Celebrating 60

Turning 60 is a big deal for me and I really wanted to celebrate it in style. I started planning a year or so ago and being a natural therapist who enjoys being fit and healthy, the plan became to escape to a small island off the coast of Thailand to read, relax, eat lots of fresh Thai food, book in for some Yoga and kick box fitness training. Best of all to get daily Thai massages! Yes!!!! A month of Thai food, sun, beaches and daily massages sounds like a very special 60th to me! 

Planning was all going well until there was a small hiccup, there was a double murder on my chosen island and subsequent news stories pointed out that this idyllic isle was now actually a gang haven with drugs and corruption firmly embedded underneath all the ideal pictures painted in the brochures and online content. Now I’m not into safe bland resort holidays so for me at least my hopes of an off the beaten track holiday in the Thailand of old is no more. Bugger it, now I had to find another place to go or something else to do. 

I decided to challenge myself and do something special, something that might help me to make sure my 60th was actually good for me and didn’t leave me with a physical, (or financial) hangover. Something I could put in my ‘personal CV’ as a very special gift and celebration of my life so far, I decided on the completing the Hillary Trail.

The amazing Hillary Trail winds through the rugged coastal forests of the Waitakere ranges fording streams, passing through old logging tunnels, climbing and descending 3770 meters all the while offering spectacular views, with lots of places to be ‘in the moment’. This sounded ideal. A tough challenge with hopefully lots of rewards for me physically and spiritually. Bring on my 60th birthday.

According to the DOC promo “The Hillary Trail is a self-guided four day tramp through 77km of native forest and along the wild coast of the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park. It connects various park tracks and basic backcountry campgrounds and captures Sir Edmund Hillary's sense of adventure and introduces you to the joys of overnight camping”. The story goes that this area was one of Sir Ed’s training areas and the Trail runs from the Arataki visitor centre in the Waitakere’s down to the Manukau heads and from there over steep cliff top paths through valleys forests and dunes all the way to Murawai beach. Awesome!    

I have this weird thing in that I simply can't be ordinary, I have tried but I just can’t do it. So to ensure it really was a challenge I decided to attempt to run/walk/crawl the Hillary trail, all in one go, overnight all 77ks! Solo! Unsupported! No sleeping, no stopping except for water and meal breaks. All going to plan, leaving the visitor centre at 3pm on Jan 31st and finishing at Murawai Beach around 11am on the 1st of Feb.

So now the prep begins, I realised I had to train all the postural muscles in my legs to protect my ankles knees and hips from injury. This started with brisk walks then jogs twice weekly around all the minor trails on Mt Eden, (not the big tracks, the small ones with tree roots and loose rocks) I needed to challenge the muscles I wanted to use and build them up to a slow running speed over a few months, then I moved on to bigger challenges including a run over the Tongariro Crossing done in 3hrs 20. Whew did not think I could do that! A month later I compltered half the Hillary 40kms in 10 hours. Things are looking up.

I kept up the regular Mt Eden jogs included some Bodywall® sessions and then the next big training session became a dawn run on New Year’s day, the goal was to go ‘up and down’ Mt Taranaki as fast as possible. I did it in 5hrs 50 with spectaular views right back to Ruapehu and Tongariro (I always wanted to see how that looked). 

Finally to get to understand how hard the last bit might be I ran / jogged / walked the Piha / Bethellls / Te Henga section of the Hillary Trail, 43.6kms in just on 10 hrs, not fast, but ok for a 59 year old dude who has never run a long distance before. 

Why am I doing this? Simple really, my work teaches me that the body like a tree needs to be tested to grow be strong, and one of the saddest things I see with my work is the needless injuries people sustain from training badly, then trying to do what should be normal things and getting injured.  Running on a treadmill or pedalling on a bike while watching the news on a big screen is not training your body (or your mind for that matter), all the postural muscles both sides of your legs remain unused it’s just like putting an indoor plant out in the wind, when the going gets tough they snap and so do you. Next thing you step on a large stone of an uneven curb and there are no trained muscles developed to protect you, and down you go and break something. 

If you want to stay on your feet train the muscles you need. A great place to start is barefoot walking on the dry soft sand at the beach to get those muscles working, then walk jog and finally if you can, run one of our thousands of beautiful mountain trails and always remember to stretch afterwards. Anyway all this prep took most of the past year to achieve and brought me to some special places. I found a group called the Hillary Trail runners and learned from people who do this for sport, just how to get the most out of my body by using the right supplements, body salts and the best gear, to protect myself from injury both inside, and out, till finally on the day I’m actually feeling ready.

So here it is the eve of my 60th and I set off into the hot 27degree afternoon, amazingly when running the Hillary Trail the time flies. Because you have to be focussed on every foot fall you have to be “in the moment” every second” or you’re off down a ravine (nearly did that) or a foot goes in the wrong place and a tree root will literally snap your ankle off, (nearly did that too in a training run) so the hours fly by. If you had told me before this that I could even consider a 4 hour trail run, let alone enjoy it, I would have recommended you change your meds!   

The trail winds down past the Huia dam to Whatipu, at the moment due to slip it goes up and over the rugged (and I do mean rugged) and steep Parau Track it’s so challenging but so beautiful, it’s also an hour longer.

Running into the afternoon heat I’m totally soaked in perspiration lucky I have lots of rehydration salts, soon its dark and the heat is still oppressive I’m running in shorts and headlamp with all my other gear now stowed in my running pack. The hours fly by and soon I’m on the sand dunes at KareKare running under the moonlight. Unbelievable! Back up the cliffs and then down to Piha by 2.45am for a food and drink break, from there then on to Bethells by 6.45 am for another short water and snack break. Up we go again along the sheer and wonderful coastline above O’Neils beach as the heat of the next day starts to kick in and we are on the home stretch to Muriwai. Well nearly! 

The Hillary is not finished with me yet. After struggling through narrow trails filled with gorse and flax just waiting to trip you up, you finally round the corner and head inland. Up ahead you can see a strange line going up the hill in the distance. By now I’ve covered just on 75kms and I say hello to the Constable Rd stairs, three sets of multiple flights of steep DOC stairs. No comment!

Over the top and I head down into Muriwai with one last rise then into the crowds surfers and noise of a hot summers morning, jobs done, birthday present is delivered! Yes!!!

So what did I get/learn? I learned that some of the voices in your head are your friends, particularly the ones that say you can at least try to keep improving yourself. I learned that your limits are nowhere near where you think they are, I learned that as you age endurance is one of your strengths so it’s great to take advantage of that.  

Most of all I learned that loving yourself in the best ways come in all shapes and forms. It may sound ridiculous to some of you reading this but the sorest muscles on my body the next day were my jaw muscles and they were sore from smiling! Every time it got really tough, I remembered that they don’t’ call it the Hillary because it’s easy! and with the right training you can take your life anywhere you want to go.

There is a quote that is posted on the trail it says “it is not the mountain that we conquer but ourselves” Damn right! Final time 20 hours and 23 minutes. Happy Birthday to me! How are you going to celebrate your 60th? A boozy night or something you can keep in your heart forever? 

I could not have done this without the advice support and belief of two great friends Danny Orani and Gary Walden Gary for the advice and belief that I could and Danny for staying up all night to check that I made each checkpoint. Thanks Guys.

Chris Toal. 60 Yeah bring on my 70th I say!