The race briefing took place in darkness and the race started at 6am sharp. Headlamps were a must for lap one. The track was dry and firm in most places.

With the daylight also came an overcast sky. There was little or no wind. A little sun appeared later in the day making it almost a perfect setting for this race.

Greg Hannah from Mosgiel completed the 10km first lap in 49min 25:13sec maintaining a cracking pace all day that no one could match. With his young son Todd working brilliantly as the support crew, Greg departed with a high five each time after a quick nibble and drink.

Seventeen 100km runners started at 9am. Three 80km runners started. Greg had already completed three laps in 2hrs 27min 29sec and was still going strong. The next runner was eleven minutes back.

By the time Greg had completed his five laps in 4hrs 8min 52sec, the 10am starters - the twenty one 50km runners and ten x 2 person teams were beginning their ordeal.

Last year we had 34 runners, this year we had 60,which shows how the race is growing. There were seven North Islanders, with the bulk of the rest hailing from Dunedin and Christchurch. The oldest runner was 62 with the youngest being 24 of which 33 were male.

Some of the best performances were by the girls:
Sue McKinney (Dunedin) on her 60th birthday did 100kms in 12hrs 6mins 40secs. Finishing 2nd Woman and 6th Overall;
Heather Hope who two and half years ago couldn't run the distance between two lamp posts completed her 50km in 6hrs 27mins 59secs;
Val Muskett from Waikouaiti, aged 56 did 50km in 4hrs 53mins 6secs. She was the first woman and broke the master's women's record;
Annie Manning from Dunedin did her first 100km in 13hrs 47mins 23secs with Mum Marie, who had earlier run 30km in a team, beside her on the last 5km

Leith runners did well:
Ron McLay-Barnes and Brian Pascoe were the first team home setting an open men's team record of 4:41.41.
Stu Hodges and Grant Koedyk were the second team to finish and setting a master's team record time of 5:06.30.
Peter Frew finished as 3rd 50km man.

Greg Hannah must get special mention though because his 100km in 8hrs 54mins 6secs will take some beating. He averaged about 53 minutes per 10km lap having had initially averaged 49 minutes for the first 5 laps. To take nearly 22 minutes off the existing record on a demanding course it will take a lot to break. Greg had done 200km a week in training.

Check out our website at www.greatnasebywaterrace.co.nz to see full results and a few photos, almost as good as being there and give thoughts to turning up next year.

As long as we draw breath and Ernslaw One Ltd let us into their forest, we will run the event on the last Saturday in August each year.
A great race, a great place, a great weekend