We protect what we love

FRIDAY . 08 . 07. 22 .

Good morning and happy Friday!

It’s been pretty hard watching the news this week, and seeing the devastating impacts of yet another severe weather event and natural disaster. We hope everyone is safe during these challenging times.

Here at FWP, Lauren has just started her fundraising campaign for bowel cancer research having been selected as trek lead for the Gutsy Challenge later in the year, Will has been baby-prepping as his partner is expecting their first child in a few weeks - he’s also managed to find a running-friendly pram, Paige is getting ready to attend the Footprints running camp, and Hilary is wrapping up her time in Lady Musgrave Island.

In this week’s newsletter, Lara Hamilton provides a great summary of her 52km Broken Arrow Skyrace, we celebrate NAIDOC week and link you to some weekend events and we announce our upcoming Trail Talks guest speakers.

Have a great weekend, and we hope the east-cast sun stays out long enough to restore vitamin D.

🌞 🌞 🌞

BROKEN ARROW SKYRACE 52KM REPORT

Lara Hamilton

The Broken Arrow Skyrace has to be one of the best trail racing events in the US. This event leaves no stone unturned, bringing together community, racing, long-awaited reunions, brand activations, and stunning wild places. It’s my favorite trail event I’ve ever had the privilege to attend. The race offers 6 distances/disciplines - The Iron Face Challenge, The VK (Vertical Kilometer), The 26k, The 52k, The 11k, and a Kids Race. I ran the 52k on Saturday which is 2 laps of the 26k course.

Start line is equal parts nerves and excitement.

The race started at 7am from Palisades Village centre, so it required a very early wakeup to fuel, hydrate, do a couple of exercises and get ready to go. Even though the race just tips into the ultra distance, the pack set off fast. I knew I didn’t want to get caught in a slower single file up the initial climbs, so I made point to get out fast too without burning the engine early. The adrenalin and good vibes from the pack distracted me from the effort and before I knew it I had a hit 5km and found myself running through beautiful forest, and the only consistently rolling section of the race.

The race is pretty cool for many reasons, one of the being that Western States 100 starts inthe same place and you run a very small section of the course, including a section of Emigrant Pass (elevation 8750 feet).

I arrived at the halfway aid station where Kieran (partner) and Paddy (friend) were waiting to help me transition my hydration and refill my naked belt with gels. At this point I was rather warm and decided to ditch my gloves, buff and jacket for lap 2. This could’ve been a detrimental mistake - Despite the forecast indicating cool mornings and lovely sunny days, mountain environments are predictably unpredictable.

Finish line feels.

Strange weather patterns seem to be a trend so far for me in my US travels. We checked the forecast before we packed, anticipating cool mornings and lovely sunny days, as summer was on our doorstep. However, this was not to be the case, as much to my surprise (but also to be expected in mountain environments), it begun to snow as I reached the summit for the second time. I ran through cold mitigation strategies in my head, and decided to take in slightly more nutrition than anticipated and keep moving as fast as possible to stay warm. This strategy worked; I didn’t get overly cold, and managed to descend the second lap better than the first (from a technical running standpoint).

I had three key goals for the race:

• Unrelenting self-belief
• Commence lap 2 knowing that I could complete the race
• Bring it home as best as I could

I finished as the 15th woman. I’m not only happy with my race performance, but will now use this as a benchmark to work with heading into future races of similar style and distance. I know next time I can push myself a little bit more, as this race built a lot of self-confidence in going the distance and climb. Importantly, this race is set in the stunning Granite Chief Wilderness, which I had the privilege to enjoy for almost 6 hours. It is one of my favourite courses to date, and the race is one I hope to come back to for many years ahead.

🏔 🏔 🏔

NAIDOC WEEK

3 - 10 July

NAIDOC Week celebrates and recognises the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and is an opportunity for all Australians to learn about First Nations cultures and histories and participate in celebrations of the oldest, continuous living cultures on earth.

Aunty Ali Golding, at The Foundry, telling the story of how echidnas got their spikes.

Whilst we don’t believe that learning and celebrating First Nation culture should be limited to a week, but instead an ongoing journey, NAIDOC week provides the opportunity to participate in and witness some events that you may not usually get to. I was really fortunate to attend a Dreamtime Storytelling session run by Elder Aunty Ali Golding, who told the story of how the echidna got it’s spikes. I was deeply engaged and inspired by how Dreamtime Stories connect to culture on a spiritual level.

Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up!

This years theme is Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up! First Nations communities have a long and proud history of getting up, standing up and showing up, and this momentum for change cannot be lost.

All Australians need to move beyond just acknowledgement, good intentions, empty words and promises, and hollow commitments. Instead, we must  Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up! for systemic change and keep rallying around First Nations peoples, Elders and communities.

This can take many forms, from seeking proper environmental, cultural and heritage protections, Constitutional change, a comprehensive process of truth-telling, working towards treaties, or calling out racism—we must do it together.

It must be a genuine commitment by all of us to Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up! and support and secure institutional, structural, collaborative, and cooperative reforms.

You can check out what’s happening this weekend for NAIDOC week here.

🖤 💛 ❤️

TRAIL TALKS

We’re stoked to announce that we’ve confirmed the following guests for trail talks #2 and #3:

Wednesday 20 July, 12pm: Josh Wiffen

Josh recently completed WSER and Seacliff Coaster

Wednesday 24 August, 7.30pm: Matt Gore & Giles Penfold

These two legends recently completed the 655fortakayna

We’ve also locked in Krissy Moehls, ultra runner and Patagonia sponsored athlete, and Michelle Merlis, ultra runner and first female in Breakneck Point Trail Run this year. Dates and times are to be confirmed.

🏃‍♀️ 🏃‍♂️ 🏃

Week 8: A rest weekend.

Continued tendinitis and severe weather warnings forced me to take it easy this weekend. Alas, I do not have anything to report. Watch this space for next week - I’m still pondering that adventure.

⛈ 🌊 ⛈

Take some time to get outside, find inner peace on the trails and we'll catch you next week.

And, as always, thank you for taking the time to support wild places!

Lara, Elanor & the For Wild Places team.

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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 written on the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation. To these people, we pay our respects.

Always was, always will be.