The Huia Rd Bush Runners (HRBR) are a group of passionate and dedicated Waitakere Ranges trail runners. The group has existed for a number of years and hold semi-organised trail runs three times a week. I had my first ever trail run with them a few years ago and managed three runs before badly spraining an ankle. I run with them rarely these days as timing doesn’t always suit and a lot of the runners are just too fast for me !
I managed to get out for a run with them on Saturday, in a slow and short group fortunately. We all started off together and I was mostly keeping up with the fast guys for the first couple of KM’s of mostly downhill, but at the short/long run junction I split off as I knew I could not keep up for much longer. It proved to be a wise decision as I was stuffed at the end, even after the short and slow run !
We ran down towards Piha, which is probably my favourite section of the Waitakeres. There are some lovely trails ,with an occasionally runnable ascent and some nice streams and the wonderful Kitekite falls.
The tracks we ran were Home, Connect, Piha Valley Track, Kitekite Falls, Winstone and back along Home to the start. It was an hour and a half run over just under ten km. The conditions under foot were just incredible considering it is a week until Christmas ! Deep sucking mud, shallow mud, mud puddles and a slippery surface between the mud.
It was a great wee run. Due to the weather I didn’t hang around waiting for the long run guys to come in and have a post run beer. I didn’t have a change of clothes and needed to get clean and dry.
I used the default camera app on my Galaxy phone for these images and wow, massive improvement in quality over the Small Camera app I downloaded. Small Camera now deleted and I will stick to the default.
One week to go !
Where is Phil now? 
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