Date: 30 April 2016

Distance: 42.6km

Time: 5:05:07 (or as one friend suggested, our time was 4 hours and 65 minutes :-D)

Previous: 2014

At the start with lots and lots of participants all around.

Eagerly awaiting the cannon to fire.

The first incline as you run down along Rotorua’s main streets.

Making our way through the industrial area.

Early days, but still going strong, with Graeme.

Moving out of town, but still good support around.

Nearly a quarter done.

Lovely bagpipe music greeted us.

High-5’s all around.

Gerry enjoying the early morning sun.

Nearing the far side of the lake.

Halfway! I knew long before then already that I wasn’t going to make it in 5 hours.

Lots and lots of traffic on the stretch back to town.

Gerry speeding along to catch up after a pee-stop.

Worms-eye view – one of my gutter moments.

Event T’s and medals.

Celebratory drinks were immediately shared when we saw this. The perfect gift.

The Rotorua Marathon in conjunction with Athletics New Zealand ran a leap year competition where, if you entered for the marathon on 29 February, with a mate, you stood a chance of winning back both entries, and also receive a goodie bag from Asics (containing a technical T-shirt, socks, a cap and a backpack). We were going to enter anyway, so Gerry grabbed the opportunity to enter us into the competition, and we won! It was fantastic news, as our stint of 5 marathons in 5 weeks (starting with the Rotorua marathon) was turning out to be quite a costly affair for two people from the same household. Very chuffed with our entries and a gift pack from Asics to boot, we were eagerly looking forward to the marathon. Continue reading →