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#dontforgettotrainnexttime – Tarawera Ultra

Date: 9 February 2019
Distance: 50km
Time: 8:48
Previous: 2015, 2016

It’s our third outing to Rotorua for the Tarawera Ultra Marathon, and I can (almost) safely say – don’t do the even numbered years! The weather is always miserable, and raining which means the course turns into a tougher-mudder in these years. 🙂 This year, again, saw a gorgeous, sunny day with little wind. It was likely a bit on the hot side for most, but being in the bush means you are mostly protected from the sun. And I’m the last person to complain about heat. Continue reading →

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Tail-end Charlies for A2E – Hip hip hurrah!

Date: 18 November 2018
Distance: 21.1km
Time: 3:24.02

Wet and windy.
At the start in Ashhurst Domain.
The traffic management vehicle, the last participant, and the water point guys leaving before we got there.
A jolly welcome back at the finish.

We arrived exhausted from gardening work the previous day at the club-rooms to take the bus to the start in Ashhurst. It was again as in previous years overcast and cool, necessitating carrying a lot of additional clothes. The thing with being tail-end is, you can go at slow walking pace, which means you don’t ever warm up. Apart from rain-jackets and an extra polyprop (which I donned even before the start), we also had to carry the first aid kit, as well as water and some snacks for ourselves. Just as well, as the third water point was packed up and gone by the time we passed through. And not only was the water point gone, so was the only toilet on the Bridle Track/walkway! I realise volunteers don’t want to wait all day for the last participant, but to pack up the aid on course before the last participants come through is just unacceptable. Unless, of course, there’s a cut-off point on course and the participant missed that. Continue reading →

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Just like that – hip hip (not) hoorah

hip

For almost two years now (since I’ve been diagnosed with FAI) I’ve been working on my mobility by spending a fair amount of time on a foam roller, a ball, or anything else that helps break up the fascia adhesions and tightness that hinders mobility. I’ve discovered that releasing the “knots” in the quad of the FAI hip brings instant relief for any discomfort or pain, and therefore started to focus 99% of my energy on that area. During this time I’ve also taken up some body-weight strength training in the form of lunges, squats, hip thrusts, deadlifts etc. I was unfortunately not very religious about it and my routine was rather haphazard. Things were going okay until last summer, but as with most things in life, when things get tough or life gets busy, looking after oneself goes out the door. Admittedly, I’ve been rather lax the past few months about my hip. I didn’t have much pain, and when I did experience some discomfort, breaking up the adhesions in my quad did the trick. This happened a few times a week, and apart from that I didn’t bother to keep up my maintenance and conditioning in any of the other areas of my body, let alone balancing out left and right. This has turned out to be a big mistake. Continue reading →

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New Plymouth Joggers and Walkers Club Half Marathon

The old Taranaki Daily News half marathon

Date: 7 October 2018
Distance: 21.1km
Time: 2:23.44
Previous: 2011, 2014

There were other runners, even though it doesn’t look that way on any of the other pics!
Two years to go to the 40th anniversary of this event.
The event offered water only at the aid stations, so we had to take our own stash of jelly sweets along.
Lonely morning out, so we had to entertain ourselves out on the course.
More on-course entertainment. 🙂
One third down.
Running along country roads just out of town.
Back in suburbia.

We’ve done this event a couple times before, and for some unknown reason we’re usually on a downward spiral during our training cycle. Not that we have a formal “training cycle” in any form or shape, but somehow we’re always either injured or just plain unfit this time of year. But doing the event is always a good excuse to see friends who live in New Plymouth. They unfortunately have gone through some hardship recently, having lost a brother (and brother-in-law) to point-blank murder, so it was under very sad circumstances that we caught up with them. (Not to go into the details, but it was a good reminder of some of the reasons why we emigrated to New Zealand eight years ago.) Continue reading →

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Red Walk & Red Nose Family Fun Day

Date: 30 September 2018
Distance: 10km
Time: 57:18

Gerry, me and Rob.
At the start of the 10km event.
Jane and Jackie making the most of it.
On the way to the halfway point.
Catching up with the 5km participants on the way back.

Gerry and I participated in the Palmerston North edition of the event, which aims to “raise money and awareness for the amazing work Cure Kids does to help fund valuable research into a variety of child-related illnesses and conditions in New Zealand”.

What we thought would be a low-key fundraising walk turned out to be a decent size event – well organised and very enthusiastically supported by the local running and walking community. An enjoyable and festive 10k out-and-back run/walk along the river (there was also a 5k option) was augmented by loads of spot prizes, yummy food and great coffee at the finish, jumping castles for the kids, and more. Nor sure how many turned out but it was certainly a good crowd.

A good event for a great cause – must do again in 2019!