Tarawera Miler Post-Mortem

Everything I learned from 101 miles in the pouring rain and insane mud.

It is pitch dark save for the tiny illuminated spot from my waist lamp. It is raining again or still, at this point I don’t know if I’ve ever been dry in the last 18 hours or if I will ever feel dry again. The trail in front of me is annihilated both from the rain and from the thousands of other runners in other distances who have already turned the dirt into a calf deep slick and slimy mud that stretches out in front of me seemingly forever. It is quiet and I am alone. I have no pacer and at this point I have no watch (it drowned and died), no music, no sense of time or how far I have to go until the next aid station. I try and pick my way down the trail like Bambi on ice wearing roller skates. I slip, slide, fall, curse. Pick myself up and let me trashed legs throb as I push ever forward. There are only two thoughts in my mind: This is what I came for. I am getting to that finish line.

19:58. 1st woman, 7th overall

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Clearly not race day.

After Houston in January, I had the thought that I should start breaking down races for myself in order to better glean data and information so that I could bring forward meaningful insights and change into my training. I did not do this after Houston publicly because it didn’t feel like an appropriate time for it. For Tarawera 100 mile, which I completed this past weekend, I feel like it is essential to my own understanding and upcoming season to dive in as deep as I go. Way back in the blogspot days when I was an OG running blogger, I wrote a lot of race reports. While I no longer feel like that is what I am interested in writing, I do feel like a post-mortem is a good practice for me. Let’s get on with it.

I decided to run Tarawera many months ago when I couldn’t do Comrades. I had a large flight credit I needed to use and was hopeful that by February I would be able to leave the bakery for an extended international trip. I had planned on running the 102km, but as 2026 began I first had a niggling then a nagging feeling that I wanted to run the full 100 miles. I had come to realize that I do not want to focus my running around getting back to WS. If that happens, great, but I want my races to be about and for themselves, not about what I can get out of them. I want them for the sake of themselves. And so, about a month ago, I changed race distances to the 100 miler. The race organizers told me I did not qualify for elite status (as my UTMB index had expired and was 0) and so I signed up and paid like everyone else. I actually found this to be a mental boost because it pretty much guaranteed no one would even have awareness that I was racing. I love being a dark horse.

I flew to Auckland early the week of the race with my friend, Jeana as my crew. I made my race plans, packed my bags and off I went. As the week unfolded, it was clear that the conditions were likely to be the worst I’ve ever raced in for 100 miles. There was near constant pouring rain predicted with threats of lightning, flooding and wildly fluctuating temperatures. And there was indeed severe weather. The night before the race I was jolted awake by an emergency notice on my phone warning of flash floods. Thankfully one of the only time it wasn’t raining was when we were standing on the start-line!

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What I did well

• Nutrition/Hydration.The first thing that I really succeeded at in this race was hydrating and fueling. I would give myself an A- only because I think I could have benefited from and been able to handle a touch more carbs and electrolytes. I fueled on Precision Gels as basically my only source of fueling save for a few flasks of coke in the middle of the race when I was craving a little caffeine. I averaged around 90 grams per hour of carbs and had zero stomach issues. I was able to eat from start to finish with no issues. I carried a flask with PF 1500 and got a new one at 3 other crewed aid stations. In between, I took 1000mg sodium via Precision’s electrolyte pills. I ran low on these in the 38 mile stretch between crewed stations in the middle of the race. I wasn’t cramping but I was very conscious of how high the humidity was despite the fact that it was a deluge most of the time. I felt much more comfortable when I had just taken the electrolytes. I also took in 2 red bulls later in the race and found the amount of caffeine I took to be quite good at keeping me feeling sharp. I never felt an energy dip, no cramps, no stomach issues. Please support Precision as they make amazing products and are an amazing sponsor!

• Gear.

