Racing to Plant a Forest
Michael Jacques / 20.11.2008
Record fields and world class racing are on order for this weekend’s Great Cranleigh Kauri Run, but even that takes second billing to one of New Zealand’s most innovative event concepts.When entrants line up on Saturday for the Coromandel’s Great Cranleigh Kauri Run, they’ll be meeting more than just personal goals. Their very presence on the 32km trail from Waikawau Beach over to Coromandel township will leave a positive impact on the regions famous forests. For every competitor who lines up, this event quite literally plants a new Kauri tree.
In five years this unique event has planted almost 1000 Kauri seedlings. This weekend a record field of 400 starters will increase the new Kauri population by 40 percent in one year. This innovative event is the brainchild of local event organisers Andy Reid and Keith Stephenson, the energetic duo behind Adventure Racing Coromandel, who organise a number of popular Coromandel-based events such as the Mighty Moehau multisport race, Whitestar Intrigue mountain bike, RoadCraft K2 road cycle and ARC Adventure Race.
Their success revolves around a simple ethos of providing a great race in a great place. But in the Great Cranleigh Kauri Run they also have a great cause. It’s this aspect that attracted new major sponsor, Cranleigh merchant banking. Cranleigh do a lot of work in the clean renewable energy sector and thought the Kauri Run would be a perfect fit with their company outlook.
The event is certainly a good fit with endurance junkies, because in just five years it has become one of the North Island’s favourite trail running events. Starting on the rugged Pacific Coast the savagely scenic route traverses the Coromandel ranges to finish on the Hauraki Gulf. Along the way competitors experience 32km of native bush, stream crossing and over 800 vertical metres of climbing. And much of the course is on private land, which means competitors get to see parts of the Coromandel not usually open to the public.
This year’s record field might also see record racing, with several time national champion Ben Ruthe back to defend his title from last year. But it’s the woman’s race that will take centre stage with a slew of national reps, Olympians and even a world champion.
Certainly defending champion Oksana Isavnina (Akld) will find the competition tougher in 2008. Isavnina will be on the start line, but pre-race favourite is Australian Hanny Allston, a former world orienteering champion who has won the Rotorua Marathon and national half marathon championships while studying in Auckland.
