Tarawera Ultra Marathon: Whose stupid idea was this?
Whose Stupid Idea Was this?
...oh yeah, it was mine...
One of my roles, I picked up this year at Mairehau High School is Dean of Year 11. They are a great bunch of young people heading into NCEA for the first time. It is something that they have never done before, is really challenging, takes all year and there is no guarantee of success.
At our first assembly, I told them it only seemed fair that I should do something I'd never done before, equally challenging, that takes all year, with no guarantee of success as well. So, for every student entered in NCEA Level 1, I would run a race with that many kilometres in it. The two endeavours require the same skills and qualities: self management, organisation, persistence and resilience.
There are about 100 students in Year 11.
That's a long way.
That's a really hard thing to do.
That will take a lot of training.
That's just crazy.
That's what I'm in for...
Year 11 chose the Tarawera Ultra Marathon for me. I would have preferred the St James Stampede because it's in Canterbury, but they thought Rotorua would be more exotic. Fair enough.
Each week in assembly, we have looked at a different skill, or quality needed to run an ultra, and applied to our learning at school. The power point is a work in progress and the students groan at the memes, but it seems to engage them.
A few weeks ago I did a 6 hour training run, which turned into a 7:20hr mission. I took a few videos along the way for the kids and then made it into a Wevideo. The programme itself wasn't too hard to use and you can add sound/music if you want. I haven't figured out how to make the video full sceeen, maybe if I'd turned my phone sideways when I was filming. Anyway here it is in all my grumpy, sweaty, crazy rambling glory.
I played this to the kids, after we celebrated those students who have, or are close to NCEA Level 1. It's really a message for the ones who lack resilience. They are tired, a little overwhelmed and just need to finish one assessment at a time. Kind of how I felt at 7 hours exhaustedly jumping out of the way of damn mountain bikers and waiting for them to pass, before painfully starting to run again. I got teary and wanted to cry. My friend Dee said I could, but I said, "What's the point of wasting energy crying; it doesn't get me back to the car any faster." So I just kept going on a thangry (tired/hungry/angry) mood.
...oh yeah, it was mine...
One of my roles, I picked up this year at Mairehau High School is Dean of Year 11. They are a great bunch of young people heading into NCEA for the first time. It is something that they have never done before, is really challenging, takes all year and there is no guarantee of success.
At our first assembly, I told them it only seemed fair that I should do something I'd never done before, equally challenging, that takes all year, with no guarantee of success as well. So, for every student entered in NCEA Level 1, I would run a race with that many kilometres in it. The two endeavours require the same skills and qualities: self management, organisation, persistence and resilience.
There are about 100 students in Year 11.
That's a long way.
That's a really hard thing to do.
That will take a lot of training.
That's just crazy.
That's what I'm in for...
Year 11 chose the Tarawera Ultra Marathon for me. I would have preferred the St James Stampede because it's in Canterbury, but they thought Rotorua would be more exotic. Fair enough.
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| 101km course Tarawera Ultra Marathon 2019 |
Each week in assembly, we have looked at a different skill, or quality needed to run an ultra, and applied to our learning at school. The power point is a work in progress and the students groan at the memes, but it seems to engage them.
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| Powerpoint Presentation |
Woah! Great work Nessie!
ReplyDeleteI get it now. Thank you for sharing this!