Annual "Kelly's Canter" Run Palmerston 16th October 2011

The annual "Kelly's Canter" in Palmerston today up and down the town's steep little hill, 1st Local and 6th overall, a good lung burner

Race 6 Winter kayak Series - 18th September 2011

Race 6 was a 22km paddle from Vaxuhall Yacht Club down the harbour to Goat Island at Port Chalmers and return. The race was operated on a handicap start system, I had a 30minute delay on the first paddlers and would have ot work hard if i was to catch these paddlers. The paddle down was not too taxing as there was an outgoing tide so the flow in the channel was good, apart form one little shortcut across the shallows that involved about a 50m portage in ankle deep water things were good. After heading around the island it was a good grind back up the harbour just sticking to the edge of the channel. After about 90minutes of paddling my body was feeling pretty taxed. So just over 2 hours of paddling i was at the finish line and pretty well exhausted.

Dunedin Marathon Sunday 11th September 2011

After a very early start to a Sunday morning 5.15am!!! after watching some exciting Rugby World Cup games on Saturday I was up and getting all fed and ready for the Dunedin Marathon. This was to be Marathon #7 - I don't quite know why I go back for more with these but it is always a good challenge for the body. I think after each one prior to this I have said no more of these pavement bashers i'll stick to multisport as I have usually suffered a bit in the final kms of previous Marathons.

Today's Marathon I had taken on some words of wisdom I have received from some seasoned older Marathon runners. It is a 32km warm up for a 10km run effort of all you have after this! I started with this in mind and my plan for the race was to run at a comfortable pace for the first 30km and see how things felt from there and then give what I had left from there. With some careful pacing at the start and not taking off and chasing too many at the start knowing that I would pass some of them doing the mighty marathon shuffle in the later stages of the 42km run.

I passed the half way mark in 1hr 40min and was feeling fine, and this carried on for the next 10-12km. From about 34 km things started to feel a bit heavier and harder to keep up the same pace i had held earlier, but no signs of any cramping at all. I had ensured that I kept hydrated and fueled up with regular Leppin shots, a Banana and a bar at the 25km mark. So nearing the end I caught a few who had taken off earlier, I gave all I had to the last kms of the race and finished up in a time of 3hrs40min not my fastest time ever but very happy with this, I felt completely exhausted at the end but not totally destroyed from head to to like in previous Marathons.

So all up a great run.3hrs40min26sec, 23rd Open Man and 65th from 221 runners. more pics and full results available at www.moromarathon.co.nz

Dunedin Winter Kayak Series - Race 5 Henley 21st August 2011

Race 5 of the winter Kayak series was on this morning out at Henley., It was about a 12km course up the Taieri river and back. A strong wind made it hard paddling into it. There was only about 10 hardy souls at this race today due to a postponement from last weekend. I had a good solid hit out and headed off at a pretty fast pace from the start but maybe a little too fast as I was caught by 4 chasing paddlers and passed just before the turn around and settled into a more manageable pace to end up finishing 5th fastest for the race in 1hr24min. The Kayak races are always a good hit out and gauranteed way to destroy the upper body muscles for the rest of the day.

Race 3 Dunedin Tri Club Winter Series - Sunday 31st July 2011

This race was out at Henley. The morning was a super duper frost and the course of 5km Kayak/20km Cycle/5km Run had to be changed to a slightly shorter cycle consisting of out and back laps of about a 3km loop – the planned course of riding over the Henley Bridge was changed due to the bridge being covered in Ice and Frost. The Kayak started off well where I was charging hard from the start early on Matty Graham and myself led out and made a good mark on the rest of the field trailing, close behind us was a couple of other paddlers. I worked hard through the paddle to hang onto Matty in his K1, we exited the paddle together and onto the bike together. It wasn’t long before Matty’s stronger legs opened up a wee lead on the bike, I was hammering hard on all laps of the cycle, it was pretty painful working at a very high intensity and seeing the gap between the leader and your self and the chasers. I finished the bike feeling pretty good other than having frozen feet and hands!! It must have only been a few degrees out there. Onto the run I started with a guy who had just caught me at the end of the bike, the 5km run was all flat and pretty fast, I ran hard but didn’t quite have the legs to stick with the other guy and ended up finishing in 3^rd place which I was pretty happy with. My finish time of 1hr12min40sec was just over 1min off the winning time of Matty G.
link to the results here RACE 3 RESULTS

