"I signed up not really knowing how far 12km was," remembered Still.
"I had never done any events beforehand. Apart from two hours of boot camp a week, I hadn't done any other training."
Still brought her father in-law, who does race walking, to the first event to keep her motivated. "Man, did I need him, with suffering from severely inflamed Crohn's disease, low iron and not a lot of training ... we finally made it to the finish line."
Still rallied and did exactly what all athletes want to achieve in a series, which is beat their time from event one. She ran her first 12km in 2:03:26 in event one and smashed that with 1:48:52 in event two.
She said her big improvement was thanks to hard work.
"Knowing that I was last for the first event with the biggest time, my competitive streak came out and I decided I had the biggest chance of bettering my time," she said.
"So after a lot more training and support and encouragement from my father in-law and friends I managed to blitz my time by over 15 minutes missing out only by seconds on winning most improved. But nevertheless a huge improvement and what a difference that extra training made."
Event organiser Irving said Still's success story sums up what makes the Buffalo Series special.
"The Buffalo Trail Runner is a fun, community-focused, trail-running event for all abilities," she said.
"Being a two part-series we want to encourage people to take part in both with the aim of beating their time. We found a lot of people enter these events with the intention of training for it and doing well on the day. After the event most people don't have the motivation to carry on training," Irving said.
"The idea of having two events is that they keep training up to the second event and beating their time from the first."
The series was originally created as a fun winter running event series for locals to come and enjoy the outdoors at the TECT All Terrain Park.
Beyond Adventure Racing, which runs the event, is a Tauranga-based company that wants to see more adventure races in the Tauranga area for beginner and intermediate runners.
Last year was the inaugural year of the event and it was well received, with people travelling from Auckland, Hamilton and Taupo to take part.
There is also the option to enter as a team of four, with all members to complete the whole 12km.
Keith Martin took that option and his team came second at both events in under 55 minutes last year to claim the overall team title.
Martin, the gym and pool manager at the BOP Polytechnic, said the environment was "very supportive" and he urged locals to get involved.
"Running is usually an individual event so it was nice to compete it with a few mates," said the 34-year-old, who plans to run the Auckland Marathon, Toi's Challenge and The Goat this year. "It was well organised and I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a goal over winter when sometimes people slacken off the training a bit."
The athletes all agreed the trails were awesome to run on. Martin said it was a good challenge.
"I remember a couple of good hills, one right at the start which sorts the field out early. A couple of slippery parts too in old river beds but anyone could do it if they've trained a little," he said.
"The last few kilometres are a series of corners as you try to catch the people in front of you. I could hear them but couldn't see them."
Still added: "Good grippy shoes are needed as parts of the run can get slippery after rain and there are several river crossings -- and the added bonus of trying to either dodge the big puddle or just go splashing through."
The run has also seen growth in the use of the TECT All Terrain Park.
Bill Wheeler, the park's operations manager, has seen a significant growth of people using the park since people starting training for these running events.
"We were certainly surprised by the numbers of competitors for these events and even more surprised that many of the racers were returning to the park to train between events," he said.
"It has prompted us to look at ways of improving facilities for people training for trail-running events and for keep-fit fans in general."
Meanwhile, Still is not satisfied with her personal best last year. She wants to beat that time when the series kicks offmid next month. But she also knows it is a good achievement to just complete the 12km.
"The best part for me was crossing that finish line. It felt like such an accomplishment after all my health issues and I proved that if I can do it anyone can. No excuses! I'll be back out there in mid-July."
Buffalo trail runner
When: July 12 and August 16
What: 12km trail run
Where: TECT All Terrain Park, Tauranga
Entry options: individual and teams of 4
For more information visit: http://www.eventfinder.co.nz/2014/buffalo-trail-runner-series/tauranga
