Birthday run (26 February 2011)

The birthday boy on the footpath next to the river
(which is just beyond the bushes on the left).

Happy birthday, dear Gerry, happy birthday to you! 

Most people will probably think "hey, it's my birhtday, I'm not doing anything". But we decided that a nice picnic by the river wouldn't do no harm, especially with a little run to get us there.

Shortly before lunch on a windy Saturday morning, we packed some cheese, ham, buns and chilli olives, plus the usual jelly babies and water, before heading off to the river.

Picnic! (before someone's 
uncontrollable, unmannered dog 
decided to jump all over us trying to 
get to the ham sarmies...)

The Manawatu River is fairly dry at the moment, as is the whole Manawatu (and other parts of the country), but the walkway is always a nice playground away from traffic. We parked at the holiday park side and trotted along for about 4kms when we spotted a nice area on some rocks next to the river. Good enough to cut our 7km run short there and then, so we settled down and unpacked our spread.

Sitting quietly next to the river amongst trees, I can barely imagine a previous life where the closest nature and peace was some distance away from home through hideous traffic - enough to make you stay at home.

After a lovely picnic, we walked the 4kms back to the car, having the rest of the day ahead for more celebrations.

Frontrunner 21.1km (13 February 2011)

The start of the Wells Half Ironman swim in the
Taranaki port.

After our 10km trot with friends the day before, Gerry and I had a lovely breakfast with Deon and Henriette in town, while the organizers were getting ready for the big events the next day: the inaugural Wells Half Ironman and the Frontrunner 21.1km run (always very exciting and special to do the first edition of what will hopefully become a regular event for many many years to come). The half marathon was a great addition to the triathlon for us runners. Also starting at Port Taranaki, which would be the registration and transition area for the Half Ironman, the run takes you all the way along the Coastal Walkway up to Bell Block and back. 

By lunchtime on Saturday we could pick up our entries at the registration area. As this would be our first road half marathon race in more than 18 months (as well as the first staging of the event), we rounded it off by buying ourselves some very nice technical event T's.

Staying with Henriette and Deon for the weekend, Henriette prepared a nice carbo-loading pasta for us the night before. We decided that a glass of wine with good company shouldn't upset the apple cart and ended up chatting 'til very late before going to bed.

The race was supposed to start shortly after 7:00 and we were warned that the roads would be congested and that we should arrive early, since Bayly Rd would be the only access point for vehicles. We got up, after what felt like little more than four hours of sleep, to have some breakfast and make our way through the early morning sleepy town.

We were hoping to be able to see most of the swimming leg of the triathlon, and to watch the leading group into transition onto the bike leg before the start of our event, but unfortunately everything was running late.

The half marathon walkers took off at 7:10, after which we could just quickly watch the swimmers taking off at 7:30, before we had to make our way to the runners' start at 7:40 - 30 minutes behind the walkers.

Our small field of runners ready to
get going at the first ever
Frontrunner half.

Nearly 90 runners lined up for the Frontrunner "21.1km" run. It was a lovely morning, overcast with just a cool breeze, and apart from thousands of little black mozzi-type insects eating me alive, we had no complaints.

We started off, trotting along the Ocean View Parade Road until we linked up with the Coastal Walkway. Not long and the field had spread out considerably, with us hovering among the back markers. We ran along happily, trying to keep a steady pace while passing all the landmarks en route: Bach on Breakwater cafe & restaurant, Len Lye's Wind Wand, City Centre, Te Henui stream, Big Wave Cafe, until we reached the car park near the Fitzroy camping ground.

Nearing the camping ground, the front race walker was coming back towards us, accompanied by the customary "Race Leader" cyclist. In my awe-struck admiration for his speed (and knowing how difficult it is to sidestep someone when you're race-walking), I dared to take a step onto the pavement to make way for them. My feet had hardly hit the pavement when I suddenly heard a shrill yell from the marshal aunty behind me: "ON THE ROAD!! PLEASE!!!". Well, I can only say - as is the case with most people who end up in positions of authority - she had lost all perspective. I was by no means trying to "disobey orders" or run a short-cut or anything - it was merely a gesture of consideration.

