Hamilton Road Runners members from left Neil Crocker, Melanie Duff, Colleen Stacey and Claude Stacey at the start line of the Waitetuna Wind Farm Trail Run on Saturday. Photo/Supplied
Hamilton Road Runners members from left Neil Crocker, Melanie Duff, Colleen Stacey and Claude Stacey at the start line of the Waitetuna Wind Farm Trail Run on Saturday. Photo/Supplied
A Hamilton woman's first attempt at a trail run through farmland near Raglan went awry after several wrong turns saw her land in a local tourist hot spot.
Colleen Stacey says once she went through an open gate - which should have been closed - it was all, literally, downhill after advice for directions sent her even further off the Waitetuna Wind Farm Trail Run course.
After taking a wrong turn, Stacey says she ended up at Bridal Veil Falls - the complete opposite direction of the finish line.
Stacey was registered to do the 21km jagged, loop run with friends Melanie Duff and Neil Crocker. Husband, Claude, completed the 10km run.
The run an inaugural fundraising event that was organised by the PTA of Waitetuna School.
Stacey, who has been running for more than 20 years, said it was her first time taking part in a trail run but she had trained hard for it as she knew it would be tough.
The group set off and ended up running at their own pace. Stacey said she was a "plodder" and hoped to complete the run between three and-a-half and four hours, given the terrain.
The run got off to a rocky start after she rolled her ankle, however, unperturbed she continued on.
She got lost but after realising, she ran back and caught up with a group of walkers. Once they reached the top of the steep hills to the windmills, it was downhill, so she decided to run ahead.
However, a short time later she came across an open gate. One way was a gravel road, the other a windy mountain bike track. With no markers on either direction, she thought it would be safer to take the road.
Hamilton runner Colleen Stacey believed the track was quite rough in places and wouldn't have been suitable if conditions were wet. Photo/Colleen Stacey
"I was part way down the road and one of the Meridian Energy staff came up in a ute and I said 'I'm lost, I've been running for 21km and the whole run is 21km and it doesn't look like I'm anywhere near the end'."
She asked if the road lead out onto Waitetuna Valley Rd and said she was told "yes" so kept going.
Then she came across a farm house. But there was no one home and still no cellphone reception. She continued to have the GPS function on her Garmin sports watch, which kept an eye on how far she was running.
She then spied the Meridian Energy vehicle again, however the driver didn't see her waving frantically.
"I was getting sunburnt, and I was tired and I didn't know how far I had to go, so I just kept going and going, running and walking, running and walking."
She finally made it to the road.
"I thought, 'wow, I can run back now'. But it wasn't the right road, it said Te Mata Rd and I thought I'd keep going until I could see a house."
Shortly afterwards she came across a row of cars parked on the side of the road.
"It was actually Bridal Veil Falls and I saw a man sitting next to his car with a cellphone."
However, he didn't have reception either but he did offer to drive her back to the start line.
Shortly afterwards they discovered he'd taken a wrong turn and were instead heading to Kawhia.
She eventually got back to the start line at 1.30pm after the rest of the competitors had left and organisers were packing up.
She would later learn from her husband, who was worried for her safety, there were about 16 people still unaccounted for by the time the prizegiving began and four still missing when she finally arrived.
"I was actually quite a long way [off course], I didn't realise how far it was until we drove there and I thought 'I'm miles away from where I'm meant to be'."
While Stacey was missing, race organisers and Land Search and Rescue volunteers, who happened to be at the event, began looking for her while several local farmers were also called in to help search on their quad bikes.
"I just walked back in and the search and rescue people were so surprised to see me because they were out looking for me."
Stacey, who said she can now laugh about her predicament despite it being "scary' at the time, said it was unlikely she would do the race again, especially if conditions were wet.
"They just shouldn't have it there, it's too dangerous. There wasn't enough markings.
"There's no way that you could actually get up some of those hills if it was wet, you would just be sliding back down again."
When contacted, one of the co-organisers said they were aware of Stacey's situation but did not want to comment any further.
