Running with the Kiwis - Take Two

After the first race we did in New Zealand, the 13K Clutha River Track, we decided that the Shotover Moonlight Mountain Half Marathon would be fairly similar since it also mostly followed a river. Meaning, it would have a bit of climbing, but generally be pretty mild and obnoxiously scenic.

We nailed the scenic part but were WAY off on the mild bit.

This race also had a Full Marathon distance (which was a point-to-point race whose last seven miles or so were the same as the last seven miles of the Half) as well as 5K and 10K distances.

While there was an elevation chart for the Full Marathon, which showed that it was a very tough course, there wasn't one for the Half, which was probably a good thing since it ended up looking a bit scary.

There was one drink station, but we hit it twice. The "Yikes" bit line up with the two main climbs you see on the elevation profile. The last part of the course is a steady uphill (we were running up-river) that had around 40 river crossings - we shared this bit of trail (along with most of that last climb) with the Full runners.

You can see the dust being kicked up by a steady stream of cars arriving at the lake.

There was a long bit of narrow gravel road that you had to drive on to get to Moke Lake. Most rental car companies make you promise to not drive on such roads, but we went with a company that was really only interested in getting the car back with most of its bumpers still intact, so we smiled as we cruised up this road.

Also, note the sky. It was clear and beautiful weather - not exactly hot but just warm enough. Since the course was largely exposed, sunscreen was a must (thank you Mrs Notthat for bringing it and getting me to put some on!).

This should have been the first hint that water was going to play such a big part in the day - we had to cross this stream just to get from the parking area to the woolshed where the race was being staged.

Mr and Mrs Notthat nearly ready to go. Mrs wisely went with the white shirt.

A very cool thing about this race was that it started at the very sensible hour of 11 AM. Since the Full started at 7 AM, this meant that we would be finishing together with many of the Full runners, and this really turned out to be fun.

All but one of these runners would place in their age groups.

Mrs Notthat, having good social skills, quickly started talking with some of the other runners. At this point we still knew little about what was ahead of us.

A little bit before the race there was a pre-race briefing. The Half, 10K, and 5K distances all started together. The descriptions of the 5K and 10K courses sounded jolly, exactly what I was expecting.

Then the RD got to the Half course, paused, and said "Oh my that Half course." I instinctively moved away from Mrs Notthat since I was now realizing that this wasn't going to be as easy as I had anticipated. "The first bit will be easy, then you get a long downhill bit. Followed by a longer uphill bit. And when you are done climbing you get 42 river crossings and a tunnel."

Mrs Notthat looked at me and said "What have you got me into???" (There might have been even more question marks - I was very happy to not be standing next to her at that moment.)

And we're off! The first bit of the race was all on gravel road, which at first was a bit of a disappointment, but later would be looked at as a blessing.

The first milestone was the 5K turnoff. They darted across a short bit of grass then became one with the river. I don't know how many river crossings they ended up with, but I would guess between 5 and 10.

A brave volunteer making sure none of the longer distance runners chickened out and took the shortcut.

While the trail was nice and smooth, it was also mostly a gradual uphill climb. Note that Mrs Notthat has already left me in the dust.

The next milestone was the 10K turnoff. I would guess they ended up with between 10 and 15 river crossings. (Hopefully someone will comment with better information on that.)

Now we were down to just the Half runners heading up the hill. Our reward was a stunning view.

We could look down on the river and see some of the faster runners (probably Full runners, but maybe some Half runners) running along it, heading back to the finish.

I had done the long downhill and thought I had done the long uphill when I got to this point. The easy thing to do would be to go straight and plunge back down to the river. So naturally that's not what we did, and instead turned right and headed up the hill.

This was one of the toughest hill climbs I've ever done - it was steep and there really wasn't a trail; just some markers scattered up the hill. (A benefit of being slow is that all of the other runners have already mashed down the grass to make a trail-like thing appear.)

This drink station is where we first met up with some of the Full runners.

Shortly after we reached the real top of that first climb, we were at the drink station (water and electrolyte). The volunteer looked at me and pointed me to the right. "You're in for a real treat. Hopefully I'll see you again in a bit" he said. Hopefully?