The ever popular coastal walkway.
The field spread out quickly
leaving us running on our own.

Don't get me wrong - I am always very grateful for marshals who sacrifice their own time to assist with events, but to stare at you like you're from Mars when you greet them (what is that?), and to overreact over absolutely nothing, is uncalled for.

And so I ran on adrenaline for the next kilometre. :)

Len Lye's Wind Wand.

Through the Fitzroy holiday park and further on through nature reserve areas, you run through patches where little gnats are a real nuisance, and it becomes quite a mission to keep them out of your mouth and eyes and everywhere they can find some liquid. Crossing the Te Rewa Rewa bridge we knew that it could only be a couple of kilometers still to go to the halfway mark. Being an out-and-back event, some of the top runners had started passing us on their way back to the finish. It's always great to get an opportunity to see the front runners in action in out-and back events - in the normal circular format races you never get to even catch a glimpse of the elite athletes.

Carrying on through nature reserves, dodging by now quite a number of walkers coming from the front, we saw the turnaround point up on a little hill. The whole course was a little less flat than I anticipated.

Words of wisdom from some
supporters.

Not having a watch, I though we hadn't even been running for an hour, and not knowing the area, it also seemed to me that we hadn't reached Bell Block yet! The race also didn't have any kilometre markers, which made it difficult to know exactly what distance you've covered and what remained.

But we followed the course, turned around the cone at the marshal, grabbed some water and started making our way back. We passed many walkers and it turned into a nice little game to see how many of the walkers we had seen coming from the front, we could catch up with.

Crossing the Te Rewa Rewa bridge.

We had sustenance at five kilometer intervals. Time and kilometers flew by and before we knew it, we were done. According to our timing chips, we finished in 1:58! Too good to be true and as it turned out, rumors have it that the course was indeed too short … What a led-down. I suspected as much, having done many 21.1km races in the past. My guess would be that it wasn't more than 19km in total. Admittedly, I haven't run 21.1km in quite some time and might have forgotten what the distance felt like, but our finishing time still seemed impossible.

Henriette and Deon awaited us at the finish with nice tuna sarmies and an ice cold bubbly. We watched some of the triathletes making their transition from the bike leg to the running leg. Fortunately they were doing a different course for their 21.1km run - a three times lapper of a 7.33km loop.

Gerry on the last stretch before the turn-around.

Al the prize giving we saw the lady who was the overall winner. For the first time ever we've attended a race where the overall winner was female! She is obviously not a social Jog around the Blog type of runner! Some nice spot prizes were also handed out, amongst others a trip for two to Fiji. But no luck for us this time.

All in all a very nice outing. Pity about the distance problem though.

Introducing the New Plymouth Downhill Demons (12 February 2011)

At seven thirty on a lovely Saturday morning, six of us were outside Henriette's house in New Plymouth for a casual jog down the Te Henui Walkway and onto the Coastal Walkway to the impressive new Te Rewa Rewa footbridge by the sea.

The Te Rewa Rewa bridge that forms part of the extension of the walkway to Bell Block.

Gerry and I got word of these outings where a couple of lady friends get together for a run every so often as part of their other training activities: cycling, swimming and tramping. On this particular occasion we were invited to join the group for their 8km social jog. Gerry and I were entered for the Frontrunner 21.1km race, which was due to take place the next day, and we thought that a nice, slow downhill trot would be just the thing to get us going after a week of almost no running. Due to other commitments we only managed one 4km jog during the week, which isn't exactly the kind of training required for longer races.

This particular run stretches from Henriette's house, high up in the New Plymouth hills, all the way down towards the sea. A wonderful path that meanders through the suburbs, and mostly runs along the Te Henui walkway, out of the traffic and along the bushy areas next to the Te Henui stream. 

