Northburn 100

Watching the sunset and checking in to my billion star hotel for the night at the summit of Roys Peak (1578m), Wanaka. The knee is doing pretty good. Guess it’s time to start training for the 100 miler.

I camped at the summit to watch the sunset, and woke up early to watch a beautiful sunrise over Lake Wanaka. The 360 degree view from up there was magnificent.

7 miles in the bag: 3280ft of climb to the summit of Ben Lomond and back. The view of Queenstown from the summit was glorious. 6 more days until the big race. Happy that the knee is holding up well.

Following my knee injury, it felt like I was starting all over again, but I was trying not to let fear take over, and training hard for the upcoming 100 mile mountain run. Logging as much vertical as possible. Mind and body getting forged by the mountains and winds of New Zealand.

While the Ben Lomond summit (1748m) gets all the attention and love from trampers and tourists, I wanted to show some love to the peak that’s connected to Ben Lomond but slightly shorter (1631m), Bowen Peak. There is no track to the summit. You just scramble up on all fours, and the views from the summit are stunning. Very peaceful compared to the crowded Ben Lomond summit.

I got to the saddle in under 13 minutes. I bent over, holding my knees, trying to catch my breath with a big grin. A family of hikers sitting at the saddle bench noticed and asked, “Why do you run?” Without any hesitation I replied, “Just for the pure joy of doing it.”

Fear of failure to reach the goal only adds fuel to the desire to attain it. Northburn 100 mile: you don’t race it, you survive it. The race truly stood up to its name. Hands down, one of the toughest races on the planet. This race was my atonement for my DNF at the Hillary 80km ultra.

Everything that could go wrong went wrong. A wrong turn that cost 5 extra km, a twisted ankle, a 100+km gale, 10,000+m of climbing (over 33,000ft), nausea, and peeing blood at one point. But the fear of failure to reach the goal only added fuel to the desire to attain it, and I finished. No wonder this race is a Hardrock 100 qualifier and gets you 4 UTMB points.

It was my first skyrunning race, and now I know why they call it skyrunning. Completely exposed, extremely technical, razor rock ridges, brutal weather with gale and rain, lots of elevation and more. Winds and mountains of New Zealand putting mind and body to the absolute test!