From this point the Half runners did a lollipop - first we ran down the stick, did a mean little loop, then headed back up the stick.

The nice thing was that we had a fun stretch of downhill before we reached the candy part of the lollipop and split off to the right. (It was really clear here what you had to do, but after I headed off the the right a bit I started to wonder since I hadn't seen any markings or other runners. It was really the only time I had any doubts about whether I was off course, and it was cleared up shortly by… 

… these two women who blew past me. This bit of trail was a fun single-track with small rolling hills. 

Mrs Notthat at the base of the lollipop. The funny thing is that her maiden name is on that sign.

I had been a bit worried about Mrs Notthat - she could easily have missed a turn or two and I was a bit surprised I hadn't seen her on the stick. It turned out that I needn't have worried - she had met up with a German named Artac (not her real name) and the two of them fought through the last half of the course together. 

There had been talk of trail improvements from last year, and I suspect that this was a big one - these flagstones made getting through this very muddy stretch much easier.

Next I came up on this volunteer who told me to take a left. And warned me that the fun was just beginning.

Sadly, pictures don't do this part of the course justice. There was really not much of a trail, just a series of course markers that took you through the less hazardous bits of brambles and mud pits. It was really challenging to try and do any running through this - the grass made it really hard to see what you were stepping on or in, and sometimes you had to look pretty hard to find the next marker. I could often see several tramped down paths through the grass where different runners had tried different tacts to get through this.

There was very little climbing for this stretch, but it was extremely challenging.

At the end of that bit, this wonderful volunteer pointed us to the relative beauty of an uphill gravel road to get us back up to the drink station.

It was along this uphill stretch that we merged with the Full runners for good (this year they were spared that bit of "trail" we had gone through, but I feel confident they had much worse horrors on their course).

I swear he looked surprised that I had made it back.

Getting back to the drink station was a great sight for a couple of reasons.

• It gave me an excuse to stop and catch my breath while my water bottle was filled.

• It was the end of the major climbing for the day. From here, it was a long downhill to the river.

Off I went down the hill to the promised 42 river crossings. (Actually, we had already done one, so only 41 were left, in theory. That seemed like a lot and I was reasonably sure he was exaggerating a bit. Ha.)

Before I knew it, I was in the river. And it felt awesome. It wasn't particularly warm out, but the sun was relentless and I would have loved laying down and splashing in this river for a bit.

But I had a race to finish. And river crossings to count.

I was determined to take pictures of every river crossing, and I think I got most of them. Above are 36 of the better ones. This was amazing and a LOT of fun.

Two Full runners showing me how to run through a river.

I dunked my hat multiple times. It was very refreshing. And the frogs thanked me.

So how was Mrs Notthat handling the river crossings?

Just fine thank you. (She was WAY ahead of me at this point - Artac took this picture.)

The tunnel. I came very close to missing this - I had become so used to following the "road" back and forth across the river I missed the massive number of markers pointing to this tunnel, and instead did a normal river crossing. Then a Full runner came up on me suddenly and asked how I liked the tunnel - I was SO happy he said something because I would have hated to miss this. So I recrossed the river, backtracked about 100 yards/meters/furlongs, and went through the tunnel. It was awesome. (And I got two bonus river crossings for free!)

At about this point you can hear the music and announcements and see the woolshed. But my GPS said I wasn't nearly done, and it was right. So close… (Several people missed a turn and bypassed the last bit of fun. It was cool that all of them headed back out and did the bit they had missed.)

For some reason this river crossing had a lifeguard.

We ran across a horse pasture and this volunteer made sure we didn't sneak a ride on one.

Running along Moke Lake (which I weirdly cropped out of the picture). We can see the finish area again, and this time it's for real!

Another horse pasture volunteer guard. He told me there was a LOT of cold beer still at the finish. My stress level dropped and my pace picked up.

One more crossing, but weirdly, this one had a "bridge" option. I'd be curious how many runners used that bridge. It's not like your feat weren't already soaked.

