Start line vibes and
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