‘Brutal’ Colonial Knob tests winner
Titahi Bay athlete Angus HulmeMoir overcame dehydration and a throbbing headache to win the veterans’ section of this year’s gruelling Grand Traverse.
Hulme-Moir, 48, successfully defended his over-40s crown on April 3.
He sweated though Whitireia Coastal Park, across Porirua Harbour and private coastal farmlands, and along purposebuilt mountainbike trails at Rangituhi/Colonial Knob to retain his title.
Hulme-Moir was happy with a time of 4h 25min, which made him the third fastest man overall, though he was still a fair way behind winner Daniel Jones’ time of 3h 44min.
The 18km mountain run over Colonial Knob and along Wellington’s rugged western coastline was brutal, Hulme-Moir said.
He noticed a runner ahead of him hit the wall – ‘‘it can kill at the best of times’’.
The hard uphill slogs – after having kayaked for 10km and cycled for 24km – were ‘‘beautiful but gruelling, or should that be gruelling but beautiful’’.
Hulme-Moir said he trained hard for the race, but was feeling nervous and sick on the day, so he kept his breakfast to a banana with muesli.
He ‘‘stuffed my hydration’’ by not taking in enough water and had a throbbing headache by the end.
Women’s category winner Lizzy Bunckenburg of Johnsonville, who was timed at 4h 49min, said by the time she got to the run she was ‘‘just surviving really’’.
Normally it might have been her strongest section, but a broken foot more than three years ago restricted her to maintenance running and she admitted to struggling.
‘‘I pushed really hard on the bike,’’ she said, ‘‘so my legs were just dead on the run and my foot was pretty sore. I spent the whole race waiting for someone to pass me.’’
The Grand Traverse, now in its 11th year, drew more than 850 participants, including Titahi Bay mother and daughter, Katie and Millie Jenkins, who won the women’s and schoolgirls’ titles.