Trail Run Mag 17

VOL5 ED17 // WINTER 2015 // AU/NZ/ASIA

THE NORTH FACE 100 – A REASON TO LIVE // SOUTHERN EXPOSURE – RUN FOR CLIMATE CHANGE // THE MISSION: NEW ZEALAND 9 // THE FIRST SHANGRI-LA – CHINA // WORLD TRAIL CHAMPS // CAMEMBERT RUN // DREAM RUN PATAGONIA // PLUS REVIEWS, GUIDES, GEAR & PORN

NEVER STOP EXPLORING

™

D E F Y C O M P R O M I S E S A C R I F I C E N OT H I N G – W I T H T H E TO U G H E S T, L I G H T E S T M O U N TA I N F O OT W E A R .

U LT R A C A R D I A C AVAILABLE IN MEN’S & WOMEN’S

THENORTHFACE.COM.AU/ULTRASERIES | FOR STOCKISTS CALL 02 8306 3311 PHOTO: Tim Kemple

DETAILS

VOLUME 5, EDITION 17, WINTER 2015

Foundation supporters (the

Yay-sayers)

Windroo Trails www.windrootrails.com Salomon au www.salomon.com/au Wild Plans www.wildplans.com Brooks / Texas Peak www.brooksrunning.com.

The North Face Australia www.thenorthface.com.au La Sportiva / Expedition Equipment www.mountainrunning.com.au

Visit us online Editorial Australia Editor: Chris Ord Associate Editor: Tegyn Angel New Zealand Editor: Amanda Broughton Minimalist/Barefoot Editor: Garry Dagg Design: Jordan Cole www.craft-store.com.au

www.trailrunmag.com www.facebook.com/trailrunmag www.twitter.com/trailrunmag

Contributing Writers Pat Kinsella, Jen Boocock, Trail Chix, Mat Maynard

cover photo COVER: 2XU trail athlete Jarad Kohlar exploring the boulder-strewn plains of Mount Buffalo, near Bright, Victoria, Australia.

IMAGE: 2XU.com

Senior photographer Lyndon Marceau www.marceauphotography.com Additional photography: Photography Amanda Broughton, Tegyn Angel, Matt Judd / Those Guys Events, Max Adventures, Adrian Bailey, Pat Kinsella, Mark Horstman, Val Grollemund, Trail Chix, Mat Maynard, Sputnik, 2XU.com

THIS SHOT: Bryce Canyon, Utah, is in his opinion one of the most spectacular and unique places Sputnik (pictured) has run.

“It was a 20km route and there were mind boggling sights at almost every turn.”

IMAGE: Sputnik Swashbuckler

Trail Run is published quarterly Winter / Spring / Summer / Autumn Editorial & Advertising Trail Run Magazine 10 Evans Street, Anglesea, Vic 3230 Email: chris@trailrunmag.com

thank you running

Telephone +61 (0) 430376621 Founders Chris Ord + Stuart Gibson + Mal Law + Peter & Heidi Hibberd

Disclaimer

Trail running and other activities described in this magazine can carry significant risk of injury or death. Especially if you are unfit. Undertake any trail running or other outdoors activity only with proper instruction, supervision, equipment and training. The publisher and its servants and agents have taken all reasonable care to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this publication and the expertise of its writers. Any reader attempting any of the activities described in this publication does so at their own risk. Neither the publisher nor any of its servants or agents will be held liable for any loss or injury or damage resulting from any attempt to perform any of the activities described in this publication, nor be responsible for any person/s becoming lost when following any of the guides or maps contained herewith. All descriptive and visual directions are a general guide only and not to be used as a sole source of information for navigation. Happy trails.

Publisher Adventure Types 10 Evans Street Anglesea, Victoria, Australia 3230

You make connecting with nature a messy good time.

And with the Brooks Cascadia 10’s super grippy 4-point pivot system, you’ll tackle any tough terrain with ease.

The ballistic rock shield protects your foot from gnarly trail hazards, making your off-road running adventure the best road.

Time to hit the shower. Learn more at brooksrunning.com.au

©2015 Brooks Sports, Inc.

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brooksrunningau

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CONTENTS

VOLUME 5, EDITION 17, WINTER 2015

ENGINEERED FOR THE HIGHEST PERFORMANCE 100

108

124

TRAIL GUIDES

REVIEWS 16.

Now’s a good time to buy all the good gear

100.

Shoe reviews

A heart starter, a freak, a cascade of dreams and a cool bug

120. Morialta Falls, South Australia, AU 124. Mt Buller, Victoria, AU 126. Rimutaka, NZ 128. Grampians, Victoria, AU

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TRAIL MIX 10.

FEATURES

Editors’ Columns

36. 100 Reasons to Live – The North Face 100 44. Nine X Stupid – running the NZ Great Walks

Australia – Chris Ord New Zealand – Amanda Broughton Australia – Tegyn Angel

22.

60. To the Max – a musing at the World Trail Championships 66. Southern Exposure – running Tasmania’s South West 76. The First Shangri-La – an epic on the Lost Horizon 88. Lozère, France – the greatest race you’ve never heard about 96. Dream Run – Patagonia

Event & Tour Previews

from Down Under to China

32.

Trail Crew

Trail Chix

108.

Trail Porn

It’s dirty

8

EDSWORD

CHRIS ORD, AU

IMAGE: Lyndon Marceau

YIN TO MY YANG In my natural state, I am a chaotic, unorganised, and essentially lazy individual. But sometimes life demands more of you.

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DON’T GET ME WRONG, I’M STILL THAT SAME PERSON SITTING ON THE COUCH, EATING FISH AND CHIPS AND ICE CREAM WATCHING ENDLESS EPISODES OF BREAKING BAD, WONDERING IF MY SHED WILL BE SUITABLE TO RUN AN EASYMONEY METH LAB. But somehow, today, life as a runner has demanded a little more of me. A little more organisation. A little more responsibility. A little more effort.

And, as a runner, it is demanding a lot more attention to detail than perhaps my personality has inclination toward. Attention to detail like, umm, training.

Essentially I’m on a mission to balance my running life of unpredictable, unstructured and unplanned running yīn with, for the first time, equal amounts of rigid, structured, charted-training-plan running yáng.

Now my yīn (shady side) is like Darth Vader’s force within (powerful and looking for total domination); the yáng (sunny side) is like pre-Yoda coached Luke Skywalker, all wideeyed, naïve and a little lost.

Barely two weeks in and I’m fumbling with the demands of scheduled training like Luke fumbles with the realisation he’s related to Princess Leia. It’s awkward to watch.

My yīn approach to trail running has long been one of as-and-when-the-whim-strikes I’ll go for a training run. Trust me, the whim never struck at 5am. And if it did, I missed it, being fast asleep and all.

The whim that did win out on occasion is the one that had me entering long(ish) trail events without sufficient lead-in training.

That mostly ended in all sorts of agonising wrongness (particularly embarrassing was the needless call out of ‘medic!’ at the finishline of Shotover Mountain Marathon). I am responsible for all my own embarrassing

have managed to jump on the Bulletproof Legs bandwagon, a program from the crew at Brewsters Running. Then there’s an adjunct program from Lee Harris, a Middle East based Brit who is a multiday running machine.

His knowledge about holistic training methodologies and a focus on core strength gives me faith he understands where I need to get to with this new-fangled yáng approach.

To my own disbelief, I’m enjoying the structure and routine. It’s a work in progress, my idea of ‘routine’ a long way from winning any Anally Retentive OCD award, but on trail I am seeing, even in these early days, results.

Whowouldathunkit?

Even better, I’m enjoying the yīn side of my running more so thanks to the late arrival of yáng. On an impromptu jungle run in the Otway Ranges, south west Victoria, we ran in with not enough water (there were waterfalls so we were safe), no food and no idea how long we’d be in there for. The reward was one of the most stunning waterfalls I’ve seen standing proud in an ancient forest far from anywhere. It was wild and remote goodness, off the chart. What made it possible and enjoyable was the fact that I’d been training.

The foundations are only a brick session or two in. And the Otway run topped out at roughly 200 metres above sea level, not 5000, so we’re not on training parity just yet. But I love that my new yáng is complementary to (rather than opposing) my beloved yīn. Light cannot exist without shadow. Performance cannot exist without training (it’s finally sunk in). And for my money, a training program will never be truly leveraged without the chaos of a whimsical wilderness run where anything can happen, but the legs are bulletproof enough to withstand it.

demises, of course, and that is one thing I do take full responsibility for. Indeed I usually document it, see TRM Edition 12 for the Shotover tale.

But the time has come to see if there’s any Jedi lurking within. Reason being, I have committed to an expedition run in the high Himalaya. It’s a project that would be fine to approach with a death-by-cramp-at-altitudewish if it were just me up there. But on this expedition I will be responsible for guiding other runners. And if there’s one thing that will make me sit up at 5am on a crisp winter morning, it is the realisation that I’m to be responsible for other people’s lives as they trot up to 5000 metres at a rate of incline that risks death from cerebral or pulmonary edema. Even tapping that out makes me sweat more than my scheduled hill repeats ever will.

It also induces me to do them. At 5.05am.

And so in search of my inner-Jedi, I have sought some Yoda-wisdom where the Force I’m aiming to tap into is conditioning and strength. While I can (mostly) blag the distances and I’ve completed a wilderness first aid course so medical knowledge is covered, it’s the strength and abating of injuries and cramps that I need to tackle. The latter is my Death Star nemesis (exhibit A: a near-death banshee screaming session as seen in Run The Planet, a TV show pilot that underscored my ill-preparedness, in that instance at 93km in a desert. Google it. Not in a workplace.

Swearing involved).

So the yáng to my yīn has materialised in the form of not just one structured approach to training, but two, the other side of my personality being always to put in three chillis when the recipe says one and generally oversalt everything.

And while I wouldn’t say that I am yet to latch onto Skywalker’s singleminded focus (The Force is a long way from my grasp), I

Your getting-more-balanced editor, Chris Ord chris@trailrunmag.com

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EDSWORD

AMANDA BROUGHTON, NZ

IMAGE: courtesy Amanda Broughton

Chill factors 12

WINTER HAS ARRIVED AND THE LIGHTS GO OUT AT 5.30PM AT MY HOUSE. STAYING MOTIVATED WHEN YOUR EARS ARE FREEZING OFF, YOUR HEAD IS TOO HOT, YOUR FINGERS ARE NUMB, IT’S 5AM AND IT’S DARK AND IT’S RAINING IS NOT AN EASY TASK. FINDING OTHER IDIOTS THAT WILL EVEN ENTERTAIN THE IDEA OF RUNNING WITH YOU IN THESE CONDITIONS IS EVEN TOUGHER. While I have been inventing endless excuses about why I can’t get outside to exercise, others are inventing things to try to keep us motivated. The gym I go to has invested in all new internet capable cardio equipment; you can update your Facebook status while cycling or strolling along with a digital view of the French Countryside, with the fan-wind gently blowing your hair. And you thought your GPS watch was hi-tech.

There are a few key things I use to stay motivated over the winter, the first and biggest thing is having other people to run with. You learn a lot about yourself when you run alone, but you learn a whole lot more when you run with other people. You learn that during a race you should stick with Hinano on the

flat, Trish on the up-hills, and try to catch Sierra going down. When you are running with a pack your weaknesses are tuned in to strengths when you’re carried along with other runners, pushing the pace up hills to keep up, chasing them down, taking turns at being the breathless one and the one cracking jokes.

Seeing a line-up of races in your calendar is good motivation, especially when there is a trophy at stake. If you want to stay motivated over winter, think about joining a Harriers Club, you’ll have regular shorter races and relays to keep you running fit. As a trail runner you will own the cross country courses, it’s a short speedy version of your long runs and a great way to get in a few faster runs that don’t need the time on feet that your Ultras demand.

Pick an arch nemesis. My Nemesis is Carl.

Carl beat me in the first Club race this season, pipped me at the post, then lorded it over me on Strava. Big mistake Carl, big mistake.

Carl awoke within me a running demon that devours more elevation every week, is fearless on the downhills and has a complete disregard for ‘conserving energy’ in a race. I’ll lose all my toenails before I let Carl beat me.

Lollies and gels, while being marketed as a nutritional need for runners are mainly used as

rewards and incentives by me when the run gets tough. Stopping to eat a coffee flavoured gel and some jube lollies with a friend after 20kms is my favourite kind of coffee date. Reaching in to your sports bra for what you thought was your last wine gum, and it turns out to just be your frozen hard nipple, is a bit disappointing, but again running with friends can raise your spirits during trying times like this.

Buying new gear motivates me, I think about how I’m going to incorporate my new teal thermal top into my running wardrobe. I really do. I match my top with my shoes, you just never know when you’re going to run into Carl and you have to look professional as well as fast. If you’re going to run in the elements you need to dress accordingly. Remember that you’ll remove half of your gear after ten minutes and have it dangling from waist bands and pack straps because you’ll get too hot, but it’s better to look like a travelling Marmot salesman than be hypothermic with wine gum nipples. Have a look in the ‘Time to buy’ section for some great winter gear, and get out there!

Your winning at winter running in Wellington Editor, Amanda Broughton (NZ)

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EDSWORD

TEGYN ANGEL, AU

IMAGE: Tegyn Angel

FREE RUNNING

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I’M INCREDIBLY LUCKY TO SAY THAT MY PARTNER IN LIFE IS MY PARTNER IN TRAINING. NOT ONLY IS SHE SOMEONE WITH WHOM I CAN SHARE THE TRAILS AND ALL THEY OFFER, BUT ALSO WE PUSH EACH OTHER TO TRAIN HARDER, RUN BETTER. SHE’S THE MUSE, ALBEIT ABSTRACTLY, OF MY FEATURE ON THE TECNICA MAXI-RACE AND THE WORLD TRAIL RUNNING CHAMPIONSHIPS LATER IN THIS EDITION. YEP, SHE JUST DONNED THE GREEN AND GOLD AND RAN US ALL VERY PROUD. Far more talented and diligent than I am, I’ve definitely gotten faster because of her, more competitive. I’d like to think she’s become more confident in the mountains and on technical terrain because of me, though I’m sure she’d have gotten there by herself without me. While we’re both focused and dedicated when it comes to working toward our goals, both running and otherwise, I’m definitely more likely to cram things in at the last minute.

Our recent trip to France reminded me of something: not every run needs to be training

or racing. That’s clearly not the case when you’re working toward something as huge as the World Champs, where you should be doing everything in your power to ensure you smash it, but for the rest of us I think it’s important to put things into perspective. I’d gotten caught up in the push to make every run a training run, either for my own events or Kellie’s, and in doing so had forgotten that event preparation is not what drives me to run.

I’ve discussed this struggle countless times before and it’s a pretty common theme for both Chris Ord (check out his editorial this edition) and I. Yeah I know, broken record and all that, but it’s something I constantly forget. It’s ridiculous how many times I’ve written about it in “surprise”, as if it’s something I’ve just worked out.

For me, running is about the sense of exploration, of travelling through a landscape and enjoying movement, not this constant focus on something distant and way beyond the here and now. I have to work to run, it’s not something that comes easily. I’ve done a fair bit of it now, so I must be a stubborn prick, but sometimes you need a holiday from work.

After Annecy we spent another week hopping through France and into Spain.

Outside of Barcelona is an incredible place called Montserrat (pictured), an anomalous, serrated (hence the name) mountain of conglomerate rock that stands proudly out of the Catalonian plains. Home to a Benedictine abbey and the Virgin of Montserrat sanctuary (which purportedly has ties to Arthur’s Holy Grail), the mountain is criss-crossed by mountain paths trodden by long forgotten hermits and modern hikers alike.

Running here was a reminder of what it’s like to go for a run that’s not mapped out as part of a training program or race calendar. No time limits, no goals, no expectations. Just run when you want to, walk when you don’t, chill out on a rocky summit and take as many photos as you want. This run was about exploring, spending time with friends, and feeling free. And it’s the most I’ve enjoyed running for months.

Your goldfish-memory editor, Tegyn Angel (AU)

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NOW’S A GOOD TIME TO BUY Reviewer: Tegyn Angel

2XU Tech Collection www.2xu.com.au

GHST series 2XU’s GHST is more a philosophy than a particular fabric or technology. It is a commitment to producing the lightest, most technically advanced garments possible.

Currently the line-up is comprised of shirts, short, sleeveless and a wind jacket but they are promising to range more products in the series. While it’s pretty hard to write much about a T-Shirt, there’s plenty to be said about the fabric and construction that’s gone into the GHST version. Called ‘X-Lite Pro’, 2XU claims that this is the world’s lightest run fabric through wet and dry conditions alike.

An athletic cut together with the moisture management properties of the fabric results in a shirt that almost eliminates cling. The 2XU lab boffins have impregnated the already featherweight fabric with ICE X (aka Xylitol), a permanent treatment that causes the fabric to respond to heat and sweat with a cooling response not unlike the cold feeling you get after sucking on a breath mint. Given the fabric is so fine, there is likely to be some trade-off with durability but I wore our review garment under a pack during a recent trail marathon and didn’t experience any pilling or degradation. If you’re looking for a shirt for hot conditions you’ll struggle to find one that performs better than the GHST T-Shirt.

I PEELED ON MY FIRST SET OF 2XU compression back in 2008 and instantly loved them. Firm, supportive but most importantly they prevented chafe. I wore them to death through all my early ultras and thought my battle with raw, abraded thighs was over.

Assuming the best, I swallowed the hefty price and invested in a few more pairs only to be, literally, sorely disappointed. All of a sudden the lycra I’d bought to prevent chafe was actively contributing to it. This remained the case until we received a pair of compression shorts from each of the new MCS (Muscle Containment Stamping) and XTRM ranges.

Finally I can wear 2XU compression again without the chafe!

XTRM compression shorts XTRM, aside from sharing our acronym, is 2XU’s move into the ultra and trail sectors.

With elite athletes including ultra trail runner and Australian representative, Kellie Emmerson, and adventure-racer-cum-trail-runner, Jarad Kohlar, named as ambassadors, it’s easy to grasp the target market.

The key element of these is ‘targeted’ compression. That’s a fancy way of saying that the designers have used their circular knit process to weave a thicker-weight fabric in areas that require more support (e.g. your glutes and hamstrings), and a more breathable, lighter fabric in areas that don’t. On the XTRM shorts, 2XU has used a 105 Denier PWX Weight fabric on the rear and then stamped a big, fat velour “X” over the lighter-weight PWX Flex fabric used on the front of the legs.

Not just a pretty picture, the added stamp acts to reinforce the quads. In theory this achieves an intelligent balance of compression (and therefore reduced oscillation, enhanced circulation and so forth), garment weight and breathability. Conveniently it also adds a bit of grip to the hands while pushing down on your

quads up a steep climb.

While this targeted compression is enough to distinguish the XTRM Compression shorts from other compression wear on the market, 2XU has further targeted these shorts at “long course enthusiasts” (their words, not mine) by minimising rub points with flat-lock stitching throughout, flocked (laminated, stitch-free) leg openings and a longer inseam. Add to this a zippered centrerear pocket, a couple of gel pockets and some red-stitching (to make you go faster).

While these latter features suggest that the shorts are designed to be used alone, I’m an avid supporter of the “thou shall not run in tights alone” school of thought. That said I’ve worn them extensively in hot and cold climates, under packs and running shorts, and haven’t found the added pockets noticeable or that the fabric weight made them any hotter than thinner compression shorts.

