Here comes Kepler: a trail challenge

By TrailRunMag

Of tough men, long skirts and bronze shoes…

A fixture on the New Zealand trail running calendar for 27 years, now, the inaugural Kepler Challenge (planned to be a one-off) was originally organised to honour a Fiordland outdoor legend.

In 1988, the Te Anau community was looking for a way to commemorate the centenary of the re-discovery of Milford Track by Quinton MacKinnon (re-discovery as it is thought that a similar route had previously been used by Maori to gather greenstone from Milford Sound). At a public meeting it was decided that funds be raised and a statue be erected to honour Quintin MacKinnon.

MacKinnon’s discovery made it possible for people to walk relatively easily and safely through the lofty Fiordland mountains to Milford Sound via the famous Milford Track, later proclaimed to be the “finest walk in the world”. Only a few years after his discovery, MacKinnon started guiding people on the Milford Track. A surprising number of men and women completed this trip in those pre-Gore-Tex times of ties, hats and long skirts. Access to Milford by road only became possible in 1953 when the Homer Tunnel was completed.

MacKinnon’s venture was the beginning of the tourism activity in this area, today worth millions of dollars, and as somebody’s put it; “until the rediscovery of MacKinnon Pass, Te Anau slumbered on the edge of the unknown…” MacKinnon himself unfortunately went missing, presumably drowned, on Lake Te Anau in 1892.

Amongst many other fundraising events the (then) Fiordland Athletic Club decided to organise a race on Milford Track, which proved too much of a logistics nightmare. Instead they turned their attention to the Kepler Track, which was being built to relieve the pressure on the two Great Walks in the area; the Milford and the Routeburn Track. The Kepler Challenge name was chosen to express the fact that this was to be a race/challenge for all, not just the professionals and semi-professionals.

The race was run on 17 December 1988 with 149 runners competing. By then the Kepler Track was completed apart from 3km above the Luxmore Hut, which meant part of the course was run through virgin tussock. It was meant to be a one-off fundraiser but the response to it was such that the committee decided to continue to hold it and it has been run every year since then – it is now firmly established as the premier mountain running event in New Zealand. A shorter, gut-busting “sister” race was established later: the Luxmore Grunt is a 27km run up to Luxmore Hut and down again.

The first male and female runner to reach the Luxmore hut, earn a special prize, the title of the “King and Queen of the Mountain”. The veteran runners say that in the men’s field the King of the Mountain never goes on to win the Kepler Challenge…

The race trophy, a bronze running shoe, is a cast of the type of shoe used by Russell Prince, the winner of the first race.

In previous years the field, 450 in the Kepler Challenge, 150 in the Luxmore Grunt, has filled within a week of the entries opening in mid-winter. In 2006 the registrations went online for the first time and now the field fills in just minutes, demonstrating the popularity of the Kepler Challenge in New Zealand and abroad. The first race was also a successful fundraiser and today visitors are greeted by a lakefront statue of Quinton MacKinnon, gazing upon his beloved Lake Te Anau. Following in this vein, several people who complete the Challenge in recent years have done so as a means to fundraise for worthy causes.

EDITOR’S NOTE: courtesy of the Kepler Challenge organisers, Trail Run Mag is proud to be represented this year by Shaun Brewster and Chris O’Driscoll, from Brewsters Running, who will experience the event from an on trail perspective an report back via a feature in the coming edition #15 of the magazine. Stay tuned…(go lads!)

Current Race Records

Kepler Challenge (60km)
4.33.37 – Martin Dent (2013)
5:23:34 – Zelah Morrall (2003)

Luxmore Grunt (27km)
1:52:30 Phil Costley (2008)
2:04:18 – Shireen Crumpton (1998)

Names to watch in 2014

MEN

Martin Dent – Aus – 35 – from Canberra, Australia has been a competitor in the 2012 Olympic Games (marathon) and has represented Australia in three Commonwealth Games. Martin won the 2013 ASICS Kepler Challenge in a record-breaking time of 4.33.37

Vajin Armstrong – NZ – was the winner of three Kepler Challenges (2010, 2011, and 2012) and second place-getter in 2013.

