Taking on a ghost

Helayna Ruifrok at the Skyline Ridge on a perfect day. Pictures supplied

Gisborne’s Helayna Ruifrok got the running bug nine years ago and has been ticking off runs and races, distances and personal bests ever since. At the end of February she took on the Old Ghost Ultra — an 85km run on the Old Ghost Road in the north-west corner of the South Island. This is a long-forgotten gold miners’ road revived as a mountain biking and tramping trail — connecting the old road in Lyell (upper Buller Gorge) to the Mokihinui River. The Old Ghost Road traverses majestic native forest, open tussock tops, river flats and forgotten valleys. This is her story.

My journey to the Old Ghost Ultra started with my good friend and running buddy, Nicki Davies, telling me that she was signing up for the event.

I had no plan in my foreseeable future to run that far (85km) but I thought ‘I can’t let her do it without me’.

I also thought that if I was ever going to do it, it would be way better with a training mate.

The day before entries opened, I won an entry through Squadrun — a training programme partnered with Old Ghost Trust — by committing to fundraise for the Mokihinui-Lyell Backcountry Trust, which built and maintains the Old Ghost Road track.

The next day Nicki entered as well and we were very excited at the prospect of six months of training together and weekend adventures.

Not too long after this, however, Nicki suffered a bad knee injury. I really hoped it would come right quickly and we could get back to the plan. It was not to be.

She eventually accepted that the 2018 event was not going to happen for her and I accepted I would be doing a fair whack of training on my own. I had committed to the fundraising and had bought a Squadrun training plan; there was no going back now.

Training ticked along OK. My optimistic side thought that I would learn to love getting up for early morning runs. I didn’t.

I thought I might adjust to running in the heat. I didn’t. The 28-to-33-degree days and having my three kids home because of school holidays made training testing.

I was averaging three to four runs per week from my plan but was worried I wasn’t doing enough.

My first extra big training run was on my 36th birthday in December. I got up early, set up an aid station at my mailbox and headed down the road to the local Department of Conservation track — Te Kuri Farm Walkway.

One loop of the off-road farm track, plus the run up my road and back to the mailbox, is 8.3km, with around 350m of elevation.

I ran it five times to make it a marathon distance, 42.2km, with over 1700m of elevation.

Not quite the epic adventure I’d imagined I’d be having for my training but it was good to have it under my belt, and to test food, hydration and gear. Plus the views up there are spectacular.

I managed some stunning trail runs over the summer, notably the Pakihi Track and Whinray Reserve in Motu, Puketi Kauri Forest in Northland and my last “Super Sunday” — a 50km muddy run around Lake Waikaremoana with my husband Joss and our mate Doug Moore, who was about to head over to the Hong Kong 100 Ultra Trail.

I also did Gisborne Harrier Club’s Matokitoki Half-Marathon and was first woman across the line. That was a very special moment for me.

During all of this, I was thinking about how I could get some fundraising done.

The harrier club president suggested an Old Ghost Halloween fun run, which I thought was a great idea. It was heaps of fun, with a good turnout of runners, most of them in Halloween dress-up. They ran or walked the club’s River Run course of 2.5km or 5km, with the best dressed prize going to Mr and Mrs Potatohead.

I sold truffles at the event and felt good about how it had gone. I also set up a givealittle page to which a few amazingly generous friends and family donated.

I found fundraising tough. I’m not a very forward person and asking for donations felt a little awkward, but when I told people about the Old Ghost Road and the trust I was fundraising for, I knew I was doing a great thing for a great cause.

Race week came. It was busy. My son (Harper) turned 10 and my eldest daughter (Tui) 12. Harper and my youngest child, Indigo (7), took part in the Weetbix TRYathlon and did such a good job.

Although Nicki couldn’t run the race, she decided to come south with me as my chief supporter, which was super cool.

We flew to Nelson and stayed with a friend. The next day we drove our little rental car to Westport and went straight to the event headquarters for race pack pick-up and a gear check.

It was a relief to learn that due to good weather we didn’t need our waterproof pants and thermal longs. Only a few days earlier, Cyclone Gita had thrown herself at the west coast of the South Island. It was also a relief to hear that the track was in good condition and had come through the cyclone unscathed.

‘Privileged to have had this amazing opportunity’Once we settled into our B&B, we headed out for dinner with 20 or so other “Squadrunners”.

It was neat to meet runners who I had been following on Strava or Facebook, and talk about our hopes for the day ahead.

