The Bears Went Over The Mountain, To See What They Could See!

Guest blog post by Claire Scofield

Claire: Queen of the Mountain!

Hello everyone. Claire here, Brenda thought it would be a nice idea to pop in and say hello “Hello!”, and do a write up of one of our latest adventures… the Cairnmuir Track which goes over the hill from Clyde to Bannockburn (18 Jan 2014).

First I thought I would write a little something to say how lucky I feel to have a friend like Brenda who is willing to do something epic like this to help raise funds for Cystic Fibrosis research, not only this, but including me in her training has given me the inspiration to try to run again. It has been a long time since I have been able to run any great distance due to a considerable drop in my lung function over the last 7 years. Seeing Brenda’s motivation to do an event as tough as this has pushed me to get out there in the beautiful place we live in and run again, even if only a few km at a time! I would like to thank her for being the motivation to get my lung function from 44% up to 51% which it is today, and hopefully even higher while travelling and training with her on this journey.

Back to the Cairnmuir track, as a one way trail of 25.5km we had to sort out logistics first, after a wee bit of wracking my brain in true blonde style, we worked out that we would leave a car at the Bannockburn end of the track and I would pick Brenda up from there and drive back to the Clyde end where we would start the walk. After sorting out snacks and water, and sunscreen – learning from experience from last time- we set off on our way.

7.45am, Ready to go!

The track starts as an unsealed road and becomes a well formed walking and mountain biking track that is a continual uphill grind for about 13km with some absolutely stunning views, taking a few minutes to have a break for the lungs every once and a while, or a picture for the collection. It started off as a relatively cool morning (still waiting for summer to arrive) but the weather man told us it would get to 29 degrees, he lied. Up the tops of the track it was windy and bitterly cold, Brenda handled this incredibly well and I was almost at the “crawl into a ball and cry” point, but by this stage of the track there is no turning back, so on we went. Reaching the highest point was unfortunately a bit of an anticlimax for me, but as Brenda joked, did I expect a sign saying “congratulations you made it to the top”, well yes, that would have been nice actually thank you!

On top of Cairnmuir Hill

From this point on it was pretty much all downhill and we stopped at the historic hut for a break from the wind and a bite to eat. From here there was a fork in the road, where it was either up and over, or around. I chose around, and Brenda trooped up and over for some extra hill training. We met up again about 15 minutes later. From here the rest of the track was flat and downhill and the wind eased and we were smiling again.

Reaching the car was a great moment, the feet and legs were starting to ache and we were both keen for something to eat and drink, so off to the Bannockburn pub we went for some excellent post training nutrition of chips and beer.

When Preparing For a Mountain Race: Run In a Mountain Race!

The Camelbak Big Easy: New Zealand’s Highest Mountain Marathon!

For my first ever mountain race I chose the 30km “soft option” for this event. Even though there was 13km less than what the full marathoner’s had to run, there was NOTHING soft about it!

At 4.30am on Saturday (25th January) morning my alarm went off. I had to make sure I had everything prepared properly from the night before and be ready to leave Cromwell by 5am. Camelbak bladder filled, check. Bumper Bars and gummy worm lollies packed, check. Clothes and jandals for after the race, check. Seam sealed jacket stuffed into pack, check. Brand new Icebreaker thermal on, check. Shoes…. shoes…. where are my shoes!?…. oh…. they’re on my feet already check. Did I sleep in them last night?
Being up before the sun does strange things to one’s mind.

We were to meet at the Albert Town Tavern to catch a bus at 6am that would take us up the Cardrona Valley between Queenstown and Wanaka to Snow Farm Lodge. Once we had zig-zagged our way up to Snow Farm, it was our last toilet stop before getting down off the mountain, and it seemed everybody needed to go. Because all the normal people had been hydrating themselves on the bus trip. I suddenly felt very amateurish. Being amongst all these fine tuned running machines who had all willingly paid to run up and down a mountain and were all enthusiastically discussing past Big Easy’s, what did I know about running in a mountain race? I wasn’t nervous but I did feel slightly worried.

None of this was helped by the fact that it was freezing outside at 1500m above sea level! The Thursday before, the event organisers were up on the Pisa Mountain Range marking out the track… in fresh snow! I’m not the biggest fan of running in cold air. It hurts my lungs!

After everyone had been to the loo (one or three times) we were set to head off on the bus to the start line some 4km from Snow Farm Lodge.
7:57am we had a quick race briefing, and then 8am we were sent on our way.