The Downhill Demons and us.

From L-R: Karen-Lize (Marianne's daughter), Marianne,
Des, Gerry, Wouna and Henriette.

Although it was drizzling on and off during the night, we woke up to beautiful weather; cool and cloudy with just a light breeze. Got dressed, gulped down a banana and met up with Marianne, Karen-Lize and Des who were waiting outside. We were still exchanging sleepy hello's and introductions when Marianne casually mentioned that we would be doing a little "loopy-de-loop" - extra add-on to the planned route, to make the run a wee bit longer. But not to worry, she said, it's just a small little extra loop.

And off we went on the nice downhill slope from Henriette's house. Chatting away and enjoying the scenery when out of the blue we reach the first little uphill after about half a kilometre! Suddenly I had my doubts about what promised to be a "downhill" run. But the Downhill Demons were not phased in the least bit - you finish at sea level, after all. Trotting along, Karen-Lize ran off ahead, unaware of Marianne loopy-de-loop plans, and ran past the turn-off. That was the last we saw of her until the finish. And so we were five.

Chitting and chatting away we ran most of the way with just a few walk breaks on the hilliest parts. Marianne's loopy-de-loop included a larger section of the walkway with its lovely scenery, which is always preferable to competing with traffic on the road. And thanks to this add-on, we completed about a 10km run!

At the bottom of the hill, the Te Henui walkway join up with the Coastal Walkway and we ran the last approximately 2km next to the sea on a fairly flat section. When we reached the Te Rewa Rewa bridge, Alan, Des' husband (and our lift back home!), awaited us with ice cold water. Karen-Lize was there already and we managed to complete the distance in 1:15. After taking some group pics - thanks Alan! - we drove back to Henriette's, pleased with our morning out in the fresh air.

Super Seven Series #3 (1 February 2011)

The start at the YMCA with 1500+ entrants.

After our little stint through the Manawatu Gorge on Sunday, my muscles were (as expected) extremely tender. So much so, that I battled to go down stairs or anything that required using my quads. In fact, just plain walking required a whole amount of courage and clenching my teeth to try and overcome the overwhelmingly sore leg muscles. And having rested altogether for a day didn't seem to help any!

But, crazy as only "runners" can be, we found ourselves at the start of the third SSS event. Again a huge field of over 1500 participants showed up. Anybody and everybody that moves in Palmy seems to be pitching up for these 7km run/walks.

Congestion on the walkway.

Water table just after 3km.

Al counted down and we were off. Over the sports grounds, congestion where we reach the gate that takes you through to the Victoria Esplanade and onto the walkway. The first few kilometres are a bit of a battle to fight your way through the masses. Although there is a separate start for the walkers, a whole lot of them seem to be of the opinion that it is better to start with the runners, kill yourself for the first half a kilometre and then start to walk. This gives you a bit of a head-start over the rest of the walkers, but it doesn't help it there's already too many people on the narrow path to have someone seemingly running at a good pace, just to suddenly stop right in front of you! And that happens quite a lot in the first kilometre or so of the race.

Thousands of people on their way back to the finish next to the Manawatu River.
A tiny part of the wind farm can be seen in the back on the hill.

Is it our competitive streak that makes some walkers so adamant to start ahead of other walkers? It is also surprising to me that participants haven't learned the age-old courtesy rule that you start more or less according to your capability and where you will be running/walking in the field. Therefore, if you plan on winning, please start right in the front, but if you're a walker, don't go clogging up the road by starting in the front!

The keys table. You leave
your car keys on a table
while you run.

I started off slowly and eventually manage a bit of a trot after a few hundred metres. Although my muscles "warmed up" a bit, it didn't help much and I was still in agony. At about 1.5km I had to quickly make a pit-stop at the public loo on the route.

The run turned out to be one of those character building runs. One that is really painful, and all you want to do is sit with your feet up, but you know you have to "byt vas" and finish your daily training run.