Mark Green – NZ – 41- placed 5^th in the 2013 ASICS Kepler Challenge.

Grant Guise – 4^th in 2010, 5^th in 2011, 6^th in 2013 in the Kepler Challenge,

Scott Hawker – NZ – 27 – placed 5^th in the Hong Kong 100km, 5^th in Tarawera Ultra, 1^st in Mt Solitary Ultra, 7^th in North Face Ultra.

Stafford Thompson – NZ – 34- came 1^st Coastal Classic 2013, 1^st Hanmer Alps Marathon 2013, 1^st Motatapu Marathon 2014.

Mick Donges – AUS – 31- has been running ultra-marathons for five years. He has been placed twice in the Tarawera Ultra-Marathon.

Peter Tuck – NZ – 45 – has a marathon PB of 2.42. He had a cycling accident in 2012 and 2014 ASICS Kepler Challenge is his final stage of rehabilitation.

Glen Marvin – NZ – 41 – this is Glen’s 4th Kepler Challenge. He is raising funds and profile for the Mental Health Foundation in conjunction with Malcolm Law and the High Five Challenge. His personal goal to raise $10 000 towards total target of $250 000

Paul Timothy – Brit – 32 – 2^nd Croesus Mountain Trail Run (3.05)

Cameron Durno – NZ – 33- is an endurance sports coach and this is his 11^th Kepler Challenge.

Kevin Bruffy – USA – 30 – former university runner in the USA.

Timo Meyer – Ger – 36 – H.U.R.T. 100 mile (Hawaii USA) 2^nd overall, UTMF Japan 4^th

Tom Hunt – NZ – 26 – completed the Tarawera Ultra in 7.12 and was 2^nd in the Hilary 80km Ultra

Shane Thrower – NZ – 46 – Uncle of Scott Hawker

Matthew Dickinson – Brit – 29 – 2013 52 peaks in 52 weeks.

Michael Beaumont – NZ – 39- will run in his 7^th Kepler Challenge

Russell Hurring – NZ – 60 – from Dunedin, has encouraged his son and daughter-in-law to take part in the Luxmore Grunt this year. This is Russell’s 12^th Kepler Challenge.

Malcolm Law – NZ – 54 – of 7 in 7 fame. This is Malcolm’s 6^th Kepler Challenge and he says he just can’t stay away from this race.

WOMEN

Ruby Muir – NZ – 23 – was the 2012 and 2013 ASICS Kepler Challenge winner.

Jo Johansen – NZ – 34 – 1^st 2014 Tarawera Ultra, 1^st woman on the Hilary Trail, 1^st woman Hutt River Trail.

Jean Beaumont – NZ – 50 – from Prirua, Jean was 3^rd in 2013 ASICS Kepler Challenge. She has run seven Kepler Challenges and six 100 mile races.

Beth Cardelli – Aus – 34 – was named Australian ultra-marathon runner of the year for 2012 and 2013. She is three times winner of the North Face 100 in Australia.

Julie Quinn – NZ – is a successful kiwi ultra-runner in Australia. She has had two wins and two seconds in the North Face race in the Blue Mountains in Australia.

LUXMORE GRUNT

Richard Ford – NZ – 24 – this is Richard’s favourite race. Placed 4^th in 2010, 3^rd in 2011, 2^nd in 2012, 3^rd in 2013.

Luke Hurring – NZ – 30 – son of Russell Hurring. He has had lots of running experience on the track and road, but is new to long distance trail running.

Nathan Jones – NZ – 37 – from North Canterbury. Nathan ran the Luxmore Grunt in 2010 and 2011, and the Kepler Challenge in 2012 and 2013.

Alan Funnell – NZ – 46 – is the president of the Leith Valley Harrier Club in Dunedin and is the race director for the Three Peaks event. He has been running for thirteen years.

Martin McCrudden – NZ – 20 – from Wellington, Martin was first in the Crazyman Junior Duathalon.

Kelvin Meade – Brit – 35 – has run in similar events over the past four years

Patrick Williamson – NZ – 23 – from Wellington, has run in the Motatapu Miners’ Trail and the Shotover half-marathon.

