2023 Tarawera 100 Miles
A long time coming with an entry to the 2022 event and it being cancelled, 2023 was the chance to go back and revisit the lovely terrain and atmosphere of the Tarawera 100.
Having done the 100km version in 2019, there were alot of knowns around logistics and fortunately there was a large crew of the Beacon Hill Runners who came over for a range of different events - so was a great logistical lead into the event.
Originally planning for the 2022 event was to train on feel and see how I go. Since I had an extra year to think about it, I found a training plan by The Uphill Athlete that seemed to fit what I was after.
So after fairly diligently following the training plan for 20 weeks I felt in a pretty good place for the event. The main goal was to finish in a reasonable time and not broken!
With the recent rain in the weeks before, there had been alot of rain and unfortunately the original course had sections that had landslides over sections of the course and was not deemed safe - so we ran an altered course. Not as adventurous (I was looking forward to the boat trips) but still the distance and less vert.
So the startline was also in a new location, which suited our accomidation as we could sleep in an extra 30 or so minutes - which helps when you are getting up at 3am NZ time (midnight back in Australia) - we also opted to get there fairly last minute and in so was on one of the last buses to get there just in time for the "welcome brief".
With the Beacon Hill 100 milers at the start line
Having a couple of baseline rules for be going into this
- Start in the back third
- Go really slow for the first 30km
- Stay well hydrated
- keep smiling
Starting in the dark the sun was soon up and the temperature was perfect for our run. Managed to spend a few hours talking to other similiar paced runners - always a good way to pass the kms.
Sneaking in a couple of jump shots for the photographers....
Adopting for the long day in the sun - it was suprising sunny and the good old fractal bucket hat was a saviour. As was the poles for the hills through the course.
From the photo above, to the photo below is a whole night.
The good thing about the change in course was that the repeated loop was mostly done in the dark - so making it a completely different course.
I didn't manage to get any shots in this time, and the photographers were probably have a wel deserved rest.
finally at the finish line.. Managed a little jumpshot.
Special call out to Brad Allen who was pacing me from the last checkpoint, who had also done the 50km the day before.
With my main goal for the event, not being broken at the end - this was certainly achieved - probably due to actually following a proper training plan. With the close guidance from Molly (physio) and Katelyn (Nutritionist) from Inspire
