The Northburn100

This was my first time racing the 100km distance, so I was super excited! The training block leading up to the Northburn went well; I was working seven days a week to save for travel later on that year, so I combined a lot of commuting with running and squeezed in as much hill work as I could. I was a bit nervous as the course profile had 6000m of climbing over 100km. Finally, my last big run was done, my ITB was strapped up, I’d packed my bags, finished my last client of the day, and then it was 4:30 am on Friday, and I was driving down to Cromwell to meet up with my French running buddies. Despite the car breaking down, a nasty cold, and not feeling very flash, I took that as a good sign that race day would be good. After the funniest race briefing I had ever attended by Terry, I swam in the lake and had an early night in my tent. I almost slept through my alarm and just made it to the 6 am start. The first loop was pretty straight up and straight down. I worked through ticking off aid stations, and before I knew it was late afternoon, raining, and I was 80km in, pushing up a big hill to the highest point. The climbs went on forever! Thankfully the 100km runners weren’t sent down the loop of despair. My quads were completely wrecked as I bombed down the steep slope; the lights of Cromwell were in the distance, and the dark sky was covered in clouds. The last 5km was a track, and I could hear the music of the finish long before I saw it. I managed to hang on to a decent pace and sprinted the last hundred metres to the finish. 1^st place female! Pretty happy with that! I stuck around to support other runners and didn’t get to bed until the next day. Overall, the Northburn has been my favourite race :)