VITALS

$160.00

MCS Elite Compression Shorts MCS, which stands for Muscle Containment Stamping, is another new range of premiumgrade compression wear. Like the XTRM shorts discussed, the MCS range features increased, targeted compression “over key muscle, tendon and fascia groups”. With MCS, however, 2XU has taken things a step further and created a soft-touch, siliconised muscle-map on the inside of the garment that not only increases compression while minimising weight, but which also tends to resist slipping and ride-up better than any tights I’ve ever worn. On the outside of the tights there is the typical 2XU “X” in bling gold which, fortunately, is tacky in more ways than one and is a great hand anchor while pushing off the quads.

While there are whole host of reported benefits on the 2XU marketing material

VITALS

$85.00 GHST S/S $110.00 GHST Singlet 16

(reduced fatigue, greater power output, heightened proprioception etc.) for me the selling points are simple. The MCS Elite Compression Shorts are bloody comfortable, don’t cause chafe and legitimately feel like they’re doing something. They’re not cheap, but nor are they the most expensive on the market and the extensive R&D that’s gone into them is apparent. These are my new go-to compression wear for training and racing and when I wear this review pair to death I’ll willingly drop real, hard-earned cash on a new pair.

VITALS

$125.00

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NOW’S A GOOD TIME TO BUY Reviewer: Chris Ord

Vigilante Jackets WHO WOULDN’T LIKE A JACKET that is, as the marketeers put it, designed for “high octane activity”?

I’m not sure where the hydrocarbon and an alkane substance that is C8H18 (the chemical structure of octane) fits into trail running, but I’ll go with it. Maybe these jackets, as well as keeping you warm on a windy run, can be used to fuel internal combustion engines to higher performance, or maybe they are worn by racing car drivers – who knows?

Whatever the puff-story of sales vernacular, the Vigilante Temper (women’s) and Seaver (men’s) soft shell jackets are actually not a bad bit of kit. A quality cut specific to both men and women is comfortable on the run, the stretch fabric giving enough for regular trail running movement yet thick enough to stave off the worst wind chill factor. I found despite the stiffer fabric (compared to other soft shells), the jacket still breathed rather well, the mesh underarms working particularly hard.

While the hood is worth keeping on for the run, fashionistas will like the ability to zip it off, creating a more go-to-the-pub style classy collared jacket.

The chest pocket is perfect for today’s larger iPhones, but not so big that it slops around – a common complaint of mine on other jackets. Two hand pockets are enough for stashing gels and whatnot.

It’s an all-polyester jacket, so it does stink up a bit. But that’s what washing machines are for.

A good mid-range, all round, moderately bad weather runner. Think autumn/spring. Don’t think hardcore. But at least you can walk straight off trail into the pub and not ruffle fashion feathers.

LifeBEAM Cap ANT+- and Bluetooth-ready, the LifeBEAM doesn’t use optical LED sensors as most heart-rate wristbands do: rather it claims to offer “aerospace-grade” heart-rate and calorie-counting data powered by an ARM Cortex processor, space speak for a very fast, small, light and powerful microprocessor that uses very little energy. The sensors are a trickle-down from aerospace products made to monitor the biometrics of fighter pilots and astronauts.

Just like many chest-worn heart-rate monitors, it can pair with any app or accessory that works with these types of external sensors. But it’s way more comfortable. As in, apart from the shade

Does that chest strap heart monitor annoy the crap out of you like it does me? Well, the new LifeBEAM smart cap – part of the emerging ‘wearable technology’ trend – may be the answer.

Let’s get something straight, this cap doesn’t look ‘smart’. That is, it’s a bit of a dowdy Dad design. But sticking to our function (does it do the job?) over form (does it look cool?) ethos we lean toward here at Trail Run Mag, we’ll don this noggin glove regardless to see if it actually works.

Under the brim, a heart-rate sensor sits resting (more comfortably than you’d imagine) against your forehead from where it collects bio-mechanical data.

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given by the peak, you don’t know it’s there.

The sensing technology adds a barely-there 45 grams to the hat.

According to LifeBEAM, you can use the cap three or four times a week for a month without recharging. Best of all, on test, it showed that even luddites like me can use it’s easy-as tech integration to access the data.

Sadly it wasn’t smart enough to tell me how best to maintain an economical heart rate for hill climbing…

VITALS

Women’s Temper Jacket $129.99

Men’s Seaver Jacket $129.99

www.vigilante.com.au

VITALS US$99

life-beam.com/product/smart-hat

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NOW’S A GOOD TIME TO BUY Reviewers: Chris Ord & Tegyn Angel

Huma Chia Energy Gels THERE’S A MOVEMENT in the general foodie world toward more natural, lessprocessed form of food. It’s about more real taste and less additives. That push has moved across to the sport nutrition world, but with the added qualifier of performance in fuelling endurance efforts remaining key. Huma Energy Gels have slotted into this space combining science-backed reasoning with more than palatable flavours in a range of gels that have their foundation in chia seeds, brown rice syrup and evaporated cane juice. The latter two ingredients provide both glucose (short and long chain) and fructose in a careful ratio that aims to increase carbohydrate absorption, while containing no maltodextrin (a high GI-index substance which gives only short-lived energy spikes).

The chia seeds are ground, creating a fibre source that moderates carbohydrate absorption, meaning no spike and a steady energy release, while also delivering in digestible form all nine essential amino acids.

The thinking behind the chia use comes from the Tarahumara ultra runners of Copper Canyon fame who have longed use chia in their diets, via a US soldier who after reading as much, used chia seeds to fuel his mega miltary missions in Iraq!

Other staple ingredients include sea salt to provide sodium and potassium and citric acid, which is said to “reduce physiological stress and attenuate fatigue”.

There’s a bunch of citations for those food

nerds looking to go down that rabbit warren, see http://www.humagel.com/learn-thescience/. Any feedback and opinion on their claims welcomed.

Flavor of each sachet is delivered by an assortment of real food sources in puree form: mango, raspberry, strawberry, blueberry and apple, along with cocoa, and lemon juice.

The key to using these, too, is to drink water when you consume, otherwise they are too much of a punch for you body to digest properly.

As important as flavour and performance on test was digestibility – the blends present in a slightly gritty paste style. Sounds hard to get down but the balance between liquid and solid food sat well on the palate, was easy to get down and it has to be said, tasty as all heck.

These are on the sweet side across the board with some zing in the Lemonade in particular.

Furthering the punch in selected flavours is a dose of caffeine (that you can’t taste). This is a good thing, as the caffeine is hidden in a sweet flavor, rather than being coffee flavor (I can’t handle coffee flavor in anything other than a hot cup of the stuff).

Finally, these are gluten and dairy free and vegan friendly. Bonus.

VITALS $4.00

Available via Good Fuel Co. goodfuel.co/collections/huma-gel

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Run Goat Run Trail Clobber FROM THE SUNNY South East of Queensland, Australia, Run Goat Run is the first brand we know of to offer non-technical, lifestyle apparel and merchandise for the trail running community. Funky hats, truckers caps and shirts printed with their sweet Run Goat Run logo will help you channel your inner mountain goat when those skorts and ultra beards are free of trail filth and you need to interact in civilised society. Very reasonably priced and available online from the Run Goat Run webstore.

VITALS

Caps from $14.99 Tees from $23.99

www.rungoat.com.au

REHYDRATE

EVENT PREVIEW IMAGE: courtesy Matt Judd / Those Guys Events

COASTAL HIGH 50 Gold Coast Hinterland, South East Queensland

W

e reckon this one has the air of something special about it. The inaugural Coastal High 50 will be located in the spectacular Gold Coast Hinterland, far from the razamatazz and traffic of the oceanside city, it will take in the delicious jungle of the interior.

Traversing the entire length of the Gold Coast Hinterland Great Walk, the Coastal High 50 includes pretty much the best trails that South East Queensland has to offer.

Starting from O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat in the Green Mountains section of Lamington National Park, the Coastal High 50 first traverses the well-known Border Track to Binna Burra

Lodge, before descending down into the Numinbah Valley and then climbing up (then down, then up!) to finish adjacent to the iconic Purlingbrook Falls in Springbrook National Park.

This one is Bucket List worthy, no doubt. Watch it become an icon on the scene.

EVENT Coastal High 50 WHEN 5 September, 2015 DISTANCE 50km WHERE Lamington National Park, Gold Coast Hinterland, South East Queensland

COMPRESSION TECHNOLOGY FOR ENDURANCE

COMPRESS MUSCLES. CRUSH COMPETITION. THE WORLD’S MOST ADVANCED COMPRESSION TECHNOLOGY COMBINES WITH RACE PROVEN RUN TECHNOLOGY TO CREATE THE XTRM RANGE FOR THE ULTIMATE EXPERIENCE IN ENDURANCE RUN PERFORMANCE.

CHECK OUT THE EVENT

2XU.COM/XTRM 22

EVENT PREVIEW

marmotaustralia.com.au

IMAGE: Chris Ord

YUNNAN PUZHEHEI INTERNATIONAL MARATHON

Here’s an exotic international run that will appeal to both roadies and trailites alike. Weaving amongst more than 300 stunning limestone karsts and mirror-like lily lakes, the course remains mostly flat, using dirt village roads and local pathways to navigate between small villages. There is an early trail climb, the Dragons Back, but it is short and worth the huff and puff, rewarding with breathtaking views from its highest point lookout, before dropping runners back down to a marketplace and Buddhist temple. You’ll also pass through a cave and over bridges and boardwalks while flocks of swans circle. It’s a simply stunning run, with a profile that won’t worry road runners, but a landscape that adventure runners will love, too.

Photo: Kaare Iverson

Qiubei / Puzhehei, Yunnan, China

EVENT Yunnan Puzhehei Marathon WHEN Saturday October 24th, 2015 DISTANCE 42km, 21km, 10km, 5km WHERE Qiubei / Puzhehei,

Proud supporter of

Yunnan, China

NOTE: Runners should plan a 3 to 5 day travel itinerary, arriving into Kunming on the 22nd and depart on 25th. Extended travel is recommended.

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BEST NIGHT’S SLEEP

EVENT PREVIEW IMAGE: courtesy Max Adventure

RAFFERTY’S COASTAL CHALLENGE Raffertys Resort, Lake Macquarie, NSW

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osted by the fancy Raffertys Resort on the shores of beautiful Lake Macquarie, NSW, this inaugural run nestles amongst beaches and bush beside the quiet bay of Cams Wharf.

The weekend of running features something for everyone and being based around a resort, a perfect one for trail running families. On offer are three distances – 10km, 22km and 35k – accommodating runners and walkers of all abilities.

Starting and finishing at the Resort, located only 90 minutes north of Sydney, the trail snakes through the Wallarah National Park taking in the sites of beautiful Lake Macquarie and the stunning

coastline of historic Catherine Hill Bay and the Munmorah State Conservation Area.

Terrain is varied – bushland single track, fire trail, coastal tracks, rock platforms and beach running are all part and parcel of the routes.

WHEN 11 July, 2015 DISTANCE 35km, 22km, 10km WHERE Raffertys Resort, Lake Macquarie, NSW

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EVENT PREVIEW

THE MISSION Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown, South Island, NZ

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ace Director Adrian Bailey presides over a collection of trail runs that all offer a little bit of brutality mixed with natural beauty – think Shotover Moonlight Mountain Marathon. All his events are ‘missions’. No wonder, then, that his latest launch is called The Mission Run. It’s a 55km alpine trail run that will traverse four high country stations surrounding the majestic Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown, New Zealand. The course is predominantly a formed 4WD track through the mountains, however there are several river crossings, native forest and pastural land to explore complimenting the amazing alpine and lake views.

The trails allow plenty of opportunity to experience the joys (and it has to be said, a little leg pain) of the high country starting its journey at Mt Nicholas and

finishing at Cecil Peak. En route, runners will go via Walter Peak and Halfway Bay farming stations and the Afton Valley.

And, just to make the adventure more adventurous, runners will sail to the start and from the finish. A bit of sail and trail…

EVENT The Mission WHEN 16 January, 2016 DISTANCE 55km WHERE Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown, South Island, NZ

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EVENT PREVIEW

HOKA ONE ONE RUN TAUPO SERIES Mount Tauhara, Taupo, NZ

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he seventh annual Hoka One One Tauhara Trail Run and Walk features a 5km, 10km and 21km on the north and east side of stunning Mount Tauhara, Taupo.

Tauhara is a dormant stratovolcano, situated within the Taupō caldera towards the centre of the Taupō Volcanic Zone, which stretches from White Island in the north to Mount Ruapehu in the south. What does that mean? You’re running around a volcano – that’s kinda cool.

Beginning in an open paddock, the longest course takes you across private farmland, along single tracks, on to forest roads and over hills, saves the biggest until last (of course, as is every Race Director’s whim!). With plenty of aid stations along the way, this run caters to everyone from beginners to

seasoned trail runners.

This is the first in the Run Taupo series, which brings three off-road events over three months with the Hoka One One Taupo Marathon on 1 August and the Kinloch Off Road challenge on 5 September. Check out all the info at www.runtaupo.co.nz

EVENT Hoka One One Tauhara Trail Run WHEN 5 July, 2015 DISTANCE 5km, 10km and half marathon (21.1km)

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®

TRAILCREW

TRAIL CREW

Trail Chix GOLD COAST, QUEENSLAND

Q&A 1. How did your group begin?

We (Connie Richards and Tymeka Warburton) met on the trail last April and desperately wanted more women to run with.

We originally set out for a one off session to get women involved in trail running. It snowballed fast.

2. Where does your group run mostly?

Nerang state forest is our main stomping ground. We hold a group run every Friday am. We also hold once a month linger runs at various locations in the Gold Coast hinterland.

3. What is your favourite local trail and why?

Our favourite trails are in Lamington National Park, the trails around Binna Burra.

Completely different world up there, amazing trails and views. However we also LOVE Nerang state forest. 50-60km of beautiful single track, challenging climbs, super fun down hills and it is smack in the middle of the GC, plus only a 6min run from Tymeka’s front door!

4. What local event does your group rally around?

Trail Chix tries to support as many events in Australia as possible. We attend Nerang Short Course, Nerang 50km, Coombabah Trail Championships in good numbers. We also support a number of other events including 32

Wagga Trail running weekend, Mt Gambier Tower Trail run, Moasaic to Mountain trail run, Yurrebilla Ultra and a few others. We provide lucky draw prize packs specific to women and a few of our trucker caps/shirts to encourage women to enter and reward them for participating. We are keen to get behind any event to help promote women in this sport.

5. What single piece of advice would you guys give a newbie joining your group?

We are always reminding our Chix to smile.

No matter how hard the trail, it is fun and we should enjoy it. Plus, smiling promotes laughter.

6. If your trail group was an animal, what would it be and why?

It would absolutely have to be a Whippet.

Both Connie and I both have Whippet’s and we can imagine a better dog. Plus, they really love running on the trails with us.

7. If you were heading out for a solo ultra run and some bastard stole your pack so you can only take two things, what would you have in each hand?

The most important item that we never ever hot the trails without is our chap stick (one cannot have dry lips). The other is an in-house >>

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ONE RUN. ONE LOVE. ONE YUNNAN.

SURF COAST TRAIL RUNNERS TRAILCREW

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Trail Chix thing: one of our members ALWAYS has a little cloth she uses as a sweat rag. That habit is spreading and more and more Trail Chix carry a little cloth in their bra. Oh and of course, water.

8. The world is ending - nominate a trail anywhere on the planet that your group must run, it’s the last trail you’ll ever see…what / where is it?

The Matterhorn summit trail, Zermatt, Switzerland. I was lucky enough to spend a few weeks there last year and it was something else to run those beautiful trails with the Matterhorn in sight the whole way. It feels extremely pure and surreal. I would love to take Trail Chix to Zermatt!

STATS:

9. Your group can choose ANY three people on earth, living or dead, to come join one of your runs…who would they be and why?

• • •

TRAIL CHIX

October 24th, 2015

Full Marathon / Half Marathon / 10k / 5k

YunnanMarathon.com

October 24th, 2015

Full Marathon / Half Marathon / 10k / 5k

YunnanMarathon.com

Birthday: 3 October 2014 Region: Primarily Gold Coast, Queensland – but spreading fast!

Dawn Fraser – Aussie sporting icon, who is also a strong willing female and appears to be quite the character Joan Rivers – We LOVE to laugh when we run, Joan was Hilarious Malala Yousafzai – I am inspired by the strength and courage of this young Pakistani girl. At such a young age in an oppressed environment she is a real trail blazer.

Members: Core group of 25 members on Gold Coast, 1987 on Facebook

Average runners at each hook up: 10 Average hook ups a year: Regular Friday am trail run, 1 x monthly longer run and 5 x technique/training/info sessions. (Going for 8 months)

10. How have you seen participation in your trail group change people and lives?

Shoes owned in total by all members: OMG, we are an all-female group…so you can only imagine!

We were surprised to see that it has and the feedback we receive is mind blowing.

We have seen confidence boom and friendships cemented to create an extremely tight-knit and supportive group. We have seen women gain employment and be strong enough to walk away from situations. We never anticipated the difference Trail Chix is making to the individuals, but more importantly we never expected the positive change it would give us!

Unofficial clubhouse: We frequent Feather and Docks café in Palm beach for post run coffee and breakfast and any brainstorming.

SATURDAY 19 DECEMBER 2015

GRAND STRZELECKI TRACK, TARRA BULGA GIPPSLAND, VICTORIA

A stunning Gippsland trail run event held in memory of Duncan Orr.

SOLO 100km / 50km / 28km / 5km TEAMS 100km - Legs 50km / 28km / 25km DISCOUNTS FOR TRARALGON HARRIERS & AURA MEMBERS

FACEBOOK WEBSITE

WWW.DUNCANSRUNHUNDRED.COM 34

WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/DUNCANSRUNHUNDRED

INNERVIEW

BRETT SAMMUT

WORDS: Chris Ord IMAGES: Lyndon Marceau and Aurora Images

100 REASONS TO LIVE

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WHEN LIFE BECOMES TOO MUCH, SOME RUN AWAY TO OBLIVION. OTHERS, LIKE BRETT SAMMUT, REACH THE PRECIPICE BUT USE RUNNING AS A WAY TO STEP BACK AND REDISCOVER A REASON TO LIVE, AND THEN SOME. BUT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE SPECTRE OF FAILURE LOOMS LARGE ON THE TRAIL TO REDEMPTION, AS BRETT FACED ATTEMPTING HIS FIRST THE NORTH FACE 100?

THE NIGHT WAS A DARKER PITCH THAN ANY BEFORE. A SUFFOCATING WEIGHT OF BLACKNESS TUNNELLED VISION DOWN TO TRANSIENT SWEEPS OF LIGHT CAST BY PASSING CARS. A TWO-HOUR WALK OF WALLOWING PAIN ECHOED AS BARELY TEN MINUTES, BUT EVERY SECOND OF IT WAS UNBEARABLE, LIKE SEVENTEEN YEARS OF PAIN FOCUSED THROUGH A MAGNIFYING GLASS; BEAMS OF A BLACK SUN SEARING INTO HIS MIND, CHARRING IT LIKE THE SUN BURNS A DRIED AUTUMN LEAF. In that moment, there was a clear, definite and imminent end to this phenomenal feat of endurance for 43-year-old New South Welshman, Brett Sammut. He was about to quit in the most final way he could imagine.

