Kepler Challenge, New Zealand

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 6^th 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

6^th female/138

56th overall/429