Trail Run

Looking back now, I can see I wasn't always grateful when I should have been. I didn't have much, if anything to grumble about as a child. I grew up in a small town where I basically lived outside in safe, green places. My dad was a doctor so we had

Where: North of sunny Nelson, Cable Bay Walkway extends from Glenduan to Cable Bay, providing expansive and impressive views of Tasman Bay and Cable Bay. Distance: 7.4 km one way – the trail can be completed in either direction. Degree of difficult

Where: Ships Stern Circuit is nestled in Lamington National Park, which lies on the Lamington Plateau of the McPherson Range on the Queensland/New South Wales border. The 20,600 hectares Lamington National Park is located 85km from Southport on the G

Sometimes it just feels right, and sometimes you look at something, and you ask yourself, 'hmmm, why hasn’t this been done before?' The inaugural Tails n Trails event felt a bit like that. It seems like a concept that just works and fits perfectly, a

More often than it used to, the question of why do I run crops up. Mostly it is asked by someone other than myself and it is usually asked in an inquisitive rather than accusatory tone. Usually. It seems that if you look a certain age you have to jus

I enjoy adding some purpose in my daily training habits with goals. My main BIG role goals are intertwined with gradual improvement in my ability to be a good father, husband, physiotherapist and coach. At the start of 2018 I wrote down a swimming an

The Kangaroo Island ‘Run With the Roos’ Marathon is not one of those marathons you just happen to train a bit for, and then go and run. It takes logistics not unlike NASA landing the InSight spacecraft on Mars to get there, so it definitely falls int

They had me at scones and jam. Who wouldn’t go past an aid station, stocked with freshly baked scones and delicious plum (I hope) jam. When my editor Gregor Paul asked me to write (in December) why I had signed up for the 2019 Tarawera Ultramarathon

When I was young, somewhere around 10-12 years, my parents thought I was too skinny and took me to the doctor. What was wrong with him, did he have some sort of allergy or disease? Nothing obvious showed up. I was sports-mad and played rugby for a cl

4am in Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. “What are you in Taipei for?” asks the woman beside me. “An endurance running event,” I reply. “A 24-hour race where you run as far as you can within that time.” “You mean a marathon?” She’s impressed, and

What is not debatable is that staying active is vital during pregnancy – for the health of mum and the baby on-board. Medical director at New Zealand Football and doctor for the All Whites, Football Ferns and Northern Mystics netballers, Dr Mark Fulc

DIEZ, NUEVE, OCHO...we are starting already? But we just got off the bus!. SIETE, SEIS, CINCO, CUATRO...set the watch, quick selfie at the start line. TRES, DOS, UNO...and it hit me. I was here. I was doing it. My dream of running in Patagonia was be

“Dying”, heart jumping out of her chest, puffing and panting – Vanessa Preston felt all the feels when she first started running nearly two years ago. The West Auckland-based Preston, who is a publicist for performing arts and also a performer, says

As the ridgeline fell away before me, I slowed my cadence. A cool breeze swept up from the valley below bringing a moment’s relief from the humidity. I looked for where the trail would take me next – across a valley floor carved by a creek and long a

During the High Trail Vanoise 6 Cols event, her first real mountain race, Nancy Jiang promised herself she would never do this again. “I was very close to tears,” she remembers. “It was the first time I had to run in snow and along mountain ridges wi

My best mate Craig 'Hawkspeed' Hawkyard (nickname earned due to his ability to fly over trail terrain) is running the multi-day 'Running the Planet' 250km race in Wanaka (March 2019) with his two brothers. To prepare we thought we could align a long

In this issue of Trail Runner we’re going to discuss two integral facets of sound performance and how these two impact on, and for many athletes are mistaken for, each other. We are talking about intensity and economy. Both of which can either make o

So I am an on-timer, I don’t like being late, it stresses me out. To combat this I make sure my articles are finished about two weeks from the due date and ironically on this article time has somehow slipped away from me and I am only seven days away

Both running and yoga have a long and distinguished history. The origin of modern distance running is often traced back to the legendary runner Pheidippides who ran to pass on messages about the invasion of Marathon in 490BC. The origins of yoga can

After attending the University of Canterbury, Espiner spent 10 years as a newspaper journalist before switching to television in 2003. He has a proven track record in political reporting, having been political editor for Television New Zealand and, e