From his perch on a gutter leading nowhere, on the fringe of a regional city the ex-policeman had served and loved and hated, Brett was preparing to throw himself in front of the next speeding truck that happened along.

His enduring to that point in his life was of a kind more miserable, intense and soulshattering than any ultra runner – even at their lowest ebb – could ever imagine. Unless, that is, an ultra runner out there has ever been moments from throwing themselves in front of a speeding B-Double, Brett’s preferred method of ending his inner turmoil.

It wasn’t the first time Brett had tried to take his life. A policeman for 17 years, Brett was used to staking out dark corners on the hunt for people who wish and inflict harm on society.

He was used to long chases. Long hours. Long

nights. Like anyone exposed for an extended period to the raw pain of other people’s lives, Brett suffered. The things he saw, the things he had to do, to deal with while in the Force wore him down to the point where he joined those he usually chased into the gutter, albeit in a more literal sense.

“I was an overweight copper,” says Brett whose peak was around 118kg. “I left the police with diagnosed depression and anxiety. I felt worthless. I knew why I’d become depressed: it was a combination of seeing things that people shouldn’t see and doing things people shouldn’t have to do.”

A beer drinking culture within the force where colleagues drank to forget the worst shifts didn’t help.

“I didn’t drink beer so I was a bit of an outcast, but also, I had no real release valve like they did. I’d go home, not wanting to talk to my wife or daughters about the things I witnessed.

I just bottled it up.

“One day my bucket spilled and I had a bad (mental) crash. That’s when I first tried taking my own life. I’m just grateful that the truck never came. I would have missed out on so much. It was a wake up call I needed.”

The following day, in a cloud of confusion, Brett sought a doctor and got the help he desperately needed. The solution, however, was a bitter pill to swallow.

“Medication,” says Brett. “I hated taking that medication.”

“To me, it was a sign of a failure. I know it was needed to help me. But I resented taking the medication and to get up every morning and take a 10-milligram pill was hard. The the first

few weeks I flushed them all down the drain.”

It wasn’t long before Brett was forced to spend time in a psychiatric hospital.

“That was devastating,” he recalls. “One moment I am a policeman, with the power to take someone’s life or liberty in just circumstances, the next minute I’m locked in a room for three months, my own liberty taken, with no power to do anything.”

Brett had hit his rock bottom.

“I got diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder, a few anxiety disorders and suicidal tendencies. I also had a diagnosis of a perfectionist disorder.”

Before being hospitalised, Brett had taken to running in order to lose weight. “But I read somewhere that running could also help ease reliance on medication, so I had thoughts of using that as part of my therapy.”

With some skepticism, Brett’s doctor prescribed he go for a run, on an assumption he would fail and they could get back to the medicated course of action.

“He was trying to expose me to a ‘safe’ failure, I guess, as part of my treatment. But he didn’t want me to really use running as part of treatment.”

Despite no training, Brett travelled to run the Canberra Half Marathon, his first.

“I loved it. It wasn’t necessarily what my doctor wanted – me to love the running – but I did.”

It’s not unusual to find perfectionists or indeed obsessive compulsives, out on road or trail, monitoring to within an inch of their lives time splits, calorie counts, and race pace. >>

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BRETT SAMMUT INNERVIEW

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running in a lot of events. In the first year after getting out of the psychiatric ward, I raced twelve half marathons. It was getting out of Orange. Getting out of town. Leaving everything behind me. I could actually relax doing that. And then driving back home I had that little medal, which to me is someone saying ‘you did well’ which you don’t get in hospital.”

Brett’s journey to the trail and ultimately his first attempt at this year’s The North Face 100, went via some triathlons and road runs, before he signed up to a Running Wild 6-Hour event in the Blue Mountains. The fit was instant, Brett describing how there was something more alluring, more medicating, more comfortable about the trail running scene that plays an important part in his ongoing recovery.

“Trail running it seems like a little family. I was accepted straight away. And not as Brett the depressive, Brett the suicidal guy, or Brett the ex-copper. I was just Brett the guy who could run. Like everyone else there.

“There was a sense of not only acceptance, but also community, and I think that is unique to trail running as compared to the road running scene where you don’t know anyone, and no-one wants to know you.”

The friends Brett gained from running quickly replaced those from his policing days

Indeed, sometimes for those with personalities locked like a homing missile on the intricacies of measurement in running, the sport can be harmful. Had running just become another mask for the pain, an addiction akin to his beer drinking colleagues back in the force, albeit arguably healthier to all appearances?

“To a degree, yes, but really for me it was about the participation medal,” says Brett.

“It was about the achievement, the sense of completing something, more so than being good at something.”

“When I stopped being a police officer I became a nothing,” he explains. “That was how I identified, even though of course I was a father, a son, and a husband. But so much of your being is wrapped up in what you do when you are a policeman. When it is ripped away, you are at a loss. For me, rightly or wrongly, there was no real reason to live. There was no reward. To live, I still needed the thing that was in fact killing me.”

While running and the medals on offer were no doubt a safer substitute for his achievements as a police officer, he admits to still using running as a way to escape problems, rather than face them.

“Leaving town was the reason I started

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who had quickly fallen away when he became ill.

“There is still a lot of stigma attached to mental illness within the police force,” says Brett. “But I’m happy to say that the trail running friends I have gained are a much better, more accepting bunch.”

The environment he was beginning to immerse himself in also played their part, believes Brett.

“It can be so peaceful on trail. I think that helps clear the mind for people like me. There’s no cars, traffic, noise, no clutter…”

Brett firmly believes running and treating depression go hand in hand.

“Trail running in particular amplifies that level of recovery process. My medication levels have dropped the last six months, and I attribute that to the trail. Even when I was running road, I still required my full dose… there’s crowds, cars, people hating on you for being a runner – it remains a place of heightened anxiety. There’s none of that in the bush – just birds and space. Even when you trip over you can laugh it off – you’re by yourself, there’s no one else to blame – and you get back up and run. There’s something about the environmental aspect of the trail that definitely lessens my anxiety, lessening my >>

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BRETT SAMMUT INNERVIEW

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reliance on medication, which was the aim from the beginning.”

Fast forward through Brett falling in love with singletrack, and we’re standing in the crisp night as crowds mill atop the cliffs of Luera, in the Blue Mountains, filing in to collect their race packs for tomorrow’s The North Face 100. For many, it will be the biggest challenge they have ever faced. The question that hangs heavy in the air anchoring the nervous chatter, is will they achieve it?

For Brett, that weight of expectation has extra gravity. What happens when a man battling mental illness, someone whose daily nemesis is the prospect of failure, faces something as tough as running 100km; what happens when he faces a race where the Did Not Finish rate is one in three?

While others are anxious about how their body will hold up, for Brett – having now been physically fit for two years – the spikes of anxiety are more about how his mind will hold up to the rigors of an ultra.

The question was answered at Checkpoint Three, but it wasn’t his head that caved in to the challenge. After 47km, it was his body. Three hours of being violently ill, vomiting, cramping and becoming dangerously dehydrated, Brett faced his inner demon and pulled the pin.

“My first thought was of letting down my family,” says Brett. “I thought about what I had sacrificed for the race, and more importantly what my wife and kids had sacrificed for me to race.”

Those thoughts alone would have cut deep for Brett, or for any family man. But what Brett hadn’t let on was that his wife, Francine, has terminal breast cancer, and he is her primary carer. Time, therefore, is of the essence, and both he and his wife had sacrificed a sizeable chunk of it for Brett to run in The North Face 100. Their family’s collective sacrifice in seeing less of their husband and father in a precious period of life, where death again threatened, was arguably much more of a black hole than your average ultra runner’s time vacuum.

“There were tears when I met up with my 40

family. They were waiting at checkpoint four with homemade signs and banners,” says Brett.

They, of course, were a bedrock of support.

Dad was safe. Husband was alive. All was well.

“That first hug from my wife was heavenly.”

“Quitting was hard. I felt like a failure again.

My goal was to finish. I failed at that goal.

But I look at it now – I am healthy, I didn’t get injured. A year ago I would have been in worse mental state by quitting. But I’m proud of what I did regardless – I ran further than I have ever run before.”

Determined to turn the situation into a positive, Brett remained on course to help fellow runners who were racing without support.

“The race was meant to be a chance for me to fight my personal demons and score a victory, but while I failed in this instance, I still saw it as a chance to help others to achieve their goals. So I spent the next few hours and into Sunday morning helping strangers to get through checkpoints and lifting their confidence in their ability to get the job done; to be able to keep moving and keep putting one foot in front of the other.”

“It was the best thing I could have done. I never realised how much joy it would give me, especially when it came to seeing the names of people I helped on the finishers list.”

“That’s what I take away, that to me running is not about times, placings, results or, now I have come to accept, even finishing. It is the chance to be a part of an amazing community and the feeling of belonging.”

A few years ago, Brett Sammut felt overwhelming reason to embrace death. On the trail he found reason enough to live. Trail running gave him strength enough to face failure when it visited 53km short of his longimagined success. And it continues to give him 100 reasons to live: the 100 kilometres he intends to conquer in 2016.

“I’m still on a journey and I want to keep coming back to The North Face every year,” says Brett. “First of all to finish, and then keep getting better. It’s my reward that I will keep looking forward to, keep living for.”

Brett Sammut’s blog on his The North Face experience can be seen at:

brettsammut.wordpress.com If you or someone you know is experiencing depression or mental health issues, contact: Life Line on 13 11 14 or

www.lifeline.org.au Beyond Blue

www.beyondblue.org.au Black Dog Institute

www.blackdoginstitute.org.au

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ANDREW TUCKEY INNERVIEW

Failure From The Frontline There’s one thing - aside from pain and achievement and the odd vomit – that is universal amongst ultra runners from the elites to the back of packers: a DNF is inevitable.

More than any other sport, a bad day, the wrong nutrition, or the wrong mindset in running ultras means quitting will happen, no matter how good you are, or how long you’ve kept the monkey off your back. The question is, how do you deal with it? How do you work through the process in your head, justify, amplify, castigate, get depressed, shrug it off?

While Brett Sammut, batting mental illness of trail, worked through his DNF by focusing on others and emerged from the experience relatively unscathed, despite his propensity for depression, at the pointy end, past podium placer at TNF100 and one of Australia’s most respected ultra runners, Andrew Tuckey, also had to deal with his demons after pulling the pin in 2015. We asked him how he coped:

I DNF in a race it might make it easier to do that in the future. This time, however, I didn’t think I could learn anything from finishing from the point I was at.

Your first ever DNF must have weighted heavily, Tucks, what were the steps towards making the call to pull?

How about the aftermath – what thoughts and feelings swim through your head when you think about the decision to pull?

I started to struggle on the way towards Nellie’s Glen, my legs just having no strength.

By CP4 I wasn’t going very well and a few guys had passed. After that I was just plodding along, still being passed by runners and suffering with aches and pains. I just wasn’t enjoying myself and I couldn’t think of a reason to struggle through. I continued on to CP5 but I was walking a lot and already mentally pulled out by then. This race was a big goal of mine so when things didn’t go well I didn’t really have a Plan B.

I had a lot of thoughts during the race and it’s hard to filter out what’s important at the time. When things are tough there is always a part of you that just wants it over so some thoughts get amplified to try and convince yourself that you should stop. My achilles was pretty sore and I was thinking that I should stop to not do any damage when, really, it’s something that I’ve dealt with for a long time and I knew it was just painful and not damaging. I had the same painful achilles at the Buffalo Stampede but there I was running well and in 2nd place so I just ignored the pain and continued. I was thinking about my next big race at Western States as well and that pulling out would save me for that race.

The hard part at the time is deciding which thoughts are important and which ones are just noise.

How hard you found it to make that call to quit?

I find it really hard. It’s just such a final thing and you can’t change your mind once you’ve done it. In the past, I’ve suffered through some ultras to finish from some pretty low points and they have been some of the best learning experiences I’ve had in running. I’ve also worried in the past that if

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What emotions and feelings did you go through?

I felt a bit flat after the race especially when I went to watch the finish and see how happy everyone was there. I also had a few thoughts when I woke up the next day wondering if I should have continued to the finish. In the end I’m pretty logical so I’m happy with my decision and how I arrived at it. Having said that, I’m still not really happy when I think about the race. It was a big goal race for me and it didn’t work out, which is disappointing.

Even if I had finished the race I’d still be disappointed so it’s not just because of the DNF.

How would you perceive such a decision would differ in terms

of psychological ramifications, between an elite such as yourself and an everyday runner, given a DNF is much more common for Average Joes?

This is an interesting one. I remember my wife commenting at UTMB that she was surprised to see a large number of the elite runners pulling out and some of them still appeared to be in good condition. I think part of it is some of these athletes are at the race to perform well and if things aren’t going so well they will pull the pin and save themselves for the next race. TNF was a bit like that for me, I went into the race with the aim of finishing in a fast time and when that wasn’t going to happen my race was kind of over so pulling out was OK. It’s probably harder for those runners who are trying to finish a race for the first time or their goal is to beat the race cutoff. In that case I could understand that there might be some other thoughts that they need to work through if they don’t reach their goal. For me it was interesting that a lot of people wanted to know what went wrong for me and it made me really think about it to try and give people a proper answer. Everyone is really supportive when they know you’re a bit down but it was really hard for me to say exactly what went wrong in the race.

What did you learn from the experience?

The main thing is that DNFing is not good and it’s not a nice feeling even if you’re happy with the decision. I think the decision shouldn’t be made lightly and that’s been reinforced for me.

Do you think a DNF is something that can be turned around, used positively?

If you look back and think that maybe you should’ve continued then the positive thing is to remember what it’s like to be disappointed with your race and use that to try and make sure it doesn’t happen again.

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FEATURE FEATURE

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NINE X STUPID AXE-WIELDING SLEEPMONSTERS, ZOMBIES, EXPLODING KNEES, SATANIC VOLCANIC HILLS AND BEING SAVED BY BIG-BOTTOMED BIRDS – YOU’VE GOT TO TAKE IT ALL IN YOUR STRIDE WHEN YOU’RE TRYING TO RUN NEW ZEALAND’S NINE GREAT WALKS IN AS MANY DAYS.

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FEATURE

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WORDS: Pat Kinsella IMAGES: Pat Kinsella

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NINE X STUPID FEATURE

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Limping through the dense New Zealand night, dragging a near-useless limb behind me like a dead animal, the old man’s parting words ricochet around my tired brain.

At Heathrow, with me en route to New Zealand to have a crack at trail running the country’s nine Great Walks in nine days, Dad said: ‘Get yourself a beer on me at the end son.

But remember – if you’re going to break a leg, do it on the first one.’

Good advice. But even if my brain was happy to break the habit of a lifetime and start listening to such sage council, my right knee had other ideas. It would wait until I was almost exactly halfway though the mission – deep into the toughest and most committing of all the trails – before spectacularly exploding.

Thanks knee.

About 18 months earlier, the three of us had run to the summit of the highest mountain in each of Australia’s states and territories in eight days and 14 hours – over two months quicker than anyone else had ever achieved the same feat. Now we were giving ourselves an extra day and one more trail to chew on.

Except, as we’d soon discover, peak-bagging our way across one of Earth’s flattest countries is a jog in the park compared to running around the volcanic, satanic, rain-strafed, water-logged, rock-strewn, snow-covered hills, peaks and ridges of New Zealand – a place where the weather is every bit as unpredictable as the terrain is terrific.

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y right leg didn’t exactly break – at least not in the bone crunching sense – it just stopped working properly. Around the knee area, which proceeded to balloon angrily – like an alarmed pufferfish – and then stopped working altogether. Having a knee that bends when you want it to (once per stride, that’s all I ask) is quite important for a trail runner, but now, less than 20km into the biggest trot of the lot – the 78.4km Heaphy Track – one of my most important limbs was in all-out mutiny.

Up until this point, everything had been cantering along remarkably well. After a welcome to country ceremony in Queenstown – the sort of welcome that makes damn sure you mind your manners during your stay – we wasted no time getting our running shoes on and hitting the trails.

We eased ourselves in gently, with the

I

t all seemed such a good idea from afar.

Nine tracks. Nine days. Perfect symmetry.

Sure, it was a lot of Ks, even on paper – more than 400km of running, like nine off-road marathons on the trot, plus a 145-kilometre paddle – but we (myself, Ben Southall and Luke Edwards) had done plenty of training, and we had a good support crew. It must be possible. Surely.

I was a little unnerved by the fact that, in this nation of committed outdoor nutters, no-one else had even tried to knock off New Zealand’s nine premier trails in such a tight timeframe before – not even local legend Mal Law, who culled the paddle and the Stewart Island routes from his Seven-in-Seven Great Walks expedition in 2010.

But we had record-setting form. Of sorts.

>>

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FEATURE NINE X STUPID

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Kepler mountains in peace.

For almost its entire 54km length, the Milford Track relentlessly lashed us with hard, unforgiving rain. Once soaked to capacity, we ceased caring. This is what the original Great Walk is famous for, with the heavenly hydraulics powering the beautiful waterfalls that cascade all around the track, and the high rainfall painting everything lurid green. Such an embarrassment of riches present themselves along this track that rushing past them felt increasingly criminal, but no one complained as we counted down the final few mileposts towards Sandfly Point, where a boat was waiting to ferry us back across the sound.

Rain turned first to sleet and then snow during our scramble along the rugged and rubbly Routeburn Track, with whole sections of the 32km trail covered by a white veil, disturbed only by our muffled footfall. Having the track to ourselves made the experience all the more special, but introduced a level of technical difficulty that did nothing for our time. It took eight hard hours to reach the far trailhead – following a route that Braden Currie has run in 2:44:29 under race conditions.

Braden might have put us to shame in terms of speed, but we were happy with our progress.

Thus far, each run had been ticked off on consecutive days, completed within an hour or so of our predicted run times. There had been

32km Rakiura Track that graces remote Stewart Island in the country’s super far south. This was by far the easiest trail we would face over the next week and a half. Minimal elevation and a very forgiving surface made for an enjoyable run around the coastal fringe of an eccentric little isle, where everything seems tropical except for the weather and it’s not unknown for sea lions to wander into the local bar in the main town of Oban. Finishing quicker than expected, we caught the ferry back to the South Island, brimming with boisterous confidence.

Fiordland soon put us straight. The magnificence of New Zealand is all here in microcosm, but this is also where the Great Walks’ route profiles start to snarl. Terrific peaks tower over mighty sounds, and the triumvirate of trails that wend through the wet wilderness are vulnerable to avalanches, flooding, blizzards, people-flattening winds and other acts of natural violence that could derail our expedition at any point.

Right from the trailhead of the 60km Kepler Track, the wind screamed and chased us all the way up the serrated ridgeline trail to Mt Luxmore, knocking me to the deck at least once. But once it had harassed us past Hanging Valley Hut, the gusts gave up the ghost and we finished our first ultra-distance run along the Iris Burn, tracing the tranquil flanks of the

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the odd tumble and occasional involuntary curtsey as an ankle rolled, but no one had pulled or twisted anything serious, or been left behind at a service station, or had their water bladder pecked apart by keas, the ruthless mountain parrots that menace and mug trampers on New Zealand’s loftier trails. Most importantly, with about 180km on the clock, we didn’t have so much as a blister between us.

