Geoff Ness next to Paraparaumu Domain where he ran for 24 hours. Photo / David Haxton
Geoff Ness next to Paraparaumu Domain where he ran for 24 hours. Photo / David Haxton
For six months Geoff Ness trained for an epic Sri Chinmoy 24-hour running event.
"It has always been something I wanted to try.
"I've done a lot of other long-distance endurance events, including 100km and 160km races, but this one was quite a different challenge.
"It's 24 hours and the idea is to see how long you can actually keep going and how far you can go over that time."
The event was supposed to have been held in the Auckland University of Technology's Millennium Stadium on an all-purpose rubberised athletics track surface.
But a few weeks out from the event it was cancelled because of the Covid-19 crisis.
Geoff, 47, from Paraparaumu, didn't want all his training to go to waste so went to plan B, which involved running around the Paraparaumu Domain grass track for 24 hours.
Kāpiti Coast District Council granted him permission to use the domain as well as toilet facilities.
On Saturday at 10am, with the weather conditions very gloomy and wet, Geoff set off.
Geoff Ness during his 24-hour run around the Paraparaumu Domain.
He was going into the unknown, despite extensive training including between 130km and 170km a week in the past few months.
"The time and distance flew by at the start but as you'd expect, as time went on, it got harder and harder to maintain.
"I had quite a breezy pace early on but that really did slow a bit.
"I think by the time I got to the six-hour mark I was really starting to feel it, including a bit of pain in the legs.
"I started to take little walking breaks."
An added bonus was various runners joined him in various laps for moral support and motivation.
Geoff also had to kept remembering to fuel his body.
"The key thing to keep an eye on, with an event like this, is making sure to eat and drink well.
"Lots of bananas, oranges, whole foods, but in the wee small hours I had Coke, chips and jet planes to get sugar into the bloodstream quick and lift the mood."
Like any gruelling event, there would be tough periods to get through.
"There was a really rough patch between 2am and 4am but I had a great pacer with me, Phil Calder, who helped me put the wheels back on when they were falling off.
"He made sure I was looking after myself in terms of feeding and drinking as well as keeping me motivated.
"I had dried out a bit but at about 4am there was a big downpour and for some odd reason it seemed to lift things up for me and got me into a nice steady rhythm and lifted the pace a little bit.
"At that point I could feel the end was in sight and it became a question of how long the distance was going to be at the end and how could I make it the best I could."
At 10am the next day he crossed the finish line, clocking up staggering distance of 191.7km.
"I had a couple of runners with me at the end and my son Zach, 10, actually came down to join me for the last few laps so that was brilliant.
Geoff was "beyond happy" with the achievement.
Geoff Ness a few days after his epic run. Photo / David Haxton
"To know I had planned it out, with all the training, and then executed it, was a reward in it.
"But it's also one of those things where you ask a question of yourself — what am I actually capable of? — and just answering that curiosity, and now I know."
He didn't collapse over the finish line - but "I wasn't moving anywhere quickly".
It wasn't a matter of going straight to bed either.
