Road running

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Cystic fibrosis #27MoreYears fun run

Date: 2 April
Distance: 20km
Time: 2:14

After parkrun in Palmy, followed by a three kilometre walk, we headed home to shower, pack and get ourselves sorted for the remainder of the weekend.

First up was the Kimbolton Sculpture Festival. I was hopeful to be able to create something in time to participate in the exhibition, but alas. Time caught up with me and I couldn’t get it done in time. Better luck next year, maybe.

The festival had lots of vendors including food stalls, but the art exhibition seemed smaller? Maybe just my imagination. While having lunch there (the food truck selling gluten free meals was a good find) it started to drizzle. We didn’t stay long and as we were leaving I poured some coffee from our thermos for the road.

From Kimbolton to New Plymouth is a little over three hours drive. It was already past 2pm when we left, but thought we could still head to the event base when we get to New Plymouth and maybe preregister. This was not to be.

As we were driving the drizzle became more persistent, and by the time we reached Stratford it was raining bucket loads.  At times it was difficult to see the car in front of us, and we had to slow down considerably. The deluge made traveling slow and arduous.

Originally, when Gerry first read of the event, we thought we’d go visit friends and do the event at the same time. But the timing didn’t work out, as they were heading down south the same morning to bike the West Coast Wilderness Trail. They offered their house to us to stay in and left the key with a friend.

At around 6pm we were safety inside the house, dry and sheltered from the rain. We poured the last glass of leftover wine and dished up a precooked meal and salad.

Luckily it was the end of daylight saving (something I am not a fan of), and we had an extra hour before having to get up early for the 8am start.

A persistent drizzle through the night had me worried that we were in for a wet run. According to the weather predictions it was meant to still rain until after 9am, meaning we would run at least the first hour in the rain. When we woke up it was pouring again. Cats and dogs. All we could do was cling to the hope that it would pass soon.

We arrived (not so) bright and early at the event base at Hickford Park in Bell Block shortly after 7am. With an inaugural event you never know how popular it will be and how many runners and walkers will pitch up. Turned out we were the first late entrants and not many to follow. Our ‘bib’ numbers (written on our hands with a permanent marker) were 52 and 53, of which 18 participants were doing the 20km run (the others were entered in the 5km and 3km events). And I thought to myself, here we go again – an out and back next to the sea and only about 20 participants. Same as the Foxton Beach Footprints in the Sand event. Only this one ran along the Taranaki Coastal Walkway, so the path was sealed all the way, as opposed to running on the sand. Theoretically the sealed path should result in a faster time.

While we were waiting around it started to drizzle very lightly. I donned my rain jacket and we walked to the loo which was a few hundred metres away. With ample time to kill we ended up making a second trip to the loo.

The drizzle cleared up, the weather was looking better, it wasn’t too cold, and we decided to leave our rain jackets in the car. We started at the back, but soon passed two runners, and a few kilometres later another. We stayed in this position for the bulk of the run, until we passed another in the last kilometre. The walkway was as busy as always, with bikes, prams, toddlers, scooters, e-bikes, walkers, dogs, as presumably with the improved weather, every man and his dog were out enjoying the outdoors before winter truly sets in.

What I completely forgot about is how undulating the path is. We’ve run and biked it a few times before, but I still anticipated a flatter run. Fickle memory – only remembering the good parts.

I was going okay in the first half. The wind was mostly a side-front wind (meaning the return would be a tail wind), with dark clouds still looming, but no rain. Although it was cool when we started I was soon hot and had to take off my polyprop vest. By about 5-6km, a mist spray made us a wee bit wet, but almost not worth mentioning. We crossed the railway line twice, and in the last kilometre we had the biggest ‘hill’ of all – the path made quite a steep incline to go up and over a big cliff, and repeat on the way back. At Port Taranaki we reached the third and last water spot and turnaround point. They also had bananas which I briefly considered, but they weren’t cut up, and a whole banana is a bit much. We had a bag of jelly jet-planes, so were all good anyway.

After we crested the cliff for the second time on the way back, I started to battle a bit. I suddenly felt short of breath and generally more tired than normal. Plus, I needed to pee, badly. When we reached the Te Henui Walkway and stream again shortly after the Wind Wand, I had to dash for the loo. From there it is about 7km to the finish. During this time, I also saw three 20km walkers, who started 10 minutes after us, coming from the front.

Not used to running continuously for so long, it took some doing to keep going. My pace had slowed down a bit, and all I could think about was to pass each landmark on the way: Todd Energy Aquatic Centre, Honeyfield Fountain, the Light of Land sculpture by Howard Tuffery (the curvy chrome sculpture on the pics), the Wind Wand, the intersection with Te Henui Walkway, with playground and skate park, East End Surf Club, Fitzroy Beach Holiday Park, Waiwakaiho River Mouth, Lake Rotomanu, Te Rewa Rewa Bridge (currently party under construction), and finally the Taranaki Velodrome and Hickford Park back at the finish. A few coffee shops are dotted along the the track (very tempting), as well as other sculptures.

We finished in 13th and 14th place. The weather turned out good – no rain, not too strong wind, and reasonably warm in the end.