But then came the drive from the bottom end of the South Island to the top. Evidently the Romans never came to New Zealand and, while the country might boast many things in spades – mountains, glaciers, waterfalls, volcanoes, bizarre birds, Pineapple Lumps – it doesn’t have a single straight road to its name.

Drive times are monstrous and, while we had non-running mates at the wheel of our Britz Campervans, our attempts at getting some kip in the back of the wagons while on the move proved about as restful as napping in a tumble drier during an earthquake.

Arriving at the trailhead six hours later than planned, with precious little sleep in the bank, we knew the Heaphy was going to be a tough track to crack – even before my leg blew up.

The pain came abruptly. About one hour in – most of which we’d spent running along a wind-whipped and wild coastline, lightheartedly discussing the minor physical niggles we were experiencing – my right knee rudely introduced >>

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The play list of short films from the 9X journey Trail No.1 – Rakiura Track Trail No.2 – Kepler Track Trail No.3 – Milford Track Trail No.4 – Routeburn Track Trail No.5 – Heaphy Track Trail No.6 – Abel Tasman Trail No.7 - Whanganui Journey Trail No.8 - Tongariro Circuit Trail No.9 - Waikaremoana Track

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continue after this track kept stabbing me in the brain. Night had fallen heavily by this time, adding darkness to gloom.

The Southern Cross shone brightly in a starsplattered sky, but the crisp clear conditions sent the mercury plunging and I was concerned that Ben and Luke would freeze if they kept waiting for me. After the last hut, with 17km left to go, I insisted they take off and get into a cosy campervan as soon as they could. I’d be right behind them.

The run out was all downhill, along a well-formed track. So long as my headtorch held out and I didn’t trip over too heavily and bounce my bonce off a stone, I was confident I’d be fine. But stumble I did. Many times. The switchbacks seemed never ending, my watch ran out of charge, so I could no longer count down the clicks, and my knee was throbbing like a subwoofer in a suped-up Subaru.

I later discovered that Luke was visited by a sinister sleepmonster here – in the alarming shape of a masked, axe-wielding man. If I’d experienced that out there on my own I might have upped my pace a bit – knackered knee or not – but my visions were more benign and, I’m pretty sure, real – rather than the creation of a frazzled frontal cortex.

itself to the conversation. Suddenly, each step brought a searing pain across the front of my patella, and by the time we’d wobbled over the swing bridge across the Heaphy River, I knew I was in for a long, hard slog.

I could have turned around, but that would have meant throwing the towel in for the whole expedition and I wasn’t ready to do that. Besides, our drivers would have begun the 654km journey around to the opposite trailhead by the time I’d limped back, so it was onwards and upwards, in the hope that I could run it off.

As the switchbacks got steeper my hobble got more pronounced, and by twilight my right leg would barely bend. At James Mackay Hut, Luke, who reckoned my piano-wire-tight ITBs were the culprits, subjected me to an excruciating massage and then taped the knee to within an inch of its life. But still I couldn’t raise my right foot more than a few inches off the ground.

Reaching halfway should have raised a cheer, as it marked the midway point of the whole expedition, but limping along several hundred yards behind the others I was in no mood to celebrate. There was still so much ground to cover, and sharp questions about my ability to

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Right at my very lowest point, I suddenly found myself sharing the trail with a kiwi.

These incredibly shy nocturnal birds are notoriously hard to spot in the wild, and even most New Zealanders have only ever seen them in animal parks. I encountered four that night, but the first was the best. We actually ran together for about five minutes, with the bird scuttling along the track in the same direction I was heading. We must have made the ultimate odd couple, on a lonely moon-splashed New Zealand hillside, man and bird trying to outdo each other in the silly running stakes – the kiwi shaking its booty in a big-bottomed speed waddle, and me performing my zombie shuffle.

The encounter lifted my spirits and got me to the end of the track. It even helped answer a few questions – including a big one that had been bothering me all night: why the hell are we doing this? The answer was now obvious.

While these nine routes are all Great Walks, they are also fantastic runs, and doing them on the hoof gifts you the kind of experiences that will never be enjoyed by trampers. No one would walk this path at three in the morning – only runners are dumb enough to be out here at this hour – but we’re the ones that get to >>

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share the trail with the kiwis.

It would take more than a fat-bottomed bird to answer the other question burning in my brain, though. Now the Heaphy Track was done, would my leg allow me to continue with the expedition?

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n a bluebird day, the Abel Tasman is the best coastal track in the world – I’ll happily fight anyone who doesn’t agree – and we awoke at the trailhead to the vision of a cobalt, cloudfree sky. There was no question of quitting without a scrap, so I joined the others for a carbo-loading breakfast and we hit the dirt. If I could get through the next 54.4km, I kept telling myself, the next track was a river journey, and my knee would have some time to recover.

The golden bays and curvaceous coves of the Tasman did a good job of distracting my mind from the pain, and we soon settled into a gentle rhythm and a steady pace, stopping only for a photo op with a sunbathing seal. As the day got older, however, it became obvious that we’d have to get a shift on to catch that evening’s interisland ferry. If we missed the

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before making the mutual decision to bail and rejoin our comrade.

We were already well behind schedule, and the river journey had always been a real risk to the mission. Who includes a paddling route in a list of Great Walks anyway? No – ours would be a trail running record if it was destined to be a record at all.

We regrouped to take on the final two tracks together, but simply being back on terra firma didn’t mean we were home and dry. After the lush green fecundity of the South Island, the satanic black volcanic landscape on the 43km Tongariro Northern Circuit delivered a sensory slap to our systems.

I was truly running on empty by this stage, and conditions quickly turned bleak after we left Whakapapa Village. Just after Mangatepopo Hut, a heavily rugged-up group tramping in the other direction were so astonished at the sight of three idiots in running gear going past them that they stopped us to make sure we knew what we were doing. We soon found out why they were so concerned, when an icy 80-kilometre-per-hour wind ripped into us across the saddle, stealing our breath and sapping our energy. With relief, we skirted the

boat, the whole expedition would be sunk.

Time, tide and commercial ferries wait for no man, and we were chasing all three.

Digging deep, we hit the last tidal crossing just in time, wading across with the water right up to our chests and charging the last 13km of the track. At the trailhead our driver had the motor running. We sped to the ferry, boarded with 60 seconds to spare, and bid farewell to the South Island with adrenaline coursing through our veins. A couple of hours later the North Island loomed large on the horizon, and that’s where the expedition really veered into troubled water.

The Whanganui Journey, a 145km river route, meant swapping trail shoes for kayaks and paddles. We’d trained for this, but the water was running unusually high and angry after a recent deluge and, having traded stability for speed in our choice of craft, the rapids quickly tested our mettle.

Luke was bucked from his boat on the first section of whitewater, and his confidence took a big bruising. After a dozen or more involuntary swims, he was teetering on the edge of hypothermia and we needed to get him dry and warm quickly. That done, and a pick-up arranged, Ben and I continued briefly,

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luminous lake and made a run for Oturere Hut. I swear the trailhead was running away from me during the final 10km, but when I eventually catch it there’s little in the way of relief to be found. The situation was simple: to finish the mission in a time that still had nine at the front of it, we would have to leave immediately and run the 43km Lake Waikaremoana Track overnight. Our helicopter was waiting.

There’s nothing like a whirly bird ride for raising your spirits, and as we soared over the hinterland of the North Island, I could feel the finish line coming closer – although I knew I had 46km of hobbling to do before I crossed it.

While we circled, looking for a landing spot, the chopper pilot pointed out the track leading up a stiff climb to Panekire Hut, which resembled a matchbox perched on the edge of the escarpment. Four hours later we burst out

Pat, Ben and Luke – aka the Global Adventurers – set a new speed record for running New Zealand's eight land-based Great Walks in nine days, 23 hours and 20 minutes. They plan to go back and complete the ninth track – the Whanganui River Journey – as it should be done: over five days, in a canoe, with beers.

A documentary is being produced about their running experiences that will be broadcast later this year.

of the darkness into that same hut – startling the hell out of a couple who thought they had the alpine eyrie to themselves and were curled up in front of the fire. Earning my ever-lasting gratitude, instead of telling us to piss off, they got up and made us a cup of coffee.

Leaving the trampers in peace, we soon set off again, stumbling into the cold dark night to trip over tree roots and stagger through the shadows towards that long-dreamed-about end point.

At 07:50 the following morning we emerged at the far trailhead, a trail-shocked trio of very nearly broken men performing the zombie shuffle over the final swingbridge. We finished with 40 minutes to spare before the expedition clock ticked over into a new day.

My busted leg had got me through to the end after all, and my brain reminded me about the other half of Dad’s comment. Time to track down that beer…

Follow Pat on Twitter @paddy_kinsella

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TO THE MAX

Playing out in the bucolic environs of Annecy, France, and hosted by the renowned Maxi Race, the 2015 IAU World Trail Championships sparked international argument in trail running land, with boycotts and counter arguments as to what the nation-versus-nation competition, and its appended bureaucracy, means for the sport and its future. Regardless, some just ran for the sake of any competition, as they have at numerous trail events around the globe, only this time, they ran for their country and the world was watching. Here, Tegyn Angel gives philosophical insight as a crewman for Australian representative, Kellie Emmerson.

WORDS: Tegyn Angel IMAGES: Tegyn Angel and courtesy Philippe MIQUEL / Lozore

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ILLING AROUND A CONVERTED PARKING LOT. REMOVED FROM THE START LINE. CONNECTED BY A WEB OF NERVOUS ENERGY THAT RIPPLES AMONG THE ATHLETES. BUOYED BY THE PROMISE OF SELF-FULFILMENT, JUSTIFICATION AND CONNECTION WITH THE LAND. EBULLIENT, STRAPS TIGHT, LACES KNOTTED, FOOD STASHED. WARMED BY COURSING BLOOD, SURROUNDED BY A CROWD OF SUPPORTERS, PRESENT AND NOT.

They stood in a huddle, hands extended, faces split by excitement, muscles tense with possibility and focus. Headtorches describe a streak through the lens as they moved toward the gantry. An army of individuals marshalled in national colours with an international sentiment. Defiant in the early darkness, surging forward through the light of flared spotlight flashs.

They dreamt of running beneath a coloured sky. A fleet-footed Atlas bearing the weight of expectation, the banner of their country. A siren world, conceived but ill-described. They mocked their own naivety but still they dreamt.

A duality, a humbly-proud ego; optimistic dismissal. Don’t get your hopes up, play it down. Still they trained, dedicated and strong.

The man smiled, hushed conversations about

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loud actions.

You’re a good runner.

You’ve got potential.

I’d like to see what you could do.

You should apply.

Applications opened and closed. They chronicled their histories and made their pitches. They quantified their dreams, ran the qualifiers, played the game. Decisions were made. They reset the board with pieces carved of determination, sweat and tears and played again with reservation. Early sacrifices could reap great rewards or cost them everything.

At the airport their shirts carried the same crest as their passports and training diaries.

At 800km/h, the air slipping under the wings kept their bodies in flight and hummed a tune of forward momentum. The fantastic and random coalesced and traced a determined line through time like a flock of migratory birds born of individual instincts.

Do you have a goal? The boy asked. How do you feel?

She said no. I don’t know.

I’ve no precedent, no way to know. I’ll do my best. Run my heart out.

The pieces marched together, a host formed of runner manager crew. They presented themselves before a crowd of strangers, a local child bearing their flag and child-like elation on their faces. The process was mismanaged and they mumbled to themselves and others. Food was a long time coming and tensions rose.

At the briefing there was as much anxiety as there was poor communication. Language loosely grasped. The fears that drive us to distraction seem like petty jokes to others, and theirs to us. High pressure means high melodrama and in the presence of doubt we clutch at what can be defined and determined.

The barracks were a festival of like minds, a hive of activity, a microcosm of the lake town itself. The race village was a maze of vested interests and last minute trips to the quartermaster. The vertical race felt like a myocardial infarction, a cleanse of lung and dilated artery. Sleep was a brief affair indeed.

At 2am the alarm rang. They lay for a time in silence and then got out of bed. They dressed to support and be supported; to crew and to race.

They spoke of practicalities, of contingencies.

Each knew their role but the conversation calmed them. The room smelled lightly of sweat, of dedication, of expectation. The car was stuffy, thick with impatience, the thrusting of pistons a coronary corollary, each change of gear each foot-on-brake a checkpoint, a mental aid station. Then flares cut through the night.

Steaming out of the darkness, the arc of headlight matched to swing of arm, to stance.

The pace was violent and focused. Inertia carried them down the spur, the false dawn an unnoticed eternity beyond the cast of flame and flash. Local heroes foreran the rest; a bell-curve bookended by dribs and drabs. The runners >>

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swapped places, scratching and pecking at the order of things. They duelled with gravity, traded blows, in turn relenting and rebelling.

We huddled impatiently in the marquee, shifting LED shadows. Studying our watches we placed odds and coerced. We believed and we still do that prayer and exhortation would influence the final standings. A wave of tension crashed against the trestle tables. Two men, each convinced of their authority, argued equity in a tongue not their own.

At each rung of the ladder tension rose with sun and mercury. Each ran with white-hot passion, to the best of their ability. They ran to their strengths and fought a battle with each other through a war within themself.

The cobbled moments of high and low passed them by and passed again. We drove to the next checkpoint, fed and watered them. As the field of runners spread out so too did their entourage and the divergent opinions of an international community. Perceived

differences obscuring real similarities. As many flags as points of view. To boycott or battle it out.

Tipping point isn’t the right word for it.

He thought.

It’s a deceptive visual. It implies a false symmetry.

The tree sprouts new branches. From these new leaves. With these it reaches for the sky and wraps its arms around life. The spread of limb and root doesn’t compromise the organism but strengthen it; the evolution of that which is not the Genesis of that which wasn’t. In this there is no coercion of the bird or bee to feed. It remains up to them to choose the tastiest meal. While their preference may influence the fate of the plant, preference alone is poor justification for condemnation.

Stagnant monocosm and ecological monopoly are the bed partners of extinction. Vote with action not mouth for Chicken Little made a poor martyr.

Our heartbeats match the rhythm of their

BLANC IX MONTCHES LES HOU VAIS ER G TSAIN TJOIE N O M ES TAMIN LES CON SERVOZ CHAMON

stride. A burgundy finish line sits on raised platform beneath an inflatable arch. Their arms are raised in a pose of expansive power, of confidence. Sensors beep. We erupt in cheers and prickling skin. An act among many but one rendered with significance by a palette of emotional attachment. A pure moment conceived of inch-thick training journals and great expectation. Of completion. Of celebration and achievement both individual and shared.

You did well. He said.

I know. She replied, and there was no arrogance in it.

They ran their hearts out for themselves and their families and their flag. For it they are given a medal, a piece of clothing; tokens of their effort as determined by another. But with blood and callous and aching limb they’ve built themselves the right to pride. Theirs to own.

Theirs to remember.

CE HAUTELU T BEAUFOR E IC R U A AINT M BOURG S SEEZ E LA THUIL R IE ID D T PRÉ SAIN MORGEX YEUR COURMA S R O IÈRES ) MPEX LAC A H C LY (LA FOU BES M O C Y MARTIGN FINHAUT

SALVAN TRIENT LLORCINE

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IAU WORLD TRAIL CHAMPIONSHIPS: ADDENDUM

In 2015 the Maxi-Race Festival also featured the biannual World Trail Running Championships, a celebration of our sport and the world’s best trail runners organised by the International Athletics Union (IAU). While the championship event itself followed an identical course to the open-entry Maxi-Race main event, it started two hours earlier. Invitation-only Championship runners did not compete with general entry runners.

There has been fair amount of criticism by notable members of the international trail running community that this separation was divisive and arrogant and out of touch with the inclusive spirit of trail running.

These voices argued that it is a step in the wrong direction and so boycotted the event. Each to their own.

I can think of nothing more inclusive than a mass-participation marathon yet no one begrudges the Olympic committee for not admitting 50,000 runners into their race. Regardless of whether they’re right or wrong, I feel the issue distracted from the 64

individual performances and all the hard work that the athletes put into getting to Annecy. For a competitive swimmer or track athlete there is often no greater achievement than to represent their country. Just because we run in the mountains and out of the arena doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have the opportunity to be recognised and do the same.

– Tegyn Angel, Assoc. Editor.

A few Australian* representative results at the World Trail Champs, 84km: WOMEN Kellie Emmerson 19th (11:17:40) Gill Fowler 23rd (11:26:18) Lucy Bartholomew 61st (13:31:10) MEN

unners › 7500 r ns represented io › 80 nat ies on the route tr › 3 coun

© photo : Franck Oddoux - © conception graphique : Explorations

This abstract piece was written about the Maxi-Race held in Annecy, France, an incredible 80+ km trail race with over 5000m of climbing. The course passes through spectacular alpine country and historic hamlets as it circumnavigates Lake Annecy.

ING L-RUNN I A R T F O SUMMIT TILL 30 2015 D L R O W UST 24 ES G U A M CE RAC N FRO A R U D -EN 5 ULTRA MONT-BLANC AROUND

Majell Backhausen 47th (10:03:00) Tom Brazier 74th (10:43:35) Michael Keyte 110th (12:20:20) *there were no New Zealand representatives this year.

CHECK OUT THE EVENT ONLINE

300km I 28 000m

101km I 6 100m

170km I 10 000m

119km I 7 250m

WWW.ULTRATRAILMB.COM • WWW.ULTRATRAIL.TV

53km I 3300m

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WORDS: Jen Boocock IMAGES: Courtesy Jen Boocock, Mark Horstman and Dr Domhnall Brannigan / www.dreapadoir.com/

{ {

SOUTHERN EXPOSURE

RUNNING 160KM OF MUD, MOUNTAINS AND MADNESS IN TASMANIA’S FAR SOUTH-WEST ALL IN THE NAME OF CLIMATE CHANGE

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It’s a cold, windy dawn at the trailhead of the Port Davey track. Our team of three – Stephen Rae, Jen Sprent and myself – lather up, lace tight, seal the gaiters, and escape into the beauty of south-west Tasmania.

I feel a huge weight lift from my shoulders as we power off. We race along, running up hills we probably shouldn’t, leaping over mud, and sucking in the beauty of the Western Arthur Range. It alternately rains and shines as we run through Lord of the Rings-style terrain feeling great, as you so often do at the start of an ultra run.

For a few years I’d been thinking about non-stop running the South Coast Track in Tasmania, but two children, work and study took priority. During the summer of 2014 I felt a nagging sense of urgency about the need to improve the outlook on climate change in Australia. On a whim before going on a run with friends on Mt Wellington, I wrote to the Climate Council suggesting I could run nonstop from Scott’s Peak Dam to Cockle Creek as a fundraiser. At the time I didn’t completely realise what I was suggesting, but I knew by taking the step to contact them I would lock myself into doing something. As I casually informed my running buddies what I had done, they thought I was nuts.

The Port Davey and South Coast Tracks are in the far south-west of Tasmania, part of the World Heritage Area. The Port Davey Track to Melaleuca is a remote 80km track accessed from Scott’s Peak Dam, 2.5 hours drive from Hobart. The South Coast Track stretches to Cockle Creek for approximately 85km from Melaleuca.

Melaleuca is not a town but an old tin mine, airstrip, bushwalking shelter, and a historical private residence of the mine owners. Besides walking, the only access to Melaleuca is by light aircraft or by sailing in. The South Coast track is popular with bushwalkers and takes about seven days. Combining the Port Davey and South Coast Track as a non-stop run* had never been attempted, and we were about to find out why.