After dinner we wandered back to HQ for the briefing where race director Phil Rossiter had fun telling us how much climbing we would be doing.

Race day started with a 3am alarm. I had prepared everything the night before so all I had to do was get my gear on and eat.

Nicki dropped me off for the 4.20am bus to the start, with enough time to grab a coffee.

The ride to the start was about an hour long and I happened to sit with Karen Rowan, who I had met once before when a group of us ran Lake Waikaremoana last year. The general chatter signalled a growing excitement among the runners.

The usual pre-race port-a-loo line-up was followed by registration and a chat with Kerry Suter (from Squadrun and a two-time winner of the Tarawera Ultra Marathon). He asked me to go onstage in the morning at the prizegiving in regards to the fundraising I’d been doing.

I told him I wasn’t too keen on speaking but he reassured me that I’d just have to stand there and he’d do all the talking.

Then we were off. Our headlamps were needed for the first hour so we didn’t see much except the track and the runners’ feet in front of us.

It was a great time to be running and I tried to make sure I stuck with Karen as she seemed to be doing a great pace.

We reached the first aid station, Specimen Point, in under two hours, well within the cut-off.

From there it was a more flattish trail until around the 30km mark when we started our first climb of the day.

I was feeling good. We were doing a sweet pace, one I felt I could sustain.

Coming into the second aid station at 42km meant we were halfway, with the hard half still to come.

It had taken 5.5 hours to reach Stern Valley, again well within the cut-off.

This is where our drop bags were and I took the opportunity to change into a dry top and bra and retape my chafing spots.

I topped up my soft flasks and enjoyed a big peach that I had put in my drop bag. It was so good.

Karen changed shoes, and we were about to head off when a helicopter arrived.

We thought it might be Ali Pottinger and Maree Holgate (from Squadrun), who were going to be tail-end Charlies — the people who follow the last person to make sure they get safely to the finish.

We were right. It was Ali and Maree, along with professional ultra runner Lucy Bartholemew, who had come to do the second half of the course as a training run.

We hugged Ali and Maree, and I told Karen I wanted a photo with Lucy.

I think she is such a lovely and positive woman and a great role model, especially for young girls. I thought my daughter Tui would get a buzz out of seeing a photo of me and her.

Lucy happily obliged and we set off again. Lucy ran with us and chatted for about five minutes before she carried on ahead to do the same with other runners no doubt. Such a cool thing for her to do. She had decided not to race due to her massive efforts at the Tarawera Ultra 60km (in which she finished first woman and third overall) and the Shotover Moonlight Marathon (first woman) two weeks before.

It was 13km or so until the next aid station at Ghost Lake Hut and it involved a lot of climbing.

This section is where you get the amazing views along the Skyline Ridge, climb a lot of stairs and get to marvel at the effort that has gone into building this track. I could see where my funds were going, which was choice.

Ghost Lake aid station at 55km was brilliant, with more extremely helpful volunteers, plus whitebait fritters.

I hoped it wasn’t going to disagree with me as I tucked into one but thankfully it was fine.

We knew we still had a bit more climbing to do from there but then it levelled out again, and from there it was about putting one foot in front of the other.

Around the 65km mark we saw Nicki, who had come up from the finish on her bike. She plodded along with us for a bit, then biked along for a while and took a couple of photos.

The finish line seemed so close, yet so far away. The last 12km finally felt like the downhill we had been waiting for although very gradual.

It was still an effort but I knew that if I stopped it would be hard to start again.

Karen and I finished together in 12 hours 17 minutes. She wanted to do cartwheels over the finish line. I agreed but when we got there I was worried we were going to kick each other in the face if we did them at the same time, so we did them one after the other . . . a cool way to finish an epic event.

We slowly made our way down to the river to soak our aching bodies in the icy water. It was so cold I couldn’t bear to go all the way under like Karen and Nicki did, but it was so nice on the legs.

The next morning at prizegiving I was expecting to be called up to stand next to Kerry.

Instead, race director Phil asked three of us who had done fundraising to come up and tell our story.

I had never spoken to a crowd like that before. I think it was more scary than running 85km. I managed to get some words out without fainting and I truly meant it when I said that the track was an incredible feat of craftsmanship, and the money raised was going to a fantastic group of volunteers.

Thank you to Squadrun, the team at Old Ghost Ultra, Gisborne Harrier Club and all others who got behind me and the cause. I feel privileged to have had this amazing opportunity.