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Simply the Best: Wellington, New Zealand
By Daniel Wallis
This year, the metropolis of Wellington - New Zealand’s capital and finest city will host both the New Zealand Cross Country Championships and World Cross Country Trial. Revered around the world as “Wellywood”, the city of Wellington provides solitude for those who like a ‘big-city’ feel, yet want to avoid the unrelenting attempts of suicide that linger whilst residing in the absolute shit-fest of Auckland. As well as having the best weather, food, coffee, and leisure activities, Wellington also has some breath taking scenic-runs, and is home to some of New Zealand’s best and brightest that will represent the home crowd at the National Champ’s next month.
With a long and proud running tradition, the city of Wellington is home to many clubs – though only one is worth mentioning; Wellington Scottish Athletic Club. Wellington Scottish is New Zealand’s most successful club, both on the roads and on the dance floor. It is the flag bearer for tradition and success and is without doubt the envy of every single athlete who is not fortunate enough to wear the coveted Red Lion/lightening bolt singlet. Under the guidance of the best manager in the business; Todd Stevens, Scottish has developed many elite athletes who have had success both at home and abroad. Some of the greats who have represented Scottish include Olympians Mike Aish and John Henwood, 2:13 Marathoner Matt Dravitski and multiple NZ Champion Rees Buck. Other famous figures include stalwart cougar Melissa Moon and multiple World Mountain’s rep Glenn “Hughsey” Hughes. The current generation include National 1500m champion and shampoo model Hamish Carson, Michigan Sophomore Brendon Blacklaws, and NCAA First Rounder’s Terefe Ejigu and Tim Hodge.
The present Scottish no.1 crossy runner is resident athlete Stefan Smith, who has just come off a victory at the recent Wellington Championships which were held on the course that is to host the National Meet in Waikanae on Wellington’s Kapiti Coast. As the local top-dog in Wellington, we caught up with Stef to discuss everything Wellington and nothing Auckland.
Stef, thanks for taking your hand off it for a few minutes to talk to us. First off, how does running in Wellington rate in regards to other places in the world that you have trained in?
It rates very highly. There are some ruthless hills around the region and a lot of off road stuff that is great for the legs on recovery runs. I have done a few runs in the Colorado area and would love to explore that as well as Melbourne but if it were a little warmer in Wellington and without the 100km/ph wind were are currently experiencing outside it would be the best place in the world.
What are the best things about training in Wellington?
The best things for me personally are the hills, you get so damn fit without realising it sometimes when you are just jogging or getting into runs before workouts because there is literally no where flat to run except the waterfront, and no one wants to plod around there every day (well no one with a fully functioning brain).
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Who are some of the local legends that you often run into besides Peter Jackson?
Just this morning I had my tempo and thought I was going to be solo as I ran up to Karori from my pad and I bump into a 2.13 marathoner in Matt Dravitzski (who joined me for 8km) and Granty "SUPER VET" McLean who did a tempo with another Marathoner Dave Parson who is an up and comer late in the sport (I felt like a sprinter amongst that lot). Other local legends are of course Todd Stevens who I will occasionally join for a Wednesday lunch time canter, the greatest 3km runner of all time to never break 8min in Rees Buck and many others. Most of the legends are just the usual guys I train with who provide some great laughs.
What are some of your favourite workout spots in Wellington?
When it comes to workouts it is pretty standard for me, K-Park (Karori) for intervals on Tuesday and Tempos on Saturdays, it is 990m around so roughly a km. It is great and it has a footpath and a cinder track 1m in width next to each other with the cinder on the inside of the footpath. The only down side is the summer when the little kiddies come out for cricket and wander aimlessly so you often have to ‘duck for cover’ from a swinging bat, dodge a cricket ball, or worse case scenario a kid gets decked which one poor jimmy found out last summer. By far my favourite is the botanical gardens though, a 4km hill loop with grass, road and shingle tracks, you can really get rolling there and combined with some drills we do in the circuit it is one of the most ball busting workouts around.
What are your thoughts on the upcoming NZ Champs in Waikanae, do you think that the tough course will separate the field quickly?
Waikanae is a great course, and I think people make it as tough as they want, it is not a course to be taken lightly and you always see some massive explosions (I was one two years ago). It is awesome though, real XC, with 2 fences to hurdle, rolling hills and enough flat sections it really does come down to the fastest and the strongest runner on the day. You definitely need a good combination of the both to run well on this course. When it rains, it is an absolute mud bath (like last week at Wellington Champs), but it has also been known to be bone dry, I think the field will be well established through 3-5km.
How is the running “culture” in Wellington, is there a strong sense of community between the runners?
Hmmm that is a tough one and maybe I can't answer this for everyone but within the community I am very much in a strong culture, my group all love our sport and we love each other (Ed. Note: New Zealand is one of 32 countries that performs and recognises same-sex unions), we are all good mates and hang out a lot outside of running so that is great. It is very easy to bounce ideas off each other and I am loving helping and telling stories to the juniors who will be seniors next year and I am looking forward to that. The older guys at the club are very motivational as I mentioned guys like Todd [Stevens] before, they keep you in the loop and you know exactly what is going on.
Why is Wellington Scottish so unrelentingly dominant?
