Road running

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Hatuma Lime half marathon

Date: 15 September
Distance: 21.1km
Time: 2:22
Previous:  2011, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019

After managing to finish the Kinloch off-road challenge last week, we decided to plan ahead and slot in some events to keep us going through the summer months, and building up to the Old Ghost trail run. Events have become so expensive these days that you have to chose very carefully which ones you want to do. The community events are usually cheaper, and with great spot prizes and cool vibes, what is not to like.

The Hatuma Lime half marathon is the one we’ve done most of all events. This was our seventh time, and I would go back again. Of all the community events we’ve done, this one is just great fun, and seems to grow in numbers and popularity. 

It is an hour and a half drive from Palmy, so we left early to be there when registration opened at 8:30am. Upon arrival, there was a very long queue in the paddock already waiting to get to the front. Due to another event, the hall and usual toilets were off limits, and standing in the breeze in the queue chatting to Matt and Sharon was rather cold. Apart from the breeze, the weather was great and perfect for running, although a lot of kiwis complained about the heat (at only 14 or 15 degrees). Unfortunately for me, that still borders on too cold, but while running, it was okay. Having said that, I would still prefer a warmer temperature.

Since we haven’t done an on-road half marathon in ages, I was keen to test where I’m at. The aim was to try and make it at a 7min pace, e.g. 2:28, but should the wheels come off, I could walk and finish in three hours if needed.

With 15 minutes to go, we lined up for race briefing, still shivering in the breeze. And then we were off. No sooner had we left the racecourse grounds, when Gerry and I found ourselves dead last. On the short out-and-back stretch in the road at the beginning, we could see everyone who took part. In the first couple of kilometres we were going at a 6:10 pace, and even though it felt reasonably comfortable, I knew I would not be able to keep it up.  

Every turn had a bunch of school boys marshalling, and the other marshals and water points were all very jolly, supportive, and with music. At the first aid station we took a banana. They only had whole bananas which we could luckily share, but it was still way too much. It sat in my stomach for a good few kilometres. Usually it would be cut into pieces.

I started to slow down a bit, but still kept the pace in under seven minutes per kilometre, until we hit the hilly stretch in the second half past the rail road. Every here and there I had to walk short bits to get up the hills, but I was surprised to be able to run most of the way. Near the air strip, I was going slower than I hoped. This carried on until the finish, with more walk breaks, even on the flats. At the finish, Gerry’s name was called to collect a spot prize. Unfortunately it was for a massage or something in Central Hawkes’ Bay, which he would likely not use, so he returned it, to which they gave him some tomato fertiliser! We’ve got fertiliser the very first time we did the event in 2011, and I always love a good practical spot prize. 

We didn’t stay for prize-giving, as we still had things to do, so headed straight home. Stopped for ice cream in Dannevirke (we were both exhausted from little sleep the night before), and the ice cream helped to get our brains functioning again. 

I’m not averse to road running. It is always a great way (for me) to gauge where I’m at. Running is running (including walking). Road, trail, off-road, mountain – it’s all just different approaches to the same thing, utilising different muscles and techniques. But all getting you from point A to point B on your own steam.

I had some decently sore hamstrings the next day, especially on the left inside. It is obvious I don’t use my body/muscles equal or symmetrical on both side. This is something I really need to work on if I’m to keep doing longer runs.

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Woodbridge Riverside parkrun +

Date: 15 June
Distance: 5k
Time: 00:31.25

Traveling by air is a waiting game. Just sitting around and waiting … waiting for flights, waiting to board, waiting to take off, waiting for food, waiting to get an innings in the toilet, waiting to land, wait, wait, wait, is exhausting at best.

I am less and less keen on the thought of crossing borders, simply because border control is a real pain in the arse (plus I am a bit of a nervous flyer). The whole ordeal is stressful. But to see other places around the world and experience other cultures and environments means you have to suck it up. Alas, it doesn’t get any easier. On the contrary. But I do love traveling around, or touring, by foot or car or even train. Walking from place to place for months on end would be my first choice.

While in Perth for the Aussie science communicators conference where Gerry will be giving a talk, we decided to do some events and see a bit more of the parks in and around Perth on foot. The one event would be a parkrun the morning after we arrived (sounded easy enough), and the other the Transcend 40km walk on 22 June, all going to plan.