Prize giving was only at 1:30pm, so we went home to shower, collect all our stuff, and drop off the key before heading back to arrive more than an hour early. A BMX race was happening next to our event, so we strolled over to watch some of it. It was also a good opportunity to buy some chips there, as the cart at the running event had packed up already.

We both got a spot prize (I think everyone did), which made the stay worthwhile. It is a good new event on the calendar, organised by two people involved with Cystic Fibrosis NZ’s Taranaki branch, with help from volunteers. Organising events is hard work, and it would be a shame if it didn’t become an annual institution.

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Sasolburg Stadium parkrun, followed by the Palmy parkrun

Date: 13 August 2022
Distance: 5km
Time: 28:15 (Gerry, 28:18)

Our final parkrun in South Africa during this visit was on the morning of our long commute back to NZ. Gerry’s mum and sister lives on the way back to the airport, so we got to quickly see them again for final goodbyes. Gerry’s nephew joined us for the run.

It was a beautiful warm morning, and as we were walking the almost 2k from where we stayed to the start, I could smell the scent of jasmine, which normally indicates that spring is in the air.

Due to SA being a semi-arid country, the hazy brown dusty layer that covers the country makes it look like the air quality is super bad, but it’s no worse than the big cities in other parts of the world, and usually makes for beautiful sunsets. Long before the sun sets, it is possible to look straight at the huge orange ball on the horizon.

As with the Inibos parkrun (only the 11th event), the Sasolburg Stadium parkrun is also reasonably new (this was it’s 18th run).

It starts/finishes at the Sasolburg Stadium, (DP de Villiers Stadium) and Sasolburg Rugby Club. According to the web, the ‘course is run entirely on trail paths. Some sections of the course may accumulate mud, leaves and puddles after rain.’

I was still tying my shoelaces when we were counted down for the start. After a couple hundred metres, Gerry’s nephew came past and disappeared up ahead.

We passed some runners and soon settled into a reasonable pace. From the clubhouse the course takes one out of the stadium for a 2k off-road loop before passing near the clubhouse and across the sports field for another loop of about 1k in the opposite direction. Back near the clubhouse, we had to repeat the first 2k loop before finishing in front of the clubhouse again.

Running with me, Gerry finished 17th overall (15th male and second in his age category), and I finished 16th overall, second female and first in my age category, out of 99 runners.

We walked the 2k back for some eggs, a shower, and final greetings and packing.

It has been a good month. I’m glad we made the trip. The visible ageing of our mums is sad and unnerving. During the month, shortly after we arrived, my cousin four years younger than me, had a massive heart attack and died, leaving behind a husband and teenage kids. The day before our return to NZ my mum’s older brother had heart failure.

Maybe I’m imagining things, but a lot of South Africans seem depressed, and are on some or other medication. There are even pharmacy vending machines everywhere. The mental shift from what was and what is, might be a tad too much of an ask for some. As with emigrants, there are people who tend to cling to the past, who try to recreate what they had before. Change is inevitable, and necessary. However, the identity crisis (existential crises) is a huge part of the problems in SA. Who are we? Where do we come from? People were brainwashed into voting for a government that only looked after its own kind, due to a belief that the land was promised to them by God. Deep rooted beliefs suddenly mean nothing and boys who fought in the war, suddenly realise it was all for nothing, or no obvious purpose? No wonder a lot of them goes off the rails with PSD and other mental disorders. But this is a subject matter for another day.

It is sad to leave, but I’m glad to be going home. And well done to the ABs for winning their second match at Ellis Park!

A week later, stil trying to get into the timezone of New Zealand, we decided to do the Palmy parkrun to see if the altitude makes any difference. Of course it makes a huge difference, and we managed a good run without feeling like our lungs want to fall out. I managed a 27:11, and Gerry was just cruising with me.

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Brandkop parkrun

Date: 30 July
Distance: 5km
Time: 28:26

I guess we’re starting to acclimatise to the Free State altitude of 1500 metres. Although I didn’t manage another female win (still giggling about that one) I managed an improved time of 28:26 (28 minutes being particularly apt since this day also marked our 28th wedding anniversary).

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Barefoot and zero drop

This is neither a shoe review, nor expert advice. Just an observation.

There are so many theories out there about barefoot running and zero drop shoes, that it gets tangled up and one can easily just lump it all together as one concept. However, this is not the case, as I was sorely reminded of this week.

But first let me backtrack a bit. For the past five or so years, I’ve run in Altra. Since I always walk around barefoot in the house, going zero-drop was a no-brainer. No fuss, not frills, no getting used to it or gradually phasing it in. To be honest, I don’t think interchanging between zero-drop and six to eight or even ten millimetre is something that will really affect the average runner (if a blind test was done). But according to the experts, this is not the case and one shouldn’t just jump into zero-drop shoes.

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Mini long loop from home

Date: 4 September
Distance: 30km
Time: 4.07

During last year’s Level 4 lockdown, we ran short out-and-back stretches in our tiny neighbourhood. So this year, we went back to doing this the moment the second (in 18 months) Level 4 lockdown started on 18 August. Running in our neighbourhood means that we are running more hills, which is good. Longer might make you stronger, but so do hills – perhaps even more so.

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