The finish chute! Follow the depressed grass. (Sadly, someone already pointed out that it might not be depressed, but just feeling a bit down.)

What the??? After all that you had to scramble up this short but steep(ish) cliff to get to the finish line. It was a great way to wrap up this race.

OK, a better way to wrap up this race was the free beer (this was the Wanaka Beer Works Half Marathon after all) which, even better, had a custom label from the race on it! I loved this!

Full finishers got these amazing finisher medals.

So I'm quietly standing off to the side as the various age group winners are read off, and then Mrs Notthat's name is called! She won her age group!

She received a great New Balance sports bag as her prize. Yes, one more thing to squeeze into our already bulging suitcases, but it was so cool we made room.

Famous trail runner Anna Frost ("Frosty," on the right) also ran the Half Marathon. Very quickly.

On the way back to the car, there was one more river crossing. My feet were still pretty wet, so I took the easy route. Mrs Notthat took the "bridge" route.

A picture of the swag. Only Full runners were given shirts, so we each bought one (they are very nice). We each got a water bottle, bottle of beer (my empty is proudly sitting on my desk at work), Queenstown calendars, massive reusable bags, and of course Mrs Notthat's prize.

This was an amazing race, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Actually, I'd really like to give the Full course a shot, but I'm a bit intimidated by it. At the time we left, runners were still coming in and posting + ten hour times. Yikes!

This is easily a destination race - it's the kind of race you could center a nice trip to New Zealand around. It's all on ridiculously scenic private property (I suspect the owner gets a kick out of watching runners get tortured this way, even if they all have huge smiles when they are done).

You can see a bunch of other pictures I took here. You can see a bunch of pictures a professional took here. There will even be a video at some point.

This was the race's second year and a date has already been set for next year's edition (Feb 22 in 2014). I'm not sure I can swing another NZ trip that quickly, but it would be a blast if I could.

That's it - move along…

Running with the Kiwis - Take One

As we approached our 25th anniversary, Mrs Notthat made me promise to take her to Hawaii. Events transpired that made that not happen, so when our 30th anniversary came around, I was determined to make up for it. In the meantime, we had started doing a LOT of trail races. A bit oddly, Hawaii does not have many trail races though (other than the famous HURT race, and, well, neither of us are up to taunting death like that quite yet.

Then my thoughts turned to New Zealand. We had never been there, it was their summer time, and there were several trail races that we could do.

But would Mrs Notthat trade Hawaii and its sun-infested beaches for New Zealand and its mysteries?

Yes. No problem. "I can be packed by lunch" she said.

Our first race was along the gorgeous Clutha River; the Kathmandu Clutha River Track Race. A 13 km point-to-point course with unknown elevation, but since it followed the river, how much climbing could there be? (Not a huge amount, but a bit more than expected as it turned out.)

It was a fairly small race, there were 54 finishers, and everyone looked WAY fitter than us. (One thing we had noticed was that the various tracks we had run across list a return time and almost always say something like "easy track with great views." We have found that what they describe as an "easy" track is something that would kill 60% of middle-aged Americans, and the return times are for someone not in mall-strolling mode.)

We arrived early since I didn't manage to get lost, as had been expected.

Mrs Notthat was thrilled to be able to enjoy a cup of coffee before the race started.

Diane and some locals having a laugh at either my hat or chances of winning. Must have been the hat.

"So, ummmm, you don't look like you are from around here." This is a reporter for the local newspaper. She took our picture and said that if the editor wasn't too frightened, it might make the local newspaper. Her daughter was also running the race - her first trail race. She was a bit nervous. (Spoiler alert - she had no reason to be nervous. At all.)

We headed out of the registration area to the start line, which was about 0.5 km away. The idea was to get people spread out a bit before the track narrowed.

I think the reporter person was horrified that I stopped to take the picture, and maybe by the fact that I really thoguht this was funny - Mrs Notthat tripped on a huge hole and fell nearly 20 feet into the race.

Mrs Notthat recovered quickly and we passed through the registration area and onto the rest of the course.