But often things don’t work out as planned. There will inevitably be hiccups. For instance, the second flight from Melbourne to Perth was delayed. No surprises there. What was already a very long day, starting shortly after 6am in NZ, and ended at 11:30pm in Perth (3:30am NZ time), was also somewhat eventful. Arriving later than planned in Perth, we discovered that the car rental company who delivers cars to the airport, doesn’t deliver after hours. Should have read the small print. We took an Uber to the car rental, and were dropped of in the dark at night to a deserted industrial area. I was suspicious of everything that moved and didn’t move. They were meant to send us details for after hours pickup, but somehow that email slipped through the cracks. After about twenty minutes of cussing and cursing in the dark in the middle of nowhere, Gerry searched his emails again, and luckily found the email containing the details about the lock box that held the car key. Crisis averted. And thank goodness for roaming. What did we do in the days before smartphones.

Arriving at our Airbnb accommodation after 10pm, where we had a room in a house shared with others, it turned out one of the other residents took our key from the, yet again, lock box outside the house that is used for self check-in. Again, cussing outside, we had no telephone number to contact the host, or anyone inside the house. The house looked dark and we thought that everyone was asleep and didn’t want to make a racket, but Gerry knocked anyway. Eventually one of the occupants, the lady who took our key, opened the door and handed us the key. It would appear she had some or other safety concern – I battled to understand what she was on about. Had we arrived even later, we might not have been able to get inside. But everything worked out in the end. A miss is as good as a mile, as my mum always told us.

And here’s a funny thing; when you fly from NZ to somewhere in Australia, via Melbourne, your luggage cannot be checked through from A to B. Melbourne airport rules dictate that you have to collect your luggage, go through customs, and check it in again for the local flight. Maybe it is the same for any international to local transfer. But for some reason NZ doesn’t know this. It is the second time this happened to us (I forgot we had been in this situation before). We very nearly went for coffee at the nearest cafe, thinking our luggage is checked through to Perth, while all along it was going round and round on the conveyer. Should I be telling anyone at NZ airports that this is the case?

And to top things off, Qantas must have left our luggage outside in the rain in Wellington, as when we opened the suitcases, everything was wet. So excuse me for having a wet panty about air travel and customs.

Exhausted, but finally in bed, we had a surprisingly good sleep. Short, but good.

Perth has a lot of parkruns (19 if I’m correct), and we had five to choose from all within an 11km radius from where we stayed. This one, following the John George Trail, looked the best from the online photos, so we made uncommitted plans to do it. Bearing in mind jetlag, super late to bed, and no food whatsoever with us, apart from a few bags of rooibos (red bush) tea, which made it through customs. And incase you think I’m a rooibos tea fanatic for bringing no other edibles than rooibos on this trip, it was by accident that I had it. Everything happened last minute (due to a hectic schedule, coupled with an inability to make decisions), when I grabbed the small back pack I use for work as my hand luggage bag, which happened to contain some rooibos tea bags in a small ziplock.

When we woke up at 6:30am I somehow didn’t feel too knackered, so we had tea, got dressed and went to the parkrun. The sun was out, no wind, and only slightly cool. But a t-shirt and vest was enough for me, while most of the other runners were in shorts and t-shirts only.

The welcomes and announcements were made (poking fun at the kiwis for being a bit slow? As an expat I’ve never been able to fully understand the banter between Australia and New Zealand) and we were set off. The course is sealed and in a lollipop out-and-back shape; about 2km out, a 1km loop, and 2km back on the same path.

I was hoping to make 30 minutes, so was going out at a pace just shy of 6min/km. Quicker than I have run in about a year. I can honestly not remember when was the last time I could manage a 6min/km pace. I was obviously running too fast, I knew that, let alone continuously for 5km. My muscles felt tight – like they might tighten up and not release again, sending me flying. For the first two kilometres, I lifted my feet extra high and concentrated extra hard to make my legs work. It did cross my mind for a fleeting moment that a longtime family ailment (unidentified and undiagnosed) had finally caught up with me. Both my sister and brother have this thing where their muscles would completely freeze whenever they try to do something repetitive quickly. Neither of them can run, or swim, or do any sport. By the second step they try to take, their muscles would just contract and not release, rendering them incapable to move. At a normal walking pace, they are fine. We’ve collectively self-diagnosed it as a form of the fainting goat syndrome (myotonia congenital), for lack of knowing what it is. We’ve jokingly said that my mother wrapped then up too tightly as babies. And by the time I came along, she was more relaxed about the newborn.

I managed 2 kilometres at a sub-6 minute pace, but then the wheels came of slightly. I covered the next two kilometres at just over a six minute pace, still on track for a 30 minute finish at a push, but in the last kilometre I was brought to a halt and had to walk for a bit.