Andrew Fraser – NZ – 49 – from Cambridge, was the 2^nd veteran in the Coast to Coast and 2^nd veteran in the Routeburn Classic.

Riki Russell – NZ – 26 – from Riverton ran last year’s Luxmore Grunt in 2.38.40

Jeff Walker – NZ – 50 – from Cromwell, has run several Coast to Coast events, three iron distances and one Luxmore Grunt.

Morgan Denny – NZ – 28 – from Bluff, was 5^th in 2013 Luxmore Grunt

Rod Albert – Mex – 38 – this is Rod’s first mountain event after competing in several half-marathons.

Mark Geddes – NZ – 38 – from Dunedin, has been running for many years, including half-marathons and cross country races.

Rikki Griffin – NZ – 36 – from Te Anau, Rikki is usually a cyclist/multi-sport competitor.

Women

Louisa Andrew – NZ – from Dunedin, won last year’s Luxmore Grunt and has completed the Melbourne marathon and ten half-marathons

Christina Taylor – NZ – 22 – has been competing in track and cross country for ten years.

Kellie Hurring – NZ – 31 – from Auckland, Kellie’s father-in-law, Russell, has encouraged the family to take up the challenge. In the past, Kellie has held national titles in 800m, 1500m, 5000m and 10 000m.

www.keplerchallenge.co.nz

Down Under runners rank highly in HK100

By TrailRunMag

Trail Run Mag Asia Editor, Rachel Jacqueline, reports in from the recent Vibram Hong Kong 100, where the Aussie and Kiwi contingent ranked well, and the Nepali runners showed they are a force to be reckoned with on the tail.

The Ultra Trail World Tour kicked off last week in Hong Kong with the Vibram HK 100 2014. The Nepalese well and truly stamped their dominance among Hong Kong’s hills for a 1-2 finish from Tirtha Bahadur Tamang and Bed Bahadur Sunuwar.

In third was none other than the boy from Down Under, Vlad Ixel (below left), at home amongst the hilly terrain despite living in dead-flat Perth. Storming down the hill behind him and only seconds apart was Vajin Armstrong and Scotty Hawker, rounding out the top five – and making it a proud day for Aussies and Kiwis!

Although a smoking course-record breaking day was expected, a combo of burn out, unseasonably hot weather and perhaps a little too much pollution combined to see a lot of carnage over of the course of the day. By half way, Claire Price, Lizzy Hawker and other Hong Kong elite, Olya Korzh, had all pulled out.

Interestingly, the three top Hong Kong male runners – Stone Tsang, Jeremy Ritcey and William Davies – were all a good twenty minutes off from last year’s time. Maybe a sign Hongkongers are having a little too much of a good thing with all the races that have popped up in the last year?

I (Rachel – Asia Ed.) caught up with The North Face’s Jez Brag (10th) who gave a nice little summary of how the day played out from the front (while I was busy running somewhere a little further back!!!). Thanks Jez!

It was a fast start at the front, and the pace along the road to the dam at support point 1 was pretty smokey! Not too surprising given the depth of field, but it suggested there would be some casualties, which of course there were. I did my usual thing of running steadily and consistently throughout. I was with the leaders for the first couple of sections, but then continued a little more conservatively thereafter, to save some juice for the latter climbs. My climbing speed wasn’t really up to scratch hence I wasn’t quite able to mix it up with the lead guys, but that’s not something I’ve really focused on in training since UTMB, but I will start to more as the season gets going. I decided to approach this race in a fairly relaxed manner; it was a relatively short trip over, and running a course blind is never too easy.

The journey around the course was however amazing. I shared some spells with various guys, but a lot of it I spent on my own, with plenty of time to absorb the amazing views of the beaches, forests and city skyline. Oh, and lots of monkeys ready to swipe your gels given half the chance. I’m not sure there’s anywhere else in the world where you can experience such contrasts, so close to major world city. Watching the sun set over the city from the top of Tai Mo Shan 95 km in to the race (high point of the course at 957m) was a real highlight.