  • Shoes. For the first 78 miles, I wore the La Sportiva Prodigio Pro. With the weather being so awful, I wanted a shoe with more grip and burlier protection for my toes. I think this was the right choice. At mile 78, I changed into the On Cloudultra Pro which definitely lacked in the grip department. However, I don’t regret the shoe change because having dry feet for the approximately 10 minutes it lasted was glorious and I think helped save my feet from true disaster.

  • Hydration Pack. One of my main concerns switching to the 100 mile distance was that there was a lot of required gear and I have not been wearing a pack much. In the weeks leading up to the race, I carried my required gear on 50% of my runs to get use to the weight. I wore the Ultraspire Big Bronco race vest. When I paced Jeff on the CT two years ago, he told me that his trick was to put everything in a waterproof dry bag and then into the back. This worked great for the required gear since I made it compact and kept it dry. I never opened the bag for anything. This pack had plenty of room for my gels, flasks, pills, headlamps and gear. Even though my neck and back are quite sore now, I didn’t experience any discomfort in the race. The bottom of my rib cage got shredded and bruised from the pack but I am actually surprised how little chaffing I got from the pack. I do not love running with a heavy pack, but think I optimized for it the best I could.

  • Race Kit. On my body, I wore SOAR’s collaboration kit with Altra. Their trail race top and trail race shorts lasted me through the most insane weather and felt great. They make amazing products, please support them! It struck a very good balance of being lightweight but also durable for the weather. I wore a Zensah seamless sports bra. No notes, worked perfectly didn’t chafe (by what wizardry I don’t know). I wore Injini toe socks for the first 78 miles and they probably singlehandedly saved my feet. I got bad blisters under my toenails, but that was from slipping in mud and having water logged feet. But I didn’t have any issues with trench foot. I changed to Drymax lightweight trail socks at mile 78 when I swapped shoes because I couldn’t get a new pair of Injini on. They also worked very well.

• Climbing. I felt really good on the climbs. Very strong and steady. There was a climb from mile 60 to mile 66 that had almost 2000 feet of gain. There as another big and steeper climb (and muddier) from mile 74-78. I felt the strongest going uphill on the day and this was encouraging since apparently I have temporarily lost my downhill legs (see below).

• Pacing. I felt like one of the things I did well was pacing myself. I saw a video from the first aid station where a female competitor exclaims that I “went out super hard”. It was actually quite the opposite. I consciously was holding myself back and when I checked in on my HR in the early miles, I was averaging under 135 bpm. Coming into this race, I felt like my last few failures I got caught up in going out hard with the leaders (or trying to and failing more like) which is not really my style. I need some miles to my body to warm up and feel flowy. I did that at this race and was very pleased. I was on track for my sub 17 hour pace chart until we started hitting the muddy parts of the course after the 100k mark. After that, I was good about just pushing as hard as I could in the conditions and continuing to move forward even if there was a whole lot less running involved. The mud was absolutely relentless and slick and deep and lasted forever. I maintained my patience and kept moving through running where I could.

• Mental Game. The biggest difference here was that I went into this race fully committed to get to the finish line no matter what. I even packed up my stuff at the hotel in case I was chasing cutoffs and Jeana had to check us out before I finished (that would have been in the 32-36 hr range). During the race, this meant I was not asking myself “how do you feel” in the same way as when that commitment isn’t there because often the answer has apparently been “like I can’t do this”. In this race, when I scanned my body for information, it was to course correct or address my needs in order to keep going. When my quads hurt really early in the race, I didn’t have emotions about it, I simply thought, “ok this being the case, what do I need to do?” Even in the worst moments, I didn’t want to quit. I wanted it to be over, but I knew that it was only over when I hit that finish line. The other thing I did that was helpful was break the race down into process goals. Before the race, I counted the aid station and in the race, I then counted them down one by one until the end. I thought about them like monkey bars, I only ever needed to reach the next aid station in order to reach the one after that and the one after that. The final thing that I did that was helpful was not talk about how I was feeling with my crew. At the crewed aid stations, we almost didn’t even talk. I have realized that it is not helpful to have that dialogue, so we stayed strictly business- what do I need to do, what do I need to take, etc.

