My friend Fiona told me about the Big 'O' trail run a little while ago, it sounded great! The idea of running either 19 or 35km offroad through the bush, along lake Okataina and over farm land is very appealing. So Fiona and I decided to race the 19km starting at Miller Rd by lake Okareka as we both hadn’t done much more then 1 ½ hrs for a while. We went to explore the Western Okataina walk way on the Saturday prior to check out some of the race course (we thought! – but you only do this bit in the 35km course) and test the legs. The walk way was awesome – very beautiful with the native vegetation and the birds producing some good sounds ;) and no other people around! We ran to the look out and were stunned to see the ocean from there and it wasn’t even a clear day!
On Monday before the race I decided to change my entry from 19 to 35km – I wasn’t too sure if that had been a good decision I just made when I checked the weather forecast – it looked like a storm was going to come through on Saturday! Perfect weather to do a run of a length I had not done for 10 years! Ha, nothing like a bit of a challenge! ;)
But the weather wasn’t anything like they predicted! Lucky us the weather was a mix of overcast and sun but with a nippy wind. Some people were running in little running shorts – it made me shiver just looking at them! (ha something my mum used to say to me – I must be getting old ;) ) I felt a little out of place at the race brief – in bike shirt i looked like the mountain biker at the wrong event ;) the back pockets of the shirt were pretty handy for storing my food though.
The race started with a big climb, it took me about 20min to get to the top (also the junction to the look out) and from there it was undulating all the way to Miller Rd (that was the bit we had ran the week before). I thought that the first part (the Western Okataina walk way which is the first 16km) was going to be the hard one due to the big climb; little did I know that the next 19km was the hard bit. It was super stunning though as first you got a view of Mount Tarawera behind it’s Lake and then we ran through stunning and ever changing bush and parts we looked down onto Lake Okataina . And every so often I would hear a Tui showing it’s skills off.
There were many very steep climbs where you question how much slower it may be to walk instead of run (which was actually more a shuffle) and how much less pain your legs would be in if you’d give in and walk ;) it wouldn’t be a race without a little pain though. The run was getting harder with the legs getting more tired and really quite sore, but the terrain still didn’t get any easier – it still went up as soon as you think there is a bit of flat or downhill to recover on. Alos you had to lift your feet and watch where you are going as the Eastern Okataina walk way is a stunning walking trail with rots and a few rocks and a nice cliff to one side. I was eagerly anticipating the “3km to go – drink station” it did seem to take quite a while to get there and it was such a relieve to finally get there! But then the last 3km started with a super steep climb – and it kept on going and going – bugger! I was so ready for the finish line and managed to overtake (sounds like biking – guess there is a running term for this…) one more guy who was doing the 35km race who I remembered taking off on the first hill to put a massive gap on me (it was Graeme Pearson). I thought ‘He’s for sure going to get me back’, so I kept pushing on to the finish trying to ignore the pain in the legs. Seeing the finish line was awesome and quite a relieve :)
I got 4th over all and was 1st women. It was an awesome race and will for sure do it again!
Fiona made it over the finish line before me (she did the 19km); she was determined not to let me catch her ;) Awesome effort!
I totally forgot to mention that what really got me through the run was the fact that I was going to be rewarded with the worlds best massage on monday night ;) Pam Dickson rocks! Thanks heaps!!!!
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