February 15, 2007

Hello everyone!

Life is full of challenge, challenges that we create for ourselves and challenges that are presented before us.  It is that unpredictable nature of life and adventure that makes it so fascinating and ultimately - fun. But the flip-side to that coin is the chance for disappointment.  We always knew that The Great Run Project was going to be fraught with challenges and nothing was going to come easy for us.  Over the past month we have had to make some very difficult decisions, but ultimately the conclusions that we have come to were the correct choices.  As a team we have decided to postpone The Great Run Project indefinitely.  Obviously this was a very difficult decision to make and disappointing that we won’t be hitting the road and the trails in March.  The decision to postpone our adventure was the result of injury, we always knew that the training for our adventure was in many ways was going to be as challenging as the GRP itself.  That intensive training has resulted in a few injuries that just won’t come right – both Alice and Christian are sporting knee and shin problems that have made completing the GRP just not feasible at the moment.  But fear not friends, this idea is far from dead, we are all looking forward to taking on this challenge some time in the future.  We’d all like to thank everyone who has offered words of support and encouragement during our preparation phase and we look forward to a future full of adventures!  Thanks again everyone, keep checking back for updates on our continuing adventures!

Best of luck on your own adventures – whatever they are!

~Scott, Alice and Christian 

December 5, 2006

More post race thoughts….

After a few days to recover and reflect the Kepler Challenge is now coming into focus.  In hindsight my memories are a collage of images, feelings and emotions.  The random meeting of a friend at the start line who I hadn’t seen in a year, trying to catch up amongst our nervousness.  The race official who helped me tie my race number back on after it blew off in the gale, her shivering gloved hands, down coat and hat. She looked at me and said she was freezing.  I was wearing shorts and a single shirt and felt fine.  The runner at Rainbow Reach who stopped for a drink, a snack and a smoke.  I couldn’t believe it, he pulled out his cigarettes and started puffing away at the aid station. The day after the race at the awards ceremony seeing 400 highly trained athletes attempting to walk up a set of three steps and looking like geriatric hip replacement candidates.  But most of all I will always remember a woman who accepted a special award, for the oldest person in the field to complete the entire 60km race.  It may have taken her just over 12 hours to finish, but she is truly an inspiration.  She is 74 years old. Sure some guy won the race in about half the time, but if you are looking to be inspired, look no further then Margarette Sutton.  We can all only wish to be that fit at three fourths a century!

~Scott

December 4, 2006

Kepler Challenge Success!

Scott, Christian and Alice at the finish line

On Saturday we ran the Kepler Challenge mountain run. It's a 60km race over the Kepler Track in Fiordland National Park. it was a great effort all around! We all had very successful and yet quite diffrent races, read the reports below to see how we faired...

Alice Writes...

I was generally surprised and very pleased with my first Kepler Challenge.  Having just come off an intense ultimate competition, my body (knees and shins especially) were feeling a bit weary so my goal for the race was first and foremost to finish the course. 

Having no idea how the race would go and what I could expect of myself over the distance, my second goal was to finish in under 10 hours.  The slog to Luxmore Hut went according to expectations, ie fairly long and fairly slow. My favorite part of the course, hands down, was the stretch about the tops.  Although it was -4 degrees celcius and we were mostly running through a packed snow trail, we lucked out with a small fair weather window between what we were told was a fairly constant storm as part of an El Nino cycle so the views were outstanding.  Seeing a stream of sillouetted runners on a knife-edge ridge as I approached Hanging Valley shelter was perhaps the coolest sight of the whole race. 

Snow on the tops

By the time I got off the tops, all of the massive knee-taping that our support crew physio administered at 5am had came off so I stopped to re-tape myself out of fear of what the downhill would do to my knees.  This was the beginning of the battle that would last for the rest of the race:  Alice vs. strapping tape.  I stopped again at the bottom of the hill and a toothless, lipless (literally--no lips) first aid man taped my knee up again and it took him 15 minutes!  (His tape job lasted about 2 kms. Time well spent? nah.) 

By the time I got to the bottom of the downhill, I felt like a cat that had just been let out of a bag cause for the first time since the initial 5kms of the race we got to run on FLAT ground! I hopped onto the back of a pack of 5 runners and 9kms later at the next checkpoint, I was feeling a little more like a stray cat that hadn't found a good trash can to feed on in a while--my shins were now inflamed and fully on fire. Blessed, blessed drugs.  9 more kms down the road, someone had kicked the stray and hungry cat and it was now hobbling into someone else's backyard. Reaching the final 10km mark was a very welcome sight, and I sculled a leppin at each of the 2 remaining checkpoints.