I contemplated my situation. The last food I had was shortly after lift off from Melbourne, some 15 hours ago (felt like days ago), which likely had something to do with it. Coupled with jetlag, I just couldn’t make myself go faster.

But the scenery helped. The park is beautiful; the track next to the Swan River, with eucalyptus, oak, wattle trees with patches of green open spots. All along the run we were accompanied by the sound of moaning ravins and chatty green cockatoos. After a short slow walk, I could jog again to the finish, but obviously missed the 30 minute goal.

It was the 402nd running of the event, with 224 participants. There’s a cafe (which supply all the volunteers with free coffee), playground and more. It’s is a gorgeous parkrun. The locals must be thrilled to have it in such a beautiful place.

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Wellington marathon on a good day

Date: 25 June 2023
Distance: 42.2km
Time: 5:18

They say that nothing beats Wellington on a good day. And we had just that – perfect weather for our marathon. Which really is a rare thing for NZ, let alone Wellington.

I have always said that I don’t want to attempt a marathon if I can’t at least finish it in under five hours. That is the time you need to qualify for things like Two Oceans (56km) and the Comrades (89km) marathons. But sometimes you just have to let go of these preconceived ideas and bite the bullet. 

We’ve entered for a 100 miler, which takes place at the beginning of December. While our training was going quite well for the first four months of the year, reaching 271km for the month of April, things went a bit pear-shaped the following two months. School and work commitments, in combination with crappy autumn and winter weather just compounded into not much running apart from two longish runs: the Summerhill Skedaddle in mid-May, which is the only one specific to what we need to be doing, and a 30k on the flat in Palmy. And that is the biggest problem – we do all our runs on reasonably flat, and often paved, terrain. Not at all what we should be doing, but I figured it will be okay for base-building.

While things got out of hand a little, especially during June (we only managed four short runs the last two weeks before this event), the marathon date creeped up on us and before we knew it we were making the trip down to Wellington. With a thermos with coffee, snacks, and sustenance for the run, we were on our way. Nina went with, and we picked her up by about 4:30am, some 45 minutes drive from our place. We’ve had quite a few 3am and 4am starts lately with work, so another one was not going to break the camel’s back.

We arrived bright and early, in time to quickly have breakfast, sign in, go back to the car, make loo stops, and drop off a bag with dry clothes at the finish to save us another trip to the car after the run. It was still dark outside. Gerry tried to take photos, but it was too dark despite the stadium lights around the start/finish area. (And thereafter something funky must have happened with the camera as almost all of the photos ended up blurry.) Just as the gun went at 7:15 (all marathoners started at the same time this year – walkers and runners), the sky started to turn deep blue. On our way out of the stadium and down the main road running by the light of the street lamps, the sky started to turn. It was a glorious morning with no wind, and a sea that was as calm as a lake. 

Unfortunately, the course had to be changed in the last couple of weeks due to a fire which included asbestos, making it unsafe to run through that area. So instead of running about 10.5km out, followed by a roughly 5km out-and-back-and-out-and-back at the far end of the course (to make up about 21km), before coming back the same 10.5km, the course was now a double lap of the 21km course (more or less – we went a bit further on the first lap, so that we could turn for the second lap before reaching the stadium). 

Since we were not really in a place to run a marathon (but it had to happen) we had to come up with a plan to cover the 42.2km without completely breaking ourselves. So we opted for a 500 metre walk followed by a 1.5km jog strategy for every two kilometres the whole way. We followed a similar strategy (800m walk + 1.2km jog) for the Trail Trilogy and managed to finish the 100km in 15:50. For this event it means we had 20 walk breaks totalling roughly 10km of the course.

As we were running out on the first lap I could not get my head around the fact that we had to do all of that again. The further we went, the less convinced I was that I’d make another lap. Luckily the weather could not have been better which made a massive difference to our spirits.  

What felt like forever, finally saw us at the first and furtherest turn-around point (at about 11.5km). I was surprised that they didn’t hand out something to indicate that you did all the out-and-back stretches, like they did previously(there was a timing mat on the 21.1km turnaround, but not this turn which was about a kilometre further down the road). Shortly after the start we ran with someone who mentioned that runners have taken shortcuts in previous years due to not begin checked. Not that I care – if someone does that, they are only cheating themselves. But of course this becomes a real issue for category winners and placers. Why someone would do that is beyond me.

