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Manawatu Striders Super Seven Series #3 (1 February 2011)

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.
The start at the YMCA with 1500+ entrants.
Congestion on the walkway.
Water table just after 3km.
The keys table. You leave your car keys on a table while you run.

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. Continue reading →

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Manawatu Gorge trail run (30 January 2011)

Gerry under a big tree.
At the start.
Gerry making the most of an early downhill.
Taking a break at one of the lookout points
Happiness is…
A little “gate” through one of the fallen trees.
The pathway is well laid out with bridges over rivers and streams and steps where gradients are too steep.
Very windy viewpoint.
Wind Farm lookout.
A short “lunch” at the turnaround point.

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.

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? Continue reading →

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Manawatu Striders Super Seven Series #2 (25 January 2011)

Gerry decided to treat this one as a time-trial to see what he is capable of when he’s not trotting along with me. So, for the first time in about eight years, we ran separately.

And how strange it was! I am so used to having someone to chat to on every run that I could hear myself talking to myself in my head (I am a gemini, after all!). Every now and then I would look around to see if someone heard me mumbling something in my head.

And it turned out quite well and an interesting exercise. Gerry managed a 33:45 and I, 41:08 for the 7km. Taking into account that he never ever get to run faster than my 6 or 7min/km pace, he did very well, I think!

He would obviously be able to shave off some more minutes if he starts training according to his own capabilities.

But it would be a bit sad if I loose a running partner …

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Manawatu Striders Super Seven Series – #1 (18 January 2011)

The Manawatu Striders, in association with Vautier Pharmacy, hosts the Super Seven Series. This is a series of 7 events over 7 consecutive weeks (each Tuesday), each 7km long.

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T-shirt, socks and “permanent” number for all 7 events.

After reading the severe weather warnings on the MetService website (amongst others, the after-effect of a Oz tropical cyclone heading our way) we briefly considered doing our daily run before the onslaught of the predicted gusts and rainstorms. The unbearable heat during the “quiet before the storm” period was something else. But apart from the extremely hot and humid temperature, the weather seemed to be holding up and we ended up entering for the whole series of 7 runs, including an event T-shirt, for only $35. Continue reading →

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Manawatu Striders – Tuesday club run & walk (11 January 2011)

Had a jolly nice 8km run with Alister (Chairperson of the Manawatu Striders) tonight! He was looking after us not-so-fit/fast newcomers to make sure we find our way around the course. Thanks Al! The club currently seems to boast more walkers than runners. They gather twice weekly for runners (Tuesdays and Sunday) and three times a week for the walkers (Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays).

Unlike SA clubs that normally caters for all levels of speed, you have to be quite fast here to keep up with the group, who seems to be going at about a 5min/km pace. Could this maybe contribute to the lower number of runners at the club? If you’re new to running, a 5min/km pace is quite daunting, me thinks. Being a bit of a slow poke, it’s daunting to me who’s been running for 10+ years, last managing a 5min/km pace in 2003!

🙂