The Poronui Passage 2025
This event was going to be our final for the year and it was a biggie (money wise). Generally a standard entry fee for a trail half marathon costs around $150.00, this event is double that. But, it sounded pretty bougie – hot showers, free massage, free bus to and from the event centre and there was a free burger .. and I do love me a burger! They really should have just led with that ..
Anyway, James didn’t train for this event so he decided he was going to run with me, even though he’s repeatedly told me it “hurts” to run that slow for that long and it’s far easier to just run fast for a shorter length of time .. but as long as he didn’t complain constantly, I was all good with that plan.
We drove to Taupo on Friday and it was kind of odd not having a registration to attend that night, instead we wandered into the town centre for some dinner and I soaked in the tub while James had a swim in the pool.
The next morning we walked across the street and caught the event bus to Poronui Station – which is a decent distance away. On arrival everything was well signposted but I found the registration process somewhat odd. You went in one line for your bib and then you had to go in another line to get your race pack .. I’m unsure why they just didn’t have everything put together waiting for you, but there must have been some kind of reasoning – lack of space probably. The other odd thing was that the fancy portable toilets kept “breaking” honestly, they could have just got run of the mill ones that worked .. but I guess that wouldn’t scream LUXURY.
The event itself has a bike category so they went first and then the running events set off (marathon first, half next etc etc etc). We started near the back and pretty much stayed there. The first part goes through some fields and then hits a farm road and you basically just go up. It’s not uber steep but it’s pretty continual and it’s quite exposed.
The Beech Forest was probably my fave section even though I manage to fall in a giant mud puddle that took up the entire trail (all because I didn’t want to climb up a hill to go around it lol). I did however run much better after that – perhaps it cooled me down. Everything after the quarry I wasn’t a huge fan of – it was either dirt road or fields – running through fields is not my fave (although it was quite pretty).
And obviously James had to do the beer mile – I don’t like beer, but I grabbed one as well … he drank both.
Post race I had a hot shower (no lines) and then had the aforementioned burger – which was worth every km.
I looked at getting a massage but the line was long and I worked out with the time we had left before the last bus, I wouldn’t have got anywhere near the front of the line – so that was a miss.
James is keen to go back next year – I may let him run off and do a shorter event .. or perhaps I could ride it .. ?
We shall see.
Till next time