The mud is relentless. The track had been badly damaged by fire in 2003, when 50,000 hectares of the World Heritage Area was burned. Little vegetation has grown back, making some sections of the quartz landscape seem like running on the moon. There is no infrastructure over large muddy bogs and creeks. Creek crossings pitched up every 30 minutes, for hour after hour.

At the first of four major traverses, the appropriately named Crossing River, the water is high, moving fast, with no bridge. We search the banks for an appropriate location to cross, but eventually it is a matter of anywhere is better than nowhere, so I leap in randomly. The current is strong, we hold on to each other, and cross the river in white water survival mode.

15km of mud and hills later (5km further than anticipated), we reach the second crossing at Spring River. The bridge has been ruined by a recent flood, and the water is deep. After watching Stephen wade up to his armpits to cross, I decide my short legs might be better straddling a slippery log further upstream, and Jen follows. The vegetation at the river crossings is thick with sharp ‘cutting grass’ growing way above head height, and dead tea trees fallen all over the place. Navigation in the thick scrub is almost impossible. We spend 50 minutes at that river crossing getting lost.

This begins my worries about the number of stops we will be forced to have, along with little adjustments to equipment such as gaiters and clothing, all adding to our time.

After the drama of crossing Spring River, we look down onto Bathurst Harbour with a sense of excitement. Our elation is short lived when we discover six more kilometres of undulating trail to reach the Bathurst Narrows than the map suggested. The plan was for my husband, Justin Boocock, and our friend, Kris Clauson, to meet us at the Narrows to row across the 500m stretch of water. We are surprised and excited to see them before reaching the Harbour. They run with us to the crossing and row us across the windy waterway in fast fading light. It’s >>

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then another 15km to Melaleuca. Waiting with hot drinks and food at Melaleuca is another support crewman, Mark Horstman. Kris and I run on ahead while Justin stays with Jen and Steven. By this stage, Stephen is falling to exhaustion.

I am pleased as punch to see Mark at the bushwalkers’ hut, and he is relieved to see us arrive at 11pm, several hours later than expected. Stephen sleeps while the rest of us talk crap and generally feel happy that the first half of the mission, the Port Davey track, is behind us. My worries about the morale of Jen and Stephen, and our speed, are ever present, but I am buoyed by Jen’s attitude; she seems keen to freshen up and get moving. Stephen, however, needs more sleep. Neither Jen nor Stephen manage more than a small amount of pasta while I smash down two and a half bowls replacing much needed calories. Stephen wakes after 20 minutes, a new man and within two hours of our arrival we are back out the door waving our crew goodbye.

The push out in the middle of the night is daunting, but with a cracking pace, we speed down to Cox Bight. It is the first of many, loud, lonely South Coast beaches, crashing with Roaring-Forties surf. At the end of Cox Bight we get lost, as the map fools me with trees over the track in the dark and a number of alternative trails leading in all directions.

Back-tracking several times, I try to correct our course. On the third attempt, out of nowhere, a small turn in the dark puts us right.

At 7am on our second day, Jen and Stephen decide they need a power nap and drift off easily. I study the map, count kilometres, and attempt to stay warm. Sleep is staved off with a mind buzzing. How can we keep the momentum up, what will the weather be like, how are my darling children? After five minutes sleep, Jen and Stephen’s mood brightens,

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the running becomes easier mentally if not physically, and the light rises to reveal the Louisa River and Ironbound Range looming in the distance.

The climb up the Ironbounds is daunting, the quartzite track steep. Stephen seems re-energised and powers on up, while Jen is fading. Although this gives Stephen and I a fantastic opportunity to soak in the view, I am beginning to worry for her.

The climb over the Ironbounds is smashing, almost 1000m vertical and a traverse, all directly above the sea with stunning views down the coast and back towards Melaleuca.

Next to arriving at Melaleuca, this is my favourite part of the journey. Stephen takes a moment on the summit to spread a small amount of ashes from his beloved dog, a companion who had joined him on most of his past running adventures.

The second half of the descent is slow and hard. It is steep, the logs wet and slippery, the mud deep. We slow considerably. Jen falls behind, worried about hurting herself and asks us to stay with her. She is right – the last thing we need at this point is a snapped bone in the tangled forest halfway down the Ironbound Range.

At the bottom our pace starts to really concern me. The slower we get, the harder things will become, because our mission will creep into yet another cold and likely windy night. I begin strategising both out loud and in my mind as Stephen theorises constantly on time and distance. As Jen’s back becomes sore, I take her backpack and sling it over the top of mine. With weight off, Jen is able to run with me. This boosts morale no end.

We reach the New River Crossing at the end of Prion Beach where Jen and Stephen steal another five-minute sleep. Readying the boat for a crossing, I discover there is only one oar. >>

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How the bloody hell are we going to get across the wide and swollen river with one oar?

We consider the idea of wading close to the mouth of the river and decide we have no option but to give it a go. The main problem is that it means almost 2km of beach running in deep sand to get there, all the while gambling that the tide won’t be too high.

After running the extra distance we arrive at the mouth to find the tide rushing in. I attempt to wade, but less than a quarter of the way across the water is already over my waist. Jen isn’t keen on swimming, worried about getting wet and cold just before darkness closes in. I want to swim with my bag on my head, but Jen’s concerns stick fast. Getting cold means losing more energy and moving even slower.

The risk is too great. We decide to return to find a way to use the boat. Stephen and I sprint as fast as our legs will go on a deep sandy beach, back to the crossing. I try sculling the boat with one oar like a kayak, but it isn’t going to happen against the wind and with our weight. We attempt to paddle with our hands, but it is too cold and not powerful enough to counter the wind. Eventually we find a broken yellow bucket washed up on the beach. I force Stephen to propel us with the bucket while I use the oar to paddle and steer. We ferry-glide the boat to the other side, collect some of the six oars on the other side, and drag the second boat back to Jen. The ordeal takes at least four extra hours, not to mention the impact on mental and physical exhaustion.

Back on track, my brain is in overdrive with anger, frustration and exhaustion. I am cold from dragging boats across shallow sections in the river. We are now rushing into our second night, way behind schedule. The anxiety, of course isn’t helping, and almost immediately we lose the track as we head down a steep sand dune and back to the river. I can’t find

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the track anywhere. Stephen snaps me out of my mental impasse, suggesting we wade around the foreshore to the track we had sighted earlier. An answer from my co-runners breaks the spell and puts me back on track mentally as well as physically.

With 30km to go, the South Cape Range is the final major barrier between us and the finish. It’s a challenge indeed: 30km of steep hills to climb, followed by deep, unrelenting mud. It is slow, and we are now beyond tired, hallucinating and demoralised. On the beaches we begin seeing things and start to fall asleep while walking – the so-called sleepmonsters have come for us.

Granite Beach with its dinner plate-sized wet slippery rocks is difficult and dangerous in the dark. The roar of the Southern Ocean is a powerful sound in our ears as we fight off the raging army of sleepmonsters now attacking us all. Jen keeps thinking someone else is with us. I keep seeing signs I can’t read, along with giant spiders and snakes. Stephen is seeing ABC children’s television characters on the ground like Peppa Pig and the Octonauts, the hauntings of any parent brought to life.

Although the South Cape Range is only 550m at its highest point, it has multiple peaks rearing straight out of the ocean. The track is muddier than anywhere else so far. In the dark, through waist-deep mud, with relentless clambering over slick tree roots and up rocky embankments, we curse everything, including anyone even remotely responsible for the track condition.

After smashing my knee on a rock going uphill, I finally break down in tears. It is the one thing I told myself I would not succumb to. Constantly cold and out of food, I am struggling to get enough energy in. Jen’s backpack is flopping from side to side whacking me in the head, meaning endless fussing with its straps. I am eating every 10 minutes to >>

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at the map, and start thinking about my children. Although I am cold, the final river crossing shoves me over the edge. I stop shivering and begin falling asleep. I see more hallucinations than ever on the beach, as my concentration fades as I start focussing on my visions. I fall asleep walking and topple over.

Justin recognises what is happening and talks me through it. Like any good mates, Stephen and Jen take the piss out of me and I yank myself back to a warped version of reality. But then what kind of reality is truly based in no sleep while running 160 kilometres through the wilderness?

As the sun rose for the third time since we set off, we arrive delirious into Cockle Creek, which is very real. What is also real, according to our gadgets, is that in 48 hours we covered more than 160km of rough trail, 5500m ascending and 5575m descending. And according to our online donation page, we also raised nearly $15,000 for the Climate Council.

That part of the reality is perhaps the sweetest.

Along, perhaps, with the fact that the challenge is over. Done. Finished never to be repeated, at least by us. Although I do like a challenge. And climate change remains very real. Never say never, I guess.

stop my brain from turning off while I count contours and creeks on the map.

I lose my cool with poor Jen who wants to sleep again.

“How could you sleep now?” I yell. Ten minutes later after more glucose, I feel guilty and stop for a break. Who am I kidding? We aren’t in a race, there is no way to make up time now, and Jen needs to rest.

Five minutes later, knowing Justin is on his way from Cockle Creek to meet us, we run again. Dragging ourselves down a dangerous hill, we reach another creek crossing, and begin our last climb through the forest before reaching the coast again. Here I notice a confusion of lights above that don’t appear to be from my own beam.

“Are they our torches? What’s going on? Is it a camp?”

We are ecstatic to discover Justin and our good friend Domhnall Brannigan powering their way towards us.

In a drunk-like state we stop and eat their supplies, babbling nonsensically about what has transpired the past hours. But with their support comes my demise. I instantly let go, stop thinking about the others, stop looking

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*Ed’s note The two tracks had been strung together on a run prior, by Shane Hutton on his Trassie Traverse run, a 670+km monster run as featured in edition 14 of Trail Run Mag, however Jen and her team’s run was the first non-stop ultra attempt, whereas Shane camped out each night as part of his 14-day multi-day north to south mission.

VISION Check out a short film on Jen and her team’s run.

RUNNERS KITCHEN IS 100% AUSTRALIAN MADE AND OWNED

the

first shangri-la

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WORDS: Chris Ord IMAGERY: Chris Ord and Simon Madden

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IT IS FITTING THAT THE CREATORS OF THE SHANGRI-LA MARATHON ARE DREAMERS.

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HE FLOOR OF THE VALLEY, HAZILY DISTANT, WELCOMED THE EYE WITH GREENNESS; SHELTERED FROM WINDS, AND SURVEYED RATHER THAN DOMINATED BY THE LAMASERY, IT LOOKED TO CONWAY A DELIGHTFULLY FAVOURED PLACE, THOUGH IF IT WERE INHABITED, ITS COMMUNITY MUST BE COMPLETELY ISOLATED BY THE LOFTY AND SHEERLY UNSCALEABLE RANGES ON THE FURTHER SIDE.” It is a quote that sings out from the classic fictional novel The Lost Horizon, by British author James Hilton, but it could not have been more apt had Australian Brendan Smith written it himself, ninety-one years after the best-seller was published.

Had Brendan opened notebook and brandished pen when he first stood atop the range overlooking Yubeng Valley in Yunnan Province, in China’s far south-east, and proceeded to write what he saw, his words would most certainly have mirrored Hilton’s.

As it was, when he first stood at that high point in 2014, Brendan was on a reconnaissance mission and hadn’t the time for prose. Instead, he trotted off down the trail to explore the villages below and trails beyond. He had a trail running event to help pioneer.

Hilton’s published words would not greet Brendan’s eyes until 12 months later, when the Brisbane father of two would, by fluke and fittingly, rip from the novel the exact page containing that exact paragraph.

Far from being vandalism, the ultimate destruction of several copies of Hilton’s masterpiece was in fact a mandatory act, one demanded in race regulations in order that runners prove they had actually reached a far-flung out-and-back checkpoint on an inaugural adventure run that bore the imprint of Brendan’s wayfinding: the Shangri-La Marathon.

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ust as Hilton’s novel centres on Conway, a character who by chance of an airplane crash finds himself in a remote, seemingly utopian valley, and who sees it as his shot at a long-dreamed of better life – so, too, do Terry Majamaki and his wife Jenny have strong idealistic streaks. They are exactly the kind of people who discover hard-to-reach, wild, remote places far from technology, facilities and all manner of creature comforts and decide things like “there should be a running race here.”

Of course, there are dreamer and doers.

And then there are dreamers that do, and so Terry and Jenny set about creating their running dream.

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Resident Californians, they stumbled across Yubeng Valley at the foot of Himalaya’s sacred Meili Snow Mountains while visiting relatives in China. While the trails that access the valley have for centuries formed a holy pilgrimage trek for travelling Tibetan Buddhists paying their respects to the holy peaks towering above, Terry, Jenny and Brendan were perhaps the first to actually run in their footsteps. In the trio’s minds, Yubeng was the perfect incarnation of the so-called paradisiacal Shangri-La alluded to in Hilton’s book; the postcard view of the Meili Mountains a certain version of the title – a horizon long lost to the greater populace. As runners themselves, it was a vision that Terry and Jenny believed should be re-discovered in particular by the running fraternity.

They aren’t the only ones who believe Yubeng either actually was or at least could be the setting for Hilton’s tome. The Chinese Government was so bent on the idea that they renamed the region’s gateway city, originally known as Zhongdian, to ‘Shangri-La’. A cynical tourism ploy, to be sure, but there is some evidence that the region, if not the valley in particular, was indeed the inspiration for the literary Shangri-La. From an article in the China Daily (2005): “…for the main source of inspiration for Shangri-La, we turn to the writings of the Austrian-American explorer, Joseph Rock.

At the time when Hilton was writing Lost Horizon, this eccentric and scholarly botanist had just published a series of fantastic accounts of his travels in Southwest China, in National Geographic.

“Rock made lengthy expeditions to far-flung corners of Yunnan and Sichuan, spending 80

months at a time collecting plants, taking photographs, map making and recording the lifestyles of the many different ethnic minorities living in these remote highlands.

“His accounts of his travels made him a minor celebrity in the West, and Hilton is said to have based his writing of Lost Horizon on Joseph Rock’s articles.”

It is highly likely that Rock visited Yubeng, his detailing of the landscapes and culture no doubt weaving their way into the imaginations of Hilton as he wrote Lost Horizon. Notably, however, there was no running in the book. That part of the legend was still to be written by Terry and Jenny.

“Shangri-La is absolutely the Lost Horizon,” says Terry, speaking of the valley in which he has set his event, more so than the bustling tourist town renamed, rather capitalistically and thus ironically, by Communist Party officialdom.

“The beauty of the Himalaya mountains with Yubeng village in the valley has to be seen to be believed – it is lush and incredibly remote, and whether or not it was actually Hilton’s Shangri-La, it’s definitely ours.”

It is Terry and Jenny’s general philosophy on running – one that focuses more on an individual’s holistic experience of journey through landscape than simply the pointy end of racing – that informs not only their choice of location, but also the inclusive style of run, which incorporates distances from 21km through marathon, 50km and 100km options.

“We believe running is an amazing way to experience a place and Shangri-La definitely lent itself to that kind of exploration – the course is based on a pilgrimage route used by Tibetan Buddhists.”

In an auspicious stroke of timing, the

inaugural race transpired during a special pilgrimage season at the Meili Snow Mountains. It is said that this sacred mountain range was born in the year of the wood goat.

On a 12-year zodiac cycle, 2015 marks the year of the goat and thus marks the spiritual birth year for Meili. To honor and celebrate, thousands of Tibetan natives and pilgrims make their pilgrimage to Meili Snow Mountain throughout the year, ritualistically prostrating themselves in reverence at certain key localities. It can take days, weeks and months to complete their pilgrimage journey on foot.

For the runners, it will take less than 24 hours.

“That’s the beauty of being a runner – you get to see and experience different places, different environments different terrain, and in this case, interact at close quarters with a very different culture and its worshipping practices that centre on a shared fascination between them and us as trail runners: the environment,” says Terry.

“An event like Shangri-La Marathon allows you to experience a place in a very different sense, it’s more intimate, more in touch with what you are passing through. When we connect with nature like that, and we’re out there running through it, it’s a completely different proposition than just sightseeing.”

In the end, more than one hundred curious running pilgrims travelled to Yunnan for the first ever Shangri-La Marathon. A globally sourced community, the gathering included Chinese, Taiwanese, Malaysians, South Africans, Singaporeans, Indonesians, Koreans, Brits, Canadians, Dutch, Swiss, German, and even Puerto Rican and Mexicans. Down Under was duly represented by both Kiwis and Australians in force. One of them of course, >>

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Brendan’s abundant enthusiasm for running infected the couple and he was soon invited to visit their planned Shangri-La. “Running has always been a big thing for me,” says Brendan “For a fair while it was the shorter stuff, 10-15km. But then I got fair dinkum, moved through first a half, then a full marathon.”

His progression ended up about as far off road as you can imagine, running at the North Pole.

“Most of the running I have done has been in Australia or China, but in 2006 I completed a North Pole Marathon, which was a Guinness book of World records attempt. The organiser wanted to set a record for the most number of people running a marathon at the North Pole and I couldn’t resist. So I took out the very dubious title of being the first Australian to run a marathon at the North Pole!”

A few more exotic runs ensued, including an altitude run in Tibet, the Roof of the World Marathon. None, however, breached into ultra territory.

“So when I was invited to help set a course

had already visited Shangri-La twelve months prior. This time, however, Brendan Smith would be competing on the course he helped create in what would be his longest ever distance.

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hen Brendan turned forty-two the ex-policemen decided that the ticking over of that particular time marker was a significant sign. Enough for him to lace up and run a marathon. Perhaps not an unusual thing for someone who was already a runner.

Brendan picked up road running, pace setting and watch watching a while back, the distances extending as his three sons gained teen-year independence, and so he gained time to train. Marathons were of course the natural progression.

Eight years later, and his years on Earth about to tick over fifty, Brendan decided to up the ante somewhat. Fifty years would equal fifty kilometres and his first ever ultra.

Having befriended Terry and Jenny while completing a Great Wall of China Marathon,

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for one, it wasn’t just about completing the recce, I was always going to return to run in the event.”

Although never having read Hilton’s book, Brendan had a cinematic link to the Lost Horizon.

“I was aware of Shangri-La through my parents. There was a big Hollywood musical directed by Frank Capra called The Lost Horizon from the thirties – I’ve never seen it but for them it was a big deal. And my understanding is that it was based on the town of Lower Yubeng, which forms the hub of the Shangri-La Marathon. I thought what a thing to be able to tell my parents who loved the musical: that I’d not just been to the town where it was set, I’d run through it.”

Aside from impressing his parents – who may have questioned the very sanity of running through their silver screen Shangri-La – it was the challenge of the landscape that drew Brendan back come race day.

“My first visit was an extraordinary experience. Living in Brisbane, most trail >>

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More info: Discover your own Shangri-La: the organisers behind Shangri-La Marathon have two more races in Yunnan Province, China, plus on back in their native California. We reckon it’s worth logging if not all, at least one into your race calendar.

SHANGRI-LA MARATHON

YUNNAN PUZEHEI MARATHON

RICE TERRACE MARATHON

VALENCIA TRAIL RACE

A bit of running magic in a mystical part of the world.

21km, 42km 50km and 100km options. It’s worth making a tour of it as this part of the world is worth exploring more and is also within reach of the famous Leaping Tiger Gorge. Held in May each year.

