Running the Kepler can be tricky and getting your pacing wrong can make the last section from Rainbow Reach long. Really messing up your pace and the run down the Iris Burn can be very very long. While seeing people implode so badly they are reduced to walking down hill has a certain entertainment value, what is far more entertaining is seeing people run to their full potential. So to help people cash in on the hard training Matt Bixley has made the tables below to help with pacing.

I deleted Facebook for a while, had some time out. Highly recommended and not even sure why I reactivated it. Perhaps it’s my lack of will power or OCD and like the Kepler, I keep coming back. About an hour into my return (edit: 23 minutes exactly) a request came in for splits on the Kepler, the 2^nd request for splits came in precisely 89 minutes after the 1^st. The 3^rd request ………

So here we are, my favourite time of year, pouring over useless bits of information about an arbitrary, but beautiful loop in a remote part of South-West New Zealand. With Kepler #11 about to be enjoyed with friends here is my best guess at the times you need to run for each section of the track. Actually it’s not a best guess, it is remarkably accurate given the constraints of variation in human performance. There are a lot of caveats and little old heteroscedasticity (look it up and try and say it, even better, try and use it in conversation one day J ) is a bit of an issue. I have data, I developed a model, I used terms like machine learning, k-fold, cross-validation. None of that means anything if you’re not reasonably fit, aware of your abilities and realistic about your goals.

Above Luxmore Hut

The run to Iris Burn should take just a little longer than the run from there to the finish. That should hold true for everyone in an ideal world. But the race is long, so getting things wrong is all too common. It’s all too easy to do the first half much harder than your skills dictate. I say skills, because even the fittest can outrun their abilities in the 1^st half, particularly in getting to Luxmore Hut. There is many a story of a 72 minute trip and 4^th place to Luxmore, followed by a grovel home in 6 plus hours.

Having goals is worthwhile, but the above tables should be used as a tool, not a target. If you have a time goal, but the split to Luxmore finds you putting in too much effort, you’d better give up on your goal and settle down. You have more chance of getting close to it if you let it go. If you keep pushing you will suffer. The 1st three quarters of the run HAS to feel comfortable and easy (read  My Way  to understand what I mean). Sometimes however, the risk of blowing up is worth it. Two of the three splits that I’ve tailored, are for specific, down to the minute goals, sometimes there is nothing more satisfying than the personal races between mates to beat their time. That holds true for the full length of the field, not just the Martin Dents. Speaking of whom, these are Martin Splits for his 2013 course record 4:33:37

Brod Bay – 20 min
Climb to Luxmore Hut – 44 min
Forest Burn – 26 min
Hanging Valley – 20 min
Iris Burn – 30 min
Rocky Point – 36 min
Moturau – 34 min
Rainbow Reach – 24 min
Finish – 39 Min

Some interesting things to note about those. Several 5+ hour runners get to Brod Bay in 21 minute each year. Phil Costley reached Luxmore 1 minute quicker in his record run and ran the last section 2 minutes quicker. Several people each year run 30-31 minutes for the descent to Iris Burn, ie Course record pace, slow down. Both Martin and Phil while not only talented, were clearly very aware of their own strengths and weaknesses and ran to those.

As an about to be unemployed statistician I should be selling this information. Offers of jobs, cash and beer would be greatly appreciated thanks. If anyone wants something specific and/or tailored to their skills and goals then let me know and I can work something out. email: mattbixley72@gmail.com

Accuracy: >95% if you run smart,

Women
Going into the weekend only Jo Johansen had a realistic chance of knocking Beth Cardelli of the top of the ladder. Ill health curtailed that and with one Race left in the series, Beth Cardelli is a thoroughly deserving winner of the series, She won Hillary, placed 2nd at Buffalo, fronted up at Mt Difficulty for a race and conditions that do not suit her and completely dominated Hounslow. I got to spend some time talking to her husband Brian on Saturday afternoon and he is rightly proud of her achievements this year. Trained and raced smart and not overdone things. Her Houslow report can be read here Hounslow Report 

Although on the surface Beth has dominated the series, there appears to be more depth around than previously. Injury, other commitments and just bad luck have kept some others away from the top of the table. Focussing on 3 races is probably enough to win the series if you’re good enough (see mens)

Men
WOW – going into the race it looked like Grant Guise and John Winsbury were the front runners to take the series based on form and likelihood of entering the last two races. That has been thrown out the window and going into the last race of the series, there NINE names who could win overall with 4 or 5 having a genuine shot.