With the course being an out and back (twice), we saw some familiar faces which was great. On the stretch near the airport on our way back, the frontrunners of the half marathon (which was a championship race this year) started coming from the front, and it wasn’t too long before they caught up with us again. The last 7km, and especially the last 5km, back to the stadium on the first loop ended up being a bit chaotic with marathon runners, 21.1km runners and 10km runners all going out and back on the same road. For someone trying to run a decent time, a PB, place or win, it must have been challenging. 

Back at the waterfront there was also a market and many other people out and about to negotiate. We saw an elderly gentleman turning around from a food cart (that was oddly placed on the side dedicated to the runners) and walk straight in front of one of the speedsters. I’m sure there must have been plenty of incidents, some pushing and surely some shoving.

Eventually we reached the 21km mark on Gerry’s watch, but the turn-around point was still nowhere to be seen. Eventually, not far from the ramp going back up the stadium parking area to the finish, we reached the turnaround for our second lap. I was already sore and having to go out a second time was tough, especially with the finish line less than a kilometre away.

We trotted on with our jog-walk strategy and the kilometres ticked by slowly but surely. I reminded myself that ‘this too shall pass’. Although we weren’t too far from the back, we started reeling in other runners and walkers. Of course some walkers were way faster that us, but we kept at a steady pace for the most part, averaging just over a 7min/km pace, which surprised me considering we were walking half a kilometre out of every two kilometres.

After 30km, the wheels started coming off for me a bit. Everything hurt, my legs felt numb, an IT band started to bother, it felt like the sciatic nerve was pinching in my right leg, and my feet were killing me. I reminded myself to cut back on the cookies and chocolates, and lose some weight. Surely that should help ease the pressure on my feet?

Admittedly the finish couldn’t come quick enough. I haven’t been as sore in a very long time. We managed to do the first half in about 2:30, and the second half in 2:40, moving time on Strava. So this excludes pee and water stops. It was a tough run, but I’m glad we went. Of course doubts about doing an ultra, let alone a 100 miles, started creeping in. Before our two months slack, we still planned on doing the WUU2K three weeks after the marathon, but I realised that will not happen. Unfortunately, that makes qualifying for the miler a bit tricky. We still need to fit in an ultra to qualify and there’s absolutely nothing on the North Island running calendar for July/August, apart from WUU2K. Damn those North Range Trio organisers for not running that event anymore! At least we have until the end of October to qualify, but I don’t want to leave it until last minute.

It’s been nine years since we last did the Wellington marathon, and things have changed. Did we get a goody pack previously? Nothing this time. Also no towels at the finish line, which was also a wonderful treat the previous time around. But still aid stations along the route with electrolyte and water, as well as bananas at the finish. And a lot of marshals and cheerers along the way.

We opted not to stay for prize-giving, but rather make the trip back home. After changing into some dry clothes, I shuffled down the ramp to the car, thinking how sore I would be after sitting in the car for two and a half hours. At least we had coffee and some frooze balls for the drive back. After dropping off NIna, it was just the final stretch back home, where a lovely warm shower and a cold bubbly awaited. 

I am super grateful the weather was fantastic. Had it been windy, super cold, and sideways sleet or rain, it would have been a challenge of note. 

Time to rethink our strategy for the next five months.

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Potential upcoming events include:

  • Halcombe 30k solo
  • Tekapo 50k
  • Blue Lake 24-hour
  • Crater Rim 83k
  • Cape Kidnappers 32k
  • Taniwha 44k
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Raetihi Gutbuster (Buttbuster!)

Date: 22 April
Distance: 20.7km
Time: 2:17

For years, when this event was still 18km in distance, we have wanted to do it. Not sure why we never did, but then along came COVID-19, no event for a couple of years, a change of hands, and now it is a (nearly) 21km event, as well as a 5km. Also part of the event offering are 25km and 50km cycling events.

But man oh man, did we pick the wrong year. The weather just did not play along. We pre-entered, Nina was coming with us, plus two of her kids, and another of Nina’s friends and her son were also driving up with all the kids bikes, so no chance of waking up and bailing before even getting there.

The weather forecast was for rain and strong wind. It was raining at our place the previous couple of days, but it got progressively worse as the event drew nearer. The night before our two and a half hour drive to Raetihi, it was raining. Our cat would go galavant in the middle of the night, come back inside soaking wet, plonk himself on the bed under my arm for a cuddle, only to go out again after a while and repeat. I wasn’t having the best night’s sleep, and listening to the rain, all I wanted to do was crawl deeper under the covers and sleep the day away.