The weather was playing along nicely. A cool wind, which was almost too strong on the way back next to the river, but the moment you enter the park you are protected from the wind between the trees and bushes. We finished in a slow-but-sure 44:20. As it turned out, the wind was just getting colder and we had to finish our sausage sizzle quickly to get out of the cold wind with our soaking wet clothes.

Still a great outing. Thanks Al and the Manawatu Striders!

Manawatu Gorge trail run (30 January 2011)

At the start.

Ever since moving to Palmy, the Manawatu Gorge walkway has been beckoning, literally in our backyards.  According to everyone we talked to and everything we read, the gorge promised to be one of the most beautiful places in the area, and Gerry and I have been forever threatening to make the outing to see what it is like.

Happiness is...

It is a 10.1km point to point walk through the gorge, with the idea being that you leave a car at the finish, drive back to the start and complete the walk. But what to do when you only have one car?

Since we are officially entered for a couple of longer trail runs in a few months, Gerry decided that the gorge would make for a good training trail run out and back, just to get us into the swing of things again. And what an excellent idea! We packed some sammies, biltong, jelly sweets, warm clothing and water into our CamelBaks and drove the approximately 15km from our home to the start of the walk. 

A strong wind was blowing, but as soon as we entered the forest, we were partially protected and could manage a slow, easy trot. What I anticipated to be a fairly flat"ish" course with probably a little uphill on the one side to get over the mountain and a little downhill on the other side, turned out to be a much more significant up and down scenario, and I was pretty soon brought back to reality when the first hill stopped me in my tracks. What was I thinking - that it would be a walk in the park? It appears so...

Gerry making the most of 

an early downhill.

Our daily shuffle down a fairly flat road didn't help much with these hills. And since I'm not yet fit enough to be called a "runner", my shuffle also implies that I don't have to lift my feet very far off the ground. All in all not quite the preparation required for an off-road, hilly course!

And so we decided to take it easy and walk the biggest part of the path, if that was to be our fate. No worries, we were keen to experience the whole route anyway. Every now and again a runner would approach from the front looking really mean and really fit. I envied them. But also realized that I have a long way to go before attempting hilly mountain trail runs. 

Wind Farm lookout.

A little "gate" through one of
the fallen trees.

After a while a very small downhill got me into a wee bit of a jog, just to be reduced to a walk again by the uphill on the other side. And so it went. We tried to run all the flat and downhill sections and walk the uphills. We also took all the detours to the scenic outlooks and were glad to discover a, by now much needed, loo at the wind farm lookout near the halfway mark.

Taking a break at one of the lookout points

I could feel my quads starting to burn during a fairly long downhill section, and realised instantly that this little outing was going to leave me sore for a couple of days. I also discovered that it is actually not very difficult to look like a meanie on the downhills! We were flying past people on the downhills and I was just hoping they wouldn't catch us on the uphills again.

Very windy viewpoint.

The pathway is well laid out with bridges over rivers
and streams and steps where gradients are too steep.

We made it to the car park on the other side and decided to have our shaved ham and mustard sandwiches and a bit of the rest before heading back. A little loop track from this car park is sign-posted with comments from local primary school kids, describing the different trees and bushes from their viewpoint, and in their own words. Very entertaining to read. 

A short "lunch"
at the turnaround point.

Throughout the track there's signage providing factual info on the various trees and other plants. There were two sets of facts at two different places about the Nikau palm which give opposing stats? Quite confusing, as they were both official signs, and not something conjured up by one of the kids' imaginations!

As we made our way back along the route, we applied the "run bits, walk bits, you'll get there" advice we were once given by one of the helpers at the Cape Odyssey, and we managed to complete the 20.2kms at a very easy and comfortable pace, photo stops, rests and pitstops included, in under four hours. There's certainly lots of room for improvement, but at least we now know what to expect.

It is the perfect training terrain for off-road/mountain races, not to far from home, and I'm already hoping to do this soon again.