A Run... or 2... or 3 in the Manawatu... Events 33 & 34

The next weekend was a chance to re-visit a run I had done a few years earlier and knock off 2 events in a weekend at one place in one overall event... sound confusing?

For several years the Manawatu Striders have run a 2 Day event called the Kahuterawa 2 Day Classic. The way it works is that on Saturday morning you run a 7km race, just after lunch you run a 15km race... that is 21km racing in one day and in my books counted as an event for the Challenge. Entrants can choose any 1, 2 or all 3 events they like.

Then on the Sunday morning you all rock back up and run a Half Marathon.

The disappointing thing was the drop in entries since my previous visit. Only 28 lined up for the 7km on Saturday morning in quite pleasant conditions.

I got away to a steady start, determined not to go out too fast as the hip flexor problem was giving me a fair bit of grief. The course starts out on the farmland with a nice sharp climb up the gravel farm-access road and winds across the countryside with a few nice views of Palmerston North below in the distance.

After a few ups and downs the track spits you out onto a piece of sealed road for a 1km out and back then we re-traced out steps to where we started and the first part of Saturday was done in 37:17 for 5th place overall.

So, off into Palmy for a bite to eat and then back to the race for the afternoon start. 41 turned up for the afternoon run. Again the weather was great for us. This time we headed out of the farm gate and left onto the road for about 2km of rolling country road. Then another left took us onto gravel road and the start of the main climb of the day.

It wasn't a biggie by trail standards, but about 120m vertical over the next 1km definitely got our attention. then it was steady rolling country gravel road that about two thirds of the way around turned back to bitumen. We turned left again into another country road and found ourselves at the turnaround point from the mornings 7km run... which of course meant 3.5km to go.

The trouble with what I call 'semi-trail' events are that they don't tend to have the very steep hills of trail runs where you feel you can justifiably walk... but they are much tougher than road runs which ten to have hardly any hills. So even a 15km race left me quite knackered after the morning 7km. Finished in 1:25:12 for 9th overall and 7th man.

Back to our accommodation in Marton for the night... then bright and early we were back at the farm for the start of the Half Marathon.

The weather wasn't as good, but still nice enough for a run... only 14 turned up for the Half Marathon and I was disappointed to hear that the club had decided this would be the last year of this event. But I could not blame them... I felt though, that with a bit of effort from the club they could have attracted many more runners to a quite unique event.

I was very sore in this race and even considered pulling the plug as my hip flexor was giving me the worst pain since the injury occurred. So I decided to try backing off and see how it went. The end result was I finished, but nothing startling in the way of time.

The course again headed out the farm gate, this time turning right and heading for an out and back along the road. After completing that we headed back past the farm gate in the same direction as the previous days 15km.

However when we reached the corner to 'the hill' from the previous day we ran straight past and soon hit the gravel road again... the speed demons coming back past me in the other direction were a sign that this was another 'out and back' section... however it was quite a pleasant one along a valley following a river beside us.

Once we had reached the turn, and headed back we eventually reached the same corner we had passe, only this time the marshall pointed us up the hill and from there the course was the same as the 15km.

In the end I was quite happy to finish in 2:04:10 for 4th place and also 4th place in the combined time for all 3 events.... and to tick off two more runs and hit the road back to Rotorua!