New Zealand has a fascination with swinging suspension foot bridges. I hate them (and anything that's not solid). I loved that this stream crossing had a solid proper bridge. (Granted, it would have been even better if we had been allowed to just cross through the stream - this wasn't the Mighty Clutha yet.)

The trail largely looked like this - not really single-track, but close enough to be really fun. And Mrs Notthat is still in my sight.

We had one aid station at the 5K point - these volunteers were a blast!

For a lot of the course we were a bit elevated from the river, but for several stretches we were down at river level and it was amazing. This tree is so made for laying under on a nice warm day.

The river was flowing pretty fast at points.

Seriously, how could you not love dashing through this? (One odd thing - there were several places along this course that made me think of how prime this was for snakes. But they have no snakes over here. There is actually nothing in the wild to be afraid of - no mountain lions, wolves, coyotes, bears, or bobcats. The worst thing you might face is an irritated stoat.)

There were no course markings as we are used to, but there really didn't need to be - it was almost impossible to get off the trail (short of deciding to go for a swim). Each intersection had a volunteer at it to make sure you didn't wander off course. (It was shortly after passing this point that took my fall - I tripped over a rock that must have been sticking up two inches maximum. I only had minor scrapes and wasn't slowed much at all. International trail rash!)

This volunteer asked if I wanted my picture taken (everyone seemed to get a kick out of me whipping my camera out and stopping to grab pictures). I normally don't bother with pictures of myself, but with this backdrop I went for it.

And it came out amazing!

The river is large and fast and beautiful. Such a fun thing to run along.

Finally, the first turn off the main trail, and only a short distance from the finish line. But why is that volunteer on the right so tall?

Oh - that's why! I guess as a kid I might have been brave enough to stand on a post like that, but if I tried that today I suspect an ambulance would be required in short order.

The final bit of "trail" was a mad dash across this sheep field, following along the orange cones.

A kind volunteer was there to open the gate for us (and presumably tackle any sheep that tried to run us down).

And all of the sudden, there was the finish line. Eight miles of fantastic trails in the books.

This is the reporter's daughter (Eelyak, not her real name, but it would be a great name if it was) - 6th female in the open division! Nicely done!

The woman with the cup, Nagem (not her real name), was the only person I beat, and I think that was because she was showing me pity (I think she saw my fall). The volunteer on the bike was one of the sweepers.

And finally here comes the second sweeper.

Because this was a point-to-point run, our car was not waiting here for us. We caught a ride back with one of the race people. I thought about begging to ride back in one of those port-potties, but figured that by the end of the race, they were likely not all that pleasant anymore.

The race was a blast! Everything went very well - they even drew race bibs at the end to hand out random prizes.

Next up is the Shotover Moonlight Mountain Half Marathon on Saturday. I can't wait to see what it's trails look like - if they are half as good as these were, it's going to be great.

And maybe a beer truck instead of a coffee truck.

That's it - move along…

PS: You can see more of my pictures here.

Fort Ord and gokarts?

Mrs Notthat and I were anxious to see the relatively new trails at Inside Trail Racing's inaugural Fort Ord Trail Run. Up until 1994, Fort Ord was an army base that provided basic training and easy access to Monterey Bay's beaches, where the crack army surfing team buffed up their skills.

When it was (mostly) converted to civilian use, it became the first nature preserve created for a bug (a butterfly, or so claims Wikipedia). In 2012 it became a national monument.

Another thing that made this race special was that it was my first real run since I shut down after the Coastal Crystal Springs race four weeks earlier. At that time my achilles was bugging me and I was a bit nervous heading into this event, not knowing how it would react. (I had done two three-mile runs the week before this race and all went well, but this was going to be nearly 17 rolling miles, and a great test. I hate tests.)

Note the finger of fog in the background.

The race was based out of an area next to the famous Laguna Seca Raceway. All was quiet when we got there, and it was reasonably fog-free.

Heading down to the start.

The "fog-free" bit didn't last long though, and soon you could barely make out the raceway.

This is about a mile into the race and I was still managing to keep up with these three. It didn't last long though. 

