🏃🏃♀️Will Faultline Shake Things Up?
“Waking up shivering with my emergency blanket wrapped around me on my 30th birthday was not what I was expecting"
Your weekly fix of NZ trail running news
We’re the Fillet’o’Fish of the NZ trail running scene. A little bit strange, not everyone’s taste but someone must be buying them😂.
Here's what’s in the drop bag this week:
🏁Upcoming events: Faultline Ultra, Da Routeburn Classic
🎯Things You May Have Missed
🩺Worst Run Ever
🎁Fenix Headlamp Giveaway
📰SK News Desk
⛰️💊Mountain Skag Winner of March & 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.
Nigel from the results desk was on leave this week, so we’re jumping forward to look at the big double header this coming weekend.
Upcoming Events
Faultline Ultra
Saturday & Sunday, April 20/21
The Faultline Ultra is here and ready to SHAKE THINGS UP.
It can potentially rival Tarawera & Taupo Ultra in size, and they’ve thrown everything at it.
It’s got all the ingredients to be a big event.
All races finish in the city
Airport nearby & lots of accommodation
Council Co-operation & Funding
Runnable trails with enough hills to keep the hardcore Harry & Harriettes happy
100K & 100 Mile options
Let’s take a quick look at the race options on offer:
📏162km 👆4808m
📏100km 👆2966m
📏50km 👆1607m
📏24km 👆728m
📏11km 👆289m
📏6km 👆27m
The 100-mile option intrigues me the most. Outside of Tarawera (slip issues aside), there are no other point-to-point courses at this distance.
This course has a little of everything:
🔭360* views from several points of the course
🥵100% runnable climbs
🐂Farmland
🚵MTB tracks
🌆Inner city running
🍻Dodging drunk partygoers along the waterfront
The biggest factor in the race is going to be the weather.
None of the “peaks” are over 500m, but Belmont, The Knob and Mt. Kaukau are some of the windiest spots in the country.
If a brutal southerly rips through, I predict a 40% DNF rate.
We have seen the weather cause chaos in the Wuu2k before, with the 62km and 42km races canned and everyone running an impromptu 20 km course.
What will be the parameters for cancelling the longer races?
I can’t see a B course for the 100 mile or 100km events unless they changed to something punishing, like laps of the 50K course.
Another critical factor to the success of the event is how well holding a mountain bike and running race at the same time goes.
A bit of wet weather leading into the race could cause utter carnage for the mid to back of the pack (on bikes🚴 and 2 feet🏃).
The elevation is deceptive. If you’ve ever run the WUU2K, you know it can be death by 1000 paper cuts. There isn’t one big climb where you can just put in low gear and chip away.
It’s constant up and down bar the river trail in the Hutt. A large chunk of the field will be able to run the climbs, which may lead to serious pain in the back end of the course. As the race wears on, the undulating terrain will take its toll.
It's time to take a stab at who I think will take home all the lollies.
Based on the starters list (hopefully up to date), my picks to win are below.
📏162km:
🏃♀️Fiona Hayvice: 23h25m 🏃Johan Bergman: 19h58m
📏100km:
🏃♀️Chrissi Faber: 11h08m 🏃Brian Garmonsway: 10h30m
📏50km:
🏃♀️Jade Valler: 4h50m 🏃Ben Williams: 4h05m
All the best to everyone running. I might catch some of you while on pacing duties.
If you need a shakeout run on Thursday night, join me at Spicer Botanical Park at 6 PM for a 5K loop of Spicer Link and then a beer/kombucha & burger at Abandoned Brewery in Porirua to calm the nerves.
Follow Faultline on Instagram and Facebook for race updates and results.
The Routeburn Classic
Saturday, April 20
The Routeburn Classic was back last year and is looking to make it 2 years in a row for the first time since 2016/2017.
2018,2019,2020 were all wiped out due to the weather (snow) and 2022 due to the Big “INSERT YOUR OWN FAVOURITE ‘C’ WORD HERE”.
Some of our best trails and races are multi-day hikes: the Jumbo Holdsworth, Kepler, Abel Tasman, and of course, Crush the Cargill. The Routeburn is no different. It’s up there as one of the best trails in the South Island (obviously, it can’t compete with the North Island trails😝).
The Routeburn Classic was out of action while trail running boomed in popularity, so let’s take a closer look at the race for those who may never have heard of it.
The Routeburn Classic:📏32KM | ⛰️1100M
CR:🏃♀️Sarah Douglas 3:16:48 | 🏃Jack Beaumont 2:37:51
The Routeburn track is one of NZ’s Great Walks, which links Mount Aspiring and Fiordland National Parks in the deep South. It’s a point-to-point race from the Divide (southern end) to Routeburn Shelter (northern end).
Some of the features you’ll find:
🏖️Beech forests
⛰️Alpine passes
😍Waterfalls
😣Rocks
🦜Cheeky AF Kea
For a little taste of what it’s all about, check out the video below by Evan McWirter (previous owner) from 2021.
The race was sold in 2023 by Evan McWhirter to Trojan Holdings, which also operates coast to coast. It’s no surprise as running a race in today’s H&S environment, on one of NZ’s Great Walks must have been punishing.
One of the first changes the new owners have made is that the race now has a field size of 400, up from 350. It’s SOLD OUT this year, which is a handy $17,780🤑.
Unfortunately, the starters list link isn’t working. The race usually attracts a strong field, and it’s certainly a race that’s on people’s hit list.
Last year it was a battle of the NZ Mountain Run team, with Maia Flint edging out Kate Morrison for the win. On the men’s side, The Flying Doctor Haunschmidt chased down Toby Batchelor to claim another title.
Click here for more details, and follow along on Instagram and Facebook.
