The inaugural Crush the Cargill 100 Miler started peacefully with approximately 11 runners at 10pm Friday night. 2 runners were already scared off and turned up but failed to start… excuses were made… Covid, rheumatoid arthritis.
Harvey Lewis and Courtney Dauwalter made it to the starting list but failed to complete Lap 1. If anyone is out there and finds them please let us know. The fact they DNFed shows how tough this event really is.
2 runners chose the ‘1 and done’ option. If you’re going to DNF the toughest miler in the world there’s no point in losing sleep over it so they were home in bed by midnight. Wise choice Croydon and Kathleen.
That left 8 runners plodding on into through the dark hours of the night…
After some stunning birdsong (I think they were laughing) the sun rose to show 6 runners remaining. The splits are interesting… at 8 laps Chris, Phil, Nick were trucking along at a good pace to finish early. Bas, Masha were 2 hours back and Adam was abusing the hill and the race directors and maintaining his social media presence at the tail end. Four hours later, Chris, Phil and Nick were still trucking along at a good pace, Masha and Bas pulled out, and Adam was 4 hours back still abusing the hill and the race directors. He was no longer present on social media.
The next casualty was Phil who zig zagged a finish to lap 16 and tapped out. Over an Everest in climbing. At least 135km – probably a lot longer thanks to the zig zags. Good effort Phil!
Meanwhile, Chris and Nick were still trucking along… Adam was still hanging off the back swearing abuse. And so it remained to the end!
Finishers of the inaugural Crush the Cargill 100 Miler race:
- Chris Bisley – 27hours 32min
- Nick Tweed – 29:13
- Adam Keen – 35:30
The grit award goes to Adam Keen, who really got his money worth by using nearly all his allotted 36 hours.
Chris Bisley offered his thoughts on the 100 mile option, “The following quote from Star Wars Return of the Jedi sums it up nicely if you adjust a couple of words:
In the mighty Cargill’s belly, you will find a new definition of pain and suffering, as you are slowly digested over 19 ascents and descents in 100 miles.
If you know you know.”
It sounds so appealing!!! Should be many more takers next year and maybe we hand out 3 more buckles.
24 Hour Challenge
145 people turned up for the 24 Hour Challenge. Huge thanks to the admin team that were suddenly inundated with 100 people registering at once. Memo to self: we need another whiteboard.
Total entries for Crush the Cargill 2023 are 156 (145 in 24 hour, 11 in the 100 mile, 1 team). This is a WORLD RECORD for the number of runners turning up to Crush the Cargill!!! Previous record was 107.
Highlights:
- 3 runners aged 70 plus
- Numerous runners aged 10 minus
- Pascal and his son misunderstood the direction of climate change and turned up in full snowboard/ski gear. 8.5km up and down a rocky muddy gravelly walking track is quite difficult in ski boots.
- 2 Race Directors also took roles of strange animals, barista and pacer…
- Someone slept in a hammock in the rain
- Ella, who was spending her birthday running up and down a mountain baked herself a cake and brought it along to share
- A dinosaur ate Chris Bisley’s head – possibly wondering if it would double the effectiveness of Curranz
- A pig made great coffee
- A skeleton ran down the hill
Crash the Cargill makes the Summit!!!
- Crash the Cargill (the team entry) turned up. Someone should make a movie about Crash the Cargill. It’s like the plot for a Hollywood Blockbuster.
- For 5 years they have been trying to get a fridge (large cooler) on wheels to the summit.
- They hadn’t made it past halfway and so they didn’t even know about the rock garden, the bicycle barrier and the Stairs of Despair.
- 2 years ago it rained and only 1 person remained – epic fail
- 1 year ago the car broke down and so they didn’t even make the start line – even more epic fail
- This year – all guns blazing!!! A cart with mostly functional wheels, a snowboard, a big sub-woofer, a shopping basket, 2 hatchets and a shovel… and they made it!
- The cart stayed up for the night while the team made their way down in the dark… slowly with pacing from various substances
- Like any good highly successful and heartwarming Hollywood Blockbuster there needs to be a sequel!
- What will the title of Crash 2 be???
- The Crash Strikes Back!
- Return of the Crash!
- Crash Hard 2!
- What will the title of Crash 2 be???
Official Results
- Petrus Hedman – 14 laps (119km with 7980 of climbing/descending)
- First women equal:
- Sally Nicoll – 7 laps (plus 3 that she did in the 100 mile race before DNFing and then starting the 24 Hour Challenge)
- Saskia Wohlgemuth – 7 laps
- 12 laps (110km with 6840m climbing)
- Joshua Smith
- Christophe Pinel
- Jamie Ward
- 10 laps – 7 runners
- Total time Mt Cargill was crushed yet to be determined.
- Over $3000 was raised for the Valley Project – this will be used for environmental initiatives based around North Dunedin. Good stuff that will help the birdsong get even better!
Huge thanks to:
- Grid Coffee Roasters for the coffee and loan of the truck
- Curranz, Aerodaks, Tailwind Nutrition NZ, Aerobicedge, Creepers Socks, Inch Bar for spot prizes
- The Valley Project for cooking up an awesome breakfast
- New World Gardens for providing the food for the yummy breakfast
- Duncan from Reignite Physio for the massages
- Wendy, Andrea, Leanne, Nolan, Anthony, Nick, Tim and others that got dragged in to keep the admin table ticking over.
Congratulations everyone! Apparently the hill is still there and the Trig is still at the same altitude so we haven’t crushed it yet. Try again next year!
Date for Crush the Cargill 2024 is the weekend of December 13 to 15.
Inch Events 