A full and wonderful weekend at the WUU2k (Wellington Urban Ultra).
The morning started early with a drop off for Lee at his 65km start line in Johnsonville. Despite the dark I managed to bump into heaps of our Welly friends and wish them well before the set off into the hills. Then as Lee’s race began, I set off back down to the Hutt to pick up the next Webber to race.
Nath and I had breakfast and did final gear checks before meeting the rest of our crew – good friends Ben, who would chaperone Nath around the 21km course, and his amazing wife Catherine who would keep me organised (and prevent me from getting lost) between start and finish lines.
Starting at Owhiro Bay, this course is TOUGH. Grateful for Ben’s ‘elite’ fitness and experience on these trails, gave me plenty of peace of mind that no matter what happened, Nath was in good hands. Catherine and I enjoyed a far less physical role, grabbing coffees and intercepting Ben and Nathan at various points throughout the course, providing big cheers and moral support for them and the other runners out there we knew, before making our way to the race finish at the Velodrome.
– Finish line photo (image 8) by Photos4Sale
Congrats Nathan, a strong finish and 4 minutes faster than last year (on a slightly harder course too). So grateful to have had Ben by your side the whole way, zero chance Mum would have kept up!
2:53:07, 52nd out of 197 (43rd Male finisher). Little legend!
To Ben and Catherine – thank you so much, you are the best WUU Crew we could have ever asked for.
And a big congrats to Lee on completing the 65km too – the final medal of the WUU series now complete, having now ticked off all courses, including the relay. It wasn’t the race he trained for or hoped to have, with some unexpected spanners thrown in the works he was far outside the goals he’d set himself. That last photos probably sums it up. But that’s ultra-running isn’t it? Sometimes finishing is winning. It was still phenomenal watching him cross the line with good friend Terry McDonald and Terry’s bro. Well done team! 65km and 2,800m vert across Wellington’s urban trails is no walk in the park. A massive accomplishment!
