I’ve read and taken part in a few conversations over the last month or so all loosely related in some way to the standard of trail running. What’s elite? What’s not? What are championships or series and what does that all mean? I got cranky at times, I ran and ruminated and thought that putting it down on paper and showing how laughable some of the claims are would make me feel better. That expanded to something somewhat larger than would be appropriate for a BCR post.

So Part 1 will just list a long string of organisations and events that claim some sort of “World” status with what I believe are varying degrees of validity. These are events that we as trail, road, and ultra-runners all have some association with. Part 2 will look more closely at home and Athletics New Zealand and their role or potential role in trail running etc.

For me, a World Championship is an event that attracts the best athletes in that particular discipline each and every time they are held. The participants may not be perceived as the best athletes ever, but the simple fact is they are the best athletes in their chosen discipline. It’s a different argument to say that XYZ would win if they ran. A) They didn’t and B) they might not. There is no better example of that than Mo Farah the Olympic 5000m and 10,000m Champion. He was relatively useless when he stepped up to run a marathon.

Jonathan Wyatt winning the 2005 World Mountain running title in Wellingtion.

The IAU – International Ultra Runners Association
The IAU have a long(ish) history of 24hr and 100km World Championships that attract the highest quality athletes competing at those disciplines. The best performances in any given year are often associated with those events. NZ has managed a couple of individual Silvers at the 100k and the Aussie has bagged a Bronze in the 24 hour. Both events have the backing of the IAAF. However it’s my opinion that the IAU have lost focus by trying to get into the trail running side of athletics. This has been to the detriment of the 100k and 24hr. The biannual Trail World Championships are farcical in their depth when compared to the other two events. It is beyond a joke for them to consider that the best trail runners from around the world are taking part. Yes, some do, but the overall standard is abysmal.

WMRA – The World Mountain Running Association are also backed by the IAAF and have held 29 annual championships to date, alternating between and up/down and an up only course. Since 2004 they have also run a Long Course (marathon distance) event that is usually attached to other classic events like the Jungfrau or Pikes Peak. The events are not a free for all and nations select teams usually based on their own mountain running championships. They also have a World Series which is more of a European based event and caters for the shorter distance. They know their niche/market and they are sticking to it (even if they have thrown the occasional tantrum). They tend to be a good crossover between the more traditional track and cross-country athletes. The notable standout from our point of view is the 6x World Champion and Olympian Jono Wyatt.

Sky Running Federation – Sky Running has its origins in the early 90’s and running up and down mountains for FKT (Fastest Known Times) this merged into actual racing and they have largely stuck to their knitting of altitude, difficulty and distance. Although they’ve successfully integrated the vertical K into their program, and have relaxed their criteria somewhat to allow other nations to hold sanctioned Sky Running Events. Most notably for the very successful Buffalo Stampede. Their biggest success has been their annual World Series.

Anna Frost finishing 2nd at the 2014 Ultra Sky Running World Champs.

Where they are falling down though is their World Championships. This years’ event was held on the same weekend as The Western States 100 mile and the Lavaredo Trail 100+km event. So it was no surprise at all to see 3 Aussie blokes finish in the top 10 in Chamonix with Anna Frost on the women’s podium and Ruby Muir running well for a podium before altitude got her. With a Kiwi in the top 10 at Lavaredo and another Australian in the top 10 at Western States, that’s the standard we’ve to come expect from watching races like TNF100 Australia, TNF50 San Francisco, Tarawera.

My biggest issue is that they have a Marathon the very next day, effectively splitting the depth of field in two. The timing as noted above meant there was in fact 4 high profile races on the same weekend, all of similar standard. It also means that there are TWO marathon length trail runs having World Championship status.

UTWT – Ultra Trail World Tour. I’m still not sure what to make of this, for New Zealand and Tarawera it’s a fantastic and I have no doubt helps bring in talent and vast qualities of money to the country. Beyond that it just seems to be a small pool of athletes getting paid to fly around to races and is in direct competition to Sky Running. So we have two World Series going head to head so what does winning one of them mean?

Now we get into what I think are the joke races and championships.

UROC – Ultra Race of Champions, “The Ultra Running World Championship”. That is the strap line on their webpage. It is a race born out of the frustration of a few people who couldn’t get into Hardrock or Western States and wanted to race each other for some money. Some of the best do turn up (especially when it have Sky Running Status and Salomon flew their team out there), but self-proclaimed world championship status. You have got to be kidding.