Because we drink beer and train like animals. Ha, no I think the main thing is communication and incentives. We have a Wellington Scottish Supporters Trust where a lot of the top athletes pretty much can get a flight paid for and accommodation as well as a bonus on performance based things, this makes you more pumped to do well. Our road relays are great often no one has to pay a thing in terms of accommodation which is a great thing to have. We have some of the best guys around in terms of organisation and it really is the guys behind the scenes who step up and organise our local 5km series that is a good money raiser for the club. And who would want to run for any other club? We have a bad arse Lion on the front of our singlets!
Has the local atmosphere changed much with so many of Wellington's top young athletes heading overseas?
I don't think so, as far as some of the top competition down at the track or whatever it is not really too much different, yes you lose a few young guys coming through but that is their decision. We still have plenty of young and old athletes who are all very much into the sport creating a buzz. I think it will continue to grow in Wellington and there are guys wanting to do really well at the top of the spectrum in NZ also. We hope that many that leave will come back to NZ and continue to do well for our club and for themselves, I am a huge believer that with the right attitude and determination you can get to the level you want to no matter where in the world you are.
For more information about Wellington just watch the first Lord of the Rings movie or contact the Minister of Tourism, Prime Minister John Key at: john.key@national.org.nz
“I am a huge believer that with the right attitude and determination you can get to the level you want to no matter where in the world you are”.
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4 comments to "Simply the Best: Wellington, New Zealand"
To Check out the Wellington running scene head to: http://www.whac.org.nz. New Zealand's oldest and most prestigious harrier club.
5 reasons why Wellington isn't the best running locale in New Zealand:
1) Wind. It's cliche, but it's cliche for a reason. Wellington is New Zealands capital of wind. Virtually all seasons (with perhaps some respite in high summer) are buffetted by a sadistic ocean zephyr that makes running anywhere near the CBD virtually intolerable. Wellingtonians will point to Wellingtons slightly warmer climes when comapred with the south island, or lesser rainfall compared with the north: but I ask you, would you rather train on a crisp, sunny 5degree morning with no wind, or 8 degrees with a constant 80km'hr juggernaught in your face?
2) Terrain: There is one option without a significant car journey if you dont want to run on the hills, running the waterfront where the wind (see number 1) is at its most brutal. On a good day the water front is fine, but at its worst it's a hellish mish-mash of henious, overweight "fitness fanatics" and lunch time plodders spitefully obstructing anyone who isn't wearing basketball shorts and cross-trainers.
3)Nelson: One could easily argue that Dunedin, Rotorua, Tauranga, Christchurch are better running locations than Wellington; but (except for University Students in Dunedin) Welly trumps those places on general quality of life. However, the glaring fact is that Nelson is simply the best place in New Zealand to live in terms of general livability and runnability. The Richmond Ranges are a veritable "wonderland*" for the foot racing inclined; Nelson has every type of training terrain imaginable within a stones throw of the CDB (including a Mondo track) and is home to arguably the best running coach in the country. The golden sands of ther Abel Tasman are on the Nelsonian's doorstep, close to skifields, hunting, babeliscious backpackers, Malborough Sounds, wine-country....Nelson wins for lifestyle. Its utterly irrefutable.
4) Performance: Case study of NZ CG/olympic middle-long distance medalists medalists and major marathon champions and place of residence at the time
Lovelock - Oxford, UK
Moller - Colorado, USA
Ryan - The old Whaka-Chang-Chang
Davies - Tokoroa
Snell/Walker/Quax/Halberg/Magee/Roe - Auckland
Tayler - Otago/Blenheim
Welsh - Otago
Chamberlain - Christchurch
McKenzie - Greymouth
Dixon - Nelson
Willis - Ann Arbour, USA
5) Newtown Park: A ghetto, a wind funnel, a thriving populus of monkeys, Shaka Sola, bubbles under the back straight, crusty toilets, fat netball players dominating lanes 1-7. Newtown Park sucks.
6) Retention: Big issue here, the best city in the world can't lose characters like Roza and Browne and talents like Blacklaws, Ejigu, Hodge, Wallis, Willis, Wallace and Wyatt.
7) Wellington Scottish: Accepting the tongue and cheek element (which might not be transparent to the predominantly Australian readership of this blog) that egotistical, ostentatious tripe in the second paragraph is exactly the reason why the majority of athletes in NZ consider the Scottish club to be pure evil. Knowing what the club is really about, I know that this view is unfair; but it's also why Scottish wont win another Senior Mens road relay title...ever.
8) John Key: Good guy, but have you seen him on the sidelines at local track and field events like Jim Bolger used to?
9) Middle Earth: Nothing worse than getting stabbed in the face by a f-ing Nazgul on your morning jog.
10) OK, I'm out of reasons. Trained in Wellington for 3 months, had the biggest incremental improvement of my life, loved training there. Good group of young local runners there at present. Hamish Carson is the man. In all honesty, a pretty good place. Just wanted to bring some balance to this self indulgent article.
*Wonderland quote c/o Kim Hogarth, 2008
"...there is literally no where flat to run except the waterfront, and no one wants to plod around there every day (well no one with a fully functioning brain)."
Unfortunately the fully functioning brain clause rules out most of wellington!