The laws of the wild

It’s trail running’s Mecca, where New Zealand’s best of the best in trail running challenge themselves above and beyond what they think is humanly possible. The WILD took some sharp corners before kicking off its inaugural racing event in December 2023, but competitor Rachel Bridgewater was there to bear witness to the incredible inspiration behind some of the runners who literally took ‘to the wild’. 

As a trail runner, we’re always looking for that next adventure. Something that grabs our attention…something that stops us in our tracks. 

Or perhaps something that requires us to extend ourselves as an athlete and maybe just as a person…something that frightens us just a little.

When I first heard whisperings of a new event curated by Malcolm Law (the original creator of the now over 30,000 strong Wild Things NZ trail running community) in conjunction with Ian Evans (one of only six athletes to ever complete the now well-known Revenant) and James Harcombe (an all-round legend), I knew this was one I needed to be a part of.

I first met Malcolm when I was fresh faced and new to Wanaka in NZ. At the time, I was a road runner (yes, unfortunately) and had never really climbed mountains, but had a taste of my first 100km trail ultra and I wanted more. I turned up in my very first week to Wanaka trail runners, knowing no one but ready to immerse myself in the trail running scene. 

It’s The Law

Then in strolled Malcolm Law. It was like a celebrity moment. Here was the Godfather of NZ Trail Running and as one of my new running buddies at the time John Iseli put it, the legend preceded the man. 

Malcolm always seemed to be ahead of the game. Whenever my husband and I would plan a big trail run in the mountains thinking we were the first, Malcolm usually had already done it (and probably twice). Fast forward several years later, here he was again, but this time with the idea of a 100 mile mammoth of a mountain race, which would come to be known as The WILD. 

The idea was conceived after running the Hardrock course over several days in 2018. Malcolm came away thinking he could create something similar in Central Otago, and so began the creation of an audacious course – one that didn’t require out and backs or running on the road. 

But as quickly as the idea was conceived, reality hit. He didn’t have the experience to set up and run a commercially viable event. So for help, he engaged a company to take over the running of it, however, it also became apparent, once the course had been conceptualised, that only a niche number of trail runners could complete it. Thus, the creation of many more races for the event came to life. This would soon become known as a ‘festival’ of trail and mountain running; something for everyone.

As my husband and I ploughed into training for the event (even throughout heavy snow dumps that winter), we were highly motivated to take part in what would be a race that would push us harder than we had been pushed before. However, deep into training, we received an email that stated the company tasked with delivering the event had gone into receivership just eight weeks out. 

Like a cold hard wind slap you receive whilst cresting over the top of a mountain, the event took a nosedive. In its inaugural year, The WILD would not run. 

Concerned with the response that might have come from the trail running community, a community Malcom had so carefully and lovingly helped to create over many years, and with five dedicated years of trying to put the event together, Malcolm took this hit hard on a real personal level. He describes this moment as a ‘feeling of being numb’.  

What he didn’t expect though was a reaction of support from the very community he had helped to create. For anyone who has ever run in a race that asks you to extend yourself and your capabilities, this was like the ‘crowd effect’ – when you come into aid station, not sure you have it in you to carry on and sometimes wishing you could crawl under a bush and pretend you weren’t even there to begin with, and then you see your friends and family in that pivotal moment to give you the energy to carry you through.  

In the two weeks that followed this news, multiple members of the trail running community got in touch to offer support including several other race organisers. Malcolm assembled a ‘dream team’ of trustees to help deliver the event. The likes of Shaun Collins, a softly spoken, highly intelligent and capable guy who already ran Lactic Turkey Events otherwise known ironically as The Running Beast, and others like Terry Davis, Highland Events race director for events such as the Northburn 100 Together this team, would go on to create a five-day festival of all things trail and mountain running. 

It wasn’t all that simple though. Formulating a plan for races in such remote mountainous areas wasn’t going to be straightforward, but what emerged were events like the V5000, V3000, V1600 (named for the vertical gain involved) and Beast of Brow and Beast of Beetham. 

Back On, Baby

Entries opened in April 2023, at which point, Malcolm said there was no way the event would not be delivered. And so The WILD was back on – so were we. Training would resume with a vengeance even though for me this meant training again from scratch following a broken ankle but if Malcolm could pull this off, then so would I. 

Standing at the start line that morning of the V5000, the vibe in the start shoot was electric. Looking around to see so many amazing athletes, friends and new faces to the trail running community, people like Cullen Rhind whose mother had convinced him to sign up; Hannah Wall, a new face to the trail running scene; and Brooke Cox, a girl I had raced a month earlier at the Mt Isthmus Traverse. Also, many of my Tailwind team mates and of course, my favourite training partner, my husband James. We were to be amongst the first members of the Pioneers’ Edition. 

Whilst climbing the races’ punchy ascents soon after, alongside bluffs high above Arrowtown, I thought about what the story of the event meant to me as an ultra runner. It’s always been my belief that to run an ultra, you need to be willing to roll with the punches. There will always be moments when you don’t feel like you can carry on, and in those moments we have a choice. Do we let go of the finish line that we dreamed of crossing because it all just got a little bit hard, or do we forge a path forward not knowing if we will finish but being willing to step outside of ourselves and try? Not just in trail running, but in life in general.  

The Inspiration, The Runners

This event starred many of those trail runners with their own incredible stories, and these stories would go on to inspire others in their own personal journeys by proving just what is possible, not simply because of the challenges they faced, but by how they so ferociously overcame them.

Cullen Rhind would go on to win the V5000 in a blistering time whilst simultaneously managing his Type 1 diabetes. 

Hannah Wall would put in a commanding performance placing 3rd Female in the V5000. What I didn’t know at the time was about her journey to get to The WILD, which she explained began from a ‘place of darkness and self-destruction’ where at times she couldn’t get herself out of bed. Trail running had become the thing where her mind could be calm when it wanted to be anything but. She would go on to describe this race as a true celebration of what she had done for herself, proving that even in the darkest of moments, we have the power to choose for ourselves the outcome. 

Even the girl trying to outrun me on the downhill that day, Brooke Cox, trained like an absolute maniac for this event (and I knew it thanks to Strava), only to come down with what she now suspects was giardia the weekend before, but still willing and ready to be fiercely competitive and not giving an inch.

In the V1600, trail runner Helene Barron also lined up. After an incredible Top 5 performance at the Tarawera 100 miler earlier that year, she went on to be diagnosed with tongue cancer. Helene still showed up at The WILD, with a smile on her face (as she always does) despite a very challenging year of treatment. 

Going over that finish line for myself that day, knowing what I had had to overcome to be there and to be greeted by the one and only Malcolm himself, was a special moment that I will not forget. Later the next day, he received a standing ovation from the very competitors who had taken part in the event – a moment’s  acknowledgement by everyone, of the commitment and sacrifice it had taken, to reach this finale, and a pivotal moment for the man, who had overcome it all to get us there in the first place.

The story of The WILD, in the end, became one of perseverance and one of commitment to the finish line, but most of all, one of community. People inspiring and supporting people to achieve big things. 

Because in the end, whatever the outcome, we all know, it takes a lot to be prepared to step into the arena. And those who do, despite overcoming their own challenges, are the stories that we come to remember. 

Even more audacious are the people that step into it first. The Pioneers’ Edition of The WILD (2023) is a celebration of trail and mountain running that became all of this.