The Hong Kong trails are also pretty unique under foot. I had heard what the course was like beforehand, but I think until you’ve actually seen all the steps and hard surfaces, it’s hard to imagine. It’s not necessarily a negative, it’s just how it is locally, but quite hard attack without practice. The main difficulty with the course is the fact the climbing is mostly back loaded – in the 2nd half – which is always going to be tough after a fast, flat, first half. I’m not going to lie, I had to dig deep for my performance, like many did I’m sure. It’s a tough race, no doubt, which the results only confirm.

I felt it was a really positive opening to the UTWT calendar. It needs time to develop and find it’s feet as a series, but in terms of promoting and developing world class trail courses around the globe, it was very fitting to open the show in Hong Kong. It was a competitive race with a classy international field, and certainly bodes well for the year ahead.

As far as race experiences go, the HK100 offers a lot more than you may first think. In the space of four days I met an amazing array of runners from all over the world, experienced incredible views of Hong Kong from all different angles and ran some epic sections of trail through seemingly remote, rural areas. Definitely a trip to remember.

Are you going to add the Vibram HK 100 to your race calender next year?

Record torn up at The North Face 100

By TrailRunMag

It was a huge weekend of trail running achievement up in the Blue Mountains on the weekend, with records and PB’s smashed all over the Blue Mountains at The North Face 100, Australia’s biggest trail event outing. There were a few good runs had by the Trail Run Mag crew, too [Roving Ed Mal Law snagging a silver buckle in the TNF100, co-publisher Adrian Bortignon registering a handy time in the long one too; our AU editor cracking his first TNF50 and Asia Editor Rachel Jacqueline over the line for fifty fast ones]. But because we’re pretty confident you’re more interested in what transpired at the pointy end, rather than the midpack where we were plodding out some fantastic trails, we’ll pass you over to Daniel Lewis who reports from the front line of trail running.

Brendan Davies was in tears as he approached the Leura finish line in The North Face 100 on the weekend, then fell to his knees when he crossed it, so emotional was he to have won such a prestigious event in his own backyard.

‘It means a lot to me, this race, being a local guy,’ he said. ‘I train on this course a lot. It’s a dream come true to win a local event. This will always mean the world to me. It’s the biggest win of my career.’
The 36-year-old school teacher from the Blue Mountains didn’t even realise at the time that he had also managed to set a new race record of 9 hours 16 minutes 12 seconds.

Flat batteries meant his watch stopped working towards the end of the gruelling 100km trail running event that takes in Narrow Neck, Nellies Glen, Megalong Valley, Jamison Valley, Kings Tableland, Kedumba Pass, The Six Foot Track and Echo Point, so he had no idea he had run the final sector of the race so strongly that he had broken the 2011 record of celebrated Spaniard Kilian Jornet (9.19.06) by more than two minutes.

Davies’ victory was greeted warmly by the trail running fraternity. ‘What a great performance from such a humble, friendly guy,’ was one Facebook comment.

It was only three weeks ago that Davies achieved a brilliant fifth place in a star-studded 100-mile (161km) race in Japan that boasted 9000 metres of elevation gain.

North Face second-place getter, New Zealander Vajin Armstrong (9.42.22), said it was classic Brendan Davies that the Australian had never sought to use the race in Japan as an excuse not to do well in The North Face.

‘A lot of people would have said, ‘I’m coming in a bit tired’. He made himself believe that [the Japanese race] was going to help him out there. He felt strong and fit and fast and he just took it to us all day. I was shocked a couple of times when we came to the aid stations and heard how far ahead he was. I was never upset about it because he’s a fantastic bloke. It couldn’t happen to a nicer person, to run a performance like that.’

Going into The North Face 100, the hot favourite had been defending champion, South African runner Ryan Sandes. But Sandes started to feel unwell about five kilometres into the race. His stomach started churning and his food and drink started going straight through him, forcing him to repeatedly go to the toilet. The stomach bug saw Sandes pull out at check point two, 38 kilometres into the race at Dunphy’s Camp in the Megalong Valley.

