Race-Week Checklist: New Zealand Trail Events

Race week isn't training week: the work is done. What's left is logistics, and NZ trail events add their own flavour: mandatory kit lists, mountain weather that rewrites itself daily, and start lines a long drive from anywhere. Here's the week, in order.

Seven days out

• Read the event's mandatory gear list again: this year's version, not last year's. Seam-sealed jacket, thermals, beanie, gloves, first aid and an emergency blanket are common; cold-forecast additions can appear late.
• Audit your kit against it. Anything missing, sort it now, not at registration.
• Nothing new on race day. New shoes, new vest, new gels: this week is too late to introduce any of them.

Four or five days out

• Do one short run in full race kit: vest packed to mandatory weight, race socks, race shoes. Bounce, rub and chafe points show up in twenty minutes; fixes are easy with days in hand.
• Write your fuel plan in grams per hour and count the units into a bag (our fuelling guide does the maths). Add spares: pockets lose things.
• Check the long-range forecast, then check it again daily. NZ mountain weather changes fast; pack for the mountain's opinion, not the town's.

Two days out

• Charge everything: watch, headlamp if the event requires one, phone, spare battery.
• Prep drop bags if the event uses them: label clearly, pack as if you'll be cold and grumpy when you open them, because you will be.
• Trim toenails. Tonight, not race morning. Your future self says thanks.

The night before

• Lay out the full kit, bib to socks. Anti-chafe balm on the known trouble spots goes on the pile so morning-you can't forget it.
• Bottles filled, fuel distributed into the pockets it will actually live in.
• Confirm start-line logistics: drive time, parking, shuttle cut-offs. NZ start lines are rarely five minutes away.

Race morning

• Kit on, vest on, thirty-second shakedown jog: anything bouncing gets one strap pull now.
• Weather call on the start line, not the motel: jacket on or stashed where the mandatory list says it lives.
• Start slower than feels right. That's the whole tactic.

Missing anything on the list? The showroom stocks race-week staples, and if you bring your event's gear list in, we'll check your kit against it over the counter.