Things You May Have Missed
Worst Run Ever
This week, we’ve got another Worst Run “That Didn’t Happen” Ever from Stephen Bates.
“My worst run ever is not really a run... I think to qualify you actually have to make it to the start line and run at least one step!”
“This "run" started with an email confirming I was lucky enough to have won a discounted entry to Captain Cook's Landing from Wild Things. I was stoked! This was an event I had on my to-do list.😎”
“To help justify it more, I decided this would be a great opportunity to take the family on the ferry from Wellington and make a long weekend of it knowing fine well I would be hijacking some of the trip.”
“Ferry and accommodation was booked, plans were made for family activities and for friends to visit while we were there. Training even went to plan and I was feeling pretty good about the event💪.”
“Car loaded with more options for running gear than I could use in a month and kids hyped for the trip, we had perfect weather for the morning sailing between the islands. This is about as close to the run as I got!!!😫”
“That evening, 36 hours before the boats would start ferrying runners to the start line, I found myself in the fetal position on the bathroom floor questioning if I had accidentally swallowed a family of porcupines that were now causing the pain.”
“A quick trip to Blenheim A&E was greeted with injections of morphine and scans to confirm I had officially tuned into a human oyster and had grown a 3cm gallstone😮.”
“Apparently a mix of morphine and swollen internal organs mean doctors do not let you leave hospital for a run... or in fact for the entire weekend! So, instead of pushing myself along the trails admiring the views and celebrating my achievement with nice food and a cold beverage, I was enjoying bland food, injections and discussions on surgery😭.”
“Turns out the only thing my hospital stint had in common with the race I was hoping for was that I had indeed hijacked the family holiday and by the time we finally headed home I was sore and exhausted!😝”
“In case you are wondering, yes, I did go back to tick off the event the following year - just a little lighter after my pearl had been harvested (there is another story about the disposal of my gallstone that involved a run and a zip-loc bag labeled "DO NOT EAT" but that is far too good a run to be included here... maybe one that could be a submission for a
popular trail running podcast).”Stephen Bates
Thanks Stephen! You’re the first in the April draw for the Mountain Skag Jumper giveaway.
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.
March Paid Subscriber Giveaway
Last week, we announced one lucky paid subscriber would win a Fenix HR433e433***3.
I like to keep things sumple; all you needed to do was be a paid subscriber and send in a photo of your sorry excuse for a headlamp.
I usually just use a number generator for the winners.
But I thought I would spice things up this month with a race.
Congratulations to Nikki Helyar!
That was a great burst to the line.
You’re now part of the Fenix Army. You can chuck this old POS away
A big CHUR👍 to all the Paid Subs who keep this circus spinning.
SK News Desk
It’s not all rainbows and bubblegum at the SK desk.
After all the excitement of a new female Main Range FKT, it’s easy to forget how tough this thing is. For every person who succeeds, there is another who fails.
But failure is all in the eye of the beholder.
24 hours is an arbitrary time.
It doesn’t change what you saw.
It doesn’t change what you felt.
Most of all, it doesn’t change the person you become after going through the experience.
Last Sunday, Allira Hanczacowski set out for a long stroll along the Tararua Range for her 30th birthday.
Full of confidence coming off her self-supported North Bound South Island TA adventure and victory at the Tararua Mountain Race.
But things didn’t go quite as planned…
SK Main Range: 📏84.3km, ⛰️7157m
⏱️38.5 hrs elapsed time, ⏱️31.2 hrs moving time.
“Turns out, attempting to traverse the Tararua Range in a day is tougher than running the length of the South Island. An SK had been on my mind for a couple of years, but I never quite felt brave enough to tackle it. Navigating the South Isl. gave me the confidence and courage to attempt something I was absolutely terrified of.”
“My initial goal of that magical sub-24hr completion time vanished very early on, realising my priority was now to enjoy being alone in the mountains, where I feel most at ease.”
“But as it got dark and the wind chill picked up, my morale and mental toughness started to fade, until my priority became to simply survive. The decision to stop for a snooze at Maungahuka hut at midnight was not an easy one to make, but it was ultimately the safest one.”
“Waking up shivering with my emergency blanket wrapped around me on my 30th birthday was not what I was expecting, but I knew that I now had the daylight and strength to finish what I started.”
“My one-woman birthday party wouldn't have been possible without my one-man support crew @andersbrad 🙌 From driving to the start and sleeping in the car, to running up (and down) to Kime hut and waiting for me to turn up in the middle of the night (which I didn't), to the reassuring phone calls and messages along the way, and being at the sweet Carpark of Glory, to (literally) pick me up off the ground.”
“Also, having Brent turn up with cake, and queen Ali Wilson (who claimed the women's FKT the previous day) waiting at the end was the best finish to the day(s).”
“Thanks, Tararua Range for a birthday I won't ever forget! 🎂⛰️”
Well done Allira, that’s still a fantastic achievement. Once you’ve taped together all the pieces, I’m sure you’ll be better for it💪.
If you want to know more about the SK, follow this link.
#Mountain Skag Pic Of March
Congratulations to Ben Taylor, you’ve won Mountain Skag for March.
#Mountain Skag Pic Of The Week
Debbi Bamfield with this week’s #mountainskag from the Queen Charlotte track.
A reminder that it doesn’t have to be a big epic ridge shot.
Any scene out in the wilderness that gives you that feeling of release from everyday life is perfect.
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 all the results from the Faultline Routeburn doubleheader.
It takes hours to write this newsletter but only 8 seconds to forward it to a friend.
PS. The next edition of the ‘The Long Run' (quarterly ezine) has hit its taper block and will be out in 2 weeks.
Whoop whoop!! Thank you!! Can’t believe I won a running race 😂