Here is how the table currently looks, technically Chris Morrissey, Eric Holt and Blake Hose (all on 300 points) could also win, as could Andrew Tuckey (450) but he is in Wales.

Everything else I write from now is just informed guess work. At Sky Rock ‘n’ Run there are 400, 300, 225, 169, and 127 points available for the top 5. Anything below that is likely to be irrelevant.

So who is showing up?
Ben Duffus (pencil him in for 400 points), Grant Guise (course designer), Martin Lukes (he should, it’s his backyard), John Winsbury indicated earlier in the year he’d be toeing the line.

Could front but I doubt it.
David Byrne is here in a few days for his honeymoon (congrats to you and Emma) and then back for the Kepler, so I doubt he’ll show. Tom Brazier knows what the table looks like and would be fantastic if he came over. Scott Hawker - retired (his words).

The no idea but could mess things up category.
Danny Garrett - gone off the local radar in the last few months, probably can’t win the series, but if he lines up he will have a huge bearing on how it plays out. This course will suit him.
Vajin Armstrong - loves a good hit out two weeks prior to the Kepler.

edit: I had something else written that gave the run down on who needed to do what to win, but the Ginger one vetoed that, sandbagging.

Snow, ice, mud, sun and plenty of soul searching. That more or less describes this weekend activities in Naseby. This isn’t an iRunFar Preview where everyone gets a mention (53 men and 36 women tipped for UTMB), so with 5 distances to choose from and 11 fields to look over I’m not going to cover a whole lot.

credit: Bruce Adams

The major event will always be the longest, and in the 100 miles beginning on Friday the man to beat will be Martin Lukes. There is however plenty of experience and enthusiasm chasing him and he will need to run well to beat the likes of Glenn Kelley, Adam Keen and Glenn Sutton. Glenn Kelley was in good shape at Mt Difficulty earlier this year and is pretty smart with how he approaches his runs. Glenn Sutton, like last year, will be fatigued by Badwater, but you know for a fact he’ll finish and if the legs are OK it will be in the 18 hour range. The dark horse in the field is Adam Keen, he can certainly run, hopefully he does it smart.

The womans field is wide open, but I’ve always been a fan of Koleighne Ford, right back from when we ran the original St James Ultra. Along with Marie Ford and Heather Barnes there could be some competition as the sun comes up in the morning. The other race that is wide open, is that for the wooden spoon. I’ll say right now that Norman Chan has his hand firmly on retaining the title. Why?? Because you know he will finish and will probably glide in just under the official cut-off. Speaking of which, how are you lot deciding the wooden spoon, Official Finish or just finish???

Tim Wright looks to be the favourite for the 100k and Shannon Litt might just take the overall win in the 80k. The 100k is actually the toughest race to finish, making the 6pm cut-off to start your last lap requires a consistent effort all day. 80 minute laps might seem easy but when you stack that up against 90 minute laps for a 24 hour hundred miles, it actually becomes quite hard.

The 50k looks like there will be a couple of guys duking it out in the 3:50 range, Paul Timothy will go out quickly but expect to see 72 minute half marathon runner Adam Carlson sitting there quite comfortably. Adam for the win.

Finally, down to the main event where the serious athletes appear. Think I’m joking, I’ll leave it for your homework to post the PBs of the Olympian lining up with his wife. Great to see them still enjoying their running. Possibly teams record there for the taking in the mixed and maybe even in the mens.

My personal highlight for the weekend, Helen Chignall lining up again, that makes every year for her. Have a great weekend, enjoy your runs, whatever the distance.

Quote: Jamie Sinclair “You’re all special, in both ways”

Vivien Cheng
credit: Richard Healy

Below is, our guesstimate, of the top 15 males and females in the Skyrunning Australia New Zealand Oceania Series after 5 of the 7 races. Hounslow Classic and Sky Rock ‘n’ Run both have 400 points available for the winners. Scores with an * are unlikely to add to their points this year.

Women
Beth Cardelli keeps her spot at the top of the Table but Jo Johansen has moved close enough that she could take the title. Two wins for Whitney Dagg would also see her put pressure on the top of the table and she is likely to start the last two races in the series. With a bit of luck we’ll see Emma Rilen and Hanny Allston having another run somewhere as well.

