Tarawera Ultra - March 2013

Finally catching up on a few posts from earlier in the year.

The endless hot, dry summer had to take its toll eventually as the Tarawera Ultra course was changed to avoid the Tarawera Forest due to fire risk.  This meant the course was an out and back rather

than a point to point race.

For me, it didn’t really matter, but I pitied the 100km runners that needed to climb back up the hill out of Okataina on the way to Okareka.

I love starting races before dawn.  It’s the chill in the air, the lights from the headlamps, the mist of hundreds of panting runners as they head up the hill, coupled with the excitement that precedes any race.  It’s great.

As we climbed out of the Redwoods Forest up into the hills, you looked back towards Rotorua with the lights of the city sparkling in the early morning and the sky just starting to change to early light.   This first section was my favourite, as the run traversed around the beautiful Blue Lake (Tikitapu), where I used to enjoy swimming in the cold water as a child.  

You are soon upon another lake, Lake Okareka with a fun and well stocked aid station.  And then the hills begin.  They don’t look that big on the elevation map, but the climb for the next 10km or so was pretty solid.  Nothing much to see in this section either and by this stage the field is well spread out and I found myself running alone for long periods.  I met two guys pausing by the side of the track and asked how they were.  Buggered was the answer.  It was tougher than expected and they planned for a graceful and worthy exit at Okataina.  

The hill down to Okataina, like all long descents, is both a relief and a burden.  You are not battling gravity, but you are battling tired quads.  The Okataina Lodge aid station would double as the finish line for the 60km and 85km races this year, so there was a lot going on.  Pizzas seemed like the sensible thing to eat, as I soaked up the atmosphere.  I chatted with some people, caught up with Mr Kugs, basically had to remind myself that I was still in a race and it wasn’t over yet.

I had done the next section to Humphries Bay before in the Big O race.  It is another stunning section, with the trail going through native forest around Lake Okataina.  Although I had done it before, I forgot just how hard this part is.  Short steep hills, followed by short steep descents, repeated dozens of times.  There are few sections that you can just settle into a rhythm.  And, just to make things more interesting, the out and back meant you had runners coming back towards you on a narrow track.  

Actually, that makes me sound faster than I was.  I experienced the top runners coming back towards me before I reached Okataina, as a flying Sage Canady, Tim Olson and other winged gods were surging up the hill on the way back to Okareka in the 100km race.

Shortly after I hit the section around Lake Okataina, I was wavering on my tentative decision to run the 85km.  Someone said to me before the race that you absolutely had to commit to the longer distance, as there would be many times you would question it during the day.  They were absolutely right, as my will to put myself through another 3-4 hours began to dissolve on this section to Humphries Bay.  That would be my turn around point as I headed back to Okataina Lodge.

The last 10km or so is always hard, but this just seemed really hard.  I hate stopping, but there were more than one or two times I found myself at the side of the track, hands on knees, trying to regain my composure.

Then, after what seems like hours, I re-emerged out of the bush into the clearing, down to the beach and up to the finish.  This was a hard race.

Someone said that there was more vertical than the Kepler.  It looks like that’s right.  My whizzy watch said 1758m of vertical for 60km on the Tarawera and Kepler says 1350m for the same distance.  And my time was almost exactly the same.  9hrs 49 mins for Tarawera, only 7 mins faster than for Kepler.  

I enjoyed the race.  It was well organised and went smoothly and congratulations to Paul Charteris the race director.  The seminar the day before the race was fun and informative.  The event didn’t quite have the same buzz or scenery as Kepler, but the experience of running around the lakes and through the forests was pretty stunning.