We protect what we love

FRIDAY 17.03.2023.

Good morning, amazing humans! We hope March is treating you well, and the cooler autumnal weather and darker mornings and evenings aren't impacting your precious trail time.. yet!

On Tuesday the FWP crew had our 2023 Kick-Off meeting. With team members being scattered all over the place, from Melbourne to Sydney to the USA, it was really nice to see everyone online. We talked about the events that we have in the pipeline, and how each of us can help bring them to life - from Pilliga Ultra, an upcoming camp and TRACTION events - there was lots to chat about!

On Thursday, we also had Trail Chat #11 with Lucy Bartholomew, and we'll feature a summary and a link to the video in next week's newsletter.

In this week's newsletter, Hilary talks about the jam-packed, fun-filled, inclusive, thong-slapping good time that was the Warby Trail Fest. We have a lot more TRACTION events coming to you this year, so we hope to give you a taste of what to expect. Julie Steele also provides a race recap of her recent Tarawera 100-mile run which includes a lot of adverse weather - from floods, landslides and cyclone warnings!

Tomorrow the team will be out in the You Yangs, on Wadawurrung Country, for our second TRACTION event. It's going to be a beautiful day, so if you feel like getting out of town for a run and doing some good for the trails, come along! Dogs, non-runners, friends and family are all welcome. Refreshments will be available afterwards, and we'll be hearing from the Geelong Field Naturalists Club too, to hear about why the You Yangs are such an incredible and vital ecosystem. You can find all the event info here.

Enjoy this week's tales from the trail ✌🏽

TRACTION LAUNCH

Warby Trail Fest (by Hilary)

Well, what a weekend that was at Warby Trail Fest! Chris and the team at Tour de Trails sure do know how to put on a jam-packed, fun-filled, inclusive, thong-slapping good time! All weekend, you could find Liz and I at the finish line, hoarding runners' gooey, yucky gel wrappers, so we can add them to our growing, sticky stash, which will get shipped off to Terracycle for recycling!

Liz & Hilary at the Warby Trail Fest Finish Line.

Image: The Eventurers

By 2 pm Sunday we had accumulated 187 gel wrappers! Congratulations to Ben who correctly guessed this number (winning a Tour De Trails Golden Ticket) and kudos to those that showed immense faith in our impact by guessing 500+ gel wrappers... next time! 🤞🏼 We had some great suggestions as to how to increase this number, including getting the Aid Stations on board (der! 🤪) and encouraging runners to hang onto them during training and bringing them along to the event for recycling. We'll take these great ideas onboard and bring it back, bigger and better next time!

Hilary & Liz were relieved to have the tech working, just as the doors opened! Image: Karin Traeger

On Sunday afternoon, Liz and I hosted a seminar at the Bowls Club to launch TRACTION: Trail Action to the trail community. It was a great turn out, with over 40 people coming along to watch us navigate technology, chat trail custodianship and get a whole bunch of people excited about sports activism and trail culture! Thankfully, my ailing voice managed to hang on til the end of the presentation... Thank you to Chris for hooking us up with a microphone so Liz didn't have to fly solo, and to Erchana for saving the day with a good old PC after the Mac laptop let us down! A big thank you must also go out to the lads on the mic all weekend, Nath and Pete from Runner Chats who did a stellar job of spreading the FWP word and ensured the promised beers were present at the seminar! 🙏🏽

After our presentation, we had some great discussions with the audience about the role For Wild Places and the TRACTION initiative can play in acting as the intermediary between land managers (such as Parks Victoria, council, DEECA etc) and the trail community, to make volunteering and trail maintenance more a part of the culture of trail running. It was great to hear Chris Ord's perspective as a trail consultant (and WTF Race Director), who works on maintaining and creating new trails across the country. There is certainly a lot of room for initiative and impact in this space, and FWP is excited to be leading the change.