Series leader Beth Cardelli at last weekends Mt Difficulty Ascent. Photo: Crank Photos.

Men

It’s all on for young and old in this table. John Winsbury is back to some of his best form and has confirmed he’s lining up at the Sky Rock ‘n’ Run in November (and we expect to see him at Hounslow also). Dave Byrnes work commitments saw him miss the Mt Difficulty Ascent in the weekend but again he’s stated an intention to turn up in NZ as well. Add Grant Guise, Andrius Ramonas and Martin Lukes to that list and Scotty Hawker will have his work cut out holding on to #1.

Interestingly, of the 30 names on the 2 lists above, only 15 of those have run in more than 1 race in the series.

Past the halfway way mark in the New Zealand/Australia Skyrunning series I got interested to see how the table was lining up for the last 3 races, who could improve who might win overall. The table hasn’t been updated since Buffalo but with those results easily available I added a few numbers together (hopefully correctly, maybe not) to have a look at the top 10 men and women. A MAXIMUM of 4 races each are to count.

The Women

Ignoring Landie Grayling who won’t be at another race in the series, Beth Cardelli has this sown up. Technically there are enough points at the Sky Rock ‘n’ Run at Mt Oxford and the Houslow Classic for Jo or Justine to sneak the series, but they would have to win both races and for Beth to be a no show. Beth is currently on the start list for Mt Difficulty as is Jo. Expect to see Fiona Hayvice shoot up the table with a few more points next weekend also. Gill and Julie will be involved with the Australasian Rogaine Championship on Hounslow weekend, so don’t expect to see them move up the table. Depending on where Justine Medin shows up again, she could substitute her Buffalo score with something a bit more substantial and seal a podium finish.

Mt Difficulty will be a bit of a lottery for the women with at least 3 lining up who would normally feature in the top 3 wherever than ran. Hopefully Beth is coming, she is currently a class above the rest and will deserve the series win.

The Men

This a bit more wide open, in fact it’s anyone’s guess. Again, Tom Owens is out and I think Blake is heading back overseas, as is the current front runner, Scott Hawker. But I have no doubt Scott will find time to add an extra set of points to his tally. Work as got in the way of Dave Byrne adding to his tally next weekend and I’d have tipped him for the 200 points- I’d go so far as to call him the early favorite for the 400 at Mt Oxford in November though. So he could jump to an 800+ tally. Andrius, Grant and John Winsbury are all lining up at Mt Difficulty. They will all pick up points although how many is open for debate and there are couple of other names on the start list that will disrupt any plans for a points grab.

I’d be confident in saying the mens table won’t be sorted until the 1^st half dozen finishers have crossed the line in the Canterbury Foothills later in the year.

* Dave has an asterix because he scored points twice at Buffalo, but only one is to count.

“The” downhill at Mt Difficulty, freefall straight down between the red tape.

How do you write something about a race that continues to strive to remain a mystery, an enigma. I tapped out on Sunday afternoon, it’s now Wednesday and it’s still difficult to find the right terms to describe “What is the Barkley?” in any sense that can convey what the Barkley actually is. Because for the majority of those who would like a slot, it’s not what they think it is.

I arrived at Frozen Head State Park and the Big Cove Campground a week before the race was to start. Part recovery from travel, part course learning on the candy ass trails and part getting into the culture of the event. It’s that final part that I think most are missing when they think of the Barkley. Hanging out with the Characters, learning about the history of the race, the variations on the course and the unbelievable fight that continues to this day to keep the race alive and well in Frozen Head. The Park Superintendent doesn’t want it there. But there are good people fighting for it and I got to meet those people and feel their passion for the race.

I’d done my research, so I had a very good idea where everything lay on the park map. There were pieces that were difficult to decipher from all the descriptions, but once Nicki Rehn (Aussie/Canadian – but definitely an Aussie twang) showed up with her old maps I was able to piece together the final sections and hear from a fellow Rogainer her interpretation of the course in terms that I could relate to. But Navigating is just one of the myriad of skill sets required to successfully negotiate the Barkley. The tried and true approach for a virgin is just to follow a Vet and learn the lines and book locations. That’s all well and good but if they’re too fast or too slow for your goals or if they don’t know where the books are then eventually it will go bad for you. Actually it will go bad for you anyway.

