Oxfam Trailwalker

Oxfam Trailwalker

30 November 2009, 3:06PM
Janna Hamilton

World champion Adventure Racer Wayne Oxenham of Team OrionHealth.com has set trail runners a challenge: Run the 100km Oxfam Trailwalker in 10 hours.

“I’m not saying I’ll do it! But I think you could take two hours off our time if you were training for it and it’s what you peaked for.”

Wayne was a member of Team YOMP in this year’s Oxfam Trailwalker on April 4-5 – the annual 100km running or walking challenge through stunning off-road terrain in Taupo.

Team YOMP, Wayne, Gerry Mekkelholt, and Ken Maplesden, crossed the line first in an event record of 12hrs33min. Their fourth team member Glen Alexander retired at 45km after persevering with a stomach bug. Event rules require the winning team to finish with all four original team members so the official winners were mixed team TIS, made up of Barry Fox, Brent Rayner, Carmel Bradley and Steve Pelham, finishing in 13hrs38mins.

Oxfam Trailwalker is in its fifth year in New Zealand. This year the event attracted a record 1200 participants, in teams of four, who took on the challenge of walking or running the 100km trail in under 36 hours to help raise money for Oxfam New Zealand.

Teams sign up for the event, not only for the challenge of conquering the 100kms together, but they also commit to raising a minimum of $2000 per team. More than $1 million was raised from Oxfam Trailwalker 2009 to support Oxfam’s work in the Pacific, East Asia and Africa. Oxfam New Zealand works with developing communities to access safe water and sanitation, to build sustainable livelihoods, to provide education and healthcare and to live free from persecution and violence.

Wayne said it was a unique motivation knowing the purpose of the event was greater than just making it to the finish line.

“I liked the fact that it’s for a good cause – it was a real eye-opener for me to hear the reports back from the Oxfam workers and to find out what difference they make, that was really encouraging.”

Team YOMP, together with its sister team Team TROMP, raised $5000 for Oxfam New Zealand, from generous family and friends, workplace donations and a quiz night that alone raised an impressive $2000.

“It’s a really good challenge,” Wayne said. “It’s a great team event and well put on, the support stations, the atmosphere, the social side of it was really, really cool.”

“I take my hat off to anyone who finishes this, even if they took three days, it’s unbelievable. It’s just amazing what people put themselves through – the experiences that they have out there, the highs and lows, it’s like a whole month of emotions jammed in to 24 hours.”

Or 36 hours for some. The majority of teams that enter the Oxfam Trailwalker finish in around 20-30 hours.

Teams start in two waves, 6am or 7am, and have seven checkpoints throughout the course to refuel, rest, and demand hot food and massages from the 1500 support crew who help get their teams across the line. This year, 282 teams took off in the crisp, dark morning on Saturday, April 4 and by 7pm Sunday night 269 teams had made it home.

Team YOMP were in the second wave and enjoyed the friendly banter as they passed other teams.

“At one point we got to a hill and there must have been about 10 teams around and they all clapped us for running up it…there was a great spirit out there.”

The course takes participants through some spectacular scenery, including Huka Falls, Craters of the Moon, plenty of native bush and views across Lake Taupo.

“My favourite part of the course was going around the lake edge by Kinloch, it’s beautiful, but I was really hanging out for my mountain bike!

“At one point we came across a farmer herding his sheep and as we turned to run through his gate we were kind of waiting for him and I thought ‘nah we’ll just step out and [the sheep] will avoid us’, but in actual fact we stepped out and they took off in different directions. We shouted out ‘oh sorry mate’ and he’s like ‘no worries!’ …it was amazing he whistled three times and his dogs rounded them up – we had some cool experiences out there.”

Team YOMP passed TIS on the last leg coming along the waterfront towards the finish at Taupo’s Great Lake Centre.

“We had had some reports, so we knew we were catching them, it was quite a goal to get them. They were awesome; she especially looked as fresh as a daisy.”

“At the end I was definitely the weakest. In the last kilometre I was like ‘guys I’m going to walk now?’ Nah the guys were a good laugh though.”

Wayne described the “six weeks of madness” leading up to the Oxfam Trailwalker. Asked to join the team a few months out from the event after someone dropped out, he wasn’t able to train with the team as much as he would have liked. First there was placing 16th in the Coast to Coast on February 14, then knocking off the Ironman in 9hr45min on March 7, and just two weeks before Oxfam Trailwalker, Wayne managed to squeeze in a 24-hour adventure race just for good measure.

“I’m definitely keen to do it again, but I would make sure I had adequate build up and rest afterwards. I thought it was going to be a training session for me and that I’d go out and take it pretty easy, but it turned in to something pretty tough.

“Don’t kid yourself 100km is a 100km – it’s a long way,” he warns.

Wayne’s adventure racing team, OrionHealth.com, has just returned from winning the Primal Quest adventure race in South Dakota on August 14-23, considered one of the top expedition adventure races on the world circuit.

Whether it’s Primal Quest or a small local adventure race, racing in a team adds a different dynamic to any event. There is a tendency to push yourself harder so as not to let the others down. Wayne said it’s important to be able to train together as a team so you can recognise everyone’s strength and weaknesses.

“The team aspect is awesome. You’ve got to help each other out. You’ve also got to really look for the signs that other people are struggling and see what you can do to help them.

“Oxfam Trailwalker is a really good team event, good if you’re an adventure racing team, or just to get your mates out – and it’s a heluva big challenge in itself.”

“It’s great for a workplace to put in teams, you just need one person to organise it – running is pretty accessible all you need is shoes and a hat.”

Workplaces make up a large part of the Oxfam Trailwalker’s field; with some businesses, such as OfficeMax and Watercare, putting in up to eight teams at a time each.

For Oxfam Trailwalker 2010, Auckland-based trail event organisers total sport has entered 10 running teams. They will no doubt be hoping to take up Wayne’s challenge of beating Team YOMP’s record time by 2 hours? We will have to wait and see.

Oxfam Trailwalker recently scooped Best Environmentally Sustainable Event and Best Partnership award at the Event Industry Awards in August this year.

Oxfam Trailwalker 2010 is taking place on April 10-11 and places are filling up fast. For more information or to register your team visit www.oxfamtrailwalker.org.nz.
 

Image by www.kristianfrires.com

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