Mountain running Euro style. Photo: Stephen Day.

Yesterday most of the New Zealand team arrived in Ziano, Italy, where Jonathon Wyatt is based. We’re here for three days of training before we head to the World Mountain Running Championships race village in Casette di Massa. We’ve got a good-sized team of eleven athletes, a team manager and assistant manager and about eight supporters.

Earlier last week we congregated at the World Masters Mountain Running Championships in the Stubai Valley in Austria. Most of the team entered the open/citizens race as a warm-up race while the older ones among us entered the various masters races.

For the men the race started at a small village called Telfes at a height of about 900 metres and climbed firstly through forest trails and then gentler trails above the tree line to about 2100 metres over the space of about 11.5kms. The women started higher up the mountain and raced about 7.5kms.

The team had some great results in the both the open race and the masters championship races. Jono Jackson, Tane Cambridge and Peter Meffan were 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the open men, Tim Robertson and Thomas Anderson were 1st and 2nd in the junior men, Laura Robertson was 1st in the open women, and Sami Jordan was 1st in the junior women. Meanwhile, in the masters’ races, Sally Gibbs was 2nd in W55, Paula Canning was 3rd in W40, I was sixth in M35, and Patrick Meffan was 10th in M55.

The Masters Championships are a huge event, with over 900 athletes from around the world competing (mostly European countries, unsurprisingly). Many of those athletes are very high quality runners. For instance former world mountain running champion Antonio Molinari was there and came third in his M45 race, in a time that I think would have got him second place in the open race.

But at the same time there was incredible camaraderie amount the competitors and celebration in the success and achievements of others. It was the kind of event where I was happy to sing the Australian national anthem for one of the Aussie competitors who won her event.

The New Zealand Trio of Jono Jackson, Tane and Peter, on their way to sweeping the podium in Stubia. Photo” Stephen Day. 

It was great to see most of the rest of the NZ team run so well. And it was pretty cool to see a 79-year-old woman from Croatia win her W75 race. At the prizegiving she was jumping around and springing on and off the podium like a kid. And she had this huge smile and tears, and was waving to everyone from the top of her podium. Somewhat disappointingly she can’t compete next year because the rules don’t allow people 80 years and over to run. Apparently it’s not a good look to have some one dying on the course. However I suspect that would be just the way some of these old codgers would like to go.

But now with that behind us we prepare, try not to over do the training, and wait for the big race, the World Champs, this weekend. That course will start at sea level, which hopefully will make things easier, but will be run in much hotter Italian temperatures and, despite being an uphill only course, contains a couple if significant downhills. It finishes climbing into a gleaming white marble quarry.

Amongst the senior men’s race which I am part of, the tradional European strongholds like Italy will all be present, as will the USA. The Ugandans, who last year took out the top four places, are returning with a full team of six, and Kenya has sent two athletes. It should be a very high quality race.

Personally my goal is to make up for what felt like a below-par race last weekend, and in doing so support the other guys to a strong team result. What that translates to on a course I’ve never seen and against opposition I’ve never met is hard to guess, but hopefully it is creditable. I’ll be nervously excited for the next few days.

Luke racing the ATCC.

Luke Hurring, the 2013 Routeburn Classic winner, lined up recently in the 20th running of the Abel Tasman Coastal Classic. And while Luke was battling it out with eventual winner Dave Parsons and Dallas Wichman, his wife Kellie run away with the win in the woman’s race. Below is Likes race report.

The 2013 Abel Tasman Coastal Classic was a pretty late race on the agenda for us (Kellie and I), after missing out on a speculative entry in the Kepler, we had heard from a friend that despite a full field; spots on the waitlist for Abel Tasman Coastal Classic often came up. With this in mind we had emailed Nelson Events, and true to form, by mid – late August they had had enough people withdraw and were able to offer us a spot.

We had our interest in the event piqued a few years earlier when we had supported a friend who was racing – as much as you can support from the café at Marahau! and had spent time Holidaying at both ends of the track (Marahau and Totoranui) – so had seen snippets of either end to whet our appetite– but had never seen the whole track – a bit of an indictment for a couple outdoor loving South Islanders.

The 20 Year anniversary course used this year which ran all the way from Totoranui to Marahau was a perfect way to see the full track (Normally the course begins at the Awaroa inlet) this added about 5-7km to the total distance depending on whose GPS you trust, and also added an estuary crossing at Awaroa to the tidal dilemma for the organisers which allowed for some pretty glamorous Baywatch style ‘wading’ through the estuary for us.