Thanks to those who have since signed up for a membership, or verbally committed to coming along to one of our many upcoming events! We love getting out into the community and can't wait to be a part of more Tour de Trail events soon. If you're a race director out there who wants to see your gel wrappers enjoy a second life, let us know! We'll be there will bells on 💃🔔

🌳 🏃🏻‍♂️ 🌳

TARAWERA 100-MILE RACE REPORT

By Julie Steele

In 2020, when searching YouTube for trail-running documentaries, I stumbled across "Chasing Pounamu" - a documentary of the inspiring struggle of 58-year-old Adrian Henry as he desperately tries to complete the Tarawera 100 miler.

The reward for finishing the miler is a hand-carved pounamu, which holds incredible significance in Māori culture. A pounamu is the most highly prized ornamental stone considered to be from the Gods. Tradition dictates that it should be gifted to the wearer for significant milestones as a symbol of respect. Once I had watched the documentary, with a tear-stained face, I had no choice but to try and chase that pounamu, so I entered the 2021 TUM 100-miler.

The prunamu that is rewarded to finishers of the Tarawera 100 miler.

Like many recent trail events, the organisers were forced to implement last-minute radical course changes because of weather-induced landslips. The North Island of New Zealand was battered in the lead-up to the event, with devastating flooding in Auckland.

It was also disappointing that the most spectacular parts of the 100-miler course, including a boat ride with an accompanying mocktail and running beside the spectacular Tarawera waterfalls, were replaced with less stunning repeated loops. But, as trail runners in an era of climate uncertainty, we must be ready to adapt to these challenges.

Despite the 4.20 am start, it was extremely humid during the first substantial climb, with sweaty bodies panting in single file. However, the course soon spread out so we could comfortably shuffle at our own pace, with chances to savour sections of trail in solitude before we commenced the mind-numbing repeated loops at the Blue Lake Aid Station.

In the pre-race safety briefing, the Course Director, Tim Day, warned us of the impending cyclone threatening the North Island. Although experts anticipated the cyclone would hit the day after the race, the organisers stressed that they would extract everyone from the course if it arrived early. When the sun rose on Sunday morning, I could see ominous clouds forming with winds increasing in strength. After running so far, I was so terrified of being extracted from the course that I bolted for the finish line, maintaining 7:09 min/km for the last 7 kilometres, despite shattered quads and over 150 km of running.

Julie (right) after crossing that 100 miler finish line.

Crossing that finish line was absolute bliss – an unfathomable relief. After huge fairy-pacers hugs, I had the delightful task of choosing my pounamu, although Māori tradition suggests that a pounamu will select you. I later discovered that my Toki was associated with great mana (strength), power and honour.

🌳 🏃🏻‍♂️ 🌳

TRAIL CHATS

We have just locked in three incredible guests for our April, May and June trail chats. They are (drum roll please) Aubri Drake, Hayley Pymont and Jake Fedorowski. We'll progressively introduce these wonderful humans in the coming weeks!

NEXT WEEK

Next week's newsletter will include a link to Trail Chat #11, an Illawarra Escarpment update from Will and Lauren's 50km Tarawera race report. I'm already looking forward to bringing it to you. Until then, lace up your shoes, take a deep breath of fresh air and enjoy hitting the trails.

And as always, thank you for taking the time for wild places.

Elanor & the For Wild Places team

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UPCOMING EVENTS

18/03 TRACTION: You Yangs | RSVP

01/04 TRACTION: Otways | RSVP

27/04 Trail chat #12 with Aubri Drake (they/them) | RSVP

18/05 Trail chat #13 with Hayley Pymont | RSVP

06/06 TRACTION: Gariwerd | RSVP

15/06 Trail chat #15 with Jake Fedorowski | RSVP

We acknowledge the the First Nations people who have been custodians of land, waters and culture for tens of thousands of years. We pay respects to First Nations Elders past, present and emerging.

This email was compiled on the lands of the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation. To these people, we pay our respects.

Always was, always will be.