All packed and ready togo.

Dennis de Monchy offers his take on the new Ultimate Direction Fastpack 30.

I was recently given the chance to test out the new UD Fastpack 30 when I headed south to run in the hills for a couple of days with Mal Law and his High-50 Challenge of 50 peaks in 50 days.  Unfortunately Mal was injured for our overnight trip, but our merry group of 6 support runners headed up the Matukituki Valley for the overnight trip anyways.  I had sorted my gear for this summer alpine trip, then tried it out in a friends Fastpack 20.  It all fitted in, but there was no space for Mals gear that I was expecting to carry.  Luckily Grant Guise came to the rescue and offered me his Fastpack 30.

First impression was that it was a pack without much structure, and lightweight fabrics, so I was concerned that it would sit uncomfortably with a cooker, pot, whisky and other items on board.  Luckily I was wrong, it has a firm enough back rest/sit mat that I didn’t have any issues with pointy stuff protruding into my back.  With the main compartment loaded with overnight stuff, my waterproofs and microspikes went into the big webbing pocket on the outside, leaving plenty of room for more.  This pouch on the outside is second best feature on the fastpack’s, easy to load, easy to access, and roomy!

Dennis descending the Rees Valley.

But the best feature of the Fastpack 30 is the front pockets on the shoulder straps.  4 pockets to choose from, 2 zip pockets and 2 elasticated ones. The big elasticated pocket is there for your UD bottle, while under this is a small zip pocket that I used for my compass and chapstick.  On the other side is the big zip pocket which I used as my pantry for each day, loading it with Pocket Fuels, muesli bars and a backup gel or 2.  Under this is another elastic pocket that I loaded with my Iphone in a WP case, and map.  All the pockets still had space for other stuff after I’d loaded them.  There are also 2 pockets on the side of the pack that are easily accessed without removing the pack for you hat, gloves, thermal etc.

Fully loaded for the overnight trip and with a 2L bladder on board, it was weighing in at around 7kg so the real test was going to be on the first 9km of flat running.  It has the same 2 chest straps as the UD PB vest that I have and really like so I was interested to see if this would be enough for a decent load.  My PB is a small, and the Fastpack 30 was a M/L so even with all the straps cinched tight there was a bit of slack in the shoulder straps, and a bit of bounce when I was running.  I’m pretty sure that if I had the correct size this would be minimal, as I tried the pack two days later to run over the Routeburn with only my day gear in it and it hardly bounced and was incredibly comfortable.  You can also squeeze it down with the side straps so that it doesn’t need to be fully loaded all the time.

Scott Hindrup, also using a Fastpack30, nearing the summit of Mt Tyndal

We had a bit of cold drizzle while ascending Mt Tyndal, and nothing inside the pack got wet, so the light weight nylon must be fairly water resistant.

I loved this pack, and could easily have taken a few more nights food and a couple of extra bits of clothing without space being an issue.  A great pack if you are doing 1-3 night trips where you want to move fast, or if you need a lot of gear for a day trip in the mountains.  It also has 2 ice axe loops which I didn’t get to try out, but could also be used for trekking poles.

Shop for the FASTPACK 30

This weekend will be the 3rd edition of the gnarly Northburn 100mile race in the barren Dunstan Mountains east of Cromwell. The Northburn can lay claim to being New Zealand’s only true 100mile mountain (and 100km mountain) race and is certainly not for the faint hearted.

First up, The North Face sponsored runner, former World Rogaine Champion and winner of the inaugural Waihi 60km in October, Dennis de Monchy from Tauranga

Dennis crossing the finish line at Waihi Ultra. Photo- Paul Petch- outdoorphotography.co.nz

Dennis this will be your first 100mile race- what are your expectations?

Yeah it’ll be a big step up from Tarawera and TNF100 last year, but in my Rogaining (24hr Orienteering events) past I have covered up to 140-150km over a 24hr period while also navigating and bush bashing so I know I can last the distance.

What will be the difference between Northburn and a Rogaine?

The lack of trees for a start, and no running around with a map and compass which makes for a great distraction while the hours tick away. No expectations, just hoping to finish the thing and not damage myself in the process.

Hows the build up been, have to managed to kick on from your form at Waihi and Kauri Ultras?

The build up has been very poor, nowhere near the quality training I was doing in the lead up to Waihi, in fact right now (Mon 8.30pm) I should be downstairs running cables in the walls and ceiling during our renovations! Instead I’m doing Northburn ‘research’ and will head out with headtorch for a run later. I haven’t had the time for long runs this year so have aimed for quality and shorter sessions while also doing more core work by being a builders labourer during the day and carrying my well built toddlers on the weekends!

Though I did surprise myself with a 1.26 offroad half in Rotorua 2 weeks out from NB, my taper has consisted of absolutely no running in the last week while I have tried to let an infection in my quad settle. I think it was due to some bush lawyer I encountered on a reconnaissance of the Kaimai Goat course with Chris. This also put to rest any chance of pacing my buddies at VTuM which was a real shame, so I spent the day with my foot up, drinking coffee, and eating Darren Blackwell’s race food.

