Tarawera Ultramarathon

And his background was so awesome and unique.

And hearing how he just decided to commit to this and get a ticket at Tarawera, like, really fueled me in this training block to, I can do this.

Like, I know I can do this, just like he did it.

And just like many others have done it, too.

She spent years helping runners navigate the sport both on and off the trails and still does that today.

That is how I met her, at Tarawera.com. just about two years ago.

She's also someone who knows how to ask a good question and get to the heart of the story.

We recently got to sit down and record this episode for Dirt Church Radio, and I'm so excited that we get to bring it to the Trail Society audience.

Sloppy conditions is not going to lend to that run.

I think, um, We kind of saw that at Tarawera earlier this year when it rained like 35 feet over the course of the race.

And some people ended up having much better days than others just because it then leaned into their kind of big diesel engine.

skill set I would be really curious how these results would change if enough rain came down especially because it's just a loop it's a you know five loops and you have uh there's 830 people on the 100 miler and then was it like 500 or so in the 100k so

Yeah, and kind of to piggyback off of that, what I was thinking as well was, yeah, it didn't so much come down to the actual skill set in regard to like what like quote unquote event you're best at, but also, especially at Javelina, we've seen the runners who can just be steady and not screw anything up.

have good races here.

Um, cause I guess, you know, even though this is a flat fast course, I mean, pace wise, this is probably the fastest average pace of a golden ticket race, maybe shy of Tarawera.

Um, even though it's a hundred miles, when you break down like one of the miles, it's not that fast.

I was just saying to Rye, it's easy to have recency bias because we've been to so many events this year and you always feel like the one that you're at or the one where you're sort of wrapping up was like the most exciting.

But thinking back, of course, you know, Black Canyon, Tarawera, you know, Big Altagorge, Canyons, Western States, UTMB.

They were all amazing.

This was a really fun and unique weekend.

either running in this race.

It's actually one of the UTMB series in New Zealand called Tarawera.

So I'm registered for that.

And then I'm also registered for another UTMB series, a race in Italy called Chianti.

Wait, wait, wait.

One

thing I want to say about that is I think I'm, I'm actually most excited for you to show up at this race in New Zealand called Tarawera because a couple of things.

One, I think it's a course that Tina hasn't done yet on trail.

So that's been on my list for a while.

I am actually thinking about Tarawera in New Zealand, Jack, next year, because I lived in New Zealand.

This is so bad.

I lived in New Zealand for two years and I never ran the trails.

I was specifically a roadrunner because I was too afraid of nature.

So I'm like, I should probably go back and race at Tarawera.

So I'm thinking for that for next year.

And then one of my biggest ones that I've been kind of trying to work on behind the scenes, but I don't know how it would work and run Disney is like, that's not us is I was like, well, I'm never going to do dopey again, like as a front runner, but I would love to do dopey as a balloon lady.

...

I think, I think partially it's like, so my 2026 season was supposed to be, uh, starting with Tarawera.

I broke my wrist mountain biking, so I couldn't do that.

So that one was off the table.

Okay

...

instead of, kinda instead of Tarawera, 'cause I was like-

Okay

Kaitlin Fielder on the women's side, second rank coming in, but she is a two-time previous champion, and she's having a season, man.

Second place at Tarawera, fourth at Western States, fifth at CCC.

If she gets a W again here, I feel like, you know, we could see, you know, Kaitlin Fielder challenging for those top Trail Runner of the Year.

And, uh, you know, also Travis re- reminding me in the chat here, JFK, of course, a 50 miler that has more history or as much history as any race in the world.