Author: Emma Van Holst

December 15, 2024

Hatea Run’s second ever Summer Solstice event.  This idea came about after our club Treasurer Martin Harrap spent time in Tasmania, where a run club ran an event with the following idea:  Run from dawn until dusk.  And thus, the Hatea Summer Solstice event was born.

Our Summer Solstice is not too dissimilar from a backyard ultra, but there are some pretty big differences at the same time.  The 2 biggest differences are that there is a finishing time rather than running until the last man standing, and that there is a choice of a 5km course and the traditional 6.7km backyard ultra course distance.  Our runners ran from 6am until 9pm.  There were people running every hour on the hour with the last run starting at 8pm.  The other standout difference for our event from the traditional backyard ultra event was the following one rule: runners started running on the hour; they could start at any time and could also skip an hour or several if they wanted.  You could call it a “relaxed-mini-backyard ultra”, but nonetheless, an event that saw many of its participants running further than they had ever run in a day in their lives.

On the day, people arrived with smiles and coffee in hand, and the spirits were high as we went about setting up gazebos ahead of the start time.  The sunrise was stunning, and we were blessed with an overcast day which kept us a little cooler, although it was still incredibly warm.  The favourite fuel for the day was a mixture of home baking, salty chips and lollies.  And then there was Sione with his chicken curry!  A big highlight was Catherine with her (clean) weed-spraying bottle which she used to shower participants as they completed each lap.

Hatea Run won a $100 prezzy card for our results as a club at the Kerikeri Half Marathon and it was agreed unanimously that this should be used to feed our Summer Solstice runners pizza for dinner.

This event was open to all members and non-members of Hatea Run, and Summer Solstice 2024 saw 60 participants run for one, a few, many or all of the 15 hours.  The total kilometres covered that day was 2567.1kms!  That’s nearly 1000km longer than the length of New Zealand!  Standouts were: 

• Emma Steedman and Allan Staite ran the 6.7km course for the full 15 hours giving them 100km total distance for the day!  
• Sione Tukia Moto’apuaka covered a total of 80km!
• Blake Antonio, at age 12 ran a marathon distance over 2 stints!

All in all, the event was a standout for many as they reflected on the year that had been and looked forward to the year ahead.  Many sat around discussing their running goals for 2025 and no-doubt, Summer Solstice 2025 will be another one to remember.