“Ohhh, it’s raaaaining again, too bad I’m looooooosing a friend”. That is just the way it is. Don’t ever think you will have a dry run in NZ.
Gerry and I were thinking of doing this half, ever since we had to miss it last year. But after the wet and cold Mizuno/Taupo Half, as well as being out of town, we postponed entering (actually forgot to!) until pre-entries were closed and we had to pay the late entry penalty fee which is $10 more per person. So, to run 21.1km, we paid $50 per person … and then our South African friends complain when they have to pay R50 for a half marathon.
A very cold Antarctic blast was predicted to hit the country by Saturday night, bringing with it very cold conditions, snow, sleet and heavy rains, which were expected to reach Palmy by the Sunday – race day. We almost had second thoughts about entering, but the Manawatu events are all so very nice and well organised (there’s just something “homely” about them) that we made the trip to Sterling Sports shop in town on the Saturday afternoon to enter. The Striders had a table in the back, also selling the event T’s, which we would love to have, but just couldn’t afford on top of the entry. Maybe next time. Continue reading