Over the weekend was the 8th annual running of The Goat. The Goat is a mountain run on Mt Ruapehu from Whakapapa to Turoa ski fields.
It was the first time I've entered, and apart from expecting it to be pretty tough terrain, I'd had no real expectations of the exact course. Training had gone quite well, over the previous 3 months, and I was feeling in good shape and eager to go.
The trouble was, apart from running the course itself, it turns out to be devilishly hard to train for. This became apparent within a few kilometers of leaving the Whakapapa mountain road. The course is less about running fitness, and more about rock hopping skills, hence the name. Even on the sections that are runnable, the runner is constantly negotiating their route over and around rocks, boulders and scree. Then there is the river crossings, mud pits, muddy ledges and gullies, bush bashing, waterfalls and rocky boulder stream beds that must be tackled. All up there is probably only about 1/4 that is easy clear terrain that can be run at full tilt.
It certainly was an experience. While base fitness was reasonable, the fitness to run in such terrain was certainly not able to be trained for.
Make sure you go into satellite mode and drill into the terrain. It looks pretty flat from a birds eye view, but if you look at the elevation plot you will get a better idea.
The first half of the course was mostly spent getting orientated about how to most efficiently run the terrain. I ran every thing runnable, but I walked the steep uphill scree and rock sections that required a climb and scramble. I've found that I'm slow to walk up hill in comparison with the other runners, but seem to go faster when running downhills and rock hopping down. Which meant lots of overtaking and them being overtaken like a game of snakes and ladders over rocks. However passing on the trail was almost as hard as running it. Overtaking lanes where few and far between. And when taken usually leading to a wrong turn.
On one occasion, I spied a passing option, followed a runner ahead only to find her turn around with a wide eyed look and declare, "Don't follow me!", as she jumped off a ledge, landed a metre down on her rear and then skidded down a 5m muddy small cliff to land in a deep muddy bog beneath. Of course I followed, as did about a dozen behind me, leaping off to gain precious time like demented mud encrusted lemmings.
On previous runs of the Kepler, forcing down the food intake early enough had be my typical downfall. This time I was determined to be entirely disciplined about it. Even though I struggle to eat on races, I made sure I was armed with some new PeakFuel gels. These where perfect, quick and easy to access and consume, avoiding long chewing etc. Once taken 10mins later I was hitting top gear and feeling great.
Over halfway through I was still feeling in good shape and was well into the food. A step scree slope slowed me down but the pace picked up once again on the decent down past Lake Surprise and down a subsequent boulder ravine. Through an alpine plateau, still in good time and I was pondering about opening up the throttles, thinking it was just one manageable climb left.
Then I emerged out of some bush from a small rocky ravine and looked up. My heart dropped with my jaw. Still to be negotiated was the remaining formidable terrain which was what make the Goat what it is. Before me was a slow line of runners gradually scrambling up a waterfall that went straight up into the sky. All illusions of a faster than expected time went out the window. It took about 30mins of hard graft and peak lung capacity. While immensely scenic terrain, it was a total gut buster. At the top each runner was rewarded with a woman in a costume, flagellating runners with a fake cat-of-nine-tails. The whipping seemed a pleasant and generous reward in comparison with the agony of the climb up the waterfall itself.
The final downhill and long slow shuffle up the last km of the Turoa mountain road was a long exhausted blur. In fact much of the first half sections of the race still remains a blur of random terrain. I got into a slow sprint race crossing the finish line, and that I can remember in absolute clarity.