Mrs Notthat and I did the "25K" (a term loosely used to mean "shorter than the 50K"). It was a loop with a lollipop about halfway around it. There was a gentle downhill grade for the first three miles, which made for a fast start.

Loved the moss hanging from the trees.

It was foggy and cold at the start, so long distance views were nonexistent, but short distance views more than made up for it.

The first aid station was at mile 3.0, and marked the base of the lollipop stick. We would see this aid station again in 6.4 miles. Sadly, they were unable to tell me what the lollipop flavor was. ("Sandy" would have been a pretty good answer.)

Drannyl heading through some more moss infested trees.

A lot of the course was nice single-track, although there were also long stretches of gravel road and a few spots of pavement.

I did the first half of the lollipop with Drannyl (not his real name).

Lorac spending some time at the beach.

I was determined to not push it too hard, so after a bit Drannyl managed to pull away from me. Shortly after that though, Lorac (not her real name) caught up to me and we stayed together for the next few miles.

"All Day" (should be his real name) the sweeper heading out to clean up the lollipop course.

This picture shows a fresh trail that was made just a few weeks earlier by the BLM, who are now managing this park.

Originally the 25K course was to be about 14.8 miles, which would be a bit short of the 15.5 miles it should have been, but that's the way it goes in trail racing. Then the BLM moved in and condemned a few of the trails we were to use since they were too steep (trail runners are like delicate flowers that need to be protected from themselves, I guess), and instead added some new, less steep trails. The end result was that the 25K course was now long. A lot long at about 16.8 miles. And the overall elevation gain increased, although it was still modest at less than 2000 feet.

Photo by super volunteer Yrral (not his real name).

Naturally, Mrs Notthat was well ahead of me. This is her heading back into that aid station at the base of the lollipop, mile 9.4 now.

Photo by super volunteer Yrral (still not his real name).

Not so shortly later Lorac and I arrived at the aid station too (Lorac with several abandoned jackets she had picked up along the way back down the lollipop stick). You can also see that the fog has lifted, and while it wasn't really sunny, it was a lot more pleasant than earlier.

Flamingos!

At mile 10.6 we made it to the last aid station. This was also where the 50K runners split off from us and headed off to spend quality time with horses.

That third aid station was about halfway up a long mild hill. About a mile after we left it we hit the top of that hill. And the end of my ability to keep up with Lorac, who I bid farewell as she started running down the hill, her giggles bouncing off the hills.

Most of the course was very exposed with sporadic bits of trees giving some shelter. I really liked this course, but man, it would be a bit brutal on a sunny summer day.

The final bit of the race required you to trot up a paved hill.

Ttocs (not his real name), who finished his 50K way before I finished my 25K, making sure I didn't fall apart heading up that last hill.

A bit of a surreal moment: 

Most of the 25K runners and several of the fast 50K runners had already finished and were hanging around the finish area. All of these I am barely worthy to tie their shoes.

Imagine their puzzlement when someone noticed me struggling up that last hill and started a loud synchronized "NOT THAAAT" chant. For an old, wildly out of shape guy who was nearly the dead last 25K finisher. 

I paused and considered turning around, but in the end, the finish line was too tempting and I went ahead and stumbled across the line.

One interesting thing about the last few miles of this course is that it is near the Laguna Seca racetrack, and we could hear the sounds of tightly-wound two-cycle engines screaming occasionally. And just before the end, you could actually see what was making all that noise - these tiny "superkarts" that are capable of 160 MPH.

Mrs Notthat got third in her age group, and all non-50K runners got a coffee cup.

Mrs Notthat finished in an astounding 3:27. This was less than a week from her third Full Marathon. I came dragging in with a 4:20 finish, which was pretty pathetic, but after I thought for a bit, I was really quite happy with it considering that I really didn't push myself too much since I really didn't want to re-aggravate my injury. And the best news was that it worked, and I came out of this in flying colors, injury-wise.

If all goes as planned, our next two races will be in New Zealand (a 13K and a Half Marathon, both on the south island). And then Way Too Cool becomes the main focus.

Oh man this is going to be quite a spring.

That's it - move along…

PS: You can see more of my pictures here and here.