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Published: February 21st 2016
Auckland
From Myers ParkWe're off to New Zealand for Tarawera Ultramarathon! V found out about this race even before the Ultra World Tours was incepted. The race looked homey and went through some gorgeous-looking lush trail. We signed up shortly after for the 2015 event. Unfortunately, we withdrew by October '14 because V's toe was still in bad shape. Fast forward to July '15, we gave another go at our bucket list. Since being the part of Ultra World Tours, it has quickly gained international popularity. Let's see how it is. This will be my first time ever in Oceania, woot woot!
After completing our epic self-supported 57miler on El Camino de Finisterre, we picked up the new training cycle in good shape. We complete the self-prescribed long runs without kinks. But the extreme training run during the holiday season backfired. Back-to-back ultras covering 90 miles over 2 days left us banged up. In this case, more was not better. V's Achilles was flaring and I was developing planter fasciitis. Throughout January, we ran sparingly at best. I'd definitely wished I'd run more. But the best thing I could do was not to make things worse. Throughout the month, I was barely able
to keep the thin thread of run-ability.
It's only Monday: It takes almost an entire day traveling to the other side of the world and so it begun on Monday. It wasn't as horrendous as I was prepared for because the longest leg between LA and Fiji fell on the night time in both places. Warm humid air hit us in Nadi and my body wasn't quite ready for that. Nadi airport is super tiny. Live island band provided entertainment during the long, manual and laid back transit process.
Hump day now: After a long travel and 21hrs of time difference, we found ourselves in Auckland early afternoon. Hot summer day made it hard for me to say no to ice cream near the waterfront. Day is long and we walked from waterfront to the north, through Albert park, to Myers park to the south. Good start of the trip 😊.
Rotorua primer Thursday: At Queen St Starbucks at 6am, one black coffee and another with milk became Americano and flat white. Getting hang of things here. We're headed to Rotorua today with the 8am bus. Scored the front seat and the ride went
smooth to the city center at 12:15pm. First stop was Zippy's Central for smoked salmon salad for me, loaded steak sandwich for V and award-winning flat whites! Off to a good start in Rotorua!
Our lodging was 3km away from the center since all the event-related venues will be there. At 5pm, we joined the Rogain / shake out run at Te Puia. Te Puia is a Maori park with paid entrance. This is a great opportunity to explore the park's geothermal wonders. Through the activity, we got to see the geysers and bubbling mud pool - amazing! And also important; my foot felt fine, winner! It gets better. Luckily, we're here for the weekly Thursday night Market. That'll be the dinner, no question! But it was 7pm by the time we finished the Rogain. It's easy to forget the time when the day is long. We saw on a brochure that the market ends at 8p, oh my! Rushed to the bus station just to find out that the last bus went by before 7p...for real?! Fine, we'll walk it. We should be there ~7:30p, arrrgh. The night market was the size of Sunnyvale farmers market. There were
Te Puia
Rotorua stir fry, paella, pasta, ice cream, crepe stands, you name it, even okonomiyaki. We went for the raved dumplings. Pretty meaty. We topped it off with pork kebabs, coffee and a slice of passion fruit coconut merengue from Mistress of Cakes, yum!
Getting real on Friday: At 8:30am, we joined the welcome ceremony at Te Puia. Very cool. Forecasted rain for the race was starting to show already. Since we had some time until the expo, we walked ~1mile to Ciabatta Bakery. To energize for the long day ahead :p, we picked 4 for the sampler plate, including cronut-like concoction. This place is definitely German influenced. Pretzel w mustard butter was probably my fav because cronut and custard tart were super loaded with sugar. I'm glad V was hungry :p.
We spent solid 4hrs at the expo! 12-4pm, non-stop between race briefing, elite panel and checking in. Good call on skipping the movie showing and head to early dinner. We still had to get dinner from Countdown ~mile out and wind down. We had lots to do still.
Rollercoaster Saturday: 4am alarm. It's a go time. Yep, it's drizzling outside. At 4:45am, we put on
our rain jacket and head over to Holiday Inn, hoping to catch a ride to the start. We were prepared to walk too if the hitchhike didn't pan out. It's definitely eerie to leave getting to the start line to chance. There were handful of people who seemed to be on the same boat. Maybe they were waiting for pre-arranged ride. Maybe not. While runners were spottily coming through the lobby, one group asked if anyone was needing a ride. Yes!! Luck was on our side 😊. Drive seemed much longer than what it looked on the map. In the darkness, walking it would've been difficult for the first-timer for sure. These Aussies saved us, thank you!!
Start area was still drizzling. Coffee van was there. We took refuge under the tree. ~15min to go, packed the rain jacket, put the headlamps on and headed to the start line. With the Maori ceremony, the race started!
Not too pumped. That's perfect. It's hard not to gun it with all the excitement. But I was determined to go real easy. It had been sub-par running this past month and I knew I had to be super conservative. Everybody kept
Te Puia
Rotorua saying that first half is harder. By 40mile marker, it should be runnable even with the rain. The question would be if I will have the leg then.
