The Great Naseby Water Race 2021, held in 2022

Anyone else had a race in their schedule cancelled, postponed or affected due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic?

The Great Naseby Water Race (GNWR), held annually each August in the small town of Naseby, was one of them. While New Zealand was plunged into a lockdown last August, the organisers were hurriedly trying to find a new date for the 2021 GNWR. Normally held towards the end of winter, the race is made up of 10km laps around the water race that feeds Naseby with water and acts as the township supply & firefighting defence for the forests.

Famously, 2000 feet above worry level, Naseby is a small town nearly two hours northwest of Dunedin. The race each year, draws roughly 150-200 ultrarunners looking for a chance to run personal bests and experience the pearls of the small town.

So, on Thursday afternoon, two weeks ago, I found myself on a plane landing in Dunedin Airport. I met mum & dad (who had been on a South Island roadie for a few weeks) and we made the trip north to the race HQ. Dad was racing the 100-mile event and I’d have a crack at the 50km.

I spent Friday helping mum crew dad during his race and while I did manage to tomato myself in the sun, it was good to catch up with a bunch of friends. Namely, Andy Smith & Mark Rigby and their respective crews – both were running the 200-mile event. Think a marathon is hard? Try eight of them, back to back. True insanity.

Saturday rolled around and it was hot. The race started at 10am, was exposed and the heat of day would come round at about 2pm (30 degrees). The options were, A) run fast to hopefully miss the heat and most likely blow up or B) pace myself and push through. I chose the latter.

The loops were roughly 10.1km and consisted of a figure-of-eight course with one 6km loop and one 4km loop. The total elevation is about 150-180m per lap. On a cool day, this would be a PB worthy course. Today, it was a get through without blowing course.

We started out slowly and I found a nice spot in third, running with a couple of runners. Ahead of me was a local fella and Dave Grimes, both very good runners. I was tossing and turning over whether to run with them but decided it was best to race smart and my best chance of making up time would be towards the end. I was also unsure of my fitness – I had a stress fracture in September 2021 and pre-Naseby, I’d only had a month of decent training.

The first couple of laps were spent exploring the course and ensuring I conserved some energy. Both 54 & 55-minute laps, I was in a good place and enjoying running by myself.

By lap three, it was starting to heat up and I was pretty stoked I’d decided to wear a singlet for the race. Each time through the race HQ/aid station I was sponging myself with water and swapping my soft flask for a full one of electrolyte. I find it hard to eat in ultras where it’s hot and runnable, instead, I tend to eat more gels/chews and drink a lot of electrolytes.

By the end of lap four, I had a bit of cramp in my legs and I knew the last lap wouldn’t be as easy as previous laps. I tied a soaking scarf around my neck (Western States style), took an ice-cold soft flask and headed out for the final 10km. Dad had previously said that the front two were well ahead and my plans for a fast lap were quickly diminishing, so I told myself 3rd place was a great result post-injury and embraced the sufferfest.

With 4km to go, I passed Dave who I thought was running in second. He mentioned we were the front two, for some reason I’d managed to pass the leader earlier but didn’t even realise – joys of an ultra. Dave and I ran together for a bit, but in the end, I was able to move ahead by a few minutes and take the win.

We were both pretty hammered by the end of it and I suspect another kilometre and we may have seen a different winner.

I’m quite pleased with this result. A wins a win, but more importantly 4:48 in those conditions and post-injury is a result I’m proud of. It’s not my fastest, nor my slowest, but shows that the fitness is improving, sets a good benchmark and means that hopefully by mid-2022 I might be ready for something bigger and faster!

So, that’s the GNWR for 2021 and hopefully it’s the first & last time it’s held in summer!

A big thank you to mum & dad for the support, my sponsors (Hoka, Gu Energy & COROS), the supporters both at the race and online and to the event team behind the GNWR. Shout out to dad as well for taking 3rd place in the 100-mile event in 21:50 – nice!

Thanks for reading. See you next time!