The WUU2K Results
“Til suddenly Supertramp became Superman, I hit a crack on the sidewalk"
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Here's what’s in the drop bag this week:
🏃🏃♀️The WUU2K Results
🎯Things You May Have Missed
😫Worst Run Ever
🥳July Paid Subscriber Giveaway
🏁Upcoming events:
⛰️💊Mountain Skag of The Week & June Winner
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The WUU2K Results
It can’t match the alpine scenery of the south.
It doesn’t have the glorious lakes of the Taupo/Rotorua region.
It can’t compete with the soft buttery tarmac of Auckland.
But there is something extraordinary about the Wellington trail network, which was on full display on Saturday at The WooOOOOooO2K!🥳
The forecast-perfect day never eventuated. But it was good enough.
I got out on course to support, and it was plain to see how much this event means to the Wellington running scene. It really is a celebration of everything that makes the Wellington running community so amazing.
Anyway, enough waffle. Let’s check out the results.
📏65KM | ⛰️2800M
The 65KM race set off under the cover of darkness at 6.30 AM.
Fog blanketed Mt.Kaukau and the skyline ridge, with the backend of a southerly keeping shrinkage levels high.
But as the 65km runners travelled along the skyline trail, the fog magically lifted, and the sun came out, creating near-perfect Wellington running conditions.
A bit of sun, a few rogue showers and a cool breeze to keep things fresh.
Women’s podium:
🥇Olivia Lawrence -7:14:26
🥈Sarah Jenkins - 7:17:55
🥉Demeter Kenton-Dau - 7:34:51
Olivia ‘Women of the Mountains’ Lawrence stormed to the front of the field and never looked back. First over Mt. Kaukau with a 30-second lead, and that’s as close as it would get.
No longer in the mountains, she made light work of the little hills and bumps along the way. Heading up the infamous Tip Track climb, she had earned a 10-minute lead, but Sarah Jenkins from team Furtherfaster Christchurch wasn’t giving up.
Jenkins went up and down the Tip Track just over 3 minutes faster to close the gap on a cramping Lawrence, but she would do enough to hold on over the final 11km to take a well-deserved victory.
Jenkins chased hard all day but ultimately ran out of real estate, finishing 2nd, 3m29s behind Lawrence.
Starting conservatively, Demeter Kenton-Dau was 7th over Kaukau, over 2 minutes back from the lead.
As the sun rose, so did her speed as she methodically moved through the field. At the bottom of the Tip Track, she had moved past Crystal Bartlett (DNF), Erin Vaughn and Chrissi Faber, with Jenkins in her sight.
Jenkins, in second, continued to put time on her, but she finished strongly and cemented her spot on the podium ahead of 2022&2023 runner-up Erin Vaughn.
Olivia Lawrence was kind enough to respond to my harassment:
“Did your race go to plan? How does it feel to win the WUU2K 65k?”
“The race went to plan in that I would really struggle in the second half and I did. But I know I'm strong on the downhills so I just focussed on running those hard.”
“I'm stoked and surprised to have crossed the finish line as the first woman. Stoked and very sore. But honestly what made the day was the amazing atmosphere and super crew of volunteers.”
Olivia Lawrence
Men’s podium:
🥇Sam Rout - 5:38:32
🥈Ryan Woolley - 5:40:19
🥉Chester Holt-Quick - 6:02:04
Sam Rout from the Winterless North swapped his jandals for gloves at the Wellington Airport gift shop and successfully pulled off a smash-and-grab on the WUU2K 65KM Title.
Rout followed the magic formula: crest Mt.Kaukau first and take advantage of the fast-flowing skyline trail.
But he wouldn't have it easy. Ryan Woolley stuck to him like sh💩t to a blanket. A few early gains were gobbled up by some navigation and mental errors.
Running through the Redrocks aid station. Rout looked relaxed and in control. Just as he was getting ready to leave, Woolley arrived. Rout put the hammer down and made serious gains to the Tip Track. Unfortunately, another wrong turn 2/3 of the way up saw him squander his lead.
Game on with just 11km to go. Rout appeared to have the gas over Woolley, but Woolley had the advantage of actually knowing where he was going🤣.
But Rout got his sh💩t together and stormed his way home to take a victory lap of the Velodrome on his way to becoming the WUU2K champion.
Woolley gave it the full jandel but ultimately came up 1m47s short.
Chester Holt-Quick (it’s in the name) found himself in no man’s land for much of the day. Rout and Woolley were out of touch early, but he was comfortably clear of Conor Keane.
Sam was kind enough to answer a couple of questions:
“How did the race play out at the front?”
“What did you think of the Wellington trails?”
“Lead from the start to the top and ran the skyline ridge in front till I took a wrong turn and Ryan called me back, a few small mistakes made me lose the lead and had to chase Ryan down.”
“I over took Ryan again around 40kms, sent it on the flat to try gain some distance but tried to save the legs a bit knowing the tip track was still ahead.”
