Preparation - Setting the Loops

What I thought would be a straightforward task, escalated rapidly into a large beast.

The task was to incorporate all the walking and tramping tracks in the Waitakere Ranges into sets of runnable loops while trying to reduce the amount of repetition of the sections. There were a few things to consider, such as the distance of the loops, access points, parking, and terrain. Towards the end, well actually right near the beginning, I discarded any consideration of terrain - you get what you are going to get, and at some point you will have to run it so harden up! Although I am frightfully reminded of some sections of the Waitakeres that I have run and being very thankful at the time to be descending them. Yup, this is going to be a lung busting challenge.

So over the course of the last couple of weeks? I have been pouring over my Terralink Hunua and Waitakere Ranges Recreation Area map (edition 2 2005, now out of print) and piecing together trails into loops. I have been using the list of trails on the ARC website and utilising the track index this chap  fathmandu has provided. He had a similar endeavour although we are in slightly different leagues with him being an older, 120 kg walker.

Note: That I have used the distances indicated on the map described. In cases where distances were not stipulated on the map, I supplemented the data with that provided on the ARC website although it was noticed that at times there were discrepancies between the two data sources. I even considered asking ARC if they would pay me to update their track distances.... still might....

The result:
Total Distance of Waitakere Trails: 269 km
Total Number of labelled Waitakere Trails: 145 trails


What I have incorporated into loops: 247 km / 116 trails
Discarded due to being standalone short trails: 22 km / 29 trails
Percentage distance incorporated into loops:  92 %


Number of loops to Run: 40 loop trails
Total distance to be covered: 380 km


Mean distance of loop trail: 9.5 km
Maximum: 17.6 km (Te-Henga-Goldie Bush Walkway (west) return)
Minimum: 1.4 km (Anawhata Beach Track return)
Median: 9.8 km

The realisations:
* That this is probably going to take me more than just summer to knock off;
* It is going to cost me a lot of petrol and travel time;
* That I will be running 55 % more distance than required due repetition of sections:
* That I really want to get out there and start running! - a GPS is in the mail!