The Motatapu Challenge

HMMM yes I have been remiss in updating things this last month but here we are at last! (Pic's coming soon)


The Motatapu Challenge bills itself as "the hardest off road marathon in NZ" so I was really looking forward to a testing run over incredible terrain and the traditional blue skies of central Otago.

They say two out of three ain't bad and that's about what I got. Yes the terrain is amazingly beautiful, the weather was typically fantastic but the hardest off road marathon in NZ? I don't think so.

The 13th of March 2009 was a crystal clear day. I was in Queenstown and got picked up by my regular Sth Island running buddy and foe in the Razor - Marvin trophy Tony "Razor" Sharpe nice and early at about 5:35am so we could make the drive to Wanaka in time for the bus to the start line on the Motatapu Station (Owned by none other than Shanaia Twain).

We arrived at the Glendhu Bay pick up point on daybreak which was magical (and freezing cold) and were ferried up to the start line. I was hoping for a leopard skin clad Twain to be at the start line waiting for me to wish me luck and start the race but alas she must have slept in (maybe she was making her way to one of the check points to hand out refreshments and motivate us all with a song or two).

Tony was extremely confident he was going to win back the Razor Marvin Trophy as he had been training hard and I had only had 6 training runs in the 5 weeks leading into the race so all the stars seemed aligned for a Razor Sharpe victory.

We got separated in the start area as Tony was still in line for the WC as we were called up to the start line and apparently only made it by seconds. Timing wise this was not going to be a big issue as the event is extremely well organinsed and every competitor has a transponder which logs the exact start and finish time as they cross the lines.

In reality it probably helped me a bit as even though I felt like I was going quite slowly and went through a really tough mental patch between the 20&30km marks I didn't know if Tony was in front or behind me so I just had to keep on plodding.

I knocked the first half off in 2hrs 5mins which was pretty good considering the level of training I had put in but then that training (or lack off) really showed for the next 10km which took close to an hour and a half and I really suffered mentally more than physically.

Just past the 30km mark i found my rythym again and really enjoyed some great downhill sections and river crossings and made up around 60 places in the last 10km.

Prior to the race I had said I would be incredibly happy with anywhere between 4.5 and 5 hrs. I crossed the line in 4hrs 31mins and felt pretty fresh which was great as I still must of had a good base following the Kepler Challenge.

Tony unbeknown to me felt good all the way round but just couldn't get any speed up so finished around 5hrs 10mins and was gutted - still there were plenty of people coming in looking much worse for wear and taking a lot longer than him and he will be on fire when he competes in his favourite race in May over the Routeburn track.

You can never call 42.2 km easy and yes it was a challenge and I had a fantastic time but the race is run pretty much the entire length on a farm road or 4wheel drive track interspersed with a number of easy stream and river crossings so it didn't really feel like it was a true off road event.

Would I do it again - definately. This event is a great cross over event for a road runner wnating to experience an "off road" type event out in the open and it does goe through some spectacular scenery!

The Mac's West Coast Marathon out in the Waitakere Ranges (now the "Speights" West Coaster) took me six and a half hours in November and even though it has a road section it was a real killer but still by far the hardest off road race I have competed in km for km - See my entry "From Emotional Depths to Great Heights" for a review of this event.

Only a few weeks to go until I head off to Nepal for the Everest Marathon now - just getting all the jabs etc required and one more event a quick half marathon in Rotorua with the Xterra off road series on the 18th of April.

I promise I will update all again soon!