Despite incessant rain overnight, and a pretty dismal forecast – the day itself actually dawned really good and was sunny enough to make everything bling aesthetically, but not really warm enough for the heat to cause any major issues.

The start time was slightly later than most at 10am, one of the unique aspects of the race is there is no set start time. Due to the logistics of tides, and boats and buses required to get to the start, the race starts when it can! Something for first timers to take note of.

ATCC winner Dave Parsons

I enjoyed running with Dallas, and Dave for around 70mins – where they duly left me to my own devices just before the final aide station… ATCC compared to other similar races (due to the relatively low alpine nature) has a pretty low compulsory gear requirement – with the exception of carrying a water vessel – with water, this is because there is no aide stations in the last 15km and therefore metering out your fuel over the full distance becomes a key part of the race.

Once on my own I struggled for a decent patch but after some ravenous feeding and drinking, and refilling from a couple of handily located creeks over the final 15km, I had a pretty reasonable (downhill) last few km’s to the finish to hold off a very fast finishing Richard Seigne in 4^th.

ATCC epitomises all the good things about a New Zealand trail race- spectacular scenery, spectacular part of the country – a big field and you feel well looked after with a really good race dinner, and prize giving in Marahau. Like a lot of others – we stayed on for a couple of days in Kaiteriteri to enjoy the spoils of the region, the Stoke Brewery, Te Waikorupupu Springs etc – and the event certainly lends itself well to that kind of ‘Holiday Race’ – if that’s the way you like to holiday!

Nelson Mail/Stuff Story on the ATCC

Full Results

Shutter Sports Photo Gallery

This weekends Able Tasman Coastal Classic will have its usual strong field (a quick look at the start list and the likes of recent Naseby 50km winner Ben Aynsley and the top 2 finishers at this years Routeburn- Luke Hurring and Dallas Wichman are my pick as as the first 3 across the line), but more importantly than the front runners, is this will mark the 20th running of the Able Tasman Coastal Classic.

Back in the early 1990’s trail running was in its infancy with the amount of events happening in New Zealand being able to be counted on a few fingers. A few athletes were beginning to question their allegiance to tarmac and time keeping.

Averil and Graeme West  had had enough of marathons along the bitumen and sitting in Nelson’s Chez Eelco Coffee Bar one Sunday 1993 morning,along with Marie Lenting plus  Joanne & Greg Fraine, the 350 Year Celebration banner of Abel Janzoon Tasman was spotted hanging on the Dutch proprietor’s wall.

That was enough to spark off an inspiration and from there the beginnings of one of the nation’s most popular trail runs began. In September 1994 a sell out 250 strong field lined up at Marahau but it was all but a disaster. A 100 year storm lashed  Tasman Bay that day, drenching runners on the way out then making them sea sick on the boat trip back.

“It was terrible” remembers Averil, “ We had all these runners wet and freezing and we got then straight on the boats headed back to Marahau.

But the weather only got worse and the boats could not come back to get us. Here we are , the race organizers, stranded and huddled  together until the bus arrived to take us back over the Takaka Hill.

At least we weren’t bored on the drive back to base as Graeme had a “few” calculations to determine, as finishers times were required for prizegiving an hour or so away…no swank portable computers available in those days with results all needing reconciling by pen & paper, made harder by the handicap starts “

Most races would have been ruined but competitors that day looked past the obvious and saw the Abel Tasman Coastal Classic for what it could be and they kept coming back

Three have “survived “ since the beginning and Chris Gates, Owen Rowse and Colin Rolfe will line up for number 20 on Saturday. Barry Rowe will notch up his fifteenth while four others  Steve Clementson,, Rob Blackburne, Gary Dick & Roland Meyer will  have ten or more finishers to their credit.
Organisers , Nelson Events, have had plenty of voluntary support over the run’s history with Motueka’s Search & Rescue Team using the event as a valuable training exercise while the Motueka Round Tabler’s man the aid the drink stations and enjoy their weekend camaraderie.

They will be back assisting the celebration as will 350 plus runners from all over the country plus a few venturing from overseas.

All signed up months ago for a race aimed at giving them what they want…..simply a runners reason for a weekend away and earning their “stripes’ by completing the 40km journey from Totaranui back to Marahau along Nelson’s “jewel in the crown” coast track

Full details on www.nelsonevents.co.nz