Icebreaker - Pure Merino

What a week we had. All 15 members of Team CatWalk made it safely round the NYC marathon and lived to tell the tale! To come all the way from New Zealand to participate in the world’s greatest marathon was an amazing experience and boy, does New York know how to host a party?! What an incredible atmostphere – the spectators, the bands, the food, the flags; just amazing.

Our sponsored Icebreaker gear was such an awesome treat too. To get logoed running tees (Rush Crewe for women and Ace Crewe for men) and a hoodie (GT260 Quantum Hood) really cemented the Team, we could spot each other in the hotel (even if not on the road with 47,000 other runners!) and they are so warm – essential in a New York winter! We were really proud to be showcasing fantastic NZ merino quality clothing on the international stage.

Of course New Yorkers know all about Icebreaker because of the phenomenal TouchLab store there. As we discovered on our second night in NYC, it’s also a great place for a party! We had a great night meeting other like minded runners and getting excited about the big event. The cute ‘Ram’ mascot was an added bonus to the evening!

Running a marathon for a worthy cause combines a trip to one of the greatest cities in the world with a ‘bucket list’ tick and a high feel good factor for the Team CatWalk members. Knowing a world class company like Icebreaker is also supporting us gives us that bit more energy to keep going when we are wondering what we signed ourselves up for. We will get spinal cord injured people out of wheelchairs and back on their feet, and Icebreaker will have helped. Everyone’s a winner (except possibly the odd toenail!)

www.catwalk.org.nz

Nicola Holmwood, Team Manager for Team CatWalk 2011

The following is an update from one of our sponsored athletes, Lydia Bradley, on what she’s been up to this year. Lydia is a mountaineer, mountain guide and motivational speaker! Read more…

This year so far I’ve been to three Rock Islands in the world: an ancient rock in the middle of the Wimmera Plains, Victoria, Australia; Kalymnos, Greece in the Agean Sea; and Mt Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Afrcia and the highest free standing mountain in the world.

Re-training, up-skilling, is the thing these days, and I wanted to re-begin to rock climb (again). So, whilst my partner Deano climbed Everest for the 7th time I slipped away to the ancient of Mt Arapiles. Over decades, this beautiful orange rock has become a world destination for traditional rock climbing, famous for overhanging multi-pitch routes at almost every grade.

The next Rock Island was exotic, and truly an island. Kalymnos is Greek island near the Turkish that has developed into a sport climbing destination non par. All over the island are cliffs ranging from 30m to 250m of climbing, and rock that varies from white quartz seacliffs, to pocketed limestone, hanging tufas (stalagtites), deep orange walls and fearsomely sharp gouttes d’eau (water pockets). The Kalymnians have committed to creating the safest rock climbing destination in the world, and every little studio apartment and every restaurant hang pictures of climbers. It is so incredibly welcoming. The island absolutely hums with climbers, half of them women, many people climbing well into their 60s and even 70s, and lots of couples with children (and they are climbing too). Climbers zip around on scooters to the further crags. In the afternoons when it is too hot to climb, the beaches and little beach cafes around the island sport the greatest number of six-packs ever to be seen on a European coastline – and certainly not all on the men!

One of the best rock climbing holidays ever, bikini tanning, muscle building, wine drinking…slipping into the Icebreaker Zephyr Hood only to protect from the wind on the local ferries island hopping.

I returned from Greece to New Zealand to speak at the Mountain Film Festival in Wanaka, and just five days later flew to Tanzania.

Both Dean and I guided on different expeditions with two families up Mt Kilimanjaro, 5895m, the highest mountain in Africa, and the fourth highest of the Seven Summits. We climbed the peak over 7 days travelling through rocky moonscapes and camping under the Dr Seuss–like Senecia trees. My team, Ashley and his son Findlay Heppenstall, were fully into the local singing passion, and on summit day, starting in the dark, we sang all the way to the summit! The sun rose as we stood there on the summit, taking in the beauty of that ancient mountain.

- Lydia Bradey – Mountaineer, Mountain Guide and Motivational Speaker

Due to the success of ‘Team Ariki in the 2010 edition of the Hood to Coast relay race, we are back running this weekend for our second attempt at claiming glory.  Last year we were the third placed team overall so gained automatic entry into a race that often has to turn away close to 1,000 teams.  If Bob Foote the founder of Hood to Coast is to be believed, the secret of our success last year was the Portland beer and girls.

The Hood to Coast is a 197 mile running relay race with over a thousand teams competing.  The race is based around the city and surrounding areas of Portland in the United States.  The race starts half way up Mount Hood and finishes on the coast at Seaside.  Each team has 12 runners and these runners complete 3 legs each.  The relay see us run over a variety of terrains, weather conditions and times of day, which will once again test us both mentally and physically.

Our team is made up of runners who specialise in variety of distances ranging from 800m to marathons.  Most of us have run for the Ariki Club which is based in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand (close to the birth place of Icebreaker) during our running careers. Due to us being a New Zealand team, Icebreaker felt it was only right that we wear their merino.  Team Ariki is honoured to be supplied by Icebreaker, there is a compelling logic to this combination/partnership as Icebreaker will be represented at the worlds largest relay by a group of first class runners from the same region, equally hardy and resilient as the raw materials from Icebreaker’s products.  We are determined to perform well for both Icebreaker and our supporters back home.

- Alastair Chisnall, Team Ariki Captain