Sunday to Tuesday I ran parts of the course on the candy ass trails, having a look and getting a feel for the shape of the terrain, the underfoot conditions and the unrelenting steepness of the off trail climbs. If I was able to describe a single climb and the terrain it would look something like a vertical slope up a distinct ridge, with a few rocks here and there. There bush is sparse, mature Oaks, with very little ground cover. Perhaps like running through beech forest with 70% of the tress missing. Sounds easy, and it is, for 1 climb, but each loop has 13 of them.

Loop 1 – Laz finally, to the frustration of the vets, blew the Conch at 10:22 for an 11:22 start. Why? Because exactly 9 hours later it was the end of Civil Twighlight and the 2nd loop would start in the dark for everyone. Book 1 was negotiated with a large group following multiple fun run finishers, Alan and Bev Abbs, we then shot down to Book 2 where Alan may have been playing games and didn’t hit it. Virgin scrapping is taken seriously, Tim Dines and I left them to get a fixed point and came back to the book and then started up Hillpocalypse, at a rough grade of 40% for the next 30 minutes or so. Across to the Garden Spot and Book 3 with another vet, but then a missing turn found us well above where we needed to be for the Buttslide and Book 4 followed quickly by Book 5 and then the complicated descent of Stallion/Fykes Peak to the New River. I dropped the vet I was running with here to catch another going through the now infamous Vagina Book on a new section and then the new descent to Raw Dog Falls. Now the biggest choice of the whole day. Danger Daves Climbing Wall or Pussy Ridge. Danger Daves it was and a scramble up an 80% slope to drop down onto the Barrel and Book 7 before the monumental climb up Rat Jaw and the plummet down to the Prison, the Tunnel and more rock climbing up a vertical wall. Just 2 more huge climb remaining, the Bad Thing and Big Hell with the shitty descent down Zipline to the Beech Fork in between. After the 45 minute run down from Chimney Top, if Laz had the Easy Button out I’d have hit it. But I was under no illusions of how difficult things were going to get. By the time I arrived 3 had already tapped out and in my turn around I heard the bugle play twice more.
Loop 1 – ~9:30 about 12th place

Loop 2 – With a goal to be efficient, Mike Dobies (card carrying beer SNOB) who’d been mentoring me for the week in both the course and beer tasting, had me turned around in 12 minutes and only 25 minutes down on the Abbs, who’d left a trail of virgin carnage in their wake. The night was cold, there is much debate as to how cold it really was. It felt around the -5 Celcius to me, but others will swear black and blue that it was lower than -10C. I was still running in shorts until 1am or so, with an Icebreaker T, Thermal Top and light Shell, eventually putting on thermal pants when I waited for a vet just behind me to help get the correct line through the Garden Spot-Buttslide section. Didn’t quite nail the descent off Stallion this time but still hit the road crossing, then Book 6 where the Abbs had dropped after spending some looking for it. Rat Jaw was now a feared beast as the sun rose and the expectation was a 2 hour climb, but pleasently just 1:20. Night had taken it’s toll on many and slowly those in front came back to us, even at the glacial slowness we were moving. Back at the Yellow gate after a cleanish but somewhat slow 14.5 hour loop and a meagre 4 minutes inside the cut to continue for the 100.

Matt with Barkley RD, Lars.

Loop 3 – having joked at the gate that I wished I was slower so that I didn’t have to go back out there, the reality was I felt fantastic. Legs obviously tired, but mentally alert and ready to tackle each of the climbs one at a time as efficiently as possible and carry on getting pages until Laz said I couldn’t anymore. The 3rd Loop is the 1st in Reverse. So I left the gate, now in 4th, staring at a 1.5-2 hour climb up over Rough Ridge and on further to Chimney Top. It was going fine until the last steep upper section and I found myself lying on the ground (sounds familiar to Ben & Blake at Buffalo last year). I have no idea what happened which threw all sorts of doubts into my head. I dropped back to the saddle and lay in the sun and napped for a few minutes. But I think I’d already quit. I was disconcerting to know that there were places I was going where collapse could cause a lot of problems for a lot of people, at the Barkley you rescue yourself. In the 30 years of running, no one has ever needed to be rescued. They ALL find their own way back to the yellow gate. As it turns out, everyone around me also tapped out or endured a long 2nd night completing the loop only to be tapped out at the gate. Three even tapped out within 1km of where I lay on the course. All strong people, all found a limit that seems so short, but going further and further away from the gate with some many hours to face alone, it gets to you.

