One month ago, when I was still travelling, I ran one of the most famous trail races in New Zealand. I had followed a strict training plan for the last three months before the race to get as fit as possible for the 60k of the Kepler
Challenge. On race day, I woke up at 4 am. None of my two alarms was needed.
After a small brekkie, I joined another competitor who also stayed at the hostel and we drove together to the start of the Kepler track. It was cold
and windy.
My strategy was to start conservative for
the first 30k which included most of the climbs and downhills of the race (the
mountain part) and then run fast for the last rather flat 30k back to the
finish (the forest part).
Without prior warning, the pistol went off
at 6 am and the race began. And it was fast! I tried not to get too excited and
went my own pace on the first 5 flat kilometres. Since I knew the climb up to
Mt. Luxmore Hut from my training, I knew how fast I could go up there. I
reached the checkpoint after 1:40 hours, only 9 mins faster than in training. I
was not sure if I was running too conservative. After a super quick gear check
(we had to carry 2 long sleeve thermal shirts, 1 thermal long pants, a hat and pair of gloves,
rain jacket and pants and an emergency blanket), I continued the climb up to the
ridge.
Up on the ridge, the wind blew very strong.
Combined with some rain and hail, it was quite harsh up there. The next few
kilometres were a constant up and down along the mountain ridge. I went down fast,
but on the uphills, my legs already felt tired and I had to walk most of the
time. For one second, I was not 100% concentrated and boom, I was lying on the
ground with bloody knees. Just moments later I was running again, annoyed by my
own mistake.
Suddenly, a roaring helicopter was above
us, filming us. Luckily, it was on a downhill so he got a good shot of me
(which actually made it into the event movie). Shortly after, the long downhill
to Iris Burn hut began. Finally, I was able to benefit of my strengths so I was
overtaking a lot of runners on the technical part of the downhill.
When I arrived at the hut, I knew that my
planned time of 6:30 was not achievable anymore. However, I knew a good result
was still possible with a fast pace on the second half of the race. According
to that plan, I ran the next 15k quite fast. And then I blew up. As beautiful
as the first half of the race in the mountains had been, as boring was the
second half in the beech forest. I was bored and tired and I had no energy
left. I just wanted it to be over.
4k before the finish, on an uphill section,
I saw another girl below me. I didn’t know on which place I was running but I
knew I didn’t want to be overtaken so close to the end. So I started running
all out in the hope to keep her at distance. It felt like the longest 4k
in my life and I was just relieved that it was over when I crossed the finish
line after 6:47 hours just a minute before the other girl. Instantly, I was
escorted to the medic to get my knees looked after.
Shortly after I learnt that I had finished
the race as 6th female. On that day, I was quite disappointed with
my time, had I hoped before to run considerably faster. But after a good
night’s sleep I was happy with my result. I had given it all I had on that day. It was a good end for an
awesome year.
Hard facts:
60k running
2000m climbing
6:47h race time
6th female/138
56th overall/429
