Inspirational read
January 2023, and I am having a look at my goals for the year. Looming over the year is the fact that I will turn 60 in December and I decide that I need to do something really memorable- for my 50th I hand selected a group of mates and we went to Fiji for the weekend in an effort to recreate the Hangover movie. Since then, a heart attack and a different approach to alcohol meant that this would be a different style of celebration.
I had one friend who was going to run around Lake Pupuke with a few of his mates until he had done 60 Kilometres. I thought that something like that would be how I would see in 60. I am a Chiropractor and spend my days encouraging people to get greater and what could be more inspirational than travelling down to the South Island and attempt to tackle a 60k race over one of New Zealand's great walks. I had recently run the track in a day and was eager to see what it would be like racing the course rather than stopping for lunch and to take photos of the odd Weka.
I set up my calendar for events that I would enter that would get me set up and ready to race the Kepler Challenge. This would be the best way for me to chunk this big goal down so that instead of being daunted by a massive task I could just tick off race after race that would have me ready. Each race became a commitment, and I could just focus on the short step ahead rather than a 60k nightmare. I also needed to learn how to transition myself from predominately a road runner to a trail guy. I stared watching You Tube videos of ultra-running and tried to get as many tips as I could.
The first step was to buy the gear. I needed to get some hard wearing, grippy, but comfortable trail shoes. If you dare ask in a trail runners chat group what shoes you should wear be prepared for lots of advice. The shoe that received the most recommendations was the HOKA speed goat, closely
