I went for a run

I decided to run the Auckland half marathon 3 days prior to the actual event. I hadn't realised the marathon was happening so soon until I was going for my lunchtime run on Wednesday and saw all the road closure signs. I started looking on TradeMe for a cheap entry ticket for the event, and on Thursday afternoon I had lost all the auctions. I bumped into an old colleague whom I did a huge project with when I used to travel back and forth to India pre-Kien (he just happened to have a meeting in the city that day). He would often decide at the last minute to do marathons and would buy his tickets off TradeMe for next to nothing. I told him I was doing exactly that this year and was on the hunt for an entry. That night he messaged me on Facebook as he knew someone who was giving away a ticket. By Friday morning I had scored myself a free entry, and by lunchtime I had walked to the Viaduct Event Centre with my running buddy (who wasn't doing the event) and collected my race pack.

From that point on I was nervous. I didn't know how how I was going to be/feel on the run. But I just decided to treat the event as training. Queenstown was what I had registered and trained for over winter, so this run was just a lead up.

On Sunday morning my alarm went off at 5am, I got my race bib on, did some blister management/prevention and grabbed my gels and bananas for later. Then it was time to get my groove on and walk to the ferry. The queue was massive, but moved pretty quickly, and before long I was heading off across the harbour to Devonport.

The run wasn't too bad actually. I made sure I was pacing well over the first 13.5km to the bridge and held myself back so I didn't bolt and burn out, and before I knew it we were on the motorway heading toward Smales Farm and beyond.

Its a special thing to run over the bridge, and I savoured every moment of it. I would have stopped for a selfie, but it just seemed like too much of an effort :-). There was also one last climb up Curran St before a straight 5km to the finish line, and I wanted to get down to Westhaven and run a familiar route. So after I consumed my last gel at the 16.5km mark I picked up my pace homeward bound. As I was running down Westhaven Drive I got a text from Jef saying they were close to Swashbucklers waiting for me.

Kien and Jef were waving and I was waving and it was awesome. It felt so good to see them.

Then it was down the straight and around the tank farm where I spotted the 2hr pacer on the other side. I knew he was a couple of minutes in front and I wanted to catch him, but I was tired and didn't want to blow myself out. As I was heading down Halsey St I checked my Strava and I had already hit 2 hours, so at that point I just wanted to get to the finish line as quickly as possible. Rounding the corner and running down the straight it felt pretty amazing. I could see the clock ticking, and I knew Jef and Kien were at the finish line waiting for me.

My personal best half marathon - 2 hours and 2 point something minutes. I hoped for sub 2 hours, but I knew realistically I was going to be between 2 and 2:05. So all things considered I was within my estimation, and I'm happy with that.

And so I run...

It's pretty hard to escape my head. I'm an over thinker from way back and tend to analyse stuff to the enth degree, which, despite it sounding like I'm a brain box that processes information in unique life giving ways, it's in fact the opposite. Draining, life sucking, endless looping of absolute tediousness. I've suffered this ailment for as long as I can remember, but I didn't recognise it to be a hindrance until later on in my life...especially when it's stopping me from sleeping. I go through bouts of insomnia often; so much so that I've got enough teas, potions, lotions, and herbal remedies in my cupboards to make a small donkey happy (or maybe not so happy, depending on the particular donkey's personality type).

My best remedy however is exercise. I do it because I want to sleep. I also do it because I love to eat, but mainly because I have to sleep. But here I am, running like a beast whenever I get a chance, and here I am, wide awake at 2:07am. I've got a lot on my plate at the moment, but nothing unusually unpleasant or tricky...just the same old, same old juggling as one does when trying to orchestrate a bunch of people to get a task done. It's like herding cats!

I'm not upset or anything. I don't even have anything particularly interesting to think about. I'd just like it that I'm not tired from catching only a few zzzzz per night.

Anyway, seeing as I'm sorta talking about running here are some photos from my training sessions over winter.

















Right, time for a cuppa. Chamomile, anyone?

Running in the city

I've registered both Jef and myself to running the Queenstown half marathon in November this year. I've heard it's a beautiful course, so I didn't want to miss out on that. Air New Zealand sponsors the event, so there's a lot of hype over it. In other breaking news, I've also (verbally) committed to running the LA marathon next year in March - which will be my first full marathon! I know! 42km is a heck of a long way to run...but not only that its all the preparation and training in the months beforehand. So I've been out there pounding the pavement at every opportunity I get to build my base fitness and show my body that, yes, it can do distances. I track my runs via Strava and have photos to accompany my logs on the app. It gives me a good record to show my progress and I can review the routes I've taken. Here are some pictures of our beautiful city that I've taken whilst out there running.

I feel very fortunate to be running in such scenic spots, which I must admit makes the training that much easier.