“Wellington trails were amazing, running up to the skyline and having the views over the city and then heading down running along the coast was epic. It was tough and a lot more vert than we get in Whangarei but nice to test the quads out.”
📏45KM | ⛰️2000M
Men’s podium:
🥇David Haunschmidt - 3:41:00
🥈Sam Hansby - 3:50:52
🥉Matt Adams - 3:57:32
I think I might have poked the bear with my pre-race prediction of Sam Hansby > David Haunschmidt😮.
As I sat hunkered down just below the summit of Mt.Kaukau, trying to escape the icy fingers of the southerly, The Flying Doctor came ripping through.
“Yeah, nah. Aint no body catching him,” I thought as I watched him tear off into the distance.
Sam Hansby and Matt Adams were next through, moving smoothly, but they were already over a minute behind Haunschmidt.
Behind that duo was Josh Campbell chasing hard, trying to keep contact with the podium and not get swallowed up by the chase pack.
Throughout the first half, Haunschmidt put on a couple of minutes in every section. By the time Hansby dropped Adams and stemmed the bleeding, it was too late.
Only the Wellington Marathon Marshall could pull this one out of the bag for Hansby now.
Haunschmidt avoided any c🍆ckups, reversing the 2022 result, making it 1-1 in the WUU2K 45KM between Haunschmidt and Hansby.
Adams would do enough to take the bronze after an early battle with Hansby, which dragged him comfortably clear of Joshua Campbell in 4th (1st Master)
Backwards Cap Barensy can breathe a sigh of relief as his course record (3:36:50) from 2023 held up to its checkup with the Doc.
Here’s what David Haunscmidt had to say about his day out on the trails:
“I feel so lucky to have this event and these world-class trails winding throughout the city. Off to Europe in 10 days, so main goal for me was a solid training run to dial-in gear & nutrition.”
“Also felt like I had some unfinished business with this one:
*2021: entered the 43k - changed to 21k due to the weather bomb (this was 2 days after moving here so in a cold unfurnished house with a river running down the road. Welcome to Welly!).”
”*2022: entered the 43k - ran with both the flu and on an undiagnosed broken leg. Hardest I’ve dug just to finish. One of the few races in my life I should have definitely DNF’d!! So, really pleased to have come back and done it justice.”
“Looks like the new course is about 2k longer now, but worth it to come down some great trails and finish at the Velodrome for a couple of laps. A fantastic way to finish the event. Gareth and team put on a flawless event, and the running community love them for it.”
David Haunschmidt
Women’s podium:
🥇Thea Taylor - 4:42:06
🥈Bridget Douglas - 4:44:15
🥉Piret Klade - 4:45:21
Thea Taylor won one of the tightest races in WUU2K’s 9-year history.
She was first to the top of Mt.Kaukau and over the finish line. Between those two points, she spent most of her day in 3rd.
Once on the skyline, Piret Klade took control of the race, holding a slender lead over Bridget Douglas for the first half.
Douglas caught Klade before the tip track, with only seconds separating them at the Tawatawa aid station. At this stage, with just over 10 km to go, Taylor was still over 3 minutes back.
That’s when she flicked on BEAST MODE—first, chasing down Klade over the next 5km and narrowing the gap to Douglas to 1m44.
In the final 5km, not only did she catch Douglas, but she also created a sizable lead and ended up winning by over 2 minutes.
Douglas did enough to hang on to 2nd, just over a minute ahead of Klade.
Amazing racing from start to finish. In context, Taylor’s lead at the finish was the largest of the day through any section of the race.
📏21KM | ⛰️812M
🥇Louisa Bostock - 2:33:24
🥈Clarissa Forrest - 2:34:08
🥉Alice McCubbin-Howell - 2:36:28
Louisa Bostock also had a come-from-behind victory in the 21km race.
She ran in 2nd for much of the race. Halfway through, the gap back from Clarissa Forrest was 1m46s.
She chopped that down to 1m15s with 5km to go. Game on. Bostock finished strong, passing Forrest in the final few km to enter the Velodrome 1st and finish 44 seconds clear of Forrest.
Alice McCubbin-Howell had a solid race. Running in 3rd all day, consistently pulling away from the rabble and keeping the front 2 in check if anyone was to falter.
Men’s podium:
🥇 Nathan Tse - 1:46:30
🥈Rory Hart - 2:06:14
🥉 Justin Martin - 2:08:33
This one was over as soon as the gun went off. Nathan Tse dropped it like it was hot, burning his way down the coast into a 2-minute lead, all in the first 3.7km.
At the halfway point (Tawatawa), he had an insurmountable lead of over 10 minutes.
The race for 1st may have been over, but the lolly scramble for 2nd and 3rd was about to begin. Jamie Mitchell, Ehsan Lorestani, Rory Hart, and Justin Martin were all within snot rocket distance of each other.
Through the next 5km, Rory Hart kicked clear, opening a 50-second lead over Lorestani in the battle for the podium.