The Barkley attacks you, but it is addictive. It is not the race the many who seek to do it, think it is. Please don’t ask for the details, especially if you’re a girl, the race is too hard for girls. Laz genuinely wants people to do well, he doesn’t need to extend the already extensive list of people with no hope of anything more than 1 loop. Yes It is actually hard to get around 1 loop. The ground conditions, while OK by NZ standards, are rough. If you want to line up, you should consider yourself one of the best Adventure racers or Rogainers in the Country. The closest I can get to describing how hard it is, is to imagine doing the Motatapu Adventure Race, from Fernburn to Macetown, then return, then go back to Macetown etc etc. Now imagine doing the out and back and it feels easy. That is as close as I can get to describing how monumentaly hard and unrelenting the course is.

A huge thanks to Ultimate Direction for all the gear, there were numerous PB Adventure Vests on course and it was fun camping with the US Ambassador Heather Anderson. Also to Andrew and Heather at Enduro Safety for their support.

Have I Been Training – No!

Amongst other questions where have is swapped with: what, why or how, the have has been a common theme. The answer is generally the same and I am honest when I say No. I haven’t been doing anything really specific for the Barkley Marathons. The BCR boss sent me a link from another Barkley entrant, http://runsteep.com/2015/03/04/redefining-what-steep-is/ , apparently they have been training. I’ve been in contact with a couple of other entrants as well. They too have been training, if Godzone counts as training that is. To me Godzone makes Barkley look like a 5k fun run. One team took 64 hours for the 24km Albert Burn Trek.

I have known and read about the Barkley for nearly as long as I have been running. Whilst many people have placed it on their bucket lists, I doubt that many of them have actually studied it. Have they gone and searched for the Topomaps, deciphered the race reports, plotted the course, stalked strava, learned to navigate, failed at navigating, got lost, suffered, suffered again and still wondered what is next. Have you got the e-mail address, the e-mail list, the university degree(s), the right degrees and most importantly the right date and time to submit your entry. Do you have that point of difference that will get you selected?

Over a long period of time I collected nearly all the things that would make an entry worthwhile and thanks to the connections with Ultimate Direction I got the final piece of the puzzle confirmed last year at a time when I thought I had one and only one shot at entering. Any older and I think I might be on the downslide or just wanting to put more time into family life. So I had one shot and that was all it took. My luck run out and I was given a high enough weighting that I would need to book Tickets to Wartburg, Tennessee. Since then, I haven’t trained for it.

What I have done is just carry-on doing the things I’d normally do, after all, how do you train for a race that takes 60 hours and has some 20,000 meters of climb? One thing I did know was that turning up injury free was going to be the goal and trust that general condition would be enough.

So nothing specific to training for Barkley, just out and about doing events, having fun and organising my own events. Work gets in the way, there’s fun things to do with the family. I have enough issues with OCD and running so keeping the Barkley under control hasn’t always been easy. I’ve dropped runs, I’ve quit races all with the long term goal of turning up fresh and injury free.

“How many loops are you going to do?” - ALL OF THEM.

Coverage – there is no coverage of the race, there is no website, there may be sporadic and random posts on Facebook or somewhere else. I don’t know, I’m sorry, I don’t even know when it starts.Sometime on Sunday march 29 (NZ Time). Actually I do know, there will be sporadic coverage on twitter which I don’t think you need to be signed up for. #bm100

So one final thought, everything you read about the Barkley is probably a lie, I might write more lies once I’m at the Yellow Gate, but in the meantime enjoy the above long trailer for the Documentary.

Come 5am this Saturday the Karangahake Gorge and Kaimai Ranges will fill up with trail runners in the Blackmore’s XTERRA Trail Challenge Waihi. The event has Trail Tigers, 7.3, 13, 19, 42.2 and 60km options with the 19k doubling as the New Zealand Trail Running Championships and an XTERRA World Champs qualifier.

Total Sport dominate the trail scene in the Upper North Island for a good reason, they make events very accessible for the full range of enthusiast right down to on the day entries, which creates a bit of a problem when trying to write a preview. Number look good again, i.e. should be approaching the 1000 mark on race day which puts it up with the biggest Trail events in New Zealand.