I set out to run my own race. I fumbled around with freezing hands to get my MapMyFitness app going, started some music on my iPod, and just plodded along at an easy pace as we zig-zagged our way up the mountain along an access track. I had a goal in mind, to run the 30km in 3.5 to 4hours allowing for the 800m vertical we had to cover in the first 10km, leaving over 2000m descent over what I had hoped was the remaining 20km.
This wasn’t really the case. As we got to the top of Mt Pisa, the views were stunning, and the track was undulating. There were bits of downhill that were quite technical, a bit of careful foot placement required which made it interesting and I was starting to enjoy it, but then you’d round a corner and be climbing again. I learned one thing: I’m not quite strong enough for uphill running. I just power walked the bits I couldn’t run. It was a bit windy up on top of the mountain, and although the views were stunning like I said, the lighting was terrible for taking photos.

Walk to the start; pockets of snow; my number; from the summit of Mt Pisa

My trusty MapMyFitness app spoke out every kilometre I completed. I like to know how far I’ve come and calculate how far I have left to go. But I got strange looks from other runners as I begged the app to shut up. I was sure everyone else didn’t want to know how well I wasn’t doing.

At the 20km mark there was a water station and it felt like we were finally on the descent off the mountain yet we were still a loooooong way up. It was going to be a steep decent! Which is was. Leg shredding, toenail blackening, almost soul destroying stuff. Big Easy…. cough cough. Maybe it was because I was only mentally prepared to run 30km because that was all I had decided to do, but when the ground finally seemed to level off, the last 2km to the Lake McKay Station wool shed (my finishing point) felt like the longest 2km of the entire race. My feet hated me, my legs hated me, my brand new Icebreaker thermal now seemed like a stupid idea. For all the full marathon runners, I have a huge respect for you. To keep going another 13km along the Clutha River Track after that monstrosity of a downhill run, you must be made of concrete.

Extremely happy to be finished.

My parents and younger brother were waiting for me as I walked up the last little rise and barely ran over the finish line. Official results haven’t been posted yet but MapMyFitness says:

Camelbak Big Easy Mountain Marathon (30km)

Under 3.5hours! Boom!

My 92 year old grandmother had also been brought along to see me finish and when we walked through Wanaka for some lunch, as I hobbled along beside her I leaned over and said “Granny! You’re walking better than I am!”

Camelbak Big Easy. Am I planning to do it again? You bet I am!

Until next time, thanks for reading!

Feel the BURN

New Year’s Resolution: Train Harder!

To kick things off Claire and I went for a walk around Dispute and Moke Lakes just outside of Queenstown. It was an absolutely stunning day, if only we had remembered to bring the sunblock!

Moke and Dispute Lakes, Queenstown

It was quite a steep hike up over a small saddle. Thankfully that part was through a bit of beech forest. Once over the saddle the valley opened up and we could see Dispute Lake. We walked along the track beside the lake, even had a little jog, then looked up and saw that we had another saddle to climb over. Well no time like the present, Claire let me run on ahead and attempt to do a bit of uphill training. It wasn’t a great distance but the incline was brutal. I got about half way up before my lungs and legs were burning and I needed to stop for a minute to catch my breath. Then I ran up the rest of the way up. Oh what a shock to the body that was.

It was a long walk down alongside Closeburn Station to Moke Lake. Another quick go at running around Moke Lake. Another reminder that we should have remembered the sunblock.

We looped back around the U shaped lake and got back onto the track to Lake Dispute and the road. In all we estimated our walk/run to be about 21 to 24km long in about 4 1/2 hours. I wish I had remembered to track it on MapMyFitness.

A really good effort though my feet were hating me for it near the end, as were my poor sunburnt shoulders.

Until next time, thanks for reading!

Abel Tasman Coast Track

Onetahuti Beach

You could almost be forgiven for thinking that I was on some tropical paradise island.

For New Years, Claire and I walked 36km of the stunning Abel Tasman Coast Track over 3 days, definitely a New Years to remember.

It was quite a mission to get there, I had to drive nearly the length of the South Island, picking Claire up in Christchurch and meeting up with her sister Aimee at Hanmer Springs. We stayed the night at Hanmer Springs, going for a nice soak in the hot pools, before heading up to Marahau at the start of the track. Claire and I set out mid morning on December 31st for Anchorage (12.4km). It took us just over 4 hours to get there, we were treated to some stunning views of the coast. After a quick lunch we put up our tents and then lay on the beach in the sunshine. Being New Years Eve, the beach was pretty busy with people who had either walked into Anchorage, kayaked in with a tour group, or had taken the water taxi. At midnight everyone sat on the beach and watched an amazing fireworks display. An awesome way to bring in the new year!

