More home Turf Delight at Tikitapu!

At the end of my first year of running, back in 2006, I was able to look back on a year where I had completed my first 2 Half Marathons ever and learned about 'the  wall' a couple of times, no more so than in my final event of that year ... the full Auckland Marathon.

I was so destroyed by the Marathon that I had pretty much decided that road running was not for me and was going to just run for fitness in the Redwoods.

N-Duro Events however, were at the stage running a trail running series pretty much based around Rotorua and while I wasn't prepared to kill myself in the halfs I started running the mid distance 10km - 13km runs... and really enjoyed it. Unfortunately that series fell by the wayside (which in turn led me to enter Xterra) with N-Duro's new owners concentrating on MTB racing. However they do have one lovely event that I wouldn't miss - the Tikitapu Trail Run.

Tikitapu is the Maori name for the Blue Lake and this was my second entry in the race.

The course so impressed me after the first year that I used the same course (with a slight mod) for my Fat Man's Run - only I ran it in reverse!

Another fantastic day greeted us... the first weekend of November and already summer was well and truly kicking in!

It was a real shame with such a fantastic event that the entries were so low.... only a handfull of runners in what is a great run.

Personally I enjoyed the run as I always do... Ra the Race Director had put an extra loop in about halfway that while increasing the overall distance didn't really add much to the race... which is a shame.

But the real joy of running this race is Tuhoto Ariki, running the DOC trail in the middle of this race is a highlight on any day, the ups and the downs, the tree roots and the mud - yes even a little mud in normally mud-free Rotorua. It truly is a wonderful technical gem and a blessing for us her in Vegas.

Lainy was there to see me home and get a couple of pics... which is always cool.

For the record I think I won the Vets (there were not many) and finished about 3rd or 4th overall.

A great day and hopefully the new owners of N-Duro can get some more runners along for the next one.