Here’s one for both road and trail runners with a sense of adventure. The course traverses through the enchanting Puzhehei region of Yunnan China.

Featuring a scenic basin with over 300 green peaks comprised of karst land formations, islands, caves, and lakes.

Participants run along narrow trails, pathways, and boardwalks that traverse around the karst peaks while parallel to the lakes creating for a magical experience featuring some of the most picturesque parts of China.

Happening in October 2015.

Located in the Honghe Prefecture in southeastern Yunnan province of China, this region is well known for its spectacular rice-paddy terracing. Get ready for an incredible adventure run along these breathtaking terraces.

Coming in 2016.

Located in the beautiful rolling hills of Valencia, Southern California, in the United States, the Valencia Trail Race features challenging hills and singletrack trails for trail running enthusiasts. Coming in 2016.

www.riceterracemarathon.com

www.valenciatrailrace.com

www.shangri-la-marathon.com Check video at https://vimeo. com/128337098

www.yunnanmarathon.com Check a video at: https:// vimeo.com/129186533

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Check a video at: https:// vimeo.com/130991508

runs for me are through consistent country – gum trees and along coastline trails. But this one goes through so many changes, from soft underfoot trails to oak and moss forest, waterfalls, and big Himalayan mountains right up to the glaciers – you can’t help but be caught up in the grandeur of it all.”

The experience of running Shangri-La also changed his motivations.

“I have been a slave to the watch; you look at the thing and check your pace, your time, your rhythm. But on the recce run, I didn’t look at my watch at all, because I was so caught up in the beauty. Apart from the effects of altitude, of course, it is a genuinely breathtaking experience being there.”

“In the time that I have been running, I’ve grown tired of conventional city running where it is all about pace and time, you’re worried about negative splits and positive splits and all that. I’ve just found that being out running in tremendously beautiful places like Yunnan, there’s no substitute for it, It’s a different kind of running, and for my money, much more rewarding.”

On course, on trails, reward is only delivered after sufficient challenge.

“The first five kilometres absolutely annihilates you psychologically,” says Brendan.

“You’re talking a 1km vertical gain over the first five kilometres.”

“For those doing the fifty kilometre course, they reach the top of the climb and peer into the Shangri-La valley, only to know they have another 45km to go. It’s definitely a matter of energy conservation on that first section.”

Breaching the first pass, competitors are greeted with mass of colour as they run through a corridor of colourful prayer flags followed by a long downhill into Yubeng

Valley’s green pastures and contented cows.

“It’s right out of a fairy story,” says Terry. “In that stretch you see the Meili Snow Mountains, which essentially is the Lost Horizon.”

“Running into Lower Yubeng, you are in such an amazing place, a bit like a little village that time forgot centred on an ancient Buddhist temple. There are no modern conveniences.

It’s a breathtaking experience to then run up to the glacier, which carves off the snowcapped mountains.”

In a tip of the trail running hat to the legendary Barkly Marathons (United States), 50km and 100km competitors at Shangri-La must run to the waterfall coming off the glacier where, amongst praying Buddhist monks and constantly-lit smoke pyres, and to prove their visitation, they must rip a page from Hilton’s Lost Horizon, before returning to the valley.

The fact that Brendan was brandishing a Cheshire Cat grin and his torn page – complete with that opening quote – back in Shangri La City the day after the race, shows he made good on the climb, but only just.

“I suffered out there,” he says of his first ever ultra. “I vomited twice, my stomach was in a knot for most of it, and if I had laid down at any point, I think I may have died. But all in all a fantastic race!”

Brendan notes his stomach issue was less about the distance and more about a disagreement with the local cuisine “which is usually great, but I think I copped one dish that had its issues!”

For other competitors it wasn’t a dodgy plate of rice that made their stomach turn, rather it was a case of vertigo, as they ran down the canyon section of a the course, a long cliffhugging, metre-wide trail that drops sharply down, giving a continuous sense of always being about to be sucked off the face of the cliff.

“It’s an exciting canyon to run,” says Terry.

“The further into the canyon you go, the deeper it gets, while the track stays fairly level being cut into the cliff, meaning the drop just gets bigger and bigger. Every time you hit a corner as it hugs the face, you are blasted by a gust of wind, making it a precarious place to run. It’s nerve wracking but exhilarating. It’s like being on a rollercoaster but with nothing to hold on to.”

As runners all exited the canyon, re-birthed back into the real world to be greeted by views of roads and trucks and other reminders of the modern world (including what one runner dubbed the “world’s best worst chicken burger” being handed out by checkpoint staff), the smiles despite the running aches told the story of the their experience in isolated Yubeng Valley. You could see it in their eyes – in some way big or small, a run through Shangri-La had left its mark.

In the book, the central character Conway, a veteran member of the British diplomatic service, finds inner peace, love, and a sense of purpose in the literary Shangri-La, whose inhabitants enjoy unheard-of contentment and longevity. In some ways, the race organisers are using their real life incarnation of Shangri-La to deliver the same to runners.

“The mythology of v is all about seeking a metaphorical Shangri-La as much as a physical one,” says Terry. “It’s about finding a sense of utopia where people discover their own version of a perfect world. That’s part of the journey we’re trying to create, for people to discover their own Lost Horizon.”

While running through the earthly incarnation of Shangri-La does not necessarily guarantee peace, love, purpose, contentment nor longevity, it must be said, it – and the sheer positive energy of those behind the race – definitely dusts you with a little of each.

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LOZÈRE: THE BEST RACE YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF WORDS: TEGYN ANGEL IMAGES: TEGYN ANGEL AND VAL GROLLEMUND

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SOMETIMES

I approached Phil (Aussie for Philipe), the Race Director, after a bored-at-work Google session and explained that I was going to be in France to cover the World Trail Championships team and support the Australian team. I figured a trail race I’d never heard of in a part of the world I never expected to visit would be a perfect way to see the countryside and in doing so raise awareness for what promised to be some incredible running and a fantastic race. Phil was quick to respond and, with Google Translate as our intermediary, we made loose plans.

“Shit,” I hissed through gritted teeth, “What the bloody hell do we do now?”

We’d flown into Lyon airport, hired a car without a GPS and driven headlong into a toll-booth without a Euro to our name. After a half-dozen thumps on the SOS button and the repeated honks of the frustrated drivers behind us, the sleepy French toll attendant answered our pleas for help with a fragrant perfume of indignation and apathy.

I explained, in English, that we’d just gotten off a plane and didn’t yet have any Euros to pay the toll with. The toll gate was a mere two or three minutes from the airport so I’d like to think we weren’t the first frazzled gringos to butt heads with the toll Nazi. Regardless, he met my puppy-dog-eyes with a shrug as if to say, “You can’t pay? I don’t care. Stay there behind the boom gate until you can.”

You find yourself in a situation that forces you to stop. To take stock; to consciously devote yourself to explaining how the hell you got there. You struggle for the right words, unable to express yourself clearly.

Standing at the start line of the Lozère Trail Ultra, surrounded by excited runners and 1000 years of history was just such a situation.

What the hell am I doing here?

It kept running through my head, punctuated by the occasional oh, and by the way, where the HELL is HERE? A stream of adjectives bounced through my head, jumping comically between the visions in front of me like a ball off the words of a pre-school sing-a-long. I tried to describe it to myself, to imagine I’m writing a story.

I conceive silly catchphrases like “The best race you’ve never heard of”, “Running back in time”, “don’t be a loozer, run Lozère”. Whether serious or stupid, language fails me.

Deep in the Gorges du Tarn, the Lozère Trail Ultra starts in the picture-perfect FrenchProvençal cliché, Saint-Enimie. The Tarn River winds its way past the cobbled streets and beneath the perfect arches of a fairy tale bridge while the fat trout try to fight its persuasive charms. Built around a sharp bend of the Tarn, the river continues to define the hamlet today just as through countless forgotten millennia it has carved the steep limestone cliffs that characterise the region.

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Peering into his island kingdom in desperation I saw an EFTPOS machine.

“Can we pay with visa?” I asked.

“Yes, of course,” he replied, as if this were the most obvious thing in the world.

I fished out my card and passed it out the window to him, half expecting him to snap it in half and spit on it in disgust. Instead he slammed-shut the teller window, closed his venetian blinds, abandoned his castle, locked the door (WTF?), walked the three metres around our car to the toll machine (yep, the one 30 cm from my window), inserted my card into the slot marked Visa, handed it back to me and gave us a look that turned our baguettes stale and our fromage into some form of cyanotic, cradle-of-life, penicillin slurry.

Welcome to France.

Chanac is an ancient village in Lozère department of France, with structures dating back over 1000 years. The UNESCO World Heritage listed central tower has seen the footprints of romans etc. etc. etc. alike.

Registration was the usual affair: name, bib, shirt, race pack, pasta party, carafes of wine…

HOLD ON? My partner, Kellie, got so caught up in the excitement she dropped a whopping nine Euro on registration for the 14km race and got a tech T-Shirt for her troubles. After dinner we wandered the narrow cobbled lanes and soaked up the crisp bucolic air before heading >>

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of consent and disclaiming liability assumes the individual signing their life away is fully informed of all risks and hazards. For Aussie and Kiwi race directors, accepting athletes from a non-English speaking background, ensuring all efforts are made to adequately communicate the peculiarities of running our races is vitally important.

Thirty minutes after leaving Chanac two busloads of runners stepped off the bus 300 years into the past. While the departing diesel buses and fleet of plastic canoes by the riverside hint at the fact Napoleon has long-since turned to dust, you can’t help but imagine a stagecoach being driven into town over the cobbled streets. The horses steaming and full of excited energy at their run up the narrow river road, just as the runners are, milling about by the start line. After the race director makes his announcements to the self-seeded group beneath the starting gantry, trois-duo-et and we’re off up the street, over the bridge and into the hills.

Once we switch to the language of the trails, the communicative incompetence fades and the silence becomes less awkward. Running is universal, competitiveness a part of the human condition and I can read the prose of the trail just as fluently here as in the English-speaking world. Our climb is prefaced by ten minutes on the tarmac before we slip off the side and onto a steady uphill section of single-track. Zigging and zagging our way up the side of the valley we’re calm and composed, picking out our competition and settling into our positions.

Shouts of Allez! Allez! are backed by a chorus of heavy cowbells greeting us as we run into a small farming village. Surrounded by farmland, livestock and a small cluster of stone buildings we find tables packed with sweets, biscuits, mineral water… salami and Camembert!

Checkpoint is a Lingua Franca but there are

to bed. Jugs of rouge to wash down the pre-run carbs, race entry for $15 and a pace of life that allows you to stay present in the moment; they might drive three-wheeled cars and eat things better left to crawl around the garden, but there’s absolutely no question the French have more than a few things right.

Elizabeth, as it turns out, was English. It took us a while to work that out; perhaps because her accent was so broad, maybe because she’d picked up a French twinge living in Paris, possibly because we were already getting used to apologetic stares and speaking slowly. Part of a group of folks all decked-out in bright Lycra and trail shoes and staying in the same hotel as Kellie and I, it was a safe bet they were runners. We got chatting over a croissant and it turned out that we were all here to run the one-day, 50km event. Part of a vibrant Parisian trail community, her group had made the road-trip down as part of an ongoing mission to tag a few races per month, all traversing the mountains and valleys of Southern France.

While not a series as such, it sounded like an incredible way to get to know the area and would set them up well for their attempt on the Gran Raid du Pyrenees.

Driving up the switchbacks standing guard over Chanac, I was pretty chuffed to have an Elizabeth along to translate. Running races in our own country we take so many things for granted. Was there dangerous wildlife to worry about? Obscure rules to consider? Last minute safety warnings, points of etiquette, course changes, weather advice. While I’d scoured www.Lozeretrail.fr and made sure I’d clarified all the Google Engrish (apparently “Banana” on the mandatory gear list was referring to a waist belt, not a piece of fruit), we gain a huge amount of information, and therefore confidence, from being able to understand the conversations around us. The whole idea

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TOURS & EXPEDITIONS G U I D E D - O W N P A C E - A C C O M M O D AT I O N - F U L LY C AT E R E D

G R E AT O C E A N WA L K , G R A M P I A N S , H U T T O H U T - V I C A L P S , L A R A P I N TA T R A I L , E AS T T I M O R , C H I N A , B H U TA N , C O O K I S L A N D S

W W W.T O U R D E T R A I L S . C O M

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inland, an undulating trail passing tiny farming villages, through native pine forests and beside ancient dry stone walls dividing paddocks. I start to pass a few scattered runners, the body language of fatigue requiring no translation. Crossing one final leafy country road we contour back toward Chanac and plunge off the side of a beautifully steep and technical final drop; my favourite part of any trail tongue!

Chugging the locally brewed craft beer (included with your race rego!) half an hour later, I’m still trying to put the race into words.

Indeed, I’ve still not worked it out. It could be that I’m so impressed with Lozère because it’s different, a case of the grass being greener on the other side, of familiarity breeding contempt, so to speak. But I doubt it. I think they’ve truly got a great thing going here and seem to have their priorities well and truly sorted. This is a race for runners: it’s cheap, spectacular and competitive while still being inclusive and professionally managed. Not to mention the fact that it’s chock full of food and grog! (A surefire magnet for any Aussie or Kiwi trail runner who happens to be in Europe, then. Ed.)

definitely a few regional additions in use here!

Following an undulating stock trail out of the village, we run headlong into the first major descent of the race. Now THIS is a language I speak fluently! The epitome of trail running: fine gravel, lots of traction but dry and forgiving.

Beautifully cambered switchbacks, spaced just far enough apart to get a good rhythm. Aside is a precipitous drop to the valley and River Tarn far below, close enough to keep you on your toes. The descent spits us out by the river which we turn to follow, a handrail we follow through temperate forest and into the next village; another web of cobbled streets, ancient bridges and postcard views.

Scrambling off-track up a gentle rock face at the top of the next big climb, we’re into the next checkpoint for a refill and a quick breather.

The universal gesture of holding out one’s water bottle and smiling brilliantly acts like a Babel Fish and we’re back on the road in a jiffy! The trail now leaves the cliff line and heads into upcountry pasture lands before swinging back to an off track section that offers awesome views back down to Saint Enimie and the Tarn.

Leaving the cliff line for good we head 94

vitals Lozère is based from a town that has been voted one of Les Plus Beaux Villages de France – the most beautiful villages in France – 7th Century medieval town Sainte Enimie. The race will take place again in May 2016. www.lozeretrail.fr

DREAMRUN

ULTRA FIORD - CHILEAN PATAGONIA

WORDS: Matt Maynard

Why do we go to the mountains?

Ultra Fiord asked this question of many runners who made the journey to Patagonia for this inaugural race.

B

efore the event, some answers seemed obvious. There was the draw of running in the shadow of Torres del Paine, the 8th Natural Wonder of the World.

There was the chance of seeing a puma, wild bulls and condors. Competitors’ reflections would be mirrored in the glacial fiords once navigated by Charles Darwin and Sir Francis Drake. An ascent of a glacier would take them into the remotest of valleys where five months previously, no human being had trodden.

However, there were also additional sensations and deprivations to come. The reality of the race would question the division we seem to draw between our independent forays in the mountains, and those we make when there are people to take our number, refill our water bottles, mop our brow, and tell us everything is going to be alright.

A tally of 14 countries was represented at the start lines for the 30km, 70km, 114km and 174km races. Northern Hemisphere runners shivered in the smudged-out late autumn sunrise. Chilean

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runners from Santiago had flown nearly three hours south through their own country. Latinos had arrived, impressed by the most southern depths of Patagonia. They too were wrapped up against the cold that morning, and looked out apprehensively through the rain to where course markers disappeared into the mist.

After 30km of leg-swallowing muddy single track, a chest-deep river crossing and wading through a frigid lake, runners were moving far slower than anticipated. They were cold and fatigued. Behind the shield of clouds obscuring glaciers, tower blocks of ice could be heard collapsing into inland seaways below. Some runners began to question their motivations for coming to these mountains.

Handfuls of gorse and steep steps kicked into peat soil bought runners above the treeline.

They emerged into a mess of boulders, where the wind whistled and the temperature dropped further.

From here they climbed up onto a glacier. The race director dubbed this area ‘The Fortress’ due >>

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to the number of expeditions he needed simply to find a passage through it.

The descent was laced with narrow crevasses, thinly veiled by a dusting of snow. Runners relied on whatever mountain knowledge they had gleaned over past time on trails to cross them. Skill and luck played equal part.

From here the course direction changed dramatically. Without maps or compasses, many runners became confused in the fog that had washed into the valley, obscuring sparsely placed markers. It was another 30km through the wooded valley to the nearest dirt road.

Night fell. Footfall and breathing accompanied the steady shudder of a nearby river, one that five months before had never been heard by human ears.

In the 174km distance, only 11 of the starting 33 runners finished. So tough was it that some felt that the race lacked proper consideration of runners’ safety. All agreed the terrain was wild and beautiful. Those who clamoured for the glaciers to be covered, the markers to be clearer, and the food to be more plentiful may have a point. This is what we have come to expect for an entry fee. But that is organised ultra-running.

Perhaps this, in many ways, wasn’t. It was a more solitary experience. More remote. Harder, perhaps. More dangerous, even. Runners were out there for a very long time, looking out for themselves. It was nature in the raw.

But when we first went into the mountains, wasn’t that what everyone was seeking?

Matt Maynard is a South Americanbased journalist.

Follow his adventures at www.greenbeantrails.com Ultra Fiord takes place in April each year. www.ultrafiord.com

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REVIEW

TRAIL SHOES // THE NORTH FACE ULTRA CARDIAC

Image: Chris Ord

take outs THE NORTH FACE ULTRA CARDIAC

Great for: being an all rounder Not-so-great for: grip Test Conditions: trail mix of fire, technical trail, beach

Tester: Chris Ord, Trail Run Mag editor

Tester Mechanics: mid foot striker, tends to more technical style running routes, mostly 15-30km range outings.

RRP: AUD $180

VITALS

$180 AU Information online at: thenorthface.com.au/product/ men-s-ultra-cardiac

CARDIAC ARREST A RUNNER’S WORLD ‘BEST DEBUT’ SHOE, THE NORTH FACE ULTRA CARDIAC SEEMS TO BE A CULMINATION OF ALL THE BEST CHARACTERISTICS DRAWN FROM ALL THE TRAIL SHOES THAT HAVE GONE BEFORE IT UNDER THIS BRAND’S BANNER OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS. THAT’S SAYING A LOT, TOO, AS I AM A BIG BELIEVER THAT THE NORTH FACE TRAIL SHOES ARE SORELY UNDERAPPRECIATED

BY THE TRAIL FRATERNITY, ESPECIALLY MID PACK RUNNERS WHO AREN’T NEEDING SUPER SPECIALISED TERRAINSPECIFIC BEASTS – THEY JUST WANT A SHOE THAT DOES THE JOB ALL ROUND IN MOST CONDITIONS.

The North Face Ultra Cardiac

This is that shoe. It hits the sweet spot on so many levels.

An 8mm drop is neither too much heel, nor too slim on the padding. Indeed, the midsole gives quite a lot of cushion compared to many go-fasts on market today (but this is of course still not Hoka One One territory, either). To begin with I actually found it a little too mushy, having been running in more minimalist shoes, including The North Face’s Ultra Trail 2, which is more attuned to trail feedback and twitchy in the rough stuff. But then I quickly grew to love the plushness. The Cardiac keeps the ride mellow with a layer of foam in the midsole providing neutral cushioning that flexes well over uneven 100

terrain, while the plastic cradle around the back of the shoe cups your heel in place.