And as if getting up at sparrow’s fart is not bad enough, we made a miscalculation and got up an hour too early. Eager beavers that we are. Luckily Nina was also up and busy getting ready, and could leave earlier, so we met in Bulls (about 45 minutes drive from us) at 6:50am.

All the way to Raetihi it was raining; not super hard, but persistent. From a distance it almost looked like it was clearing up in the direction of Raetihi. But no. Nope. Not a chance. From around Waiouru the wind also picked up, and I was increasingly less motivated to do the run.

When we arrived in the small town of Raetihi, it looked like a big event. Roads were closed off and a huge #myraetihi sign was placed across the road.

It was a few hundred metres walk in the rain from the car to where all the action was. Food stalls and other vendors were getting ready. Registration was in the fire station, sheltered from the rain. Each participant received a bag of root veges (carrots, parsnips, beetroot and potatoes. Some also had swedes.) – the best goody bag yet. I am a great supporter of practical, useful gifts. We walked back to the car to leave our bags of veges, and get our gear. I was uncertain about the rain jacket, but decided to take it because of the predicted wind. Being wet and in the wind is never a good combination. I knew I would be wet anyway, if not from the rain, definitely from sweat, but at least a ‘rain jacket’ will help against the wind.

The bike events were set off earlier, and then it was our turn (followed by the 5km runners and walkers). I counted 24 runners lining up for the half marathon. We were right at the back again when everyone shot off. The only other participant with a rain jacket was also at the back.

We started with a short flat section (700 metres) followed by a 5.4km mainly downhill stretch, apart from some minor undulations. As it was an out-and-back I knew that we would have to do all of this going uphill when coming back. I was going at a comfortable pace on the downhill, as I wasn’t sure exactly what the course looked like. And running downhill at speed is the quickest way to bust one’s quads.

After the initial downhill, we reached the big hill we had to go up (for 3.2km), over and down (for 1.2km), only to turn around at the other side, and go back up and over.

At the halfway turnaround, we chatted with the volunteers for a couple of minutes while having water, and left when our watch showed we had been going for 1:11. Two and a half hours seemed doable at that point, so after the initial uphill where I had to walk some, we got to the nice 3.2km downhill section. I felt good and could go at a reasonable clip, trying to make up some time for the dreaded 6km uphill back home, not worrying about quads anymore.

A water point with jelly sweets was placed at about 6.5km. We were told it was at 5km, so I was a bit worried that the course might be long when we passed 5km with no water point in sight. After we got back to the aid station on the way back, we knew it was basically six kilometres uphill to the finish.

The rain persisted and rounding certain corners, the wind would be very chilly. In the second half, the temperature must have dropped, as well as the wind picking up. I was getting colder as we went, despite going quicker and uphill. From being almost a bit hot in the first five kilometres, I was quite cold in the final five.

As it turns out, the uphill back is quite runable. Not that I could go very fast, but I could keep going at a reasonable pace. With three kilometres to go, we caught up and overtook another runner, so we had two others behind us at that point, and in the final kilometre we overtook another, nearly catching three more.

I was soaking wet. My hands started to look like prunes and we couldn’t really take photos of the scenery. Not that there was a lot to see. Everything was grey and covered in mist and rain.

Some parts of the course reminded me a bit of the backside of the Wairarapa Country half marathon, except this was hillier, but nonetheless some lovely country roads.

Relieved to get to the finish, I surprised myself by having run a negative split! We did the first half in 1:11 and the second half in 1:06.

This event should be called the Buttbuster, as it kicked my butt. Although I ran a reasonable time (quicker than Footprints in the Sand), it remains a challenging course.

Afterwards we got into dry clothes as soon as possible, and went around the food stalls for some sustenance. Being allergic to certain things meant I couldn’t have anything, but Gerry and Nina bought some sandwiches.

It is a great community event with wonderful support from local businesses. I was surprised that there wasn’t a 10km event, as I’m sure that would draw even more people. All up the event saw about 150 participants across all the events.

While waiting for prize-giving, we were hiding in the fire station from the rain. Afterwards, we poured some coffee and started making our way back to Palmy. This year’s event happened on my mum’s birthday, and next year’s will be on my brother’s birthday. Perhaps we should make another trip that way and see if I could improve on my time.

A big thanks for Cathy and the team for putting together a lovely event.

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Brine to Wine (and some)

Date: 16 April
Distance: 12 + 5km
Time: 1:41

Since our last running of the Brine to Wine back in 2016, the course has changed a bit and was shortened from 16km to 12km. The walkway has also been sealed (cemented) all the way, as apposed to our last running when parts were still on shingle (limestone).

