I recently had a chance to run two different trail races in the space of three weeks. Both races were highly scenic, with challenging courses and excellent race direction. They were also thousands of miles and hemispheres apart, with one race in New Zealand and the other in California.
The Routeburn Classic 38k Adventure Run was held on May 12th, 2007, near Queenstown on the South Island of New Zealand. The Routeburn is one of New Zealand’s most historic routes and is one of only two tracks with World Heritage Walk status (the other being the Milford Track). The course is rugged and isolated, which means limited support and helicopter rescue if something goes awry. This is a very tough trail, with 1500+ meters of climb, over a mountain pass at the beginning of winter.
The race began at O’dark thirty in the rain. We 225 runners lined up, with all our mandatory gear strapped on, in the drizzle. The gun went off and away we went. The race began with 500m on a paved road to allow for some jockeying for position. After that, it was into the rainforest, past occasional views of Milford Valley, to the foot of a fairly large waterfall. By about a mile into the race, I was stripping off clothes and strapping them on to my already overloaded, double bottle, waist pack. I felt pretty good and enjoyed passing plenty of folks. The first water stop was at 12k, and I do mean water stop. This race had nothing but water at the aid stations. Oh well, I had some gels in my pack, so I kept right on going.
The next 12–14k were all climbing, with some very steep grades. All of this was single track, making it a challenge to find spots to pass. My Garmin gave up beeping at me about no satellite signal, so I never knew exactly where I was and how much was left. I was really giving it everything I had and was glad I spent all those early mornings running the hills at El Moro Canyon. By the time I reached the summit of Harris Saddle, the sun was overhead and the views were glorious. Surrounded by mountain peaks with a light dusting of snow, and piercingly blue alpine lakes, I felt like Julie Andrews at the start of the Sound of Music (an older, grubbier, sweatier and tougher Julie Andrews of course).
By this time I had managed to ingest one cold, congealed GU and probably needed to eat more, but I just couldn’t bring myself to even try. The 12k descent was fast and furious. I lost time and was overtaken by others who were much more bold than I going down over rocks and boulders. I amazed myself with the number of instances I narrowly averted twisted ankles, broken shins, jammed fingers and chipped teeth. I didn’t pull out of all my stumbles, but I managed to keep moving without any catastrophic damage. The last water stop came around, so I filled up my two bottles and summoned my last bit of energy. The final 6-8k are fairly flat, on wider trails through rain forest and a series of river crossings on cable bridges. It turns out that if you try to run across a cable bridge, it starts to bounce and sway and actually tries to eject the offending party right off the bridge. That was fun the first time (not), but after that, I slowed down on the bridges and kept a tight grip on the cables. I have to admit, the last 5k seemed endless, but I’m also sure I was in brain fog by then. I finally heard the announcer at the finish line and pulled out the last bit of surge power I had to complete the race in 4:50, 5th in my age group. I immediately found a place to collapse and recover. I felt totally bonked in the best sort of way and was already plotting how I could return to this race in the future and improve my time.
There are definitely cultural differences between New Zealand and the United States. At this race, there were no goody bags at the registration, nothing but water at the aid stations, and the free post race food was a grilled sausage. There were other food items for sale, like soup and juices, but nobody had any oranges, bananas, or sport drinks. The awards ceremony took place that evening at a swanky restaurant in Queenstown, which required a ride up a gondola to reach. The food at the party made up for the dearth at the finish, and I pigged out along with everybody else. The winners were congratulated (2:58 was the winning time) and there was a raffle with some great prizes from local businesses. To cap off my amazing adventure, I won a free jet boat safari – the value of which exceeded the cost of the race entry. Score!
I learned about this fledgling adventure race from Sue at www.amazingrunningtours.com. She had been contacted by Evan, the Race Director, in the hopes of putting together a package tour from the United States. I knew as soon as I heard about it that I wanted to run it because I’ve been to New Zealand before and always have an excellent time. As it turns out, I was the only person to sign up for the race, so it ended up being just Sue and me. We had a great time in New Zealand, going jet boating, 4-wheeling, and ocean cruising in addition to running the race. I highly recommend this trip to anyone up for a mountain trail adventure. A mere three weeks later, I found myself at Fish Camp, near the entrance to Yosemite National Park, competing in the Shadow of the Giants ultra marathon. This was my first foray into distances over a regular marathon. This race was reported to be 33.2 miles, although my Garmin lost signal again, so I can’t confirm the actual distance other than to say it was really long. The Shadow of the Giants is directed by a great guy named Baz. He ’s a long time ultra runner with a cool sense of humor. The support along the way was top notch, with numerous aid stations fully stocked with water, Gatorade, and a variety of food items like pretzels and cookies. The race is almost entirely on fire roads, with a couple of miles of single track. The course winds through second growth forest on National Forest land, with a loop through the Nelchina Grove of Sequoia trees.
The race begins and ends at the Green Meadows Outdoor School with a pretty big hill. I had been advised to start the race by walking and using the initial hill to warm up. I got into chatting with a threesome of runners from Bakersfield. They were all spinning and aerobics instructors. As I warmed up and started speeding up, I bid them farewell and began overtaking others. That always feels great, but it was still the beginning of the race, so I didn’t want to get too cocky. I hung out for a while with a gal from Texas who had not done this race before, although she had done ultras. After a few miles, I wished her well and picked up the pace again. By about this time I was around 6 miles in and realized I was settling into a steady pace. I was also right on the tail of some guy from the LA Leggers. We struck up a conversation and managed to stay together till the end. His name was Howard and he was an environmental attorney from Santa Monica (although he did not know Sheryl Crow). The miles melted away, with repeated up and down hills. I don’t know how much elevation climb there is on this race, but it is well spread out with some steep grades and several flat stretches. I was very comfortable till about the 20-mile mark, when my body began to protest. Nothing too specific, just general complaints like tweaky knees and weak ankles. Howard was also starting to lose a little steam, but somehow we managed to keep pushing onward. On this race, I had sense enough to force myself to keep eating the GU and pretzels, so my energy was holding steady. By this time we had been on the course for almost 6 hours, the sun was blazing down on us and we were pretty much out of current events to talk about. Our running form had degenerated into a sort of shuffle and I’m guessing we were into 10- minute miles. But then we started passing folks who just couldn’t sustain that last little bit. By mutual, unspoken consent, we started picking up the pace. We had reached the final descent, so I’m sure that helped, nevertheless, we stopped shuffling and resumed running. At last we reached the road into the Outdoor School and knew we had made it. Howard finished about 25 seconds in front of me and I crossed the line at 6:47:39 (33/80 overall). We both got 2nd in our age groups – not bad for two people who had never done ultras or this particular race.
The post race food included hot soup, all of the leftovers from the aid station, soft drinks and cold beer. The award ceremony was informal and fun, with plenty of raucous jokes and overall goodwill. Again, a raffle of freebies was conducted, although instead of random drawings, the awards were based on the correct answers to obscure trivia questions. If you ever attend this race, just remember to call out Paul McCartney, Elvis or Marlon Brando and you are sure to win something.
So, which race was tougher? No doubt the Routeburn was the more technically challenging course. The winners of that race are not just fit; they are also agile, bold, risk-takers. Shadow is a more cerebral run, in which you can become one with the giant trees. Ok, so that’s a little hokey, but you get the idea. Shadow has less than half the participants of the Routeburn, so it’s a lot easier to win something. But, Shadow is also full of hills and a lot longer than Routeburn, so it isn’t exactly a walk in the park. Ultimately, I think it is a bit like comparing apples and oranges, so I’ll just say they are both awesome experiences and I highly encourage others to give them a try.