Wellington’s Te Kopahou Reserve is a place of steep hills, scrubby coastal headlands and numerous tracks. A few years ago I ran from my home, around the south coast, grinding up the 400m Tip Track climb almost to the observatory at Hawkins Hill, then down to Red Rocks and along the coast back home. Twenty kilometres, in the heat of the day, at a jog. Door to door, nearly three hours. I was shattered. And for the rest of the weekend, near useless.
I was training for a run over the Tararua Range’s 32km Southern Crossing. Despite jodphur-shaped thighs, I’ve never been a fast runner, and the race would probably take me eight hours.
So how do people train for long mountain runs? I consulted Lucky Legs, multisport legend Steve Gurney’s autobiography. During my three-hour run, I’d eaten no food. But more importantly, I’d not drunk enough water. Gurney recommended as much as one litre per hour.
The next weekend I took a 2.5-litre bladder of water and energy gels. It was difficult to drink that much
