Insight into the long march. First 10km :this is kinda easy, feel good, geeze theses chicks are running fast, wow I

The daily grind. Wake up at around 0500 when he camp workers and volunteers get up and start singing, laughing or typically making a noise. Hunting around in the dark for your headlamp, trying not to roll onto the person next door. Then its out the tent, shake out your shoes to check for scorpions, head to the fire pits to warm up and get some hot water from the locals who are always smiling so you can rehydrate some meal that never really tastes like it says on the packet. To be fair the Absolute Wilderness scrambled eggs have been going down a treat, followed by a Jeds coffee bag. Then it

Hey guys loving the emails, especially the ones about being an old, or a fat bastard keep them coming and for the record things did get a bit tooty in the tent last night, 3 days of dehydrated food will do that. We had an awesome night last night as the locals started singing again as I went off to sleep. I wish I had enough energy to get out of the tent but the arthritis had set in. Today was a true desert day as the heat really kicked in and caught a lot of people by surprise. I really struggled with the heat and it upset the stomach to start with but luckily it settled before check point one. The scenery is amazing but harsh with no shade on the course at all,

Firstly thanks guys for all the supportive emails, Janene I hope your son is planning his escape to do one. Cheers also to the boys I raced with in 2014 for your support I miss you guys Mark send me your race details to my home email

Hey Guys

Day one is over and it was fast! There are some really fast runners here and with a relatively flat course today they went out fast. I got carried away a bit early on a nearly blew a gasget in the later stages. Comedy of errors so far, Sth African airlines left about 30 competitors bags behind and we all had to go out shopping yesterday for race food an electrolytes. My bag curse continues and now I pulled others down with me. The worst thing was after having to eat crap and ruining my low carb high fat nutrition plan, the bags showed up in the desert this morning. So there was a mad repack of race gear before the start. The problem was I didn

Kia Ora Guys Well its almost time and I hope everyone is as amped up as I am. I have been experimenting with a "High fat, low carbohydrate" nutrition plan, with the aim of becoming "fat burning adapted" for this Ultra. Will let you know how it all goes. Feeling good at the moment, maybe a bit fatigued with work and extracurricular commitments, but should be good with a bit of pre-race rest. Had a slight set back the other day when my flatmates dog ate my race pack, but it has provided the opportunity to trial new lighter ones. Advice this late in the game probably won't help much except -Training is pretty much over now, rest up, do shorter relaxing runs or walks, don't try to smash out a long run now all that will happen is injury -Do your short runs or long walks with the pack and all the kit you are going to use on race day, see what rubs what works. See how easy it is to access your food, gels, snacks during your run / walk -Pack light but don't skimp on food. The lighter your pack the less stress your body suffers each day and the faster you run. It's a fine trade off of being too light and not recovering well and too heavy and being out in the heat too long -Take it easy on day one! -I have climbed up the race rankings on every race. Not because I'm running faster each day, but because people are getting injured, getting pulled from the race, or not recovering before the next day. Start slow, finish strong, the race doesn't start till the longest day -Bring variety in food and fluid supplements. -Look after your feet, blisters are avoidable and end many a race -Use bodyglide or 3M rash cream -Unless your trying to win, stop and take photos, enjoy the camp night life at the end of each stage, chat, make friends, its an experience like no other -Bring some nice clothes for the post race dinner Awesome Looking forward to meeting you all, its gonna be a blast. Inia PS if anyone is still thinking about a post race trip, hit me up when you arrive at the hotel prior to race day

Well things are not going too bad. Finished the Tarawera Ultra a couple of weeks ago, 100km in 13:43. A bit slower than expected, but consiering the amount of entrants (and at times traffic) and the weather conditions (rained all day) it wasn't too bad. I'm still a bit in that post race recovery phase and now that I know I can run 100km comfortably am moving to regain a bit of strength and pack endurance.

Hey Guys

Hope everyones training is going well. I will be hitting the Tarawera Ultra 100km next weekend and it will be a good guage of where my training is at. I like to complete a single day Ultra 100km / 100 miles

Kia ora koutou katoa (Greetings to you all)

Ko Inia Raumati ahau (my names Inia Raumati)