Southland Harriers eNewsletter

Sounds like it was a wicked Saturday full of running in Te Anau for the Southland Harriers. Congratulations to everyone for getting out there and giving it there all, from our little legged 2 kilometer runners to our 21km Champs.

We are lucky to have received two awesome race reports.

From Hunter Gough, 1st male and 1st home in the Half Marathon Event…..

"There is something special about racing an event held in Southland, seeing so many familiar faces, local runners and supporters out on the course. The vibe from start to finish was amazing-especially the ladies dressed up as old grannies!

The trail conditions were absolutely mint making for an exciting day of racing. We started out in the fog, which gave the course a pretty cool atmosphere, but that soon lifted and turned into a beautiful sunny Southland day!

Really stoked with how the race came together and to come away with the overall win, coming out of the bush and coming into the home straight was something special as well as having so many of our local Southland runners at the finish line. A highlight for me was racing alongside The Coast to Coast Multisport Champion Hamish Elliot, I never would have thought I'd be able to beat him to the line."

From Mahe Braaksma, 4th Male 10km………..

"The start line of the Fiordland Trails Trust Mitre 10 10km was packed with people all very cold and shivering! Once the gun went off we took off.

Me and Lewis were talking about who wanted to be the wind blocker. But after the first hill I couldn't stay with the top pack they would beat me on all the down hills and on the uphills I would slowly catch them, but the gap just kept getting bigger and bigger until I couldn't see them anymore. Once I got to the control gates then that's when the stitch came in and and hurt me

I felt like I couldnt keep going but I kept pushing when I thought I was done. 4th place was catching up on me, he passed me very fast and I was too tired to try stay with him. Once i got to the Bird Park I was really hurting but I kept going

I felt like I was flying through the course.

When I came into the finishing chute and looked down at my watch and I saw 37:42 my previous PB was so much slower than that. I was stoked with my time and had a really good run despite the stitch.

4th place overall.

Well done to Lewis for taking out 1st place.

Thanks Fiordland Trails Trust for a great event."