Start line vibes and fears are hard to ignore
On the start line of every race you run, there’s a vibe you can sense. Sometimes that’s mostly down to what it’s taken you to get there – and how prepared you are.
Believe me, it’s pretty hard to be influenced by anything else when you’re nervous about a lack of training and having your insides eaten up by a sense of impending doom.
But other times, the vibe is dictated to by the scale of the event, and the buzz.
A small, local event where you know many others will have a different feeling to a mass participation monster of a race surrounded by hundreds of amped-up strangers.
A few years back, I ran a race organised by a legend of New Zealand ultramarathon running, Gary Regtien. The entry form was paper only – no online entry – and the race briefing involved us standing around a course map he had sign-written. It was a real labour of love for Regtien, who set us off from a local hall towards the Riverhead Forest.
On our return to the hall, there were cups of tea and biscuits, and everyone got a prize and helped put the chairs away after the prizegiving.
There were 37 of us on the start line and I knew plenty of them, plus the volunteers.
I have many warm memories of that day.
Many other races engender that feeling, races such as the Peak Trail Blazer, that started as a school fundraiser in Hawke’s Bay 10 years ago.
But it’s a totally different feeling standing on a big race start line, penned in with crowds of so many others.
Sometimes, it feels impersonal. But some races have a knack of combining that big race vibe with that friendly feel.
The Kepler Challenge, which my Dirt Church Radio co-host Matt Rayment and I are off to run next week, is a great example. It has drawn a crowd to Te A¯ nau for 31 years, but the warm, southern welcome to everyone gives the race a real community feel.
And then there’s the big race of the New Zealand trail
calendar, the Tarawera Ultra. It’s grown from a small race to a fixture of the international scene.
Along the way, it has developed a unique culture – people feel an ownership of Tarawera.
Which explains why, when the race owners, founder Paul Charteris and race director Tim Day, sold it to global endurance sport giant Ironman last year, some people were up in arms.
What was Ironman doing traipsing into the holy territory of trail running, people asked?
So on the podcast, we chatted to Ironman Oceania managing director Dave Beeche.
He was upfront about the perception of Ironman and how they need to deal with that.
‘‘We’re really conscious that we’re the big gorilla in the event market and the big fearmongering is that Ironman has bought the race, they’re going to put the prices up, cut the costs and destroy the culture of the event,’’ says Beeche.
‘‘So we’re conscious of the need to step slowly, take baby steps, learn the space, learn the culture, learn the athletes and the community before seeing where we can add value.’’
Beeche uses the language of business – ‘‘adding value’’, for instance – but there’s no doubt he has an understanding of races that doesn’t come from hanging out in a corporate office.
He’s raced plenty of trail events and loved them, including the first time he went to UltraTrail Australia. And it started at the race registration, when athletes turn up to check-in, the day before the race.
‘‘I thought I’d be in and out in 20 minutes – and I stumbled out of there three hours later, having had the best conversations with people, and I thought, ‘This is really cool’.’’
I know what he means. Trail races have a special vibe, a friendly feeling where it’s not about the times, it’s not about ego. Understanding that will make the start line feel much better, whether that’s at a gorilla of a race, or one organised by a local legend like Regtien.