Mountain Biking Otago - Winter Race 3 Forrester Park - Sunday 17th July

I enjoy getting out on the single track trails on the MTB but have never done a whole heap of racing of this type - These races held by the MTB club are a short fast format. The Race on Sunday was laps, each lap taking around 10minutes and the race was to complete as may laps in the 40minute time frame. You could start your final lap as long as the time was under 40min before starting it. I had a real blast here, As the race was such a short blast compared to what I am usually used to it was always going to be intense. Right from the start the pace was fast and the first lap is always full of a few surprise misses as you zoom around at full speed learning where the tight corners, bumps and bits in the track are. My lungs were screaming for the duration of the race and there was a very strong taste of Lactic Acid in my mouth for the duration. Each lap got a bit easier with knowing what was coming up but the pinch in the legs and the lungs made you work!. I managed to complete 4 laps ranging in time between 9:46 and 11:00minutes in 43:09 minutes, my fastest lap was Lap 2. I was place 15th in the expert men from a field of 25 Expert open riders.

Dunedin Winter Kayak Series - Race 2 - Careys Bay - 5th June 2011

Race 2 of the kayak Winter Series was Held at Careys Bay in Sunday 5th June, It was raced over a course of about 8km, this was slightly shorter than the planned course of 12km, due to strong winds on the Harbour. I had a great paddle, as always working super hard to hang close with the K1 and surf club paddlers who are fine tuned paddlers. I hung in pretty well over the course of the race to finish 7th High Performance Man and 8th fastest time overall from the 24 paddlers there on the day. My finish time of 43:40 was just over 4min down on the winning time of 39:10. All up a great race.

Dunedin Winter Kayak Series 2011 Race 1 - 14th May 2011

Well After having this race postponed from last weekend due to rough conditions on the Harbour it was perfectly flat conditions for thsi race on Sat 14th May. (I would have been quite happy racing in last weekends wind and chop, this slows up the K1 paddlers and sorts things out a bit!) The Race was 10km and Doubled as the Otago 10km Champs. It consisted of three laps in the harbour Basin followed by the last leg down to finish at the Vaxuhall Yach Club. With just under 40 boats there were 3 categories - Recreational, Competitive, and High Performance. I entered into High Performance which is basically K1 race boats, Racing Ski's and Top End Multisport Boats. My Trusty JKK UFO slips through the water nicely but there is certainly some hard work needed to stick with the K1 Boats and some very sharp surf club paddlers.

There were a lot of boats similar to mine that were racing competitive instead of HP category so it was up to me and a couple of other
Multisport paddlers to give this category a good nudge. The distance was short enough to hammer things from start to finish. I went out hard form the start sticking with a bunch for as long as it all held together and then it was just a matter of working hard and maintaining a high cadence and ripping the blades through the water until the end!! I finished up catching all of the rec grade and many of the competitive grade as it was a delayed start between grades. My final time was 53min40sec which i think ended up 9th fastest time across all paddlers. A solid start to the series. The next race is in 3 weeks down at Careys Bay, so hoping for a bit of a chop and breeze to whizz things up a bit!

Click here to see more pics from this race

Naseby 12hr MTB Race - 2nd April 2011

Well after missing out on getting an entry in for the Naseby 12hr MTB race in time (It sold out in 30 hours this year) I was destined to miss the race for a second time in a row (last year the team i was planned with all came down with the flu). Anyway this year I was asked ot help out a friend of the Boss at work on the Wednesday prior to the race. We were a team of 4 so it mean that we would ride one lap flat out and ten have about 90-120minutes rest before the next lap. I rode the first lap of the day which involved a mad sprint through the camp to our bikes and then some all out balsting to jostle into position on the singel tracks around the Naseby Forest. My first lap I came in just under 32 minutes. A bit of a rest to soak up the atmosphere and catch up chatting with others around the campsitebefore my following laps throughout the day. I rode 35min, 34min and then my fatal final lap of the day was a 37minute on which was to be my last one, a Nasty superman style crash on a bit of a drop off sore me puncture a Nasty hole in my shin below the knee and mash up my knee a bit (still nursing a big nasty bump and wount a week and a half later).