Day two (New Years Day) started out very slow. About 5am it started raining and it didn’t stop until 11am. Everybody at the campsite was getting packed up, ready to catch the water taxi. Claire and I packed up our wet tents and headed out for Torrent Bay. There is a tidal crossing from Anchorage to Torrent Bay which could have saved us an hour of walking, but the time to cross was 2 hours either side of low tide, which wasn’t until 4pm and we were looking at a good day of walking to get to Onetahuti. The rain came and went during our hike over the all-tide track into Torrent Bay where there was another campsite and we stopped to have some lunch on the beach. While we were sitting there waiting for water to boil we could see people making their way over the Torrent Bay estuary, and by the time we had had our fill, they had made their way across the wet sand.  Perhaps we could have waited to cross the estuary at low tide. I was looking at the people who had waited to walk across in their bare feet through muddy puddles. My feet were already starting to protest a little by now, having softened skin from walking across the estuary would have been a recipe for blisters and disaster.

Leaving Torrent Bay we climbed up and over and around some valleys, crossing over Falls River by a swing bridge, before arriving at Bark Bay. Oh how the feet were complaining now! Blisters had started forming on the tips of my toes (thank goodness the shoes I was wearing were ones I wear every day at work, my feet were reasonably well adjusted) so it was time to stop and do some blister control. The added 15 odd kilograms I was carrying around on my back weighed down on my feet and they throbbed with each step. It was nice to rest them for a minute.

From Bark Bay it was back into the bush and then a very long and steep climb up to a saddle. At a guess we managed to get about half way up before needing a rest. I had to hold onto my mantra “one foot in front of the other climbs you a mountain” and just focused on where I was putting each foot rather than how much further we had to go. Claire attacked this vertical challenge like a boss and after another couple of rest stops we made it to the top. Now we had to walk all the way back down to sea level, just as challenging as the uphill.

Onetahuti. A sight for sore eyes after a total of 17.8km of walking challenging terrain. The view was blissful. Golden sandy beach and blue water beckoning us. First things first, off with the pack and shoes to soak the feet in the ocean. Set up camp, and then we proceeded to eat as much food as we could, leaving just enough for breakfast and lunch the next day. I was absolutely buggered. After a couple of card games and with a full belly, I went to bed at 8.30pm, looking forward to getting warm and cozy in my sleeping bag.

Day three (January 2nd). Last league of the trip to Awaroa. We got packed up and moving reasonably early in case there was a tidal crossing we would have to navigate. Thankfully a board walk had been constructed very recently over the swamp to provide another all-tide crossing. At Awaroa (5.3km) we caught the 12noon water taxi back to Marahau.

Highlights from Abel Tasman

In all, 35.5km of the Abel Tasman’s 48km done! I was looking forward to a hot shower.

Until next time, thanks for reading!

Up and Down the Nevis Road

Up and up and up! Time to start running up hills!

I found a perfect road to go running up too. The Nevis Road starts a few kilometres out of Bannockburn and winds its way up over Duffers Saddle, New Zealands highest public road at 1300m, then down into a valley following the Nevis River and ending just north of the small township of Garston 70km away. From the Bannockburn end, the first 4 or so kilometres is a perfectly runnable ascent before it starts getting quite grunty, a great start to hill training for a mountain race.

 

I have run up a few times over the past couple of weeks, walking up another 4km beyond my capability, to be rewarded with the most stunning views of the Cromwell Basin. In the hot weather we had been having, getting up to that altitude, it’s like a whole other kind of air up there!

Photo bombed by some sheep!

And then I ran up the Nevis Road one drizzly afternoon, a perfect opportunity to try out my new Marmot Precip jacket. A seam taped jacket is an equipment requirement for the Northburn events and this one gets a thumbs up! It was comfortable to wear even under my Camelbak, it kept me dry without making me too hot, nor letting me get too cold when the wind picked up. Though I can’t say that it makes running in the rain more enjoyable than positively icky.

 

Merry Christmas to you all and see you in the New Year!!

Stuck for a Christmas gift? Donate to my Quest for C F !

To Carricktown And Back

The last couple of weeks have been a bit rough.

The reality of my friend Claire’s health really knocked me hard and I lost a lot of motivation to go out and run as I went through the motions of coming to terms with it. Although I’m doing this ultra run for Cystic Fibrosis and everyone who lives with CF, at my lowest point I felt that she stood to gain nothing from my endeavour or that it just wasn’t enough which seemed so unfair seeing as she is the inspiration for this journey.