Lorestani took a wrong turn, opening the door for 2023 bronze-getter Justin Martin to come steaming through to make it a pair.
Nathan Tse went on to win by over 20 minutes—an impressive race, and only 4 minutes back from Haunschmidts 2023 course record.
Congratulations to Gareth and his team. That’s 9 years of putting on one of the best events in the country💪.
Click Here for the full results.
You can follow The WUU2K on Facebook & Instagram to check out more coverage from race day.
This Week’s Newsletter Is Brought To You By…
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Things You May Have Missed
Hot off the press. Gareth ‘Westie Runner’ Morris went for a wee run around the woods. He’s only gone and knocked off the Bob Graham Round in 23:27 (106km / 8200m). If you don’t know what the Bob Graham round, this is a good lazy night in watch.
Tailwind Trailblazer applications are open. If your running buddy starts saying they can supply you with a white powdery substance that will help you go at it all night, you know what’s happened😉
There was a massive upset at Hardrock 100 over the weekend, with little-known Colorado local Courtenay Dauwalter smashing 30 minutes off the course record to take the win in 26:11:49
Another dodgy Frenchman was making out with a rock at the Hardrock 100 this year. But it wasn’t who everyone was expecting. Ludovic Pommeret outgunned the fancied François D’Haene (DNF) and broke Killian Jornet’s to finish in a time of 21:33:08.
Worst Run Ever
This week’s Worst Run Ever is a reminder to everyone that they can strike at any time and any place. Be vigilant out there. If you do fall victim, be like Debbie and send it in!
“Well Wednesday nights are usually a social 5km run from the local pub for me, and last Wednesday I was feeling good.”
“I had finally managed to talk two of my non-running friends to come along "you can walk-run, just go slow and we'll all have a drink together at the end, no pressure!" of course I had secret ambitions of converting them to trail runners so that we could have long conversations about vert and bananas and the like, but they didn't know this :)”
“Unfortunately, work commitments meant I finished a bit later than anticipated, but I figured I still had time to run to my car (5 km) and quickly get to the pub to meet them before the 7 pm start time.”
“I set off, new earphones in and happily cranking some Supertramp, I was having a great time, everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt!”
“Til suddenly Supertramp became Superman, I hit a crack on the sidewalk and flew through the air, crash-landing on the pavement.... Straightaway my Garmin picked up that I had an "incident" and I suddenly remembered that I hadn't yet removed my ex from my emergency contacts, I'd been doing so well with no contact but now Garmin was going to break it for me??? No way, I was literally crying in pain but had to get up and stop my watch messaging him before it was too late!”
“Nothing was beautiful, everything hurt, but, I didn't have time to sit around and cry cos if I stood my friends up on their first 5km social, would they ever come again?? So I got back on my feet and kept running..... it hurt like hell but hey that's running right?”
“I was late (of course) but they'd messaged me, they had started walking already so I carried on running, caught up with them and then we jogged back to the finish together..... Well by the time we'd got to the pub I realised my leg was swelling up like mad, I really should have been doing ice and elevation rather than running another 8km on it. All of my weekend running plans were out the window, and by Sunday night I was battling run-deprivation depression :(“
“It's ironic really, I've done ultras and nothing worse than a few toenails gone, but did THIS to myself running along Auckland's waterfront.”
“On the bright side, my friends had a good time and they said they'll come along next Wednesday!!”
Debbie
Keep the stories coming in! 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.
July Paid Subscriber Giveaway
This month, 5x Lucky Paid Subscribers will win a Roam Energy Protein Powder & Nut Butter Bundle.
Like last month with the Maurteen Gels, I’d be keen to get the winners to do a mini-review that I can share.
There are so many products on the market that it’s hard to know what to believe online. I’ve had the pleasure of testing Roam over the last couple of weeks, but I’m just one man’s opinion!
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Upcoming Events:
The calendar is looking a bit empty for the next few weeks. Let me know what you want to hear more about. Just hit ‘Reply’ to this email or get all up in my DM’s on Insta @trailrunning.nz
#Mountain Skag Winner Of June
Congratulations to Jeniffer “The Insatiable Vert Addict” Tregurtha.
You’ve won Mountain Skag for June.
#Mountain Skag Pic Of The Week
This week’s #mountainskag is from Bernard Campion, overlooking his new playground in the Richmond Ranges.
Tag @trailrunning.nz (NOTE THE “.”) and use #mountainskag. DM on Instagram or email trailrunningnz@gmail.com to enter (email is the most reliable method).
Every entry has a chance to win the monthly giveaway of a Mountain Skag T-shirt or hat.
We will be back next week with more trail-running news, yarns, and glory.
It takes hours to write this newsletter but only 8 seconds to forward it to a friend.
PS. I found this old newspaper from 1972 on the rubbish truck from work.
Can anyone shed any light on whether this event happened and what the results were?
I LOVE NUTS
I love nuts!! :D