CMF Runner Kristen on her 102km Tarawera Ultra Trail journey - 2026 wild weather edition!

My Tarawera 100 journey started back in 2024, I was 1:1 coached by coach Char back then and she recommended I do TUM21 prior to running my first full marathon to get that ‘race day feel’. It was my first time on the trails and I absolutely loved it, in 2025 I completed the 50k so it was only natural progression to move to the 100k in 2026. (No the miler isn’t on the cards in 2027 haha). 

My training for the 100 really kicked off in August 2025, I had signed up to the CMF programme for the river-run BYU where I wanted to get between 50-100km to see how the body ran and recovered, I ran 11 laps which was about 74km. I learnt a lot about fuelling and mindset here. From there I cracked into a 13 week programme set out by coach Char. I loved the training, I’m extremely disciplined/regimented when it comes to running and I think I only skipped a couple gym sessions and altered 1 or 2 runs over those weeks. Working a full time job, being a solo house occupier,  dog mum and training for a 100k run was probably one of the hardest things I’ve done, juggling it all especially as the runs got longer over the Christmas and NY period but I made it work. Attending the CMF TUM training weekend a few weeks out from the 100 was a massive confidence boost and its just a really good weekend away in general, getting to meet other ‘psychotic’ and ‘crazy’ people who run ultras for fun, being around those sort of people gets me fired up.

This brings us to race day, I was SO ready and felt content leading up to the day.

I set off from Kawerau in such good spirits and ready to tackle the distance in front of me. It wasn’t until I got to Outlet aid station that the rain started, and it BUCKETED. This just happened to be the section where I first got onto the nice flowy trails, and funnily enough it stopped when I got out of the trail. Sigh. I continued onto Rotoiti aid station and I was within my anticipated time to get to Okataina at that stage. It was only 5km away, it shouldn’t take that long… that 5km set the pace for the rest of the day, mud covering the tops of my shoes and water up to my shins. It was fun tho, I really enjoyed it at that stage. I got to Okataina in about 9.5hrs which was over my anticipated time. From there I changed into trail shoes and refuelled well. I kept telling myself that it was just one big climb and then it was easy going, I had done this section before so I believed I knew what I was getting into and I was probably one of the happier runners leaving Okataina. It was when I got to the top of the Okataina climb that that all changed, a HUGE downpour of rain came through with thunder and lightning. The track was turning into a waterfall and the muddy slop was getting worse and worse, and to top it all off it was getting dark. I felt like I physically could not run as I was worrying to much about where I was putting my feet, this also meant fuelling went out the window as I was concentrating too hard on not assing up. The section between Okataina and Millar took me about 3hrs 15mins, it was at Millar that I saw a lot of runners DNFing and I was standing next to a guy when he told one of the volunteers he wanted to pull out, that was a bit of an oh shit moment for me. From there I made my way to blue lake, the trail section coming out of Okareka just before blue lake chewed me up and spat me out, I was defeated, was the mud ever going to end? I walked the whole way around blue lake to the aid station.

Between blue lake and redwoods was when the tears started to flow, I was absolutely DONE with the mud, there’s no way to accurately describe it and you definitely had to be there to experience it. The earlier runners just didn’t get to experience it as us back of the pack 100k and milers did. It was character building. Coming into redwoods at 0215hrs I didn’t want to stop, I just wanted to keep moving so my friend Bex joined me and I crossed the finish line in 20hours and 32mins, much longer than my anticipated time. No physical or mental training could ever prepare me for that mud experience. However I am proud of myself for finishing and not giving up when the mud got too much.  Am I a bit disappointed I didn’t get within my ‘anticipated’ time? Yes but there’s no point dwelling on it. I already know I’m going back next year to do this run in better conditions, and if the weather is shit again I’d happily give up my $600 entry fee.