The Red Cross Staff working at the event cleaned it out for me a bit and reccomended a stitch or two at Ranfurly or a check up te following day - I opted to just get it cleaned up and make my way to the doctor in town the next day. As the Red Cross person was cleaning it out I asked if the bit I could still see in there was a stone or pebble still in the wound - Their reply "No that is yuor Shin bone!" Ouch, a few pain killers and Off home after the end of the evening. A fantastic event with a huge number of people all there for a good time and to ride some great trails. Leg is on the mend now despite still being a bit stff around the knee, I'll bounce back easily enough!

Heat, Hills and Hammering! R&R Sport Otago Peninsula Challenge - Sunday 6th February 2011

Photo of me heading up the Karetai Track for the first hill climb.

Well the annual Peninsula Challenge MTB race has been for this year and what a day Dunedin turned on! This was my 4th year racing in this event, an outstanding course that challenges everyone with the grunty climbs and rewards all with some super terrain and views from the tops of the climbs. This year it started out as a very warm morning and was around 24 degrees at about 8.30am! so by the time the race started at 10am it was really starting to cook up. The race starts off with a quick spin around a paddock before getting into the first climb to the top of the Karetai track and road. I took off at the start to ensure i was in a good place with out too much congestion for this hill climb. By the time i was nearing the top of this i was starting to wonder how the body was going to hang on for the remaining course fo 43km in the heat. Anyway a careful descent down the buskin track avoiding any crashes and it was into another climb back up, the race continues with climbs and descents all the way out to Tairoa Heads. It was on one of the hill climbs mid race another rider told me the temperature was 38 degrees!! this explained a lot about the way i was feeling - pretty cooked and heat blown. Anyway I kept on pedaling hard and made the most of the flat sections to spin out hard and the downs to take rest from the taxing up hill stages. I reached the end at Tairoa Heads in 3hours13minutes - around 45minutes slower than my best time for the same course. I finished 18th open man and 33rd from a field of around 200 riders.

A fantastic event the has grown in popularity - a good challenge and one to put on the list of events for the year, If you haven’t done this one it is definitely worth a look if you are up for the challenge of it.

Lake Wanaka Half Ironman 16th Jan 2011

Well the Lake Wanaka half has well been and gone. We went up to Wanaka for a few days around this race to soak up the atmosphere and have a good break in Wanaka. We were lucky to strike some good weather so managed to squeeze in a couple of missions on the MTB while we were up there too.
I swam the swim course on the Wednesday before Saturdays Race. There were about 250 swimmers there to splash around the course. It was good to get out and have a swim in nice clear waters> I am not a super fast swimmer but am strong enough to hold things together ok. I knocked the 1.9km swim out in 36min which I was happy with.
Anyway race day was Saturday and through the night prior the NW wind really started to pump things up. The Lake Wanaka Half Ironman race started at 7.30 for individuals, we had a deep water start and were all off for the swim leg in a bit of a choppy lake – this didn’t bother me the, the rough chop keeps you working hard and makes for a good challenge. I exited the swim into T1 in 39min, a quick transition with bike gear and I was off for the 90km ride on my Giant Trinity bike – A good set up on the bike made for a good comfy ride into and with the winds that were pumping around. The first part of the ride was settling into a good rhythm, a bit of a grind out to Hawea into a head wind was then rewarded with some super quick spinning for about 20km or so down to Luggate, A great feeling when you are cranking along in top gear and spinning it out like you are in a low gear. From the 70km mark at Luggate it was a grind back up towards Wanaka before a quick blast back down to the end of the bike stage, I had a good ride taking about 10minutes off last years time here and coming in at 2hr58 for the bike.
From the bike it was through transition and onto the 21km run. I enjoy ed the course that followed the lake side around and then down the outlet track to Albert town before returning via a few streets/roads to Wanaka and the finish. My build up of running training for this race was a little low due to a bout of the flu and sinus infection over the Christmas break, however that is no excuse really for too much. The run got a bit tough feeling from about the 14-15km mark and I went from running my ideal 5min kms to a slower pace and came in off the run to the finish in a slower than desired run time of 2hours.
All up I finished in 5hr49min feeling pretty well spent but satisfied with the efforts I made– 7minutesd down of my previous effort in this race. Perhaps time lost on the run was my downfall. All in all a great race and a great atmosphere. It is always a highlight seeing all those competitors in the full distance course doing it tough and coming in later into the night down town in Wanaka. A crack at the full distance still rattles through my mind?? Maybe? One to think about over the next while…