Date: 7 April 2024
Distance: 13km
Time: 1:33

After our last event at Tekapo (50km) in September 2023, our running dwindled quickly, and eventually came to a halt. School assignments had to be finished which included work for an exhibition in the middle of November. With no exercise and working around the clock, I got my first experience with covid which had me feeling crappy but less so than with flu. After three weeks, just as I was starting to feel better, the dreaded ‘cough cold’, which is worse than covid I’ll have you know, got the better of me. I strained intercostal muscles from all the coughing which put me out of the game for months (3 to be precise).

By the end of December, beginning of January, I figured I had to start doing something, so we went for easy walks. I was still out of breath from covid and the cold, so running wasn’t going to happen any time soon. I did attempt a jog once, but it was too hard with sore ribs and lungs that didn’t work.

Then came our trip back to the motherland where we again fell back into laziness, doing no running or walking for six weeks. That was the last straw. I was going to have to start over – no leg memory, no natural pace or rhythm, a heavier body to drag around, tightness, and cranky knees and hips. It was downright awful. I felt like a sack of potatoes every time I tried to run.

Nonetheless, it had to happen. I’m not done with running yet, so we started again on 4 March. Being a firm believer in the power of walking, we decided to walk 4km and run 4km every day. With every day I mean do it the first day, be buggered for four days before attempting it again. The second time I was again buggered for a couple of days, but the following week we could do four outings, and so things progressed. All up we managed about 20 run-walk outings for the month of March., most of them 4-walk-plus-4-jog. The two disciplines are slightly different, working different muscles, and to me it is a huge help when trying to get fit again. I can double up on the mileage without straining myself by running everything. Over the five days of the Easter weekend we extended the outings to 11km, running about half interspersed with walk breaks.

Then this event came along. Since we haven’t done any events in what felt like ages, we were keen to do one. Always more fun suffering with others around a course.

Although it was listed in the running calendar, it wasn’t well advertised, as was evident from the number of participants. Or perhaps the price tag and terrain was a deterrent? I counted 21 across all the run events (3k, 7k, 10k and 13k), and the bike event didn’t seem to have many more, as was the case with the walking event. Which is a shame being a fundraiser and all.

Since we started running again in March, our longest continuous run was about 4.5km, and I battled to keep to a 7min pace. Even though there was progress I felt like I wasn’t ever going to be fit again. I was uncertain whether I could or should try to run 13km, but at $40 entry fee regardless of what distance you do, I wasn’t going to do anything other than the longest event. Lunch (beautiful burgers) was included as well as dessert, but I still found it to be a bit dear, especially for those who came for a 3k walk. And also my allergies meant I couldn’t eat anything on offer, not even the chews at the drink stations.

Which brings me to the ‘course’. It is one big loop on a farm, private land so no worries about traffic which was great. Two water points on the course were placed at about 5km and again at about 8km stocked with water and chews. The organisers and all the volunteers were super friendly and supportive. Everything was wonderful except … But I’m getting ahead of myself.

At 9am the bikes were sent off, and five minutes later the runners, followed by the walkers. Surprisingly, once I got going, familiarity kicked in and I felt completely at home and ready for what was to come, despite really not being fit enough. Leg memory came back and the sack-of-potatoes-feeling partly subsided.

Although near the back of the pack, we managed a pace slightly under 7min/km. However in the last few kilometres I slowed down to over seven and sometimes 8min kilometres to average a 7:06/km pace. This was due to the increasingly rough terrain, which was just unnecessary and silly the last couple of kilometres.

Which brings me to the terrain underfoot. It is no secret that I despise running in paddocks. The terrain is just too uneven and bumpy, and a challenge on ankles and feet. Short stretches were on gravel roads and reasonably even, but other stretches went through small pine forests, which wasn’t as smooth and flat as I expected. Apart from windfall, pine cones, etc, we were running on a motocross track. This means a million little humps to run over, the kind where a motorbike would fly over a few humps at a time, but I wasn’t going quick enough! I found this a bit annoying.

The last 3km took us through bigger bike loops, humps, and hills, followed by a very rough cut stretch through weedy bushes which was downright terrible. Stumps sticking out, weeds  strewn on the sandy ‘path’, and heaps of tripping opportunities, turned this into an unpleasant finish.

On the bright side, I jogged pretty much all of it. I was a great test to see where I’m at, and I was pleasantly surprised to be able to jog 13k almost continuously when push comes to shove.

Would I do this event again? Probably not, unless the entry fee and course change. 😀