After three weeks of 70k per week, it was time for a cut-back week. Luckily this coincided with a work trip to Nelson. With all the best of intentions in the world, it remains challenging to try and fit in runs while out of town for jobs. That also goes for travelling. When your holiday involves tents and lots of different campsites, it just gets too hard with super early runs, fitting in a shower, and still pack up and vacate the site by 10am, not to mention the pile of wet, dirty running gear. This, of course, is much easier if you can afford (and are that way inclined) to stay in somewhat more luxurious accommodation for a few days or weeks at a time.
Continue readingRoad running
24-Hour isolation challenge
Date: 24-25 April 2020
Time: 24 hours
Distance: 103km
Passing the supportive messages written by our neighbours provided a boost on each lap.
Paul’s sound system providing some good vibes.
Loving the drawings!
Living out of town makes for a laid-back, rural running experience.
Heading into the sunset. 🙂
Our aid station.
Late afternoon shadows.
Thanks to the tree-rich area large parts of the course is in shadow much of the day.
Always a highlight to finish a fifth lap.
Sunset silhouette.
Nothing better than hearty soup on a long run!
Midnight – one third down. Looking a little tired.
As we all know, ultra-running is basically an extended food-fest.
A very welcome dawn.
Still well-stocked, many hours down.
Counting laps. 1 lap. = 1.5k.
A Strava view of our aid station, and the corner in the middle of our 750m stretch, which we passed 136 times in 24-hours.
A hero’s finish, with Chariots of Fire on the boombox. Fantastic support by our lovely neighbours, Paul, Katy and the girls
These shoes were way past their sell-by date at the beginning of April. Yet, I still added more that 400 km to them in the past 25 days. Probably a physio’s nightmare, looking at the imbalances.
If anyone told me a few years ago that I would do a 100km training run, without it being an official event, I would have said, dream on. Not only is this physically a huge challenge, but also mentally. Getting your head around that distance takes some mind gymnastics. Getting your head around doing it outside of the support, comfort and camaraderie of others in an event, takes extra strong brain gymnastics. Continue reading
19 k’s for 19 days – a COVID-19 isolation odyssey
Date: 1 – 19 April 2020
Distance: 362.5km
Time: 52:56
Elevation: 8970m
In the weeks leading up to the Level 4 lockdown in New Zealand, when everyone was stockpiling on toiletpaper and flour, my thoughts were focused elsewhere – to come up with some sort of physical challenge that would reflect a small part of the pandemic. And since running and walking is my preferred exercise, the plan would have to involve one or both. With 2019 being the year that the virus was first detected (hence COVID-19), nineteen had to have prominence. To just run/walk 19km is no challenge. Any abled body can do that, even if it takes you all day. The logical next step was to try and repeat the 19k for 19 days in a row, and just like that, the challenge was set. To make the challenge just a wee bit more challenging, I decided to try and do every day’s 19k in under three hours. That is rather swift walking if you are not a speedwalker, or a couple of kilometres had to be jogged. Continue reading
Tauranga marathon
Date: 20 September 2019
Distance: 42.2km
Time: 5:26.12
Previous: 2017 (inaugural)
Shortly after the start.
Check out that loo queue on the left.
Young Rob and I. A beautiful, sunny day with just a light breeze.
We moved towards the back of the starting shoot, but there were still quite a few runners and walkers behind us.
On Papamoa Beach Road.
Rounding the mount.
At the end of the Mt Maunganui loop.
Cars only had one lane and were backed up for miles.
A jaunt through the Port.
A scenic section overlooking Port Tauranga.
Very tempting to follow the Half Marathon course straight to the finish.
Yay!
The mount is getting smaller in the back.
Rob already miles ahead of us.
Checking out the 10km map and wondering what possessed me to do the marathon.
A lovely part of the course.
Another friendly aid station.
Running along the boardwalk.
The mount looks so far away.
The last aid station, less than 2km from the finish.
The finish in the main street of Tauranga City.
On Friday morning, shortly after breakfast, the power suddenly went out. That was when it dawned on us that council scheduled a power outage from 8:30 until 3pm. The house needed a vacuum, the washing machine was halfway through its cycle, the dishes needed cleaning, we hadn’t showered yet and I was still going to cook us something for the road and dinner. We couldn’t wait until after 3pm, so out came the broom while I was cussing away at the wall-to-wall carpet. Oh, how I hate thee! It’s just a breeding ground for allergies and impossible to truly clean. No matter how much water and soap you throw at it, unless you have suction that can peel the carpet off of the floor, you won’t be getting all the crap out. Ever. Well, that’s my take on it anyway. Continue reading
Hatuma Lime half marathon
Date: 15 September 2019
Distance: 21.1km
Time: 2:17
Previous: 2011, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017
MC in action.
Cath and Cheryl joined me for the pic.
hi Anita!
Hey Kev!
Lots of traffic on the course.
Gerry practicing his selfie skills.
A lovely section before and after the last change over point.
When there’s “running” in a sentence it can only mean one thing ;-).
Less than two kilometres from the finish.
It was our sixth outing to Waipukurau for the annual Hatuma Lime half marathon, still the event we’ve done the most times of all. Hard to say why we go back almost every year. Maybe because it has by now become a “thing” – the event we’ve done most times? Continue reading
Jog around the Blog 