• Crew. Having Jeana made all the difference getting in and out of aid stations quickly and efficiently. I feel like I had everything I needed for the most part and didn’t dilly dally. Very streamlined.

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What I can improve on

• Quad strength/ downhills. My quads were toast pretty early in this race which surprised me. I am usually pretty robust in my ability to handle downhill and push until the end, but not so on this day. In retrospect, I can see that I have not been doing enough maintenance in this area. I was training for Houston over the holidays and a lot of my training ended up on the treadmill. Because of my schedule, I wasn’t get out on my usual routes and accumulating that stimulus. Where I live is very hilly, so it is generally not something I think about, but I can see that my legs would have benefited from more. I also did not do a final downhill session that I normally would do for a hilly race. It seemed like Tarawera was flatish and runnable, but the reality was there were some steeper downhills (including stairs) that I was unprepared. All of my races for the remainder of the year have more vert and loss (except Javelina) so I will be more focused on this in my training. That is, as soon as my quads stop hurting.

• Heat training optimization (vs just adaptation). I got in several heat sessions in the weeks leading up to Tarawera, but I think it was just enough to be adapted but not optimized. I usually love going to sea level because running feels so easy, but in Rotorua on race day the humidity was 99% at 4am. This made it feel not so easy. It felt like I had done just enough heat training not to be ruined by the humidity and heat, but I felt far from where I know I can be. I will be ensuring going forward that I am on top of my heat training.

• Taper. In my last few races including Tarawera, I have not felt as sharp and fresh at the start of the race as I want to. I actually feel better 2 weeks out when I have lower volume but still ample running. The week before race week of Tarawera I ran 75.6 miles. I had run 91 miles 2 weeks before Houston and felt not great there, so I had decided to lower it. But I felt less flat at Houston. Granted, there is the confounding factor of travel for Tarawera which my body doesn’t handle well. I did not feel like I shook travel off easily so that also contributes. I do not have the insight yet to know which way to go, but I am going to continue to experiment.

• Tech. My watch died at mile 77. This surprised me since it is supposed to last longer. I need to spend a bit more time messing with settings so that it will last an entire race. Not a big thing, but an unforced error.

• Post-race. This was my first time racing an ultra and winning and not being on social media. It was interesting to feel the desire to be on social media so that I could be congratulated for my race by strangers. I wanted to feel the validation of strangers, I wanted to share content and have people cheer. At least that is what it felt like. But as I let the feelings come up and then pass, I realized that what I really wanted was to share the experience and be able to stay in this accomplishment a little longer. To me, it was more exciting to receive texts from friends post race or share in person the play by play than anything on the internet could ever provide. I am proud of what I did and I think moving forward I am going to try and be conscious of how I celebrate my accomplishments.

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Things I cannot change

I think it is as important to acknowledge that there will be things in racing that are outside of our control. I think I did a good job not resisting these factors. The main thing here was the weather. I have never run in that torrential of rain. It pretty much rained the whole race and at moments it was raining so hard it felt like I was being blasted in a car wash by water jets. It was also humid. Acceptance was the only option. Same goes for the mud. The mud in the later half of the race was ridiculous. The trails were torn up from the rain and then the thousands who ran the trail ahead of me in the 100k and 50k (and all 6 of the guys in front of me from the 100 miler). The mud was deep, slippery and hard to navigate. I just went as full throttle through it as I could. Fell on my butt a lot. Sacrificed my feet. But I did not fight it.

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I am pleased and grateful to have a solidly good enough race. I am proud of how I handled the day. It makes me excited for the season to come and to work to continue to put the puzzle pieces together. I am as inspired as ever to continue to grow and learn and execute better races. I feel reinvigorated for the year and challenges ahead.