2026 Race Preview
https://trailrunningnz.substack.com/p/wiiiiiilsoooooooooooon-and-wonder
Tararua Mountain Race - Wellington
Saturday, March 14
It doesn’t seem that long ago it felt like the Tararua Mountain Race was doomed to the scrap heap of races from the ‘good ol days’. Well, just like that we’re less than a week out from the 3rd running of the new-look Tararua Mountain Race under the leadership of Andy Carruthers.
Andy has done a great job restoring TMR to its former glory, but he’s also made a couple of key changes. You can now run 2 shorter races from Otaki Forks, so you can dip your fungal-infested toenails into the Tararua if you’re mountain curious, or want to sit on the toilet properly on Sunday.
The 2 Otaki Fork-based races are:
Field Dash: 📏13KM | ⛰️770M
The Kime Climb: 📏24KM | ⛰️1300M
I’ll be grinding along in the Kime Climb as a final dress rehearsal for the Ring of Fire at the end of March. If you’re keen to show me how it’s done, you can use the codeSkagto get $20 off your entry and score a bonus $30Mountain Skagvoucher.
If you’re after a truly transformational experience, the Southern Crossing is the one. You’ll go so deep into your subconscious you’ll hear yourself swear in languages not even discovered yet. And that’s before you reach the first hut below the bush line.
Jokes aside, if you want to test your mettle, this is the race to do it. A race where completion is as respected as competing. There is no easy way across that rooty tooty, boggy, tussock-infested rocky horror dreamscape.
Southern Crossing: 📏36KM | ⛰️2300M
10% chance it will look like this Photo: Tim Sutton
90% chance it will look like this Photo: TMR Gallery of a wild Seanoa Issac
You can read the fullpreviewfrom last year here if this has tickled your piccadilly.
I’ve had a wee scroll of the start list and I gotta say, there’s no clear favourite. But I’ll stop being a“insert your own out-of-date word choice that would get me cancelled here”and pick an outright men’s and women’s winner.
🏃♀️Allira Hanczakowski:She won the relaunch in 2024. Her smile is somehow even bigger and she’s only gotten faster on broken terrain. She will be hard to beat, unless the forecast is perfect and she might be coming back down Marchant from the other direction a bit later in the weekend…
🏃Brendan Varty:He’s only getting faster and he knows these ranges like the back of his sack. This one might just be me hoping to see it because he’s one of the good guys.