A pretty solid man’s field this year- where do you see your self fitting in with that and who are your picks?

Marty Lukes will be taking it out I reckon, his legs just move too fast for too long, hopefully I’ll get to chat with him for the first couple of hours before slowing down. Others who’ll be up there are Matt Bixley who seems to have some whizz bang training programme he’s following, Chris Gates whom I’ve never beaten before I don’t think, and then the others are folks I expect to do well but I don’t them or their form: Glenn Sutton, Michael Beaumont, Ray Sanchez. So I’ll be aiming for top 3 but with the build up I’ve had I’ll be expecting something more like 5-6th.

Being your first 100mile race, what experiences are you drawing on to help with such a big under taking?

Sleep deprivation lessons being handed out nightly by my 9 month old boy, hopefully I can find the bottles and formula at the TW aid station! But seriously, having notched up a few 24 hour rogaines I’m quite happy to keep jogging through the night, watching the stars and will resort to a more old fashioned nutrition plan of sandwiches, H bars, Pocket Fuel and nuts/dried fruit supplemented by the odd gel or Chomps when I need a caffeine hit, as opposed to the gel fest that is a 100k race.

I also learnt a few more lessons(or had them reinforced!) watching the Vibram Tarawera Ultra on Saturday, the main one being to go out slooooow….. and to keep the food going in early because it will be hard to stomach anything by halfway.

I’m feeling very calm leading into this race which surprises me as I haven’t done the training, but it’s always great fun to race somewhere new against some dodgy Southern folk. So just hoping for a fun weekend.

Oop’s that was a bit longer than expected, must be cos I should’a been working! Now time to strap on my new red TNF Hayasa’s and scare some of the neighbourhood dogs:-)

Dennis crossing the finish line at Waihi. Photo- Paul Petch- outdoorphotography.co.nz

Dennis de Monchy dominated on his local trails during Saturdays Kaimai Killer 60km Ultra. Virtually leading from start to finish – in trying condition’s Dennis thrived to win Total Sports  inaugural ultra in great fashion. Below is his report of how his day went-

If I could design my perfect trail run, the only thing I would add to the Xterra Waihi 60k course would be hot pools at the finish! And maybe get the coffee van to stay open for a few more of the ultra runners finishing.

Wandering to the start line in the dark after a quick sprint to retrieve my forgotten number, I was looking forward to a couple of hours of running by torch light through the technical, narrow trails that cover the Kaimais. I knew this was one of my strengths and aimed to make Grant Guise and Kristian Day work hard through to Franklin rd at 9k knowing that they probably had better leg speed when we’d hit the flat and fast tram tracks.

We started with a 20m sprint to the stile, I leapt over first then put on a burst, 200m down the windy track I turned around and couldn’t see any lights! Through Franklin rd I gained a 4 min gap on Grant and could just see his torch as I jumped back over the fence after detouring round a big bull that had had its sleep disturbed. Back into the bush and the slow grind uphill always expecting Grant to come cruising past making it look easy.

Between Ananui Falls and Waitawheta hut on one of the climbs I heard someone behind me clearing their nose, but couldn’t see them so had no idea who it was. The unknown factor was Matty Gummer, an English fell runner currently living in HB. Through the Waitawheta hut junction at 3 hours I was still on my own but knowing I was being hunted down. Onto the tramtrack and finally some flowing running, though 5 min in I needed a toilet stop and heard some footsteps go past, who was it? A small surge and I caught Grant and we ran together having a good gossip through to the Daly’s clearing turn off. A slow grind up to the hut was a good time to fuel up on Fi’s(my wife) tasty flapjacks, and a couple gels so when the track flattened again after the hut I could start running. This is where I’d suffered during my course recon and also where I dropped Grant, so I kept a steady pace without pushing too hard.

4.44 in and I was cruising back through Dickies Flat( start/ finish), the drizzle had started and I was starting to suffer. I grabbed a few gels and a sandwich and hurried through knowing I didn’t want to get caught up in the short course start and traffic jams on the bridges. Over the first bridge was fine, but I had to jump the queue of 50 people for the second bridge and enjoyed the slower walk through the 200m tunnel grateful I’d kept my headtorch. Some cramp kicking in in the quads on the flatter track through the gorge, but this was offset by having plenty of people to chat to as I ran past.

The climb up Mt Karangahake was tough even though it’s a runnable gradient for the most part, just before Dubbo track Mark Richardson came past doing the 19k and this spurred me on to get the legs moving again and have a bit of a yarn with him, till he turned left and I had to keep slowly grinding up the muddy hill. I thought my North Face Hayasa’s (shoes) may have been a bad choice as the rain became heavier and the mud increased, but they were perfect in the end as I hit the highpoint and started the 8km(?) descent to the finish on very slick trails.

With a huge grin on my face I was starting to have fun! 54k into a race and the legs were feeling better than ever, skiing down the steep clay and mud in places and passing the shorter course runners that seemed to be struggling in the conditions. I loved the left hand turn at Dubbo track knowing it was only 3k to the finish, all downhill and allowing myself to start thinking I’d nailed this one! Through the final mud bath, down to the river and then a short run along the river to the finish. It was done, I’d finally got a win in a long trail race, and with some decent competition.

