THE RACE THAT WASN’T A RACE
Crush the Cargill 24-hour Challenge is a race that isn’t a race. Dreamt up over a few pints at Inch Bar by Steve Tripp, Nolan Hill and I, its sole purpose was as a fundraiser for The Valley Project – an awesome multi-faceted community-led development programme in Dunedin’s North East Valley.
Folks were invited to join us as we ran up and down Mt Cargill for a day. From our base to the top and back would be 8.75 km with an elevation gain/loss of around 650 metres, which is no joke! As an added bonus to the 24-hour challenge, the Bivouac Outdoors Dunedin Trail Runners group had organised their own race, the Cargill Christmas Cracker.
It was an early start for me on Saturday 16 December. Waking at 6.30am to get some breakfast in, I loaded up the truck and headed off to Bethune’s Gully. Unfortunately I was operating on five-and-a-half hours’ sleep after being bullied into drinking more pints by Steve the night before. Of course, this was
