Editorial: Child’s Play on The Trails

  I believe the children are our future. Sure, Whitney Houston may not have gone on to be the greatest role model of all time, but her lyrics hold truths far greater than her kitschiness. Teach them well and let them lead the way. That’s it – you gotta show them what’s possible if they are going to be able to lead the way. Check all those kids setting themselves up for thumb arthritis as they ‘play’ on screens. Worse,…

Running with Kokoda spirit

On 13th July, a gathering of determined ultra runners will congregate for the 2013- Gold Coast Kokoda Challenge  (http://kokodachallenge.com/), a 96km team run challenge now in its 9th year. Regular Trail Run Mag review contributor, Caine Warburton, will be a part of the Kokoda Spirit Racing (KSR) team out to put their name on the leaderboard while also raising funds for the Kokoda Youth Program. With three weeks to go before the event, we dropped Caine a line to see…

FAMILY BONDS ON TRAIL ULTRA

A family that runs together stays together, right? That’s the question being asked and the answer will be revealed post this year’s Surf Coast Century trail ultra in Victoria, Australia, with the Ditchfield family running it as a team. “I’m not a runner,” was the cry 18 months ago when Dad Brett headed out to hit some single track on his mountain bike. Wife Chrissie puts her hand up as a regular runner, often competing in fun runs and “one mega…

Run Therapy provides plenty of reasons to run

BOOK REVIEW: Run Therapy, A Bitter Sweet Guide to Running, Evolution and Ice Cream, by Andrew Cohen Review by Garry Dagg Opening a running book outlines the diaspora of our sport. Trail runners like to focus on their achievements, goals or science yet few capture the dreams, motivations and core reasons as well as Run Therapy. A superbly crafted book it may well need to be filed in the romance genre as Cohen’s love for trail running and the vitality…

Dirty kilometres: who’s counting?

Trail Run Mag’s New Zealand Editor, Mal Law, signs off on his last edition as chief honcho with bigger projects about to be crammed into his running schedule. We’ll keep Mal on (if he’ll let us) as an Editor-At-Large, which simply means he’ll contribute as and when he can and tell us when we need to pull up our socks on New Zealand-based content. In the meantime, his editorial asks the question…who’s counting? (He is and he’s not gonna apologise)….

Mountain Masochist

Four peaks, two days. Chris Ord takes on a trail challenge in Victoria’s Grampians National Park with an eye to grander plans. WORDS and IMAGES: Chris Ord ‘It’s not a race, Chris.’ My sensible but rarely listened to self is chastising me as Jess steams on ahead. ‘But it could be.’ My other, more competitive self goads back. ‘It bloody well should be,’ they both resonate. At least my opposite selves agree on something. My third self just wishes they’d…

Bragging Rights

The second and fastest running of New Zealand’s Te Araroa trail was a rollercoaster journey for The North Face runner Jez Bragg, in more ways than one. WORDS: Jez Bragg IMAGES: courtesy The North Face It’s easy saying you will do something, but often the reality of performing is not quite so simple, particularly when it comes to running a long, long way. Throw in an elite trail runner’s obsession with doing things as fast as humanly possible, and it…

Run Wild

Run Wild is the story of a musician whose work you’ll know and his love of off road running. Boff Whalley is angry. Tub-thumping mad as it turns out.  The musician, fell and trail runner, and sometime philosopher is not happy with the modern big-city big-business marathon. Whalley likes to run wild and his book outlines how his preferred terrain (going straight up and down the hills of northern England) is an expression of running that has no relation to…

Trail Run Fest for Baw Baw

Victorian mountain resort, Mt Baw Baw, has announced a new trail running festival that will set a new bar for the singletrack sport when runners tread the mountain slopes on the long weekend on March 9th-11th , 2013. On the roster will be up to seven trail runs of varying course lengths and difficulties plus the opportunity – for those game enough – to vie for King and Queen of the Mountain titles. The Brooks Mt Baw Baw Trail Run…

The man who ran to save the world

Imagine the man with the capability of unraveling enigmatic codes thumping his way through the streets of wartime London as he played over possible solutions in his mind.