Kaimai Killer poduim- Grant Guise 2nd, Dennis de Monchy 1st and Darren Blackwell 3rd

I couldn’t believe it, 7.03 for 60km is a tough course in tough conditions, but the most fun I’ve ever had in a race, and that was the view of most people I spoke to who’d completed the Ultra course.

Thanks to Totalsport for a fantastic course, The North Face for the brilliant shoes and clothing, and my beautiful wife and 2 young children for letting me spend a lot of family time out running!

BCR’s Xterra Waihi Report HERE

Glenn Hughes Xterra National Champ Report HERE

Photography from the day by Paul Petch HERE

Xterra Trail Challenge Waihi-

As we said above there were a lot of events on and to report on all these would take a pretty long winded report and a lot of research to do it well, so we will focus on the ultra and the 19km races.

The 60km Ultra, Total Sports first dabble at an ultra event, kicked off at 5am, adding a good 90mins of night running to the already tricky conditions, that included a river crossing and even a large Bull to sidestep. Local lad Dennis de Monchy made the most of local knowledge  good technical running skills and a sun like head lamp in the early hours to take out the inaugural ”Kaimai Killer”. Dennis running strong and consistent all day virtually lead from start to finish, finishing in 7hr03, ahead of Grant Guise in in 7hr09 and another local boy (and BCR guest poster for the Waihi preview) Darren Blackwell in 3rd place.

For the women, as Darren predicted, Vicky Plaistowe took out the women’s race despite running her knee into a tree at full speed. The results currently have not included Vicky or her time(??), but in 2nd place was Stacy Smith and 3rd was Vicki Woolley.

The 19km at Xterra Waihi is also the National Trail Running Champs with spots at the World Xterra Champs up for grabs and drew deep fields.

In the womens race recent WMRC competitors Helen Rountree and Marjolein Ros duked it out in the mud and rain, with Rountree (1hr50) coming in 2mins ahead of Ros, and Katy Dawson rounded out the top 3. (see below for Helen’s comments on the race)

The men’s National Trail Running Champs was stacked, and that was before the late entry of Chris “I have won pretty much every trail race at one time or another” Morrissey turned up. World age group Xterra winner Nick Hirschfeld lined up despite having the flu, but pulled the plug at the  Dubbo 96 track. Meanwhile Glenn Hughes was smashing the uphill around Karangahaki and ran away with the win in 1hr33, 3mins ahead of Chris Morrissey and 4mins ahead of Vajin Armstrong.

Interesting to note the winners of the Xterra National Trail Running Champs Helen and Glenn both recently represented NZ at the World Mountain Running Champs in Italy and last weekend both were members of winning teams at the ANZ National Road Relays. Both showed how versatile they are and in the conditions on Saturday “the course suits a road runner” argument could hardly be used. 

We have a few longer race reports and a few shorter ones, so we will include the shorter ones here in this post and add the longer race reports today or tomorrow in separate posts.

RESULTS HERE

Glenn Hughes race report HERE

Dennis de Monchy race report HERE

Mal Law’s GPS from the “Kaimai Killer” HERE

James Kuegler’s 19km race report HERE

Photography from the day by Paul Petch HERE

Vicky Plaistowe- Photo Paul Petch, OutdoorPhotography.co.nz

Helen Rountree- Xterra National Trail Running Champ- “Was an awesome day. That was my first ever trail run besides the mountain running events. Really enjoyed it and came away with some wickedly sore body parts from smashing into trees and having some massive wipeouts coming down. Also shouldn’t have worn racing flats, hehe they just made me slip everywhere.  Really scary as I had no control at all, so downhills were pretty average. I think if the weather wasn’t so awful I would have enjoyed it a bit more but overall was an awesome introduction to trail running.  I hadn’t even thought about the Xterra Worlds in Hawaii as only entered this race to see how I liked it. Next up I’m doing mount Edgecumbe race in a few weeks.”

Vicky Plaistowe winner of the inaugural Kaimai Killer Ultra- “Was a truly stunning run but not a great run for me….the universe came back and bit me on the butt for indulging in my silliest idea so far. Game plan was to run the marathon as training having just built back up to 4 runs a week post an injury. However the beautiful terrain and my trail mates excitement at running the ultra along with their encouragement had me upgrading in a flash.What played out on the day was my toughest run mentally and physically. I smashed my quad straight into a fallen punga 2km into the race and spent the rest of it slowly deteriorating as my gait became increasingly impacted and my ability to deal with the pain eroded. The descents normally so much fun became things to dread and it all went to pieces on Mt Karangahake. With 10km to go it was just a matter of trying to get myself to the finish line where I actually thought I would just sit down and have a wee cry.

As a weekend, awesome! Great tough course, cool event, amazing people and incredible camaraderie. I hobbled away with special memories, new friendships and some hard earned lessons.”

Keep an eye out for race reports from Glenn and Dennis in the next day or 2. Also a big thank you to Rob Bathgate who fired out some great BCR updates on Saturday in the rain. Hopefully Rob will be back racing again soon, if not will will try and twist his arm again for some updates!