Partially deceptive but equally inspirational, the race commentator could be heard nearly 3kms out from the finish, and then bam!  I was there! Despite the degeneration of energy, I maintained a fairly even pace through the last 30kms--perhaps it was part endorphin, part ibuprofrin, and part elation for getting closer to home?  I finished almost 2 hours under my goal--at 8:08:19 and was the 20th woman across the line, so I was very pleased!  Of course in hindsight I am so stoked and amazed about all aspects of the experience--the natural beauty, the personal challenge, the comradery.  And at the end, there was no disputing the result: Alice: 0; Strapping tape: 1.

~Alice

The sun rises over the stating line

Christian writes...

The Kepler Challenge felt like a long time coming, and then definitely a long time going. Awake at 530am in wintery July to register for a race some 5 months later. Training and anticipation. And some more training. Then trepidation.

Finally, race day. The first 5k was along the flat, jostling for position on a winding track in the half-light. Eventually the hill. It promised to be a slog and was. The 900 metres elevation gain over 8k to Luxmore Hut was all runnable, but the following incline to Luxmore Saddle was cold and windy with ice and snow under most footfalls. The going slowed a bit as safety became more of a priority. I tried to eat a powerbar along the tops but found it had frozen solid; -5 degree temperatures will tend to do that.

the track leading towards the top of Mt. Luxmore

While snow and ice finally retreated as I started down the hill, quadriceps pain increased exponentially with each switch back. Iris Burn Hut was a welcome site. I took a quick stop for some leppin and a muesli bar before rolling off on the second half of the race. The slight downhill slope of the valley was great and I thought I was travelling pretty well until I was passed by someone going even better. "How's it travelling" I said. "Feeling great, this is awesome" was the reply. He was gone by the time I could gasp something like "let's swap legs".

I got to Rocky Point Hut and asked how far to the next aid station. The answerwas 9k which I promptly decided to ignore. It couldn't be that far, what'd that bloke know, he probably can't even count. The first signs of desperation were emerging.  I was in survival mode. It was all about one foot in front of the other, mind over matter, and knowing how good it would feel at the end. Finally, the Control Gates came into view and I knew that it was almost all done.

Crossing the line was great. It was all over. A great sense of setting out to achieve, and achieving. There was no "conquering the mountain" here; I was thoroughly conquered, but happy to be. I found it really was a learning experience to "race" over 60kms, to know how my body and mind reacted when they had to do things they'd rather not. Same again next year? Maybe so.

~Christian

Christian and Scott at the starting line

Scott Writes....

99 songs

Today I bumped into a friend, who saw my limping stride and asked the foreshadowed question, “how did the Kepler go?”  I thought for a long moment as I tried to put my experience into a succinct sentence.

“Well, it was hard and it was a long way, and it was fun.”

“I assume you mean the sort of fun, that doesn’t have to be fun to be, fun...”

The alarm rang so early that it was still late from the day before.  Pulling the running gear on at 4.30am to have a breakfast I wasn’t hungry for and a bottle of water I wasn’t thirsty for is always a strange experience. This day was no different, sitting at the kitchen table with Alice and Christian; we ate, drank and nervously checked and re-checked our gear.  Before we knew it, the time was right to head to the starting line.

As the sun broke the horizon with Technicolor hues all were focused on the opposite skyline where the imposing hulk of Mount Luxmore dominated the landscape.  I checked my watch, 5.55am, almost time.  I wished my two friends luck; we embraced and went into our own worlds.  We would race this one alone.

The horn broke the quiet morning air and 400 people all started to run towards the hills.  It was a blurred mass of humanity, jockeying for position as the track narrowed into the trees.  20 minutes of warm-up along the lake, before the trail started the grind up to Luxmore Hut.  Feeling good, feeling strong I hit the hill keeping my pace.  Shifting into low gear I went internal and slipped my headphones into my ears.

Like bottled oxygen my iPod would give me that breathe of extra energy as I slogged it up the never ending hill.  One song blended into the next as I focused on putting one foot in front of the next. The tree line was a welcome reward.  Truly stunning views of fiordland surrounded us all; Lake Te Anau a kilometer below to our right was calm as a mill pond, reflecting the peaks above.  Snow blanketed the hills with a slash of black trail dotted with the army ants of runners snaked on ahead. I gulped in the scenery for a moment and almost got lost in the moment before getting back to the task at hand and resumed my view of the three feet ahead of me.

Unknown runner in the snowy conditions

Luxmore Hut was a welcome milestone and the start of the real business.  Where the first 14km had been steep they were for the most part runable.  This next section was steep, often snow and ice covered and to add insult to injury, cold as a well diggers ass.  The wind gusts tore through my clothes and chilled me to the bone.  The wind ripped my race number off, and by sheer luck I caught it mid air as it nearly disappeared amongst the spindrift.