XTerra – Yes they too have a self-proclaimed World Championships that is really just a group of Americans trying to use the Ironman Model to make money from trail running. At the last year’s championship, from 850 odd finishers there were 3 Kiwis, 15 Australians, 1 German, 1 Argentinian and 5 from Japan. With awards for 5 years age groups (aka. Triathlon), everyone goes home a world champion.

Badwater – you guessed it, they also claim to be the world championship. From this year’s website, “Scheduled for July 21-23, the new and improved 135-Mile World Championship….” I don’t really have anything more to say about such a ridiculous statement for a closed entry private event.

So what’s the point? It’s clear to me that in recent years there has been a proliferation of groups trying to make money out of trail running (and running in general) by claiming some sort of world status. The IAU and WMRA have long established histories and conduct well run championships with the best athletes in those disciplines. Beyond that, trail runners seem to go and run the events they and their friends want to go and do. Championships for trail running don’t seem to be working.

Tarawera Ultramarathon race directorPaul Charteris gives us the run down on the Tarawera entries that open today-

Entries for the 2015 Vibram Tarawera Ultramarathon open at 11am on Sunday 1 June NZ time. It’s alway super exciting seeing how popular the race has become – although this year I am genuinely worried about the server crashing. 

In what is almost a perfect storm (pardon the pun) with the rapid growth of the event facebook group, massive exposure in the trail ultra community provided by the Ultra-Trail World Tour and international TV broadcasts going out to over 20 countries, expect entries to sell out. Combine that with a few hundred runners who have still not made it to Kawerau (sorry about the weather) and really want to do so – and I expect entries to sell out pretty quickly. Other similar events around the world sell fill up in a day or sometimes hours.

My best guess (and it is purely a guess) is that all 1000 entries for next years race will be snapped up in a few days or perhaps a few weeks in June. When the race is full we’ll have a waitlist and new entrants will be allowed to enter as runners withdraw. When the race is full and we have a waitlist, you will not be able to transfer your entry to other runners. All the details about entries, refunds and the waitlist are on the website.  No matter if the race fills up in five hours or five weeks – I’ll keep you in touch with how full the race is on the event facebook group.

For some extra motivation and inspiration, the interviews, media coverage, photos, videos and race reports are all collated here: trailrunz.blogspot.co.nz  Enjoy!!

Watch Racing The Cyclone: The story of the 2014 Vibram Tarawera Ultramarathon.

Start of the Hong Kong 100km

This weekend past I had the good fortune to be racing the Vibram HK100, the first race in the new Ultra Trail World Tour. I had applied to go to this race back in early December but it wasn’t until the first week in January that I received the good news that I would be going. At this point, with only two weeks to go until the race, there was no time for any specific preparation instead it was off to Hong Kong on a wing and a prayer.

Having been to to Hong Kong before I knew what to expect, a big bustling vibrant metropolis which was also home to some of the most accessible and interesting trails one could hope to find. Over the last few years Hong Kong has developed a reputation as a real hotbed of trail running in the Asian region, with new races popping up and selling out on an almost monthly basis. Being such a central location and a major airline hub makes it a really easy place to get to from where ever you are, especially for all our Asian friends.

Being the first race in the new Ultra Trail World Tour meant there was plenty of media interest in the event. With the field being so international, with runners coming from more than 40 different countries, this also added to the sense of occasion. On the Thursday pre race, there was a great press lunch at the local indian club with some really good food. I was lucky to be invited onto the Athletes Panel to answer some questions for the media. It was also a great chance to meet some of the other athletes and get into the mood of the race.

The race started at the leisurely time of 8am which gave the locals plenty of time to catch a taxi to the start. The race over the last four years has grown from 200 in it’s first year up to the 1600 runners taking part in this years edition. Being in Hong Kong, many of the runners were not used to the 12 degrees temperature at the start, most were wrapped up in a hat, gloves, jackets and huddling trying to keep warm. The race start was quite amusing as at the last minute quite a few locals came forward to get their photo taken with the elites and then stayed put until the race started when they sprinted into the lead.