In his presentation speech Davies offered his commiserations to Sandes and said he hoped his own performance helped keep Australian trail running going from strength to strength. The four Australians and one Kiwi who made up the top five all broke the magic 10-hour mark.

Davies went into the race aiming for a time of about 9 hours and 40 minutes and felt it was his concentration on only running ultra-distance trail events that had enabled him to do the time he did.
‘The 100ks seem a lot easier than they did in the past. I had a storming last leg [in The North Face 100] which gave me the record in the end because I was behind at the last check point by 4 minutes or so. I can only think the reason I had that strong last leg was because of the extra training I’ve been doing and the extra training I’ve been doing. Instead of struggling I really powered through it this year.’
As part of his preparation for the Mont Blanc Marathon in France at the end of June, Davies will also be competing in the Glow Worm Tunnel Marathon in the Wolgan Valley near Lithgow on June 16.

Towards the end of this year he plans to go to South Africa to do the world 100km road championships in Durban. He was 11th in the same event last year. Next year he hopes to do the famed Western States trail run in the US.

In the women’s 100km, another Blue Mountains runner, Jo Brischetto, scored a fantastic second place to Beth Cardelli, who calls Berowra home but was up in the Blue Mountains every second weekend to put in solid training sessions of up to 50km on sections of the course. ‘A lot of the time we would start [running] at four o’clock in the morning and finish at lunchtime.’

When Cardelli first started striding out with the Berowra Bush Runners in Sydney’s north in 2007, she struggled to complete 10km.But on the weekend, the 33-year-old claimed her third The North Face 100. What is more, she bettered her own race record with a new fastest time of 11 hours 1 minute and 8 seconds, more than 17 minutes quicker than her 2012 effort of 11:18:49.

Only 12 men beat Cardelli to the finish line overall and her only disappointment was that she hadn’t become the first woman to break the magic 11-hour barrier. Cardelli wasn’t wearing a watch but knew during the race that she was on track to do a very fast time.

“I was trying really hard to break 11 hours,’ she said.

Her training involved heading to the Blue Mountains every second weekend in the months leading up to The North Face to put in solid training sessions of up to 50km on sections of the course.

Cardelli first started running by joining the Berowra Bush Runners simply because she wanted to meet people after moving to the area.
She is grateful the group also helped her to become a lover of running.

‘I didn’t run at all [before joining Berowra Bush Runners]. My first 10kms with them, I was pretty much a wreck, but I thought ‘if I just keep coming back …’ Your body just eventually gets used to it.’

Next up Cardelli is heading to Italy to do the 118km Lavaredo Ultra Trail in the mountains of the Dolomites, another North Face race.

For the first time this year there was also a 50km North Face race. The men’s winner was road running hot shot, and recent star of the Sydney Trail Running Series, Vlad Shatrov in 4:15:21 and the women’s Brooks Trail Run Fest Queen of the Mountain winner, Gippslander Kylie Murray, won in 5:19:50.

The North Face races started and finished at the Fairmont resort in Leura and at the presentation ceremony on Sunday the resort was heaving with hobbling but happy runners who were busy comparing times, injuries and war stories.
When The North Face 100 was first held six years ago, it attracted about 170 competitors. But trail running is a booming sport and this year there were 1022 entrants in the 100km North Face race and 508 in the new 50km race. However, only 698 made it to the finish line of the 100km, although their average time of 16hrs 41mins was a big improvement on the 17hours 16 mins of 2012. This year’s oldest 100km runner was 70.

Keeping the competitors fueled up required more than 5000 litres of water, 1700 boxes of noodles, 250kg of lollies, 800kg of fruit and 2500 sausages. Competitors said the addition of the 50km event had made the running less isolated because there were so many more competitors and spectators. North Face 100 race director Tom Landon-Smith of AROC Sport described the 2013 event as possessing a ‘special vibe’.

A celebrity competitor was Antarctic adventurer James Castrission from Blackheath. Castrission was thrilled to finish 13th in the men’s open division of the 50km race with a time of 5:40:24. It was a ‘perfect day with an incredibly positive vibe from all involved. Awesome to be a part of it,’ he said.