12 Million More Footsteps over Motatapu this Year

Entries close Monday 8 February on what will be a record running field for the sixth
Motatapu event on 13 March.
 

The 50 kilometre mountain-bike race from Lake Wanaka to Arrowtown sold out last
November but the running field has been spoilt for choice this year with two new races
launched to complement the established off-road marathon.

Competitors are voting with their feet to meet the new challenges with the running field increasing some seventy percent over last year. Hence the organisers estimate some 12 million additional footsteps.

At the extreme edge of the Motatapu experience is a two-person teams’ adventure run
which follows a completely different and extremely challenging route over the DOC
Motatapu Track, normally a forty-nine kilometre, three to four day tramping track.

With four major climbs totaling 2,790 vertical metres and a track that is described for a
large part of its length as simply “a marked route” the challenge is significant. Forty
teams have lined up to compete in an event which Event Director Tracey Neil describes as “setting a new benchmark for mountain running events in New Zealand.”

Considerably more accessible at 15 kilometres in length but enjoying its own equally
spectacular course is the individual off-road run and walk, known as “The Miners Trail.”

The 350 competitors will follow a challenging loop from Arrowtown, into the magnificent (and private) Glencoe Station. The course climbs via an old water-race and the original miner’s trail, through the New Chums Creek gorge to reach a high point some 600 metres above the race start where outstanding views open up into the remote highcountry of Brackens Gully and the Crown Range.

Following a steep descent to the Arrow River, competitors join the traditional Motatapu
mountain-bike and marathon course and the multiple river crossings of the final stage, to the Arrowtown finish-line.

The two new running events have capitalised on the off-road running opportunities at
Motatapu and further stimulated growth in the established marathon which has grown for the fourth year in succession to an outstanding 760 entrants.

The marathon field is headed by race record-holder John Winsbury who returns to
defend his title from the attentions of top competitors Adrian Bailey, Nathan Aldridge,
Mark Lidiard and Alan Stait.

Photo credit Alan Nelson