From the start there was 700-800m of road to settle into a good position before getting onto the single track. I started on the trail in 2nd place behind a Nepalese runner who immediately stopped to walk and offered me the lead, I happily obliged. The first section of the race was very run-able which led to a huge lead pack coming into the first support point together. The pace was fast but I felt relaxed and comfortable hoping it was going to be my day out on the trails.

Lead pack around 10km into the HK100km.

Over the next couple of sections I was still in the lead pack and slowly but surely one runner after another dropped behind. I was feeling pretty good until my lack of stair specific training began to catch up with me after 3.5 hours. For those of you that don’t know, Hong Kong trails are notorious for their huge amount of stairs which certainly take their toll on the unprepared runner. Coming down some stairs on the way to checkpoint four I began to get my first of many cramps on the medial portion of my quads. This meant that I had to slow down and let the lead pack go as I tried to nurse myself through this situation, and dropped back to as far as 7th place.

I just kept trying to stay relaxed and positive which helped as by halfway I had moved back up to 5th place. This was the first time that I had raced 100 without any course specific training and also the first time that I had ran into serious problems this early into a race. Coming into the 2nd half I was unsure at how my legs would hold up as the 2nd half is much more difficult than the first. Heading out onto the back half of the course I was running pretty well on anything flattish or up hill, it was just the stair descents that I was having to take it easy on.

The 2nd half was really entertaining, you had the two top Nepalese falling back and then coming storming through to the front, while at the same time you had some of the earlier fast starters beginning to drop back through the field as the course began to take it’s toll. I went from 5th back to 6th before passing Ram and Dave Mackey on the way into Checkpoint 8. I now found myself in 4th place with the hardest 17km of the course still ahead. This last section of the course is an epic way to finish off the day, with three big back to back climbs. The first, the notorious Needle Hill, is the staircase to end all staircases, steep unrelenting good times. This is followed up by the very run-able road climb over Grassy Hill, which serves as a nice warmup for the final treat the big climb up Tai Mo Shan(957m). The road up to the top of Tai Mo Shan is a real sight to behold it is perhaps the steepest single road section I have had the pleasure to encounter.

I managed to get through all of this without seeing another runner and once I hit the top of Tai Mo Shan I thought I was pretty much home and hosed, with only the final 4km road descent to the finish. Cruising down here at around 4.20km’s I wasn’t perhaps paying as much attention to what was going on behind me as I should have. Unbeknownst to me while I had been enjoying the dusk and the views out over the city and out to sea, a battle royal had been ranging between Scott Hawker and Ram Bhandari with Scott passing Ram and catching me with a little over 1km to go. This, despite giving me quite a shock, was a good thing in the end as it woke me up and pushed me to smash out the last km in 2.55, which in turn allowed me to hold unto 4th.

Vajin and fellow kiwi Scott Hawker at the finish chatting with HK100km race director Steve Brammar

This race was a great experience in many ways, meeting and sharing the trails with hundreds of others from round Asia and around the world was definitely a highlight. It’s great to see such a big, modern city still having such a strong connection with the nature and trails it is surrounded by. As our lives become ever more online, it is this connection with nature that I think helps keep us centered and balanced. The UTWT model showed itself to be working with a big strong and extremely diverse elite field, spending time with all of these athletes was inspiring, entertaining and informative. Hong Kong it’s self is such a unique and wonderful place to visit, an amazing fusion of the best of both the East and the West, also knows how to put on a challenging and rewarding trail race.

I would like to thank UTWT for flying me over, Janet and Steve for the great job they do with the race and for still finding time to be wonderful people outside of that. Jez Bragg for being a true icon and gentleman of the sport, Vlad for being himself and a name to watch for the future. Everyone else who was there, racing, watching, handing out drinks or following online.

And of course my wife Prasasta and my sponsors, Ultimate Direction (the Scott Jurek Ultra Vest is a great pack), MACPAC (Chch’s finest), Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team (inspirational) and the wonderful Lotus-Heart in Christchurch (all things nutritional).

Pre HK100 interview with Vajin, Scott and Shannon HERE.

This weekend the Ultra Trail World Tour kicks off with the Hong Kong 100km. Among those lining up are 3 top kiwi ultra runners-  Shannon-Leigh Litt, Scott Hawker and Vajin Armstong.

BCR caught up with all 3 pre HK100.

