Forgive me physio, for I have sinned!

From the steely glint in Gillian’s eye, it was clear that she wasn’t impressed with my explanation of how I’d ended up in her office on a Thursday afternoon in December.

“So just to recap,” she said, “you developed severe knee pain on your last training run before the Luxmore Grunt… so you ran the Luxmore Grunt anyway?!”

“Umm… yes,” I said. “I just turned up the music on my headphones and ignored it,” I added in a small voice, doing my best to look contrite.

Gillian’s a good physio, I’ll give her that. A lesser person might have sighed or rolled their eyes in disbelief. The only sign that Gillian thought I had mud for brains was the aforementioned steely glint in her eyes, and the barest flash of a smile as she poked and prodded my left knee.

30 minutes later, I hobbled out of her office with a diagnosis of underdeveloped quad muscles and firm instructions to avoid running and hiking for at least three weeks. I was sufficiently chastised that I didn’t dare mention my plans to run the 2018 Routeburn Classic.

Clearly I do have mud for brains as shortly afterwards I was on way to the West Coast for a six day tramp to Ivory Lake Hut. I’d conveniently forgotten how I felt descending the hill on the Luxmore Grunt when I agreed to a trip plan that had over 1200 metres of elevation gain or descent every day – with the added bonus of a 20kg pack.

Perhaps the weather gods were in cahoots with Gillian as my friends and I didn’t get anywhere near Ivory Lake Hut. We bush-bashed nearly eight hours uphill to reach Healey Creek Hut, only to sit there for three nights and two days as thick cloud shrouded the nearby hills. There was nothing to do but sleep, eat and read a National Geographic magazine from 1950, before the cloud lifted on day four and we beat a hasty retreat to the 21st century.

The Healey Creek Hut where two friends and I spent New Year’s waiting for the cloud to lift

Emboldened by how well my knee had held up on the slippery descent from Healey Creek Hut, I decided that the Routeburn Classic was definitely in my future. I abandoned the prescribed wall squats – which I’d never gotten around to doing – in favour of buying aggressive new running shoes. Surely with a pair of La Sportiva Mutants in electric blue I would fly downhill from the Harris Saddle so fast my knee wouldn’t even have a chance to complain.

A shiny new pair of La Sportiva Mutants courtesy of Frontrunner Colombo. Surely I will be flying across the Routeburn in these?!

A week later, hurtling down the Wooded Gully Track at Mt Thomas, it was clear that even a pair of electric blue running shoes weren’t going to save me from Gillian’s wrath. The knee pain was back. Not as bad as on the Luxmore Grunt, to be fair, but still there. Unfortunately I’d left my headphones at home so there was no chance of drowning it out with some classic Evermore. Subsequent missions in the Port Hills near home revealed that the issue wasn’t going to go away on its own.

As I write this, it’s the first Monday in February and the entry fee for the 2018 Routeburn Classic has just left a $230 dent in my Visa card. There’s only one thing left to do, so I take a deep breath and pick up the phone.

“Yes hi, I’d like to make an appointment to see Gillian please…”

Tania Seward is a Christchurch-based freelance writer who has abandoned her previous love – tramping – in favour of trail running, slowly, at the back of the pack. Over the next few months she will be sharing occasional highlights and lowlights of her preparation for the 2018 Routeburn Classic.