even overall.

Ali only knows one way: racing hard from the front. Through the first 12km, she built a 14-minute lead and was running in 3rd overall.

She dragged away from those behind her, eventually chasing down a cramping Benje Patterson to move into 2nd overall.

Ali Wilson received her trophy for “Best sandbagging Instagram post.” Photo: Al Crowe.

An EPIC result for an EPIC athlete💪.

Here is what Ali had to say:

“A fellow runner said to me around 2kms in as we started climbing”

“Are you local, have you run these trails before... your pace is a little hot?!...”

“Not local. Not run them before. Potentially a little hot, but it seemed to do the trick (crossing the line before said fellow runner).”

“More runnable than I had thought it would be across the ridge line, no real reason to let the pace go apart from the ups.”

“Disappointed not to get the chance to race the full course, but it was the right decision to be made.”

Whoever asked Ali if she was running too fast at the start might have just got yourself a new job. It looks like you fired her up for an EPIC race🤣.

🏃 Men's Podium

🥇Cullen Rhind - 8:24:00

🥈Benje Patterson - 9:08:09

🥉Matthew Gummer - 9:32:44

Cullen Rhind added the inaugural V5000 trophy to an already packed 2023 mantle piece—2nd at Taupo 100 in October and taking the win at Hunua Hillbilly just last month.

However, he didn’t have it all his way. Benje Patterson was setting the early pace as the 2 ran together for the first 40km. Patterson ran into a few issues, and Rhind pulled away to take the victory by over 45 minutes.

Matthew Gummer backed up his silver in the Beast of Beetham on Friday with a bronze on Saturday. It was a great effort to back up. I wonder if he regretted that decision 60km in...🤔

**Cullen Rhind feeling the weight of all that mandatory gear Photo: Cullen Rhind Instagram**

Here’s what Cullen had to say about his day:

“The race was amazing, the most beautiful course, truly breathtaking!”

“ The first 40km, I was running with Benje Patterson, and we had a good pace going.”

“Unfortunately for Benji, he had some cramp issues, and I managed to pull away. I was doing my best to push the pace, but the legs were definitely feeling it!”

“The last climb off Macetown Road almost killed me. I managed to make it home! Absolutely stoked with the result 😊”

Cullen Rhind

The rest of the races went ahead without course changes.

Some EPIC racing went down, with some familiar faces ending up on the podium.

V3000 64KM📏 | 3000M⛰️

🏃 Men's Podium

🥇Vajin Armstrong - 7:05:53

🥈Dai Lawson - 7:29:50

🥉Jaco Du Plessis - 7:32:10

**It wasn’t just the runners having fun. The volunteer crew at Heidi’s Hut. Photo: The Wild Instagram**

🏃‍♀️ Women's Podium

🥇Louise Murray - 8:18:03

🥈Delphine Touzouli - 8:25:22

🥉Alexandra Knights - 8:58:39

V1600 30KM📏 | 1600M⛰️

🏃‍♀️ Women's Podium

🥇Nancy Jiang - 3:24:05

🥈Hannah Fletcher - 3:28:56

🥉Sabrina Grogan - 3:34:14

**Nancy Jiang backed up her 2nd at Kepler with victory in the V1600 Photo: The Wild Instagram**

🏃 Men's Podium

🥇Paulius Auryla - 3:02:12

🥈Brendan Clark - 3:13:00

🥉Chris Dunell - 3:15:01

Check out the full results here.

CRUSH THE CARGILL

Saturday, December 8-10

100 Mile Race

Friday, 10 pm. A bunch of crazed runners began their quest to win the inaugural edition of the Crush the Cargill 100-mile race, the toughest race in the Southern Hemisphere.

Unfortunately, due to a slight chance of rain, and wanting to avoid the same fate as The Blue Lake Challenge, the D course was activated.

Turns out the D course just goes up and down Mt. Cargill as well🤣.

🥇Chris Bisley - 27 hours 32 min

🥈Nick Tweed - 29 hours 13 min

🥉Adam Keen - 35 hours 30 min

**The world’s heaviest belt buckles, made from 100% unobtanium Photo: Rad Piers NZ’s Premier Event Photographer**

Steve Tripp (RD) had this to say:

“There were 8 real contenders, not counting the 2 DNSs and the ‘one and done’s.”

“The 5 other serious contenders looked really good until they really weren’t.”

“Apparently, starting a 100-mile race at 10 pm is quite tough – who knew?”