However, life goes on, and thanks to some readers leaving kind messages I’m trying to get back on track. I’m still finding the work- training balance difficult, especially since the temperatures started hitting over 30°C, surviving the work day in that heat is just exhausting. So the weekends are for training.

Claire came over in the weekend, I had planned to go walking up the Nevis Road from the Bannockburn end, but the Pub to Pub Gutbuster was on and I didn’t particularly want to be run over by some serious mountain bikers on their way down. A good excuse to suss out other local walking tracks so instead Claire and I walked up to Carricktown, a gold mining site from the 19th century.

To Carricktown

Another rough 4WD track up into the mountains that surround this pace that gives you the most stunning views of the Cromwell Basin. A good incline that gets the heart pumping, the lungs heaving and the legs burning. Claire’s need for exercise and my need to grunt up hills works out really well! Carricktown sits 3km (380m vertical climb) along this road that continues on to more historic gold mining sites so one day I plan to keep walking these roads paved with gold to see where they will go.

Details of the Carricktown walk – from the Walk Cromwell brochure

I was very impressed by how well Claire coped – she really is such an inspiration.

Until next time, thanks for reading!

Information, Motivation, Inspiration

In search of some information, motivation and inspiration, I turned to the books.

Distance Training for Women Athletes – Lydiard/Gilmour. The Runners Guide – British Athletics. One Step Beyond – Malcom Law

Arthur Lydiard was a revolutionary running and athletics coach who developed solid endurance running programmes and promoted jogging for health. He coached some of New Zealand’s great middle distance athletes and athletes all over the world today are coached using his methods of training. Distance Training for Women Athletes reiterated a lot of information I already knew, having had an athletics coach who believed in Lydiard’s methods, but it was interesting to note that the physiological and physical make up of a female is better suited to distance running than that of a male.
And learn to lace your shoes Lydiard style! I was a bit sceptical at first, but a shoe that gently hugs your foot rather than pushes down on the metatarsals of your foot, who am I to disagree with a legend? I re-laced my older shoes with the Lydiard Lace which knits the two sides together and (this may sound strange) my feet almost thank me for wearing my running shoes!

The Runner’s Guide by British Athletics was very similar to the Lydiard/Gilmore book, it contained information on nutrition, training programmes for various distances and degrees of competitiveness, and the physical and physiological aspects of running. The physiological reasoning behind “hitting the wall” when running marathons was the biggest thing I learned from this book. I have never run far enough to experience hitting the wall, I have reached my anaerobic limit many times competing 400m sprints and it’s the only thing I can compare it to. A lot of people think that hitting the wall is a mental hurdle marathon runners have to overcome, but The Runner’s Guide explains it as the depletion of the more readily available glycogen in the body and the shift to having to use fat stores.

I’m not really a non fiction/biography reader but when I spotted Malcom Law’s One Step Beyond in our public library, the text on the front of the book read “How an ordinary man took on the ultimate running challenge and won”, that seemed to grab my attention. Once I started reading it, I couldn’t put it down! It tells the story how Malcom came up with the idea of his enormous running challenge, the months of training, trials and adversities he faced leading up to the event, and then the day by day account of running the event itself. Malcom’s passion for what he did drips from every word and I felt so inspired by what he achieved and what he has achieved since.
I was so inspired I felt the need to write Malcom an email to thank him for his book. And he wrote me back!
He thanked me for taking the time to give such feedback and let me know of his next big challenge: High Five-0 Challenge for Mental Health which will include a lot of action in the Central Otago/Southern Lakes region (where I live), so maybe he could persuade me to join in for a day. He and his wife are moving from Auckland to Wanaka in the new year so if we get the chance to meet then maybe we could go for a wee run together. After reading his book I think his version of wee is VERY different from my version!

Until next time, thanks for reading!

To Fern Burn Hut And Back

The work/training balance went from bad to worse. What do other people do for a living that enables them to train long distance running!? Obviously not work on vineyards because I am finding it hard enough to wake up in the morning for work, let alone trying to find any sort of energy for a training run as well!

We went from rearranging foliage wires and hiking around the vineyards, to picking up and removing buckets of rocks. It just made everything hurt.

There is NOTHING glamorous about working on a vineyard!

So the day in the week I had put aside to go for a long run became the only day I would go for a run at all. Saturday morning. To manage 14.5km and 16km the last two Saturdays without running during the week, that’s not a bad level of fitness built up just by working on the vineyards!

