The Wellington ultra

In mid July 2024, right before my clinical exams as a final year osteopath student, I decided it would be a great time to sign up to the WUU2K (Wellington Urban Ultra). As I was pretty flat out studying and cramming general medicine and pathophysiology, the next thing I knew, it was 4 am and I was eagerly standing on a cold, windy tarmac in Wellington Airport. It was 7 degrees, and the weather report was southerly gales. I hadn’t had time to get a headtorch, so I found a kid's spare one that was a raccoon. The officials at the race village were not impressed. The next morning, I reckoned I'd waste time getting my rain jacket back in my pack, so I opted to shiver in a singlet and shorts while the rain and wind made me super keen for the starting gun to go off. The first climb was straight up from Khandalla in some slippery mud. For a 65km run, I was surprised by the sprint start, and unfortianley turned out, the raccoon did not cooperate as a light. This led to a cut-up knee as I took a tumble onto some rocks. The next 40km was super hilly and typical Wellington, and a fair bit of mud! I felt my left hamstring grinding to nothing as we churned through the kms. At the aid station before the final big climb, I felt knackered but keen to keep in the race. There was some pretty sweet homemade baking at the top of the hill. As I clung on the last 10km through Wellington, I remember thinking that I would never do these walks for fun (was scarred after that), surprising, I guess running is a full body sport, my shoulder got pretty sore and I couldn’t move it, so I was stoked when I could hear the cheering of the finish line and managed to sprint across the line. 3^rd female, but it had sure been a day. All I can say is windy Wellington didn’t disappoint. Then I was kinda stuck in the rain as I didn’t know anyone there and didn’t have any clothes on me, so I did the sensible thing and went to the closest pub!