24 Hour Challenge

There were 145 weird and wonderful starters in this year’s Crush The Cargil, but it was Petrus Hedman who took out the Crush The Cargill 24-hour challenge with 14 laps.

Petrus Hedman Wins "The Twig" Photo: Rad Piers

Other Notable Results:

🏃‍♀️Sally Nicoll - 7 (plus another 3 in the 100-mile race before DNFing and starting the 24-Hour Challenge)
🏃‍♀️Saskia - 7
🏃Joshua Smith - 12
🏃Christoph - 12
🏃Jamie Ward - 12

In typical CTC style, there were shenanigans aplenty.

For years, “Crash The Cargill” has been trying to get a fridge to the summit. Well, this year, they got it done.

An amazing effort to get up all the stairs.

Oh, and there was also a Courtney Dauwalter sighting.

Courtney Dauwalter sighting Photo: Rad Piers

OTHER EPIC THINGS OF NOTE, ACCORDING TO RD STEVE TRIPP

Someone slept in a hammock in the rain
Pascal and his son misunderstood the direction of climate change and turned up in full snowboard/ski gear. 8.5km up and down a rocky, muddy, gravelly walking track is quite difficult in ski boots.
Ella, who was spending her birthday running up and down a ~~mountain~~ hill, baked herself a cake and brought it along to share
A dinosaur ate Chris Bisley’s head – possibly wondering if it would double the effectiveness of Curranz
Chris whipped Steve’s arse at Scrabble
At least $3000 was raised for The Valley Project to support environmental initiatives in North Dunedin

VALLEY ULTRA RESULTS

Saturday, December 9

The Whole Hog: 📏54km 👆2500m

🏃 Men's Podium

🥇Dayle Mclauchlan - 5:34:50

🥈Greg Bassam - 5:46:03

🥉Nick On - 6:06:05

It was the Dayle Mclauchlan show at the Valley Ultra, outlasting Greg Bassam in a trott around the valley.

By the 22km checkpoint, it was a 2 pig🐷 race, with Mclauchlan leading Bassam by 30 seconds. Allan Broomhall was a further 8 minutes back, with Nick On chasing hard.

Mclauchlan kept his trotter on the pedal, pulling away from Bassam, who couldn’t keep up, taking the victory by 11 minutes over Bassam.

Nick On had a late charge to move past Broomhall with 2km to go to take the bronze.

🏃‍♀️ Women's Podium

🥇Rebekkah Middleton - 7:13:04

🥈Georgia Whiting - 7:31:54

🥉Steph Nevins - 7:39:04

Rebekkah Middleton led this race from start to finish. At the 18km mark, she had ground out a 5-minute lead over Georgia Whiting, with Steph Nevins a further 10 minutes back.

Her lead continued to bloat. With 20kms to go, she had it all ‘sown’ up, leading Georgia Whiting by over 12 minutes. The final margin was 18 minutes, enough time to kick back, relax, and wallow in the mud.

Nevins made things interesting, pulling within 3 minutes of Whiting with 14 km to go. Whiting rallied, finishing the final segment with a sizzle, taking home a well-deserved 2nd place and stretching the gap back to 7 minutes.

The Piglet: 📏24km 👆1000m

🏃 Men's Podium

🥇Laurence Pithie - 2:12:33

🥈James Millar - 2:15:01

🥉Sam King - 2:18:08

Laurance Pithie trailed 3 minutes to James Millar at the 14km mark. However, he pulled himself together to be the first swine across the line.

Pithie roasted Millar in the final 10km, but he had enough chops to hold off Sam King for 2nd place.

🏃‍♀️ Women's Podium

🥇Hannah Lund - 2:24:56

🥈Ruby Knight - 2:27:50

🥉Katie Smith - 2:33:40

In a mirror image of the men’s race, Ruby Knight was the first piglet through 14km, leading by 3 minutes over Hannah Lund and Katie Smith.

However, Knight couldn’t bring home the bacon. Lund finished strong in the final 10km to finish just under 3 minutes ahead of Knight, with Smith finishing 6 minutes back.

Check out the full results here, including the 10km Teacup results.

Things You May Have Missed

shannon_leigh_litt

A post shared by @shannon_leigh_litt

Feet issues and a potentially broken tailbone meant Shannon-Leigh Litt didn’t get the race she was after at UTMB Thailand (175km). However, she gritted it out to the end—one tough cookie.