Tigy’s Blog

Xterra 2008 Race1 Team Tiger Yamasaki, Coyote Colquhoun, Panther Hamilton, Mountain Goat Maloney, Bobcat Boyce, Big & Little Horn Clark

Did my very first off road race in the weekend, a mild 16km jaunt out in riverhead, northwest of Auckland.

I’ve done a couple of 10k races on road, but never anything this long, or off road! I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. It was tough, pretty much the first 30-40 minutes were uphill, with one real leg killer at the 7k mark. The rest of the team from work opted to downgrade to the short course, just 6.5k, but me being me wanted the challenge.

Gave my ankle a roll at the top of the big hill, but it came right after a few more km. It was awesome running through the bush on the flat and downhill, at least the bits that weren’t wet clay lined mud slides! There is nothing like being in a row of guys, running through the bush, all wordlessly pushing each other along… Highly recommend the experience!

Managed to knock off the course in 1:21:12, which for me was a great time. I have to admit that by the end I didn’t have much left in my legs and was pretty pleased to finish in one piece. Big ups to Macs’ who provided beers at the finish line, great idea!

Thinking if I can polish off 16km in that time I might be up to a half marathon before years end. We’ll have to wait and see on that though.

Next ones in a months time, can’t wait to see what the course is like!

On a final note I saw the most awesome mushrooms/toadstools in the forest. I mean these were exactly like the ones in the story books, you know the bright red with white spots. Had there been a few fireflys around I would have sworn there were fairies there too!