Unfortunately, a bit over a week out from race day, the killer blow was delivered. The whole of the North Island of New Zealand has seen very little rain so far this year, and has now been declared a drought zone. With this came an increasing number of bush fires (mostly unfortunately deliberately lit), and increasing fire risk in commercial forests Because of this, the Kawerau Forest n which the last forty kilometres of the race were due to take place were closed to organisers. The last 40km of the race, instead of being on wide, even forestry roads, would return over the windy, undulating, rooted single track they had just come out on. And significantly, the race climb increased from 2,600m over the 100km, to an estimated 4,500m.
The race was also notable for the international quality field it had attracted, amongst others US 100km champion Sage Canaday, current Western States champion and course record holder Timothy Olson, last year's chamoion Mick Donges, runner up last year Vajin Armstrong, and several other top Americans, Australians, Europeans and Kiwis. The advantage of the out and back course was being able to see some of these top guys, especially Sage and Tim up close, and it was great that a lot of them had words of encouragement for us as we slogged past them going the other way. It was crazy to see Sage bounding his way past through 75km whilst I had barely got to 45! It was a pity more mainstream media coverage wasn't forthcoming despite some of these superstars of ultratrail making their way to New Zealand: an analogy would be if the US Open Champion and the Wimbledon Champion came out to complete in the Heineken Tennis Open.
Anyway, coverage of the elite race can be found at iRunFar, with links to interviews with the race winners, and ultra168.com. What follows is my take on the race!
My day started at 5am with the early alarm, after an all-too-brief sleep. Up, cup of coffee, toast, and it was off to the start with my support crew of Rachel, her Mum, and of course Luke, wearing his newly purchased Dad's Number 1 Fan shirt. Starting in the dark at the Rotorua Redwood Forest, the race started gently uphill over well established tracks, before encountering the first bottleneck at some steps up one of the bushwalks at the centre. The rest of the first 13km or so until the first aid station was mostly alond wide forest tracks until we reached Blue Lake, then around some more well established, gently undulating bush tracks. At this time I was feeling pretty good, pacing myself well, enjoying the company of fellow runners: one guy doing the 60km distance told me in the four months leading in to the race he had completed four marathons, a half ironman and the Keppler Challenge, making me feel even more underprepared! My strategy in these races is right from the start to walk any even slightly strenuous uphill, and I was glad to see many of thise around me had the same idea, making me feel less of a lemon.
Through the first aid station, the course continued to follow the banks of Blue Lake. This was where it first became apparent what a different race this was going to be from last year: places where we had to wade through knee deep water were replaced with hard dry mud! Up a short road section, and through a few majestic stands of native bush, and we were at the second aid station at Lake Okareka, still feeling good on my legs.
From here the course headed up (once again at walking pace) to the start of the fearful Western Okataina Walkway, through the Miller Road aid station. This walkway would form the last 18km of the out and back section of the 100km course, and I remembered it from last year to be gently undulating, with a steep downhill at either end. Here came my first doubts as to whether I could complete the 100km race, as the track turned out to have a LOT more downhill (translation uphill after 90km of running) than I could remember. The running continued to be gentle on the legs, but as I rolled into the Lake Okataina aid station at 37km, I knew it was going to be a huge ask to get back over the hill, with about 500-600m of vertical ascent, on legs that had already travelled 85km. And although Rachel had offered to pace me for this section, I had serious concerns as to how she would take it after a full day of coping with a potentially fractious 3 month old! I headed into the aid station, a change of socks, half a bottle of Gatorade, and my fifth Hammergel of the day to the sounds of Gangnam Style, and let Rachel know my thoughts... her words were more or less 'You're getting back over that hill no matter what you say!'
From Lake Okataina came the part of the course I was most worried about mentally. Scenically, I think the 25km from this aid station are the most spectacular of the course, mostly along the shores of Lakes Okataina and Tarawera on single tracks, through beautiful forest. There are three aid stations in this stretch, Humphry's Bay on Lake Tarawera, normally only accessible to boat, and Tarawera Outlet and Tarawera Falls carpark, accessible normally by runners' crews and supporters. Unfortuantely, due to the risk of fire, these were all now closed to anyone without a boat, and the Outlet and Humphrey's Bay stations were having to cope with the full field of runners twice. This was going to be a long section of the race where I wasn't going to see Rachel, Rosie or Luke, and given how I had coped over 15km without personal moral support last year, I was worried. I had prepared drop bags for the two stations I would be passing through twice, with extra Gatorade and Endurolyte Fizz, extra gels, and chocolate coated coffee beans (an absolute God-send at this point in the race!), as well as a change of socks and clean shirts. Thankfully, what I hadn't counted on was the number of runners coming back towards me... from the elite guys down, they were never short of a word of encouragement. Special thanks to Timmy Olson for the wide grin he gave me (or he could have just really been enjoying himself on some sweet single track downhill from the saddle between the lakes), and to the Aussie runners Brendan Davies and Shona Stephenson for the motivation they gave me... they were all racing hard in a tough race (to the point of ending up in hospital in Shona's case) but still had a few words for a guy who was obviously struggling a little more than them!
In the end, my legs started to cramp up pretty severely at around the 60km mark, where a flight of steps up over a bluff near the Tarawera Falls proved to be the last straw in my hopes of getting to 100km. From there it was more a matter of surviving... slogging up the hills, jogging the downs and the flats where possible, trying to keep down electrolyte capsules, fruit and fluid as often as I could. With a bit of distance, and the major hills behind me, my legs started to feel a bit freer back along the eastern shore of Lake Okataina, and I was able to jog a little bit more. At this point, it had obviously become apparent to the organisers and Race Director how much tougher the alternate course actually was, and the decision was made to move the cut-off time back at Lake Okataina for those wanting to complete the full 100km distance forward by an hour. Over the last 5km, a large number of pacers passed me in the opposite direction, out looking for runners who were taking a lot longer than expected: and with 2.5km to go I was delighted to see my beautiful wife, who had obviously begun to wonder where I was! I made the Lake Okataina aid station with 11 minutes to spare before the cutoff, but realistically was never in a condition to carry on back over the Western Okataina Walkway, and was more than happy to finish under the 85km finish banner.
Looking back, there is a little bit of disappointment as to what could have been, having to finish at 85km, 18 km short of my goal (the full distance actually being 102.9km). However, results show that such was the increased difficulty of the race, of the 222 entrants in the 100km race, only 96 made it to the finish at Lake Okareka, ranging in time from an obscenely quick 8 hours 53 (Sage Canaday), up to 17 and a half hours to the last finisher. Mick Donges, who finished fifth this year, was an hour slower than his winning time on the original course in 2012. 85km under these coniditions I feel is still something to be proud of, and I'll no doubt be back, stronger and fitter next year, when hopefully the race returns to its original course! Thanks of course must go to race director Paul Charteris, not least for the kind words of encouragement he gave me on two occassions, and the volunteers along the course, most especially at the Humphry's Bay and Tarawera Outlet aid stations, you guys were life savers! To my fellow runners, especially Kelly from Colorado (who wasn't going to let me drop from the 100km race, but then was too fast for me to keep up with so didn't have the chance to stop me, and ended up third in the women's 100km), and Mead from California and the guy in the white shirt with mud up the back, who I ran a lot of the out-and-back with, thanks for the companionship out there!
And most especially, thanks to my brilliant support crew: Rachel, Rosie, and of course Luke, who had no idea what I was doing, and gave me several glares as if to say that. I'll be back next year for another go!
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