Thomas Bywater reviews the Lonely Planet of the long-distance runner
The last thing I pack before a trip is a pair of running shoes. It could just be the happy endorphins found running through a new place, or the thought that no one you know will ever witness the sweaty mess you are, but running is a growing pastime for travellers. Air New Zealand put on an extra 5000 seats into Queenstown for the International Marathon and Half Marathon last year.
Running is something people will travel for. Which is why Lonely Planet has just published the Epic Runs of the World.
This illustrated 330-page coffee-table book will set the pulse racing. Covering every stretch of track from here to the Arctic Circle, the book features 51 detailed accounts of fun runs, marathons and “ultra” races by people who have actually run them.
Each track is graded into “easy”, “harder” and “epic”, and comes with a page of alternate routes on a theme. There’s a page on Indiana Jones-esque “Runs Through Ruins”, “Boozy Fun Runs”, even a list of “Urban Hills” — in which Dunedin’s Baldwin St still stakes its claim to being the “world’s steepest”. (A fact your quads won’t think to question when you’re halfway up Otago’s recently downgraded treasure.)
All in all, it’s an exhilarating 200 routes. They have been chosen to inspire runners of all fitness levels, but don’t think you’ll be able to race through them all.
Hot on the heels of 2019 publications such as Lonely Planet’s Global Distillery Tour, Epic Runs is a different beast. It’s not something you can go into as a globe-trotting, boxticking exercise.
Editor Will Cockrell is quick to get in a disclaimer by way of the foreword, saying,
“The people who have written about [the trails] are professional runners, paid to train on a daily basis.”
You could train every day for South Africa’s Comrades ultra or the Everest Base Camp Marathon and not get a chance to compete, let alone finish.
However, the “armchair adventure” value of routes like these is off the charts. As Michael Wardian notes in his account of the North Pole Marathon, as a sponsored runner he had his $28,000 race fee covered but he “couldn’t help but wonder who could afford it?” Turns out, every other year a crowd of professional athletes join investment bankers and hedge-fund managers to run 42km over the Magnetic North Pole.
And it’s races like this where the Epic Runs shines. It highlights the extreme, sometimes bizarre and startlingly beautiful races you might not have known take place. Written as a guide to “explore the world’s most thrilling running routes and trails”, Lonely Planet has enlisted an Olympic village of longdistance endurance athletes to write up their experiences.
Among the author credits are 27 athletes, including at least four professional ultramarathon runners.
New Zealand trail runner Vicki Woolley is one. She shares her account of the 10km “Ghost Run” in Coromandel’s Waihi Gorge, describing it as a beautiful route of silver fern-lined suspension bridges that is “haunted” by a dark history of maimed Karangahake gold miners.
Then there’s Patrick Kinsella’s account of the Kepler Track, in which he describes the “knife-like ridgeline routes” as the sort of dream a trail runner might experience after scoffing too much cheese, just before bedtime.
Seven New Zealand trails made the cut, some of which even the most casual Sunday fun-runner might read through and say, “I’d have a crack at that.” In among the super-marathons and exotic once-in-a-lifetime routes, chances are there will be a trail that catches your eye. Possibly within running distance.
This is a reference book of routes with a useful “Orientation” section with guides on where to stay, the best time to run and circumstantial “things to know” about each route.
Particularly useful inclusions are where running tours are offered, areas of patchy GPS coverage and some gear advice for tough terrain.
Runners are told to research their route and “be kind to your fellow runners and even kinder to the wild landscapes you travel through”.
Beyond this advice, you’re on your own. However, as a runner you’ll be used to being out from the pack, finding space to contemplate and explore the route ahead.