The ride loses a little trail feel in the transition, but realistically still allows plenty feedback enough for good proprioception (the process by which the body can vary muscle contraction in immediate response to incoming information regarding external forces, by utilising stretch receptors in the muscles to keep track of the joint position in the body. Essentially, how quickly your foot and extended skeletomuscular system reacts to what is happening underfoot, and thus how well it keeps you upright!)

The padding may soften the step on general terrain, but on super sharp and rocky

What I most like about this shoe is that it is no-frills. No big gimmick shouts at you, ‘pick me, pick me’. Rather it just hums ‘ reliability’.

singletrack that flexibility in the sole means a bigger hammering, something a rockplate, which this shoe lacks, would abate some.

Up top, the padding continues in a lush vibe, yet it doesn’t annoy as some can around the back of the ankle. The mesh upper breathes extremely well while the rubber toe guard is minimal but does the job all the same.

The wider last keeps stability at a premium, and grip underfoot is for the most part excellent. The skids come on when you hit wet and soft, specifically mud, long The North Face trail shoes’ arch-enemy. But if you’re looking at a mud fest for long stretches of any run, well, you’ve accidentally entered an Obstacle Course race, not a trail run. So that particular grip

issue is one of specificity.

What I most like about this shoe is that it is no-frills. No big gimmick shouts at you, ‘pick me, pick me’. Rather it just hums ‘ reliability’.

Maybe that’s why sometimes a shoe like this from The North Face will fly under the radar – because it’s not flashy, rather it is a workhorse that applies to pretty much most trail scenarios.

And what it works hardest at is keeping your foot comfortable. And isn’t that the point, along with performance, which in most situations the shoe also delivers in spades.

All in all, the Cardiac offers perhaps the most versatile comfort for all but the meanest of meaty trails, and even then it’ll handle them, at a slight cost of grip if wet and muddy.

As judged by Bryon Powell’s iRunFar, perhaps the most prolific shoe tester in trail land, “The North Face Ultra Cardiac is the shoe you pack when you only want to take one pair of trail shoes on a carry-on-only airplane trip to locations with moderate terrain.”

I’d adjust that a broader range of underfoot conditions and note that it is an ideal choice for, as its full name suggests, ultra distances, the added chassis (at no extra weight, mind you being a skinny 274g, Men’s Size 9) proving good for the long run.

In a nod to its moniker, this one shoe with a lot of heart: and we suggest it would be a perfect match for most lovers of trail.

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TRAIL SHOES // VIVOBAREFOOT TRAIL FREAK WINTERPROOF

Image: chris ord

take outs VIVOBAREFOOT TRAIL FREAK WINTERPROOF

Great for: winter runs, wet, cold, highly technical terrain, trail feel Not-so-great for: slick rock, mud

Test Conditions: Technical and non technical single track, some fire road, wet, cold nights, and a few milder days

Tester: Chris Ord, Trail Run Mag editor

Tester Mechanics: mid foot striker, tends to more technical style running routes, mostly 1530km range outings.

VITALS

$239.95 /AU Further information at: www.vivobarefoot.com/au

FREAK PERFORMER ‘UNLEASH YOUR FREAK IN ALL CONDITIONS’ GOES THE SELL LINE, AND I’LL BE HONEST, IT HOOKS ME. I LIKE IT WHEN THINGS GET FREAKY ON THE TRAIL. GIVE ME THAT SHOWER, THE PUDDLES AHEAD WHERE YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW DEEP THEY ARE OR WHAT LURKS BENEATH. GIVE ME THE LASHING OUT THERE AT NIGHT, WHEN THE WIND HOWLS HARD ENOUGH THAT YOU CAN HOWL BACK AT FULL MIGHT AND NOT HEAR A THING. CONDITIONS WHERE YOU ARE ARMOURED UP ENOUGH TO GIVE A VENEER OF COMFORT BUT

STILL EXPOSED ENOUGH TO FEEL THE ELEMENTS IN FULL FLIGHT. THAT KIND OF TRAIL RUNNING NOT ONLY GIVES ME A FREAK OUT, IT MAKES ME FALL IN LOVE WITH MY PASSION ALL OVER AGAIN. And so it is with the new Trail Freak Winterproof edition, a shoe that essentially just upgrades the regular Freaks (review in TRM edition #14) by adding a “full HydroGuard lining and bellowed tongue” ostensibly to keep the water out. Well, not in the conditions I was describing, but no matter, they keep your foot drier for the beginning 102

Vivobarefoot Trail Freak Winterproof

of your run, up until the moment you find out what lurks beneath – then it’s all about drainage. But so it is with 100% of shoes on the market unless you happen to be trail running in hip-high trout fishing waders.

The upper is constructed with a HP Mesh and a V-Web that allows for stitchless lateral support. The inner Dri-lex lining has been designed with a lightweight and natural fit.

Constructed with a 3M mesh and a laminated structure the shoe is designed to provide a ‘second-skin’ feel.

So these really just benefit from what the Vivos have always done stupendously

well: zero drop minimalist shoes that grip like Tarzan swinging his way to Jane, are as comfortable as his loincloth (barely there), perhaps a smattering more stylish it must be said, and as breathable as his – and our – jungle domain is beautiful.

This shoe is for climbing, it’s for the wet; it’s for descending and tight cornering; it’s for going fast and light.

The usual caveat applies – these are only for those trained up to minimalist running.

Slip these on as a higher heel-drop runner and you’ll risk at the best sore calves at the worst, serious injury.

If needed, work your way into them by wearing casually every second day for a few weeks. Build up the kilometres slowly. Then tear up the dirt when your strength matches you appetite for destroying the trail (in an environmentally sensitive, metaphorical manner, of course).

clog up a bit (although they also spurn the mud fairly quickly once back on terra firma).

Vivo also touts the reflective printing and yarn in the tight nylon weave giving high visibility in the dark. Good for the headlamp touting runner on your heels, I guess, but given you’re mid bush, it’s a feature that is neither here nor there (unless you get lost and S&R’s torchlights catch reflection of your feet bivving out – then the reflectiveness is a life-saving feature).

The lace system is toggle-style, similar to a Salomon set up but with hardier laces, yet no stash pocket, leaving the toggle a flap fest (I tucked under the laces).

As in past editions, the sole has enough rockplate protection to have you riding the rough stuff without incursion. Overall, a great shoe and if Batman was a trail runner, he’d have them for his darkest of winter night missions.

The 4.5mm aggressive lugs are you primary weapon for the grip-fest. They offer claw-like grip, while also giving terrific trail feedback – a benefit of the lug pattern being regular and repetitive underfoot. These don’t slowly bruise into your foot like some other giant lug monsters do after a time.

The Hydro-Guard lining, apart from keeping feet drier in middling conditions, also keeps your foot warmer in colder conditions.

Essentially their Guard is a version of GoreTex found in other brands, although I found that the Vivos breathed slightly better than an equivalent Gore-Tex lined shoe.

The Winterproof term is a giveaway – these are no summer shoe as your foot will invariably overheat. Another downside, as with all big lug style shoes, is that grip on smooth, wet surfaces diminishes, with less rubber contact than regular grip. So wet, smooth rocks are a problem patch for these and in mud they do 103

REVIEW

TRAIL SHOES // ICEBUG ARDOR OLX

Image: chris ord

take outs ICEBUG ARDOR OLX

Great for: grip, grip, grip and more grip. And comfort. And ice, slush and snow.

Not-so-great for: floorboards at home, wife’s happiness if I transgress that zone in these, road or super firm trail.

Test Conditions: mostly technical trails where grip was a plus, some smoother stuff

Tester: Chris Ord, Trail Run Mag editor Tester Mechanics: mid foot striker, tends to more technical style running routes, mostly 15-30km range outings.

NOTE: the Ardor OLX are a pure import, currently only available internationally, however we wanted to test them to get an idea of what Icebugs are all about. RRP below is indicative of other similar styles suitable for trail. The Zeal OLX are an equivalent studded model available now in Australia.

VITALS

$219.95 /AUD

CATCHING THE BUG DEBATES RAGE AROUND IMMIGRATION ISSUES, BUT HERE’S ONE IMPORT THAT WE RECKON SHOULD BE GIVEN PERMANENT RESIDENCY, EVEN THOUGH THE SUBJECT IN QUESTION IS NOT FLEEING FROM ANY HOMELAND CONFLICT, UNLESS YOU COUNT A BUNCH OF SWEDES CLAMOURING TO PUT THEIR FOOT INTO YOU A THREAT TO LIFE.

brand, stepping its way onto all of the trail, orienteering and obstacle-course racing scenes with a colourful splash.

The premise of the Icebugs and their suitability for trails down under may at first seem an odd pairing: these shoes were created specifically to deal with the icy conditions of Sweden and the Nordic region of Europe. Their pedigree is in keeping people upright on ice.

Literally the sheeny slippery stuff that many Swedes would find themselves running over.

So the biggest wow factor of some (but not all) Icebug models is the fact that they come with carbide spikes. Small, hard as, well, carbide,

You’ve been under a rock (or just out on trail a lot) latterly if you haven’t noticed the rather sudden landing of the Icebug shoe 104

Further information at: icebug-australia.myshopify.com

Icebug Ardor OLX

nails that implant themselves into whatever is underfoot and give you, to quote a famous line delivered by a prostitute who would know, “corners like it’s on rails.”

This model on test is one with the studs: 17 of them in fact. One fling down a favourite downhill nearby home, where twists and turns and a belter rate of descent promises hospital should you lose it, proved these are off-the-scale when it comes to grip.

Other shoes favoured for grip – Peregrines, Cascadias – deliver leading edge stick, but these are like slipping into a superpower for the trail. Just don’t walk in the front door in

them, especially if you have wooden polished floorboards. Unless you’re looking for a divorce, that is.

That’s the only downside – the studs are permanent, so you won’t be wearing these out casually. The upside is that they were actually designed more as an off-trail than on trail racer. That is, for running through the true wilderness, where terrain is changeable in an instant and demands grip on all occasions.

They are a favoured shoe for orienteer runners who are often tracking through virgin bush.

Now, the whole stud thing could be a bit of a stand out at the expense of other important factors in a shoe – comfort, weight, protection.

Not so here. They may be lairy in colourway (well, mine were a bright yellow/green) but they pack some substance in overall performance too.

They are super lightweight for what to the eye is a beefier shoe, meaning they have

The 5mm heel-toe-drop was in my sweetspot, but may deter those after more tradition 1cm+ drops.

The shoe is if anything on the narrower side (typical of Euro-land brands), but will still accommodate most average-sized feet.

There are plenty of models without the studs, to, all from cursory glance sporting high degrees of grip as a nod to their intended design and use. Bes thing is that there is a model for every type of dirty runner: cross country, orienteering, ultra, trail, obstacle course and even models for plain old walking.

The Ardors are only available internationally, owever the Zeal OLX are of a similar ilk.

Don’t be fooled by the flashy tone of the Icebugs, they are performers at heart, mirroring their Swedish heritage in that they are beautiful (if you like bright eyed blondes) but also pragmatic and dependable.

a go-fast feel on the foot. Protection is high end with a thick sole, rubberised toe-box and water resistant upper. There’s no rockplate but no real need with adequate cushioning in the belly. The Swedes have really dialled this thing for performance. The other main selling point is protection from the elements of slop that semi-melted Swedish snow delivers, so many Icebugs feature highline protection from the elements.

But what about sheer comfort? I was pleasantly surprised. The test pair was on the small side for me (US10, I usually take a US11), yet regardless it was sensationally comfortable on first-wear test with a well-balanced ride.

There was enough stiffness in the chassis for the climbs and descents, which also gave good guidance to maximise the tight cornering allowed by the grip. Yet it was also supple enough to give flex-comfort on the straight and narrows.

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TRAIL SHOES // BROOKS CASCADIA 10

Image: chris ord

take outs BROOKS CASCADIA 10

Great for: all variety of trails, especially serious mountain and long runs, grip, comfort Not-so-great for: minimalists, lightweight freaks and short, sharp, speedy runs

Test Conditions: Technical and non technical single track with a smattering of fire road, 94km

Tester: Chris Ord, Trail Run Mag editor

Tester Mechanics: mid foot striker, tends to more technical style running routes, mostly 15-30km range outings.

VITALS

$239.95

aud

Information online at: www.brooksrunning.com.au

CASCADE OF DREAMS IN NIGERIA, A TENTH BIRTHDAY IS CONSIDERED AN EXTREMELY SPECIAL EVENT. IT WARRANTS A HUGE PARTY AND A FEAST OF AN ENTIRE ROASTED COW OR GOAT.

high end and, importantly, all-round performer.

It is perhaps also the only trail shoe that has had the confidence to remain true to itself by hanging on through ten rounds (we know of no other trail shoe that is at iteration number ten!). As noted in past reviews, sometimes that means a shoe becomes mutton dressed up as lamb. Not in this case. Brooks has done the sensible thing and never really waded in with big scale changes, rather it has tinkered, tailored and finessed along the way, meaning the tenth edition is, I believe, the best edition of all to date.

The changes this time around are rooted in a retooling of the outsole and the upper.

Well, bring out the goat! For here’s a tenth birthday worth a herd of them, that of the Brooks Cascadia 10.

Throughout its junior iterations, the Cascadia has always been a solid child of the trail, maturing well with each year. As Brooks found its feet in the trail running world, the Cacadia became stronger, lighter, faster and grippier, but retained the DNA of a consistently 106

Brooks Cascadia 10

Down low, the lugs have been reduced for an ever so refined experience delivering more versatility on different terrains and a more responsive ride.

The Cascadia remains a bit of a bulldozer ride in that it floats over anything you throw at it, with a hefty undercarriage – a 10mm heel-toe drop and thick midsole means it’s no adherent to the minimalist movement.

Regardless, the ride is actually quite nimble on the foot, placing this shoe very much in that sweet spot midrange of shoes suitable for most trail runners, from back of pack to the pointy end. I also place this shoe squarely in the zone for ‘adventure runners’ – those who like to

The Cascadia remains a bit of a bulldozer ride in that it floats over anything you throw at it

run in wild places for the hell of it where the terrain is unknown and you best be prepared for anything and everything.

In general I prefer a 4-6mm drop, yet I still find this shoe an excellent option when I know the terrain is going to get gnarly, the run is going to be longer, and I’m feeling like a bit more protection underfoot.

The upper now features an ever-so slightly asymmetrical design in order to lock down the foot better, continuing with the move to a more self-assured ride. The general fit on the inside is comfortable, with an average size toe box that will accommodate all but the heftiest of widths. The arch has more support for those

that prefer it. I did suffer a slight hot spot on the front ball, but it quickly disappeared with repeated outings.

For me, the Cascadia is all about delivering a ride superior to most, and the 4-point pivot posts in the outer design is the equivalent of a SUV’s independent suspension system. It is based around a decoupled outsole around the four pivots, maximising impact function and adaptability as your foot strikes on uneven terrain. The result is a more stable landing and assured rebound.

The Cascadias have always been excellent on the protection front, a Ballistic Rock Shield protecting from sharp and nasties, while the Brooks BioMoGo DNA cushioning midsole provides plushness without getting sloppy.

If one had to pick and niggle at the Cascadia, its only downfall is a slightly heavier and bulkier mass on the foot, which numbs the agility a smidge for the short, go-fast style of running. This is nothing beyond the pale,

however, and only noted in the context of the current crop of super-lightweight, super-fast models on market these days, mostly aimed at the elite runners, not the Average Joe dirt raker.

In the long and more brutal mountain runs, the Cascadia’s beef and support will actually assist you.

The grip has been toned down some, but seems to have lost none of its bite, rather just extended the shoe’s range of suitable terrains to pretty much anything.

Essentially this is one of the most versatile trail shoes on the market, able to run smoothly over mild trails and dirt paths but also hold its own over super gnarly terrain. Even extending to landscapes a (mountain) goat would love. On that note, maybe we leave off roasting the poor goat to celebrate this tenth edition, and instead just go for a run with it in the mountains in Nigeria (yes, it has some)? Ten is, after all, a special number there and traditions must be upheld in some fashion or other.

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A LONE SNOWGUM, REPUTEDLY MORE THAN 500 YEARS OLD, SITS SENTINEL ON THE FLANKS OF MT STIRLING, IN VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA, SEEN VIA MOUNT BULLER’S ‘RUN BULLER’ COLLECTION OF ROUTES FOR RECREATIONAL TRAIL RUNNERS. SEE RUN.MTBULLER.COM.AU LYNDON MARCEAU WWW.MARCEAUPHOTOGRAPHY.COM

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RACE DIRECTOR TERRY MAJIMAKI TROTS OUT A RECCE RUN FOR HIS FORTHCOMING RICE TERRACE MARATHON, WHICH WILL WEAVE ALONG TRAILS EXPLORING THE HANI RICE TERRACES, IN SOUTHERN YUNNAN PROVINCE, CHINA. WWW.RICETERRACEMARATHON.COM CHRIS ORD

ICONIC HORSESHOE BEND AREA OF THE COLORADO RIVER JUST OUTSIDE OF PAGE, ARIZONA, WITH CLIFFS THAT SIT 1300M ABOVE SEA LEVEL WITH THE RIVER 980M BELOW. SPUTNIK SWASHBUCKLER WWW.SWASHBUCKLERSCLUB.COM

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CHINESE RUNNER, YUN YANQIAO, WORKS HARD UP THE STEPS TO OLYMPIAN ROCK OOKOUT DURING THE NORTH FACE 100, WITH WITH AN OVERALL THIRD PLACE AHEAD OF HIM (9:01).

LYNDON MARCEAU WWW.MARCEAUPHOTOGRAPHY.COM

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A RECCE RUN TO EAST TIMOR UNEARTHED A WEB OF SWEET SINGLETRACK RIPE FOR AN ADVENTURE RUN TOUR OF THIS EXOTIC BUT NEAR NEIGHBOR. TOUR IN JULY 2016. REGISTER YOUR INTEREST VIA WWW.WILDPLANS.COM OR WWW.TOURDETRAILS.COM TEGYN ANGEL WWW.WILDPLANS.COM

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2XU TRAIL ATHLETES JARAD KOHLAR AND KELLIE EMMERSON EXPLORE THE BOULDER-STREWN PLAINS OF MOUNT BUFFALO, NEAR BRIGHT, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA. COURTESY 2XU AUSTRALIA / WWW.2XU.COM

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A SIMPLE 10KM LOOP OF THE ARCHES NATIONAL PARK, UTAH, WENT FROM A BLUE SKY RUN TO AN IMMINENT LIGHTNING STORM IN THE SPACE 30 MINUTES. “MY LEISURELY TROT BACK TO THE CAR TURNED INTO A SOFT SAND TRAIL SPRINT RACE ME AGAINST MOTHER NATURE,” SAYS SPUTNIK. SPUTNIK SWASHBUCKLER WWW.SWASHBUCKLERSCLUB.COM

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COLD AS ICE 120

You know they’re there: those pristine trails.Close.Not far from your doorstep.

You can smell them…

Morialta Falls loop 118

Or maybe that’s just the sweet waft of dirt not-long ground into the lugs of your trail shoes, which sit by the front door — a welcome reminder of the weekend’s mountain jaunt.

