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Saturday, 26 October 2013

Return to Kinloch...

I was lucky enough to run in the inaugural Kinloch Trail Half back in 2009. The 2013 event was on a perfect running day, slightly overcast, a little cool and no wind... perfect for runners!

That first year there was only one event - now there is a marathon and a quarter marathon as well - and they had over 1000 entrants.

They hadn't thought it out too well that year and about 500m after the start the course bottlenecks onto the trail.... 1000 into 1.5m wide does not fit and there were many delays.

This year with a few years hindsight and a field size quite a bit smaller due to the other 2 events, the race started in waves. which was a great idea. Still a slight bottleneck, but not anywhere near as bad.

I started off feeling pretty ok, but it didn't take long to slow down.

It is a different sort of a track, predominantly hard and fast and winding. A good climb hits you as soon as you reach the trail portion and you are very well warmed up by the time it flattens out.

First negative of the day was forgetting my camera, so no in race pics today, but with both Lainy and Kate with me for the day we got some at both start and finish. Step-daughter Kelsie was also visiting and came to her first race of the challenge, so it was great to have all my girls there together.

It is quite an unusual start right in the middle of a suburban street, amongst the homes. We milled there for a fair while as you do, bumped into Chris Townley from Rotorua, who was running this half, then was off to a 6 hour MTB ride around the corner... now that is nuts!

So eventually we all lined up and zoomed off around the streets to the start of the trail.





The race itself was a battle, a battle with the body, a battle with a hangover from the 2 events the previous week and a battle with my headspace. It is hard to be getting to this stage in the challenge and getting slower in most events.

I guess a part of me thought that I would be getting 'race-hard' by this stage and starting to clock some times up that were pretty good. But the opposite is happening. Nursing injuries from week to week means little or no mid-week training runs and so I am doing less km's and putting on weight.... and putting on time.

Everyone is great at explaining that what I am doing is a long trek and that it is to be expected... but you ask any runner if they like getting slower!!!

Another we quirk of this race is the last couple of km's. Once you come back out of the main Y2K trail which comprise the majority of the race, you run along the lakefront at Kinloch and then back into and through the marina, including this innocuous looking little footbridge that is a really killer. Then along a walkway and into the park for the finish.

So the Taupo Off-Road Half at Kinloch will go down as not my most enjoyable run... not the races fault, I just battled from about 3km in to the finish. 11 minutes down on my previous effort but 52 in 52 was in it's 20's.... we are getting there.

At the finish it was a nice bonus to meet up with Jennifer Watts from Cranford Hospice in Hawkes Bay who was in Taupo for the weekend and made the effort to come out and support me home!






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