60km ’Kaimai Killer’ Ultra.
What the field lacks in size is made up for in the quality of the women’s field. While I doubt that this is a focus event for anyone lining up it will be a great gauge of fitness for some of the bigger events over the summer. UD Ambassador Jo Johansen and Claire Walton, 1 and 2 from this year’s Tarawera will fill out those two spots in no particular order and they will be kept honest by Heather Davidson, 2^nd to Jo at the Hillary Ultra and by Claire Akin-Smith who has one of those rare achievements in running, a 3^rd place at Kawerau in the Tarawera 100km.

On the men’s side, Grant Guise will run away from everyone after 30 minutes or so when he gets bored. He could be kept honest by local multisporter and handy marathon runner, Josh Garrett. Behind them are another 3 or 4 weekend hacks hoping for some carnage.

New Zealand Trail Running Championships.

With late entries expected the current form guide appears to be a couple from Hawkes Bay. Defending Champion Ruby Muir won’t have it easy with Kovo Kowalewski in the field. For the men Kristian Day (6^th in 2013) currently heads the line-up, but that alone should spur defending champion Chris Morrissey to put away his zimmer-frame and drive over in the morning.

A great day out and not to be missed. Hang around and enjoy a beer, juice, gourmet sausages and salads in the sun. As well as take some photos for the Ultimate Direction NZ competition.

Post your best photos from the Waihi Xterra Trail Challenge onto the Ultimate Direction New Zealand Facebook page, and/or on Instagram and hashtag them #UDwaihi Photo’s from the 2014 Waihi Xterra Trail Challenge, taken by competitors, crew, supporters (anyone) and of any aspect of the event and any distance. The winner will get an Ultimate Direction FastDraw20 Handheld.

Ben Aynsley on his way to winning the 100km

The Great Naseby Water Race (GNWR) held its 8th edition over the weekend. The 2007 event saw 9 starters in the 80k and 5 in the 50k. Helen Chignall has now run at all 8 events and another 4 of us were still turning up for a trot on Friday and Saturday. The event has grown in that time both in the numbers (now around 160) and in the events on offer (5 different lengths) but the one thing that hasn’t changed is the family and community feel of the event. It always has and I hope it always continues to be an event that is so much more than the runners themselves.

Aileen has finally managed to relinquish some of her lap scoring duties particularly for the overnight stint. They were taken up by volunteers who have often been competitors at this and other events. Ron McLeay-Barnes and his team did a fine job with the aid station. Ron is a stalwart of the event having taken part for many years in the relay and providing support for Jamie and Aileen. Sadly missing this year were the Koedyk family and hopefully we will see them back next year in their many and varied roles.

Naseby means a lot of different things to different people. For some it is an “A” race, to others it’s a training run, for some it is a lifetime achievement. But I am seeing more and more that Naseby is a gateway drug. Support crews become enthralled with not just theirs, but with all the runners and support networks and relationship develop. From that we see crews step up to the relay or 50k or in some cases they have jumped in the deep end, floundered around a bit and come out with a buckle.

So there were actually a series of races starting on Friday and finishing on Saturday evening. There were some fantastic performances, not just at the front of the field but right throughout the pack. Congratulations to the ladies who started the 50k early and pushed their boundaries. To those whose 100mile plans did not go as they would have hoped but worked hard and dug deep within themselves to ultimately achieve what we all start with intentions to do, and that is finish.

Croydon Patton on his way to a 10hr PB in the GNWR 100mile!

Standout performances came from Becky Nixon in the 100mile, the very well judged 18:15 will not be easy to beat. Ben Aynsley’s 8:48 is the 2^nd fastest in what has always been a well contested 100km. The ladies team record has dropped another few notches to 5:44 by Bernadette and Kath Ewer. However I think the one highlight shared by most of us was the 10 hour improvement from Mr Wooden Spoon Croydon Patton. Dropping from 34:30 to 24:21. When I first saw him on Friday afternoon he was running 4^th to last and commented that he was going too quick, so those in front were suicidal. He would eventually finish in 16^th!!!!!!! and handed the spoon to ever reliable and smiling Norman Chan.

It is always dangerous to have named people and leave others out. For that I am sorry but on behalf of the athletes, I thank all the volunteers, crews and with most heartfelt gratitude, Aileen and Jamie for letting us play.

Post Script:
There is always debate about the course, it’s length and vert. Those on Strava may have noticed there is now a segment: “Great Naseby Water Race 1 Lap”. It is between 10.0-10.1km long and has 150-160m of climb, nearly every watch measure it around that with the occasional watch measuring more.