NZ men’s team post World Mountain Running Champs.

The World Mountain Running Championships took place last weekend on a spectacular course that climbed through two beautiful little Tuscan villages, bush and mountain rocks into a massive white marble quarry in the Apuan Alps.

Several regulars described the course to me as the most technical and complicated uphill course they had ever seen.

While it climbed ’only’ 900 over the 11.8km course it had extensive flat and downhill sections, which meant the uphill sections were compressed into much less distance, making them very steep.

There were a significant amount of stairs, going both up and downhill, and rocky, uneven terrain that reduced most runners to a walk.

And most importantly there were often narrow tracks and paths with sharp turns that limited the runners to single file, unable to pass for large parts of the course.

This meant runners had to choose to get to the front very quickly so they did not get caught behind slower runners – and walkers – in the narrow sections. Paradoxically though, this quick start probably reduced many runners to a walk earlier than they should have.

Knowing how tough the latter parts of the course were I was not brave enough to change my traditional approach to a race and I went out cautiously. I was quickly near the back of a large field of about 160 runners. And quickly stuck in a long, long string of single-file runners whom it was hard to pass.

I simply had to remind myself each time to be patient, and use the chance to rest up in anticipation of the tough climbs yet to come. Slowly I worked my way through the field, catching up with three of my teammates and lodging myself in the midst of a group of Irish runners, and one Australian, who became my target for the day.

Once we emerged out of the steepest section, a narrow rocky gully, into the quarry space opened up and I started to pick people off on the uphill climbs.

But there were still some significant flat and downhill sections to come and despite trying to conserve my energy earlier my legs did not have enough left in them for the final 1500 of climbing. Like everyone else around me I was reduced to a slow grind as we wound our way up through the throngs of Italian supporters who leaned in on to the course imploring us on in much the same way as crowds do on climbs in the Tour de France.

I finished 78th and our NZ team finished 12th – behind the big mountain running powers but tied on points with Germany, ahead of Russia and comfortably in front of Australia. My personal Australian rival got away from me in the flat parts of the quarry though so I lost that battle. This was my first appearance at the the World Champs, and it was great to be part of a full Kiwi team of senior men in the race. I hope our performance is a platform that future teams can build on. In particular Jono (32nd) and Glenn (38th) showed NZ is close to having a strong team again that can sit comfortably among the best mountain running countries in the world.

No one in the mountain running community is unaware that many athletes don’t hold mountain running in high regard. Even I would never argue that it should be a blue riband event, sitting alongside the 1500 metres or the marathon.

However I do think it is time we placed an increased emphasis on mountain running’s importance in the athletics pantheon.

Athletics is searching for a bridge between its formal, structured events and the growing popularity of trail running.

Cross country can be part of that bridge, and yet cross country suffers from a perception that it is both elite, and old fashioned – something people were forced to do at school.

Mountain running is unknown enough in New Zealand, and thus lacking in preconceived stereotypes that it might help bridge the gap. It’s already established in parts of the world – notably the European countries with Alps – and it can be dramatic and spectacular in that ’Red Bull extreme’ sort of way that appeals to some in the public. What it lacks in New Zealand, and many other countries is a crossover between established top runners and the trail running community.

That is why it is so important to see runners like Jono Jackson and Sally Gibbs involved. It gives us a measure of the quality the other runners involved.

If someone were to beat Jono by 5 or 6 minutes over 12km on the flat, as the Ugandan mountain running winners did on Sunday, we can classify that as a world class performance.

Likewise, when Jono easily beat runners on Sunday who have run 29 minutes for 10km on the flat we know not all runners can make the conversion that Jono did from elite road runner to elite mountain runner.

I would like to see more road and cross country runners giving mountain running a go.

And I would also like to see more trail runners drop down in distance to give mountain running a go. Bring those technical climbing skills you have and match them against the raw speed of road runners.

Let’s see if we can find the right blend of the two that can be the next generation of New Zealand mountain running teams to take on the world.

World Mountain Running Champs Results

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.