race

by

Fun on the fifteen – Manawatu Striders winter series (15km)

The club house where the events start and finish.
Inside at registration.
Runners huddled around the course maps.
More runners studying the different routes.
Course maps for the 3km, 5km, 10km and 15km events.
A chilly start, but glad the rain held off.
Not long before the start.
And off we went, rather unexpectedly.
The well known first couple of kms, same as the Super 7s route.
Passing under the Manawatu Bridge.
Me at full speed coming down Fitzherbert Street.
Crossing the Manawatu Bridge on our way to Massey Uni.
Sticking to the walkway, the course passes through a couple of tunnels under the roads.
Gerry making his way up the second hill on Massey campus. A few people had to backtrack after going straight ahead instead of turning right.
Striders on the out-and-back section next to the sports ground on Massey campus.
Lovely to see so many Striders. Time for me to start remembering fellow club members’ names, me thinks!
More Striders.
Gerry at the turn of the first out-and-back section.
June having fun en route!
Al and Cath.
The out-and-back section at the Massey agricultural research farm, opposite Massey Campus.
Still going strong.
Gerry approaching the Manawatu Bridge. Less than 2kms to go.
Speeding across the bridge towards the finish.
About 1km to go.
Margaret doing great in the walkers event.
Bananana! I hope the banana handouts at the end of events never stop.
Warm coffee, tea, hot chocolate and biscuits in the clubhouse. What a way to end a wonderful event.
Al and Cath approaching the finish.

It’s that time of the year again; freezing nights, frosty mornings and the garlic shoots just starting to poke their heads out of the ground in your vege patch.

It is also time for the Manawatu Striders Winter Series. I will never forget our previous running of these events in 2011 when the windscreen of the car was so frozen, that it took several buckets of water to clear a patch. As soon as the water hit the windscreen, it would just freeze again. That was on the 10km event earlier in July. The 15km was a fair bit warmer at about the same time of the month than this time around, if my memory serves me well. Winter arrived late this year and to top it off, it has been unseasonably warm. Grass was growing in full force, my asparagus still hasn’t died down to recuperate for next years season and our olive grove is full of new growth.

Continue reading →

by

Just an easy recovery run… Yeah right.

Upon entering Pahiatua, you’re greeted by a large sign advertising the 5km series.
And away they go! The walkers’ start.
The runners – a more serious affair.
Everybody received an apple at the finish and me with a spotprize!

If someone were to tell me I have to do two speed sessions two days in a row, I would have laughed him off, mumbling something like “crazy bugger”. Speed session is not in my vocabulary. Neither is fartleks or hill training for that matter. But if we’re on our daily trot and feeling okey, I’m always up for the challenge to race to the next street lamp, even if “race” implies just picking up the pace a notch or two for the next 50 metres or so.

As someone who’s always on the lookout for affordable events close-by we were happy to stumble upon a series, similar to the Super Sevens, in our neighbouring town of Pahiatua. It is a 5km run and walk hosted every Wednesday by the local club, the Bush Harriers, for the five weeks leading up to their half marathon on 22 March. So Gerry and I opted to go for the first one and see what it’s like. I doubt we’ll go through the trouble of driving 30km out and 30km back just to run 5km every week for the next 5 weeks, but we thought it to be a good outing and you have to try everything once, right? Continue reading →

by

The Wanganui Three Bridges marathon, half, 10 and 5km runs – 11 December 2010

Me, flying over Dublin Street Bridge!
Registration at the Union Boat Club.
A quick bum stretch, just incase :).
5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1 – Go!
The field of 10km runners lining up.
urn around point for the 10km runners.
Watering station.
Gerry, nearing the end of the park. The guy in front was doing the 42km.
Gerry at the on-ramp of the Cobham Bridge.
Happy chappies at the finish! After a glass of rehydrate, courtesy of the organisers.

I don’t like the wind. In fact, I want to go so far as to say that I hate the wind. And hate is a very strong word … My granny always used to love the wind. Her theory was that it blows away all the bad stuff and you end up with good clean air. I beg to differ. We once stayed in a small town where the wind could blow an elephant off its feet. And each time after such a, what felt like a tornado, our yard would be littered with flyers, pamphlets, newspaper pages and even crisps and chocolate wrappers from around the neighbourhood (and the air wasn’t cleaner either, but that’s another story altogether). Maybe we just stayed in a collecting corner? Continue reading →

by

The Kahuterawa Two Day Classic race – 27 November 2010

Palmy in the distance
The Dransfield Woolshed
Registration
Shortly before the start
Halfway up the 200m climb at the start of the race
Halfway point with me in the last position!
Back at the start

The Kahuterawa Two Day Classic race (27 and 28 November), organised by the Manawatu Striders, is a marathon broken into three stages over two days. Stage one is 7km long and started at nine in the morning. The 15.42km second stage started at one in the afternoon of the same day, and only the following morning at nine, saw the kick-off of the last leg of 21.57km. 42.2km in total. It’s a great way to get a feel for covering the distance of a marathon, while being broken down into manageable stages. In our unfit state, we sadly only managed the first short stage of 7km. Continue reading →