BCR- The HK100 is now part of the newly formed Ultra Trail World Tour- was that a deciding factory for choosing to race HK100- or was it a race you already had on the calendar?

SLL- This was definitely a factory and the reason I entered the HK100

SH- It was a race we already had planned as part of a 7 week holiday. Stoked to hear it was part of UTWT though

VA- I was extremely lucky in that UTWT actually invited me to this race. I was looking for a race in early January and there aren’t too many, plus the fact that I am already doing two other UTWT races (Tarawera and Western States) made HK100 a perfect fit. I enjoy racing a series of Ultra races and feel that for me I preform my best with a few ultra’s under my belt. Nothing calluses you against the demands of an ultra better than racing one.

BCR- The UTWT has brought out some top talent- do you know much about the competition and the HK100 course?

SLL- I understand the competetion is tough and have looked at the winning women last year and their times are definitely very good. I think this year there is Lizzy Hawker and Kami Semak competing and Claire Price who won last year. There is also Francesa Canepe from Italy will be a likely winner. I know the course is tough in terms of the elevation and a lot of stairs so I have definitely trained for this aspect.

SH- There’s a stack of international talent. I’ve been told to keep an eye on the Nepali guys too. I have checked out a bit of the course and all I can say is stairs!

VA- I have heard great things about this race from other athletes that had done the event before. It looks like it has an incredible balance between nature and solitude all the while being so close to such a huge concentration of people. The field looks to have a great international feel to it with top runners from Nepal, Hong Kong, China, US, Britain and of course the mighty Flying Kiwi Contingent.

BCR- How has the build up been- have you incorporated many steps and road running into your training?

SLL- The build up has been solid, have done solid amount of hill work and technical downhill.

SH- The build up has been great. I have just signed up with a coach recently who has had me doing plenty of stairs and hilly stuff. There is a heck of a lot of concrete on this course which is going to catch up with people later on in the race. Due to travel I have done a fair bit of road running in Singapore, KL & Beijing recently.

VA- For me it has just been a matter of keeping things ticking over since Kepler in December. I only found out in early January that I had been invited, so not much time for specific workouts, but I feel that I am at a good level of fitness and should be ready to race come Saturday.

BCR- What are your expectations for the race?

SLL- I am hoping for the best and going to give it everything I have.

SH- Only my 2nd international race other than a disappointing DNF at Tarawera in 2013 after catching some kind of bug on the flight over. Despite that, like all the other guys and girls, we’re all going for the win aren’t we?

VA- My expectations are simply to perform to my best and to enjoy it. The more I can stay in the moment and come from a place of love the better I tend to perform, so that will be my goal on Saturday.

BCR- You have all also entered in Tarawera (another UTWT event) –what else do you have n for the year and what is the main focuses?

SLL- Tararewa is a focus definitely and so is this race is to see where I am at. Will look at the Lavaredo Trail in Italy 27 June, as a possible 3rd race in the series.

SH- Yeah I have some making up to do at Tarawera for sure I plan on doing the TNF100 (UTWT) in May and then I’m not sure. See how the body feels after 3 100km races in 6 months. I’d have to say Tarawera is my ‘A’ race for the 1st half of 2014. Also going to be running with my wife for her 1st ever 100km in the 2nd half of the year which I’m psyched about too.

VA- Big races for me this year will be Tarawera, Transvulcania and Western States. All of these are going to be epic races with super deep fields, so I am really looking to up my game and see what is possible. As T S Eliot said “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”

Shannon- has won the ANZ 100km road champs, Naseby 100km and Ned Kelly 100km in 2013. Supported by Foundation Clinic Physio, Thir and Coached by Craig Kirkwood.

Scott- Recently placed 1st in the Truth or Consequences 50km, Kep 100km and 6 Inch Trail Marathon. Sponsored by Hoka One One Australia, RaceReady, Ryders Eyewear. “Also thanks to Eric LaHaie from Hoka One One Hong Kong for looking after us while we’re over here.”

Vajin- 3X Kepler winner, 2nd at 2013 Swiss Alpine Marathon. “Big Thanks to all my sponsors especially MACPAC, Ultimate Direction, Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team and The Lotus Heart.”

From HK100 website- Live tracking will be available during the event.  To track any participant’s progress on PCs, iPads and large tablet, use this link.  For smartphones, use this link.