The decent into the valley was a welcomed change of scenery.  Where the tops had been spectacular in their beauty they had also been remarkable in their inhospitableness.   Winding down the switchbacks I could feel the temperature rise with every downhill stride.  Iris Burn Hut was like Shangri-La, warm, inviting and with a spread of food at the doorstep not to be rivaled.  I was half-way and feeling good, the long 30km plod down the valley was all that remained.

Unknown runner heading down the steps from the tops

Just out of Iris Burn things started to change.  Something was up, something wasn’t right.  I felt the gurgle of disagreement in my tummy and in that instant knew that I was in for a very different second half to this race. The next 15km were the toughest of the race for me. Cold sweats, waves of nausea and stomach cramps became my closest companions. Before long I was running faster into the bushes to relieve myself then I was down the track.

All of my fuel was gone, I couldn’t keep any sort of food in my stomach, nothing was settling my embattled tummy, the writing was on the wall, the last section of the race was going to be very hard.

Unknown runner on the switchbacks down to Iris Burn Hut

Rainbow Reach was a welcomed site, only 9km to go. My digestive system was having nothing to do with food and I had been running for 50km.  The gage was hard over on E, but I didn’t have the option of stopping.  I ran the last 9km in a haze of delirium, adrenaline and musical accompaniment.  Lost in my own thoughts I went onto auto-pilot letting my body fend for itself.

Between tracks I heard the faint sound of amplified speech.  I ripped the headphones out of my ears to let the crowd guide me home. Crossing the damn and through the finish line was a victory, despite 134 people crossing the line in front of me, I had battled it out and won my own race.  My friend was too right, sometimes it doesn’t have to be fun, to be fun.

60km, 8hrs 6min, +20degrees to -5degrees, 4 liters of water, 15 jellybeans, 117th guy over the line, 45 years younger then the oldest competitor, 4kgs lighter then I started with and 99 songs…

~Scott

for more info about The Kepler Challenge click here to have a look at the officail site.

November 29, 2006

The Kelper Challenge is this Saturday and the excitement is getting tangible – we are all fizzing and can’t wait to get out there for a good run!  Two exciting developments in the last few days.  First off, we have decided to up the ante a bit and have added another run to the Great Run Project!  That’s right, if 8 wasn’t enough, we have decided as a team to also run the Motatapu Marathon on the 11th of March.  It is a classic off-road marathon that I have run for the past two years, Christian ran last year and Alice is keen to give a go this year. The breathtaking course starts from the outskirts of Wanaka and runs through to Arrowtown via the Motatapu valley, which is closed to the public all year save this one day.  So it is a real treat to see such spectacular scenery, and an event we just couldn’t resist!!  In other exciting news the killer Kiwi band dDub has come on board to provide music for our Great Run Project film!  They are a classic band and without reservation I say the best live act in Aoteroa, check them out when you get the chance, or pick up their new album, ‘Awake at Dawn’.  We can’t wait to put such great music into our film – cheers boys!  More news to come soon… thanks for the support everybody and have fun out there!

~Scott

November 20, 2006

Well it's only two weeks until the Kepler Challenge and we are all getting pretty excited about that. Alice has just come back from Perth, where she was at the World Ultimate Frizzbee Champs and her team came a very respectable seventh! way to go Alice! The Great Run Project has defiantly started to seep into the interest of people, just the other day somebody came up to me and said, "Have you heard about those guys who are going to run all of the Great Walks? That sounds incredible!" I was hit with two emotions, one was super excitement that the word is getting out in a very organic way and the second was the instant thought that I really hope she is talking about us, or else we are going to have a race on our hands! turns out it was the GRP that she had heard about. It's just brilliant the support we are getting already, cheers to everyone for the words of encouragement! Well it's too nice a day to be typing away, time to get outside - and that means you too!

~Scott

November 5, 2006

Training is going well and we are right on target for our March goal! In about months time, on the 2nd of December, we are all running the Kepler Challenge. it's a 60km race on the Kepler Track that will be a great training exercise and alot of fun too! I've been down in Te Anau this week and i had a chance to go for a grat training run yesterday. I logged a good 30km's running up to the Luxmore Hut on the Kepler track and back. heaps of elivation gain and a great 2hrs on the track. it felt great and i feel well on track! Alice is off to Perth Australia for the World Ultimate Frizbee Championships soon - Go Alice Go!! Christain just graced the local paper in his work clothes - we'll never let him live that one down!! Take care out there and as Sir Ed says, "Aim high, there is little vitrtue in easy victory."

~Scott

October 17, 2006

Today is the official launch of “The Great Run Project” Webpage!! Training is well underway and Alice, Christian and myself are already getting excited about the adventure, even though it is still months away!  This is going to be the best place to find up to date information on how everything is going with us as we prepare.  So have a look around the site and come back often to see what’s up! Thanks for dropping by!

~Scott