Right off the bat, trail was a mud fest. Thankfully, it's not the kind that cakes onto my soles but uber watery slippery mess. Any slope was sending our feet backward, forward and sideways. Steeper slopes became bottlenecks quickly. Works for me. At least I was hanging with the bottlenecks Congo line, rather than holding up the line under pressure. 10 miles went rather quickly without pressed effort. The first aid opened up by the lake. I was a also determined to eat throughout. I had the taste of bonding on Tokaido and it's ugly. I loaded up with watermelon, oranges and hot cross buns. V looked good there too 😊. Next section went through more of a similar terrain for 4 more miles. V and I grabbed a quick grub and off we went. The next section was going to be another 10 miler. I had the goal to be semi-fresh after this section because what follows it was supposed to be technical with rocks and roots. I'm going to
need my legs for that.
Sometimes I surprise myself with the patience I never knew I possessed. I kept remembering to run my own race and not to worry about what others are up to. Let them pass me. No problem. I also remembered that it's not how fast you go but it's how little you slow down.
At some point during that 10-mile stretch. I realized V wasn't close by. I hope he's ok. At the aid station, I went to a potty. There was a short line and I was hoping I didn't miss V. I grabbed more fruits and buns. It also heat up quite a bit that I poured water on my buff, a learning from Canada. All filled and ready to go, still no sight of V. I guess I will continue on. Our meeting point was at the finish, on foot or a car.
So this is where the technical part starts for 13 miles or so. Not bad. Actually better. It wasn't muddy. Yeah the route is narrow single track but totally runnable. Rocks and roots weren't there at mile 28 and I felt pretty strong. Good. Keep this up
until mile 37, 60km finish point, and rest will be straight running. I know I'm tired when I start tripping. But none of that so far. Good. Gonna need these legs on the backend. I came this far. Keep it real easy for the next 10miles…
Then it came. So sudden. I didn't wanna accept it. I was just seeing the light out of the doubt from sub-par training. Somewhere short of mile 30, I had to walk. My left foot was painfully tight. Like something was going to snap. My pace dropped so fast until I was slow enough to be walking. I tried to restart but darn arch was just too painful. Damn it! I felt so robbed. One time I had the patience to pace myself right, grrrr!
After hobbling for ~mile, I reached the next aid station. My arch was still the same. I took my shoes off, rolled up a paper towel and put it under the insole to give some arch support. Nothing. Darn it! At least reach 60km finish? That's 7 more miles of walking or 2.5hrs! Really?! ~mile 34, I found V in the slew of runners passing by me.
Te Puia
Rotorua Hey!! So good to see you~~. At least he knows where I was. V also decided to call it at 60km 😞. Here we were, on the other side of the world, hiking the narrow trail weaving through green mosey forest. It was so beautiful and so runnable, killing me with temptation to run. At ~mile 35, it started raining. I put my wind breaker back on. It was the longest 7-mile walk ever. I don't remember much of the last mile. I just remember the divide between 60km finish and 85/100k aid. V and I went to the left side and I said I'm done. Moment of sadness.
I got a medal for 60km. Tim Day, the race director, was welcoming the 60km runners with excitement. Sorry Tim, I couldn't do it 😞. It was dumping by then, snapping us right back to reality. We need to get to the 100km finish where our checked bags were. The event protocol was to hitch hike. Only in NZ. Ok, I guess we'll have to hover around the parking lot. Shortly after, we saw a sign saying "need ride to Kawarau" with a chair setup. That's us!! Drenched and getting
cold but we had to stay put there under the rain 😞. Nobody seemed to know what we were waiting there or what the sign meant. I don’t blame them…I wouldn't either. It continue to rain harder but I didn't have the will to pull out my rain jacket. I just wanted to get out of there. We had to solicit hard, ask and explain every single group that was passing by. Nope, nobody was going to the finish. Going home in this weather right? I hear ya. Finally, an Aussie (again!) group initially said no realized that they were headed there!! Ok! Woop woop!! I'm going to strip this wet wind breaker off and put on my dry rain jacket when we get on a car! A car...? We walked and walked in rain. Where is the parking lot? There is none. Cars were parked along the road in single file. Uy. Unless he was the first ones in, the car was like 100 cars deep. The driver might as well ran if he had to walk this much back and forth, now in pouring rain.
The road to Kawerau was also part of the course. From the
comfortable backseat of a car, I saw many coned sections and lonely runners braving the pouring rain. Man, I don't feel so bad missing this: cold, wet and lonely run along the cars. Finish area was a puddle fest! Hot food for sale? No thank you, just get us outta here! We changed and got on the return bus. Totally drained. It had been long a long day. By the time we got dropped off at Holiday Inn, we were NOT going to walk 2km to the store for food. We paid the resort premium to get whatever their restaurant had. I didn't care.
In hindsight, I'm not so sad about stopping at 60km. I was definitely not going to risk serious injury and the rest of NZ discovery. Forget it, especially for the wet and cold unscenic run. Don't judge; I'll take it as a blessing in disguise. There'll be a better time to take on a 100km. The race itself was well-organized. I felt like the race was in keeping with its instant growth while keeping the approachable feel. I don't know how feasible the hitchhiking thing will hold up in future. While that may be the
Te Puia
Rotorua norm for the travel through NZ, participants are increasingly out-of-towners. Those who are in need of ride know to hitch a ride but the supporters don't necessarily know about them. Especially for the out-of-towners, picking up random people just won't occur to them. In any case, the event is definitely in good hands of the organizers for sure - hands on and meticulous 😊.
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