As was the case previously, with the event being a point-to-point, we had to get to the start. Luckily this time, and with the changed course, it was only a 5km run (and not 16km) to get to the start.

We left early from Palmy with the idea to have 15 minutes or so spare to park and pee and get ourselves sorted for the run. On the way there we thought of driving by the start first (to see where it is) and to potentially register. Which, fortunately, we could do.

But by then and with an entry in hand, we ran out of time and quickly had to drive back to the finish, park, pee, and start making our way back for the 9:15 start. For some reason I was terribly unorganised since I woke up. If I hadn’t put out my running clothes, and dry clothes for after the run, the night before, who knows what I would’ve arrived with. Luckily Gerry was a bit more organised and made coffee for the road, packed jet planes jelly sweets for the run, and some snacks for afterwards.

Needless to say, we started later than planned. Only after we started running, did I realise that actually I would have loved to walk the first kilometre or two. However, there was no time. We had less than 30 minutes to run the 5km to be on time.

While running I started making planes in my head for when we arrive late, as I was convinced we would be. I figured we could either run until the last runners came past from the front, then turn around and follow them, or keep going to a deserted start, turn around and just be far behind everyone else. Luckily neither of these were necessary, as we made it in time.

After the first kilometre on our way to the start, I realised that we were going at a (almost) 6min/km pace, and I wasn’t completely winded. Somehow I managed to pick up the pace from there to dip under a 6min/km and kept going at that pace all the way to the start. I knew I could do a parkrun in less than 30 minutes going flat out, but thought I would pay for it later in the run.

By the time we reached the start, race briefing was underway, and with a four minute late start, we ended up spending five minutes hanging around.

It was reasonably cool (about 11 degrees) and being wet from running there, the light breeze just added to my discomfort. Both Gerry and I had to put back on the layer we took off halfway through our run to the start.

Paula counted us down and then we were off on the official event. It took a few kilometres, running into the breeze, before I could take off my extra layer again. This time of year, having to put on and take off layers mid run, is a constant for me. We started near the back, but managed to overtake a couple of other runners. And that remained our position for the bulk of the event. Only near the end did we pass a few more runners and walkers.

As we were running, we saw lots of other runners just out on their Sunday run, and I couldn’t help but wonder why more people wouldn’t sign up for the event. At only $15 for the 12km event, why not support it? Every year with the Manawatū Striders’ Super Sevens events, hundreds of runners crawl out of the woodwork, and one has to wonder where they go the for rest of the year. Obviously there are heaps of runners out there, so why don’t they do the events? My theory is that the running culture in NZ is still one of ‘racing’. Unless you can go with guns blazing, you are not a true runner and should not waste time with events. Whereas in South Africa, the running community was much more inclusive – everybody ran and did events. The system with clubs and events was also different, which might have added to more runners and walkers participating.

The weather was just about as good as it gets. A little bit too cool for my liking, but no rain and no gales. So, ‘perfect’.

I was going surprisingly well. It felt like the good ol’ days when I could run anything from a 5km to a 50km at a 6min pace without killing myself. By the time we were about 3km from the finish, I realised I might be able to make it to the finish in 1:42 – a six minute pace. Surprisingly, I could keep going while the kilometres ticked over quicker than usual. It has been a good few years since I last could managed a six minute pace for anything further than a 10km. I got to the end not feeling like the walking dead, and very pleased that I could keep the pace. I would have been happy with two hours for the 17km run at this stage of my fitness, which on hindsight is probably what I should have done.

It is an enjoyable run, mainly on the walkway away from traffic, with just a short stretch on the pavement in a suburb. At a water point at 6km we got a 500ml bottle of water which Gerry and I could share. As a single person, a whole bottle is a lot of water to down, and not many people would want to run with a water bottle, but it worked well for us. At the finish we got another one, as well as some cheese curls-type chips. We were also handed a token for a free beer at the Stellar pub across the road from the finish.

After changing into dry clothes, Gerry and I went to the pub for our drinks and prize giving. Dave and David were also there with fellow race walker Graeme, whom we met for the first time. 

While this should now be the ‘Brine to Beer’ run, I opted to go for wine, keeping with the Brine to Wine theme. The house also offered some nibbles, really making this the best value for money event out there.

After prize giving (no spot prizes for us), we went by the supermarket for some salad, chicken and olives, to make a picnic at Araheke MTB park/Lakelands Holiday Park/Lake Wiritoa, before heading home.

Cheers to another small, value for money event in our region – long may it continue.