With 12 months to prepare and a much better appreciation of what was in store I came into the 2008 event with a little more confidence. Work commitments restricted time prior to the event & I picked up my competition Tony "Razor" Sharpe in Queenstown and arrived in Te Anau on the evening before the race giving us just enough time to un pack our gear have a quick catch up with friends before registration & the race briefing. Once again I was blown away by the military precision of the organising committee & volunteers in the registration area. Every entrant was relieved to hear a path had been cleared through a large slip on the track which avoided enforcing a 45 minute detour. The only concern now was a nesting Falcon that had been attacking trampers near Rainbow Reach (two had sought medical attention that day for cuts to their heads following attacks).
The next day was a cracker. Slight cloud cover but very still and it was forecast to clear.
With a 6am start time Tony & I arrived at the event base with plenty of time to spare which is just as well as while Tony made his third nervous visit to the toilet, I couldn't help wondering for the umpteenth time if I had packed all the compulsory gear (2x thermal tops, 1x thermal long johns, 1x waterproof jacket, 1x waterproof pants, 1x beanie, 1x set of gloves, 1x survival blanket) all of which coupled with the 2 litres of water, leppin gels, muesli bars and various other food supplements weighed an absolute ton and added to the challenge of running the 60km event.
Once we started Tony & I jostled for position over the first 5km. With the Razor Marvin Trophy up for grabs I knew he wasn't going to go down without a fight especially after beating me by over 40 minutes last year. By Brod Bay I was in front and completed the 1st 14km including the 1400metre climb up to Luxmore Hut in 1hr 55min.
The next 16km covers some of the most spectacular scenery in the region
across the tops and views out
across lake
TeAnau & Lake
Manpouri. I opened up a 15 minute lead on Tony over this part of the course and never looked back (probably because I still had over half the field in front of me).
The last 30km of the run (although mainly through beautiful open bush) is a killer both mentally and physically. At about the 4hr3omin mark my knees started hurting and the saving grace was that it hurt more to walk than it did to run (or shuffle in my case).
With 20km to go a blister on one of my big toes that I got a couple of weeks prior in the "Mac's West Coaster" flared up but I knew I couldn't stop or take my shoes off or I would never get them back on.
Mentally I was surprisingly upbeat and even turned off my ipod so I could soak up the atmosphere and chat to other runners. I got to the famous rainbow reach (10km to go) in a little over 7hrs20min and was cheered on by the dozens of supporters there congratulating all the runners as they came through.
The last 10km was close to being my fastest. The pain at times felt unbearable but I knew I had a chance of coming in under 8hrs40min which would have meant Tony needed to race a PB to beat me and there was also the opportunity to beat my time from last year by over an hour. The one thing that really got me through the last 5km was Jelly Beans! I grabbed hand fulls at the last two drink stations and kept a continuous trail of them going into my mouth. There were times over the last half hour that I actually found myself groaning out loud in pleasure when a fresh jelly bean went in. Boy did they taste good and the energy rushes were instant! With 1km to go the adrenalin took over and the pain went away. I put my foot down and managed a sprint finish for the last couple of hundred metres overtaking another runner in the finish chute and throwing my arms up in the air as I crossed the finish line in celebration. Although I came in 219th out of 402 competitors I felt victorious -Finishing in 8hrs 34min & 38 seconds I had succeeded in knocking just over an hour off my previous personal best time (2007) and whereas last year I was happy to have completed the challenge this year I was proud to have ran it in such a way that I pushed myself to the limit and at the time I didn't feel I could have run it any faster.
Tony came in in a respectable 9hrs 17mins and having had twin boys this year and limited training he did a fantastic job in completing his fifth Kepler Challenge.
That night I slept like a baby and even managed to get up and go for a 20min run (shuffle) in the morning to help loosen up before the official prize giving. It is here that you really get a sense of what the event is all about. All the entrants and their families/supporters turn up in great spirits and stories are shared about the event. One such amazing story was of an entrant who had suffered from breast cancer and competed the race to show others that you can carry on and accomplish amazing things - when she crossed the finish line and was presented with her medal she promptly presented it to a friend who was just beginning her battle with cancer.
Thankfully on the day no-one suffered a falcon attack and out of the 402 people that lined up only two failed to finish due to injury.
All that was left to do was to hand over the Razor - Marvin Trophy.
In The Belgian Beer Cafe - Mission Bay
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