Last weekend, after my 16km run in the morning, Claire and I went hiking up the Motatapu Track near Wanaka. We walked up to the Fern Burn Hut about 7km up a gully. A really great overnighter tramp, a really great opportunity to  get out of Cromwell and do something a bit different. Check out the gorgeous little fluffy Paradise duckling friend we made on the walk back to the start.

 

NZ Paradise ducklings have a follow-or-die tendency, so when he (assuming he was a boy…not really sure at that age) wandered up towards us on the track and then proceeded to follow us, we couldn’t leave him behind. There was no sign of the rest of his family except for a pair of adults flying overhead. Acting on advice from some locals we took him around to the Wanaka Boarding Kennels and Cattery where the lovely owner was thrilled to meet our little friend. She knew just how to care for the duckling and had another young duck who would love to have a little buddy.

 

Claire’s health (explained previously) has since taken a bit of a turn for the worse which has put her in hospital for a while. Her news came the other night, just as I was about to get all comfortable on the couch in front of the TV, so instead I put on my running shoes and went for a quick 10km run.
With the help of the Cystic Fibrosis Association of New Zealand, I have a donations page set up through GiveALittle, my campaign is titled Brenda’s Quest for CF. In the week that it has been active $NZ805 has been donated so far, and there is still 5months to go! Now if that isn’t motivation enough to get out and run!

Until next time, thanks for reading!

A Quest for C F

As it is Cystic Fibrosis National Awareness Week this week in New Zealand, it seemed appropriate to write this post and tell you my motivation behind my training.

Who’s great idea was it to consider running in a mountain race?

My friend Claire and I were out for a walk one day back in June 2013 and she mentioned that she’d like to do something super challenging like participating in the Taupo 100km Walk for Oxfam. I searched it online and not only is it at a bad time of year for me (during the grape harvest) but you have to raise $2000 just to enter. It is definitely for a good cause, don’t get me wrong, but it got me thinking. I wondered if there was anything more local that we could look at doing instead and was reminded of the Northburn Station 100.

And so this journey began.

I was bringing a colleague home from the airport a week later and was talking away about how Claire and I were considering running in this ultra run. Claire lives with Cystic Fibrosis (CF) and so her participation would depend on her health at the time, but even if she wasn’t well enough, there was no reason why I couldn’t still do it!

My colleague said “Well why don’t you get sponsorship and raise money for CF reasearch?”

Well why didn’t I think that!!??

An Announcement!

CF is a genetic condition that causes mucus to become thickened and build up in the body, which leads to a whole host of health problems, mostly the lungs and digestive system are affected.

Claire is a super amazing person and it is so very hard to accept that there is really nothing I can do for her other than be her friend.

The amazing Claire

Exercise is one of the many ways used to manage the condition (hence why Claire and I were out for a hike up in the mountains this particular day this all started), so what could be more appropriate than using an ULTRA MARATHON to raise awareness and money for CF research and hopefully a cure. I am entered in the 50km event of the Northburn 100 ultra run and hope to get sponsorship and donations towards the cause.

I have a few bits and pieces to work out  regarding getting donations and sponsors, I will update when I know more, but please know that by just reading my blog you are giving me more motivation to see this through to the end.

Until next time, thanks for reading!

Update: Click on the photo of Claire above to be redirected to my donations page

A Bit of a Hurdle

I usually look forward to this time of year.

Four months of pruning finally comes to an end, the blossoms on the stone fruit orchards come out, daylight saving hits and the days get longer and warmer. And you get smacked in the face with a real fitness test on the vineyards: rearranging the foliage wires for the start of the new season.

Hiking up and down vineyards – who needs a gym?!

Usually I look forward to it, exercise is always good and we often joke we don’t need an expensive gym membership because vineyard work is an all over body work out. So I returned to work just in time to begin wire rearranging and it also was the week I began training for the Northburn ultra marathon. I’m so buggered I can’t focus to write this post!

Last week I managed three early morning runs before heading off to work. It was pretty hard to make myself get out of bed those mornings when it was still dark outside. 40minutes and 6.6km each time along the lake edge before starting work at 8am, and then go hiking around vineyards for the next 8 hours, it’s a lot to ask of one’s body!! And then when the vineyard crew starts work at 7.30am and then 7am as the mornings get lighter and the days get hotter…. does that mean I’ll have to get up and go running at 5am as my running load increases…?

6.30am skies

I’m psyching myself out already!

But I’m still making progress!

MapMyFitness Workout Log

Until next time, thanks for reading!