Kate has been a member for about two months now. She started with a couple of GPP classes but now she is a regular during our daily Wod. She recently completed the Kepler Challenge in central Otago here is a short story from Kate about her experience.
My New Years resolution was to complete my first ultra marathon, the Kepler Challenge. The race is 60km of varying terrain, but involves 1350m of ascent and 1350m of descent. The longest I ever trained this year was 30km, but I spent a lot of time doing hill reps, single track mountain runs and some strength sessions towards the end of the year with Southern Peak.
Two weeks before the event, I went off into Central Otago and Mount Cook National Park, where I got some tramping in at altitudes up to 1850m. I was super nervous leading up to the Kepler, because I felt I hadn’t done enough long runs; I’d never run longer than 30km, and I’d never run for more than 3.5hours. I hadn’t trained with much food/electrolytes and I didn’t often train with a heavy pack. I was feeling a little under prepared!
The Kepler race kicked off and my nerves immediately vanished; the track is amazing, and the atmosphere was awesome. Once you get up onto the tops, the track takes you across ridges and through mountains. It feels like you’re in a movie. I hit 35km with surprise, as I felt pretty fresh. I remember thinking, ‘wow, you’ve just ran the longest distance in your life, and you feel great. You may actually be able to do the whole thing!’ Once I hit 45km, however, I was feeling it. The last 15km was the most physically and mentally grueling time of my life. I got through it by lying to myself, and saying ‘This is SO easy.’ My boyfriend, Sam, met me at the 10km mark and ran the last part with me. Without his support, I think it would have taken me at least 30min longer to finish. The Kepler was everything I had hoped and more. I can’t recommend that track enough! Looking forward to training up my leg and core strength now, so that my legs don’t die on me at 40km next time.
Amazing stuff Kate, congratulations on finishing this super impressive goal and hope you have a new goal in mind for next year:)
Christian
Tuesday 13/12/16
Every 10 min for 40 min
200m Run
10 deadlift 110/75kg
20 Wall Balls 9/6kg
20 Burpee Box Jump 24/20′