But the blood screams for more. The legs are sore, yet they pine for a warm down. A warm up. A flat out blast along some winding, wet, wonderful singletrack. But where to go?

Only got an hour (which you know can stretch to three).

Trail Run Mag has the answer(s). Here. In this guide.

Each edition we’ll bring you step-by-step trail run guides, all within an hour of a major city or town in Australia, New Zealand or Asia, all between 5km and 30km, all worth zipping out to for a trail fix.

We’ve also included some post-trail goodness ‘cause we’re human; we’re caffeine freaks too (strong latte – sometimes double espresso, but only on race days), and we love the smell of fresh eggs and bacon after pounding the paths. Welcome to the goodness guide.

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Delatite Drop

MacKenzie Falls Run

Rimutaka Rail Trail

Win Salomon gear!

We need trail correspondents! If you think there’s a cracking trail the world needs to know about, go research it, write it up, shoot a photo and send it in. We do have a bit of a style going, so be sure to check out the guidelines and download the pro forma before you do at www.trailrunmag.com/contribute If your guide is chosen as the ‘Editor’s Pick’ of the issue, you’ll win some great Salomon Trail Gear. The best guide submitted to be published in Edition #18 (out September 2015) will receive an Agile Set 12 backpack (RRP $139.99), and an XA run cap (RRP$29.99), valued at $159.99. Just for going trail running (with a camera!)?

Yep, that easy!

So go running, get writing and start window shopping at www.salomon.com/au

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IMAGES: Tegyn Angel

3HRS-PLUS

MORIALTA FALLS

Your guide: Sputnik While nearby Waterfall Gulley gets the bulk of the weekend warrior traffic with people trying to make their way to the top of Mt Lofty in record time so they can brag about it on social media, Morialta Conservation Park has managed to stay below the radar. Surprising, considering it’s actually better, prettier and has a wider range of trails to explore. Best run it soon though, and earlier in the day, because thanks in part to the coffee and ice cream van that takes up residence on most weekends these days, it’s slightly less of a secret than it used to be.

RUN IT:

1. There are numerous car parks to choose from depending on how keen you are. Feeling lazy? Drive into the park, up Morialta Falls Rd. But that’d be kind of lame and a bit of a shame as you’d miss the chance to warm up and spot some of the resident koalas. For the purpose of this guide, I’m going to assume you’re an awesome, energetic, koala-lover. So park near the corner of Stradbroke Rd and Seminary Way. 120

Adelaide, South australia, AU

2. There is a well-defined trail heading

south-east on the near side of the creek. It passes right by the public toilets, so that’s your landmark. If you head east and fall into the creek, you’ve gone about 50m too far.

3. Follow the relatively flat, well-groomed

trail along the creek line, past a small bridge on your left, until you get to a short incline that curves right up towards the road way.

4. Rather than hop up to the road, descend the other side and continue to follow the creek line until it meets up with the road a few hundred metres down the trail.

5. There is a well-marked walking trail/path

along the left hand side of the road so follow this up to the end of the road. This is prime Koala spotting territory. If you don’t see one somewhere along this stretch of road you’re simply not looking hard enough and I’ll give you your money back. The end car park is approx. 1.2kms from the start and this is your final chance to use an actual toilet. There’s also a drinking fountain.

6. From the car park follow the main, wide

path for about 50m then cross over the bridge on your left and get ready for a nice steady climb. There are two ways up, but the long way is nicer and more gradual as you take in 300m of elevation over the next 3km of mostly single-ish trail.

7. Once you’ve crossed the bridge there will

only be a few turn off options over the next few kilometres and each time you’re gonna be fanging left.

8. At the 2.3km mark you’ll pop out of the single trail onto a relatively exposed hilltop.

You’re going to be turning right, but take the time to look left and take in a rather nice view of the amazing skyline of Adelaide a mere 12km to the west. If all you can see is a small town with no big buildings in the distance, don’t be confused, that’s it. If it’s a clear day, you can see all the way to the coast.

9. Head east up the hill for 200m until you get to a small, single track turn off on your right and follow the switchbacks up for the next 500m. This single trail will cross a larger, boulder-strewn fire-track-width trail several times. Don’t go on that, stay on the single trail.

10. At the 3km mark make a sharp left and guess what? You’re on a section of the mighty Yurrebilla Trail where, not surprisingly, SA’s famous Yurrebilla Trail 56km Ultra is held each September. (At this intersection you could head right on Yurrebilla and run around the rim of the main escarpment but this run isn’t that, so save that one for another day.)

11. From your sharp left you’ve got 500m and 70m of ascent along some, at times, quite technical single track until you reach a fire 121

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17. Continue 700m ignoring a sharp right.

track. Turn left on the fire track and do a little fist pump because even though you’ve still got 8kms to run, most of it is relatively flat or downhill from here.

This single trail ranges from flat and fun to quite rocky and technical underfoot and at the 9.4km mark you’ll reach a small lookout on your right. This is Kookaburra Lookout and is worth a look.

12. Follow the main fire track, which is

signposted as the Yurrebilla Trail for 1.3kms until you get to a trail intersection with a ‘shoe scrubber’. Yurrebilla heads left down to Fox’s Dam, straight ahead is Chapman’ Track which is a complete and utter bitch to come up and not much better to go down on, so we’re heading right for a kilometre along Moore’s Track. Along the way you’ll pass through a small gate and continue along a dirt road (Moore’s Rd) until you reach a small turn off on your right at the 5.75km mark.

18. Follow the main trail (there is a minor one to the left, take the main one to the right) for 300m, then take a sharp right down to the somewhat underwhelming Giants Cave then descend the stairs to the main pathway which puts you back at ground level. From here it’s about 600m to the right along the main trail to the First Falls which is a nice 30m waterfall, so if you want to add this little out and back you can turn your 11.4km run into 12.6kms.

Otherwise turn left and head for home.

13. Pass through the small gate and follow the Third Falls Track for 2km, past a farm property on your left.

19. Turn left at the bottom of the stairs and follow the wide path back to the main carpark which is about 300m away. Then return the way you came, first along the side of the road, then back onto the creek-side trail at about the 10.7km mark.

14. Along the way you’ll pass two turn offs

on your right (Pylon Track and Twin Creek Track) until you get to another intersection with another ‘shoe scrubber’. You’ll need to concentrate a little here as there are trails going off in pretty much every direction. Take the first right after the foot scrubber, which puts you back onto the Yurrebilla Trail at about the 7.6km mark.

trail tips NAME OF TRAIL: Morialta Falls Loop NEARBY TOWN/CITY: Adelaide, 12km/25 minutes from start.

EXACT LOCATION: Morialta Consevration Park. This run starts from the car park just North of the main entrance so you don’t drive in, you drive past the entrance and run in.

TOTAL ROUTE DISTANCE: 11.4km or 12.6km

TOTAL ASCENT/DESCENT: 385m TIME TO RUN: 1.5 hours TYPE OF TRAIL RUN: Full loop DIFFICULTY: Easy/Moderate DEFINING CHARACTERISTICS: Plenty of singletrack with short bursts of relatively testing technical stretches plus a few fire trails within thick bushland.

FEATURES OF INTEREST:

POST RUN GOODNESS: If the coffee and ice cream van is in the car park do that, otherwise it’s a short drive down Magill Road to St George’s Bakery for a coffee and a donut. Having said that, the city is only about 10 minutes away so you could try any of the cafes on The Parade, Norwood (Cibo is a coffee hot spot but will probably have quite a few lycraclad cyclists there) or go the hog and hit Rundle Street or East Terrace. East Terrace Continental is a fave.

15. Follow the single trail down through the switchback and when you get to a cross section, turn left and go look at the third falls. It’s not exactly Niagara, but you’ve come this far. Turn around and head back down the track for about 500m crossing the creek twice.

16. After crossing the creek you’ll hit a fork

Creeks, waterfalls and a couple of nifty lookout spots. The First Falls diversion near the end is worth it.

Keep an eye out for koalas in the first few kay and kangaroos between Moores Road and rejoining Yurrebilla. If you’re really lucky, you may just spot an echidna. If you’re unlucky, you my spot a brown or red belly black snake, so be careful in Summer.

in the trail. Keep left along the creek line on Yurrebilla until the 8.7km mark when instead of running straight, turn left and use the bridge to cross the creek and waterfall.

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Images: Lyndon Marceau / www.marceauphotography.com

DELATITE DROP

1.5 to 2 hrs

YOUR GUIDE: Chris ORD Running the magnificent Delatite River watershed, runners gather momentum with each passing creek. Crisp, high snowgums give way to mighty mountain ash as you descend from Mt. Buller Alpine Resort village to the bucolic picnic grounds of Mirimbah.

RUN IT:

1. From the village clock, head south 150m

(between Cow Camp Plaza and Kooroora Hotel), dropping onto the even graded gravel of Village Family Trail. Turn east (left) and run for approx. 400m before splitting left onto Gang Gangs, a sublime single track running gentle and fast with custom berms.

2. You will encounter the odd cross-trail

without clear markings, particularly at approx.

1.2km. Keep straight on here, hitting Goal Post Road a few hundred meters along. Over the sealed dead-end road, turn directly right onto the steep berm of Gang Gangs.

3. Roll along this magic trail for another 1km before turning left at a fork onto a short section of the tight-bermed, rocky and steep Split Rock trail that leads to Corn Hill Road.

4. Take Picnic Trail singletrack located over Corn Hill Road, to the left side of the MTB skills park. At the next multiple trail junction (approx. 600m along from Corn Hill Road, which is still on your right), take the left hand trail (a wide, 4WD track leading down): the Delatite River Trail.

5. Dropping steeply at first, the descent steadies off with some sharp turns, loose rock and soaked ground from springs and small creeks. Snowgum forest makes way to massive mountain ash and groves of temperate rainforest.

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Mt Buller, Victoria, AU

6. You will descend for several kilometres, zig-

trail tips

zagging on a few switchbacks, before coming alongside the banks of the Delatite River.

Maintain this close relationship all the way to the finish.

NAME: Delatite Drop NEARBY TOWN/CITY: Mt Buller Alpine Resort on site / Mansfield, 45min drive

7. Several trails merge as you continue to

descend. Box Corner Link heads left at approx.

5km and Plough Shed trail, also to your left, is at approx. 8km. Both trails head back to the Mt. Buller Tourist Road, which is at all times high above on your left shoulder. Stay with the Delatite at all times to lead you home.

EXACT LOCATION: the trailhead leaves from the village proper, starting in the square underneath the town clock. You can park your car behind the main building opposite the Fire Station.

8. You will cross a final log bridge and emerge into Mirimbah Picnic Grounds, where a quick dip in the rushing Delatite is recommended for a bit of cold-water leg therapy.

TOTAL ROUTE DISTANCE: 14km TOTAL ASCENT/DESCENT: 296m / 1203m

NOTE: If you arrive at appropriate timing, the Mirimbah Store (www.mirimbah.com.au) may be open, down the road a few hundred metres on your left. Have a pick-up arranged or time it to meet one of the Buller Shuttles (usually put on for the mountain bikers), which depart from the store.

TIME TO RUN: 1.5 hours-2hours TYPE OF TRAIL RUN: One way with shuttle required

DIFFICULTY: Easy DEFINING CHARACTERISTICS: Long steady descent, mostly wider track, some rocky terrain, flowy running.

POST RUN GOODNESS:

FEATURES OF INTEREST: Big gum

For the re-fuel, it all depends on what time of the year you run up at Mt Buller. A few of the cafes shut the doors over summer â&#x20AC;&#x201C; their quiet season - but the Arlberg (www.arlberg.com.au) is always open for a beer. If its MTB season from November onward, then the Corner Store is a cracker (www.thecornerstoreforrest.com.au). Or, to cater yourself, try the Foodworks supermarket www.reddrop.com.au. Of course, just down off the hill is Mansfield, which is a bit of a hotspot for fine cafĂŠ fare and good coffee, our favourite being The Produce Store (www.theproducestore. com.au) on the main street.

forest, numerous river corssings (bridges), beautiful picnic ground to finish

TRAIL SCORE*: BLUE 4/5 Trail Score is a new trail guide system for rating and comparing trails specifically judged against characteristics relevant to trail runners

RUN MT BULLER

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IMAGES: chris ord

RIMUTAKA RAIL TRAIL

4 hours

Your Guide: Amanda Broughton The Rimutaka Rail Trail was built in 1878 and carried passengers between Upper Hutt and Featherston until 1955. It is now a popular route for runners, cyclists, dog walkers and the wind. You can go for a large group run on this trail because the roads are wide enough for a train to pass through (imagine that!) and at times you’ll feel like one is about to reappear from 1880 and steam straight past you.

RUN IT:

1. The trail starts off on wide forestry roads,

winding through pines then steadily climbs over 10km to the Summit. You will barely notice this hill the gradient is so slight and you’ll be distracted by the views; lush green native bush has reclaimed the rock that was cut through to make way for the railway and covers the trail like a bright green living carpet.

2. At the Summit is a historical site that used

to have a school and a locomotive depot, stop here for a bit of history and a toilet break before heading into the first tunnel.

3. The tunnels are all fairly close together,

the shortest is just under 80m and the longest 584m, which provides great opportunities for yelling ‘Woohoo!’ tripping over, and pretending you’re being chased by the raptors from Jurassic Park.

Rimutaka Ranges, North Island, NZ

intake shaft used to divert the stream remains here. Climb carefully over the rock, you’ll need your ankles for a few more kilometres yet.

TRAIL TIPS

a hillside before beginning a steep descent. The wind can pick up a lot at this point, so hope for a tail wind on your return journey or you will be staggering for 4km up hill with your eyes watering unable to hear a word anyone is saying.

NEARBY TOWN/CITY: Upper Hutt/

5. The trail tapers off here and curves around

NAME: Rimutaka Rail Trail Greytown

EXACT LOCATION: From Wellington, turn right of SH2 9km from Upper Hutt on to Incline Road just after Mangaroa Hill Scenic Reserve. Take a sharp left then a few hundred metres along you’ll come to the car park and toilets.

6. From here you’ll run down to Cross Creek and the rail trail opens out to views over lush farmlands, then a single track will take you through the bush for a couple of kilometres along the flat.

TOTAL ROUTE DISTANCE: 34km Return TOTAL ASCENT/DESCENT: 1,200m

7. Cross Creek Car Park marks the end of the

TIME TO RUN: 4 hours with breaks

trail, stop here for a view of Lake Wairarapa in the distance, take some photos for proof then do it all again in reverse!

TAKE NOTE: There are toilets at the car park at the beginning of the trail and at the Summit. Your guide had a drink from the waterfall that is midway along the trail and lived through it but it is recommended that you take your own water. The long railway tunnels are pitch black and full of potholes and puddles so take a good strong headlamp with you. Many families do this trail on bikes so try not to wipe out any future BMX stars on the downhills.

POST RUN GOODNESS: Carry on north over the ranges to Greytown where you’ll have your pick of several cafes and restaurants. Saluté at 83 Main Street has fantastic tapas and ambitious and delicious pizzas, plus outdoor seating is runner and dog friendly. www.salute.net.nz. A few doors up at 81 Main Street, The French Bakery also gets wraps for coffee and treats..

TYPE OF TRAIL RUN: Out and back DIFFICULTY: Easy

4. Siberia Gully is where the waterfall is. A

DEFINING CHARACTERISTICS: Long

steady easy ascent/descent, mostly wide track, some rocky terrain near the waterfalls

large embankment filled this gully until 1967 when it collapsed in a washout, the concrete

FEATURES OF INTEREST: Waterfalls, several tunnels with great acoustics for making your own train noises.

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IMAGES: Ricoh / Running Quail Productions

MACKENZIE FALLS RUN

1 hour 40 min plus

Grampians, Victoria

/ 50 min plus

Your Guide: Ross Taylor The Grampians National Park rises from the otherwise flat and featureless Wimmera Plain in western Victoria. It is home to some cracking runs through rugged, technical terrain, however, post-bushfire many trails are currently closed. On the less travelled western side of the range, this is a nice but little-known loop that be done on fire trails and single track that takes you past the finest waterfall in western Victoria, MacKenzie Falls. It can be done as either a longer or shorter version (both of which are described).

RUN IT: For the longer version of this run you need to park at the MacKenzie Creek Weir. Coming from Halls Gap, the turn-off for the weir is about five kilometres past Zumsteins. Just before you come out of the national park, you make a right onto the dirt road signposted as Cooinda Burrong Rd. Drive a couple of kilometres down this until you arrive at the weir. Leave your car here.

1. Cross over the bridge. Shortly after you reach an intersection, take the fire trail that goes right (east). This is followed for five to six kilometres all the way to Zumsteins, with MacKenzie Creek just on your right for the last three or four kilometres – look our for roos and wild deer.

2. The next section of the run is a loop, so

you need to make a decision about which way you run – either clockwise or anticlockwise.

It’s described clockwise here, as it makes the climb up the hill a slow and steady pull rather short and sharp. (If you want to do the shorter version of the run, then you can park your car here, following the directions listed below.)

the hillside behind them (in a northeasterly direction), until you reach the crest of the hill. Just back from the crest (about 150m) is a fire trail, turn right on this. The fire trail is followed up the ridge, climbing steadily, in a generally southeasterly direction for the next three or four kilometres, until it reaches a T-intersection with Cranages Rd (not signposted) and the powerline.

TRAIL TIPS NAME: MacKenzie Falls Run, Nearby Town: Halls Gap 25km (20km from Zumsteins)

Exact Location: MacKenzie Creek Weir at the end of Cooinda Burrong Rd (for longer version); or Zumsteins (for shorter version)

4. Turn right onto Cranages Rd and about a 150m up the hill you reach the highest point of the run. Smash down the steep hill on the other side, which quickly leads you into the car park at MacKenzie Falls. At the car park, follow all the tourists right and down the track that leads to the base of MacKenzie Falls. It features a lot of stairs, which can be slippery when wet – so be careful. At the bottom of the falls take a moment to check them out, as they are truly spectacular.

Total Distance: 16.7km / 8.6km Total ascent: 439m / 313m Time to Run: One hour 40 min plus / 50 min plus

Type of trail run: Most of the run follows non-technical fire trails, with a beautiful section of technical single trails between MacKenzie Falls and Zumsteins

5. From the base of the falls, follow the track

downstream, it quickly crosses over the creek after about 150m via a bridge. The next section of the run is the best part, as you enjoy some wonderful sections of single trail all the way downstream to Zumsteins. If it’s hot, you can stop for a swim at Fish Falls.

Difficulty: easy to moderate Defining characteristics: Running through the spray coming off MacKenzie Falls while you smash past tourists will make you feel like a rock star, while running the single trail downstream will be totally absorbing

6. Back at Zumsteins car park, if you left your car here you’re done, but if you left it at the weir retrace your steps back along the fire trail to your car.

Features of interest: MacKenzie Falls

Post run goodness: There are plenty of cafes in the Grampians hub town of Halls Gap. We love the big and fresh lamb or chicken burgers and chips at LiveFast Café, along with their coffee – the best in town.

They are at 5/97 Grampians Road. (03) 53564400 www.livefast.com.au.

3. When you reach the first bridge at Zumsteins (at the western end of the car park), there’s a row of fire-damaged huts just above the creek on your left. Run up 128

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