Race report

Well, I said I would post a little about what the Rotorua Marathon was like. So here it is.
We left home pretty early (about 6am) to get there in time to find a parking spot, pick up my race number etc without having to stress about being late for the start (which was at 9am). The weather didn't look fantastic - cold, grey and breezy. At least it wasn't raining I guess.
After a haka, we were off through the streets of Rotorua before heading out of town and around the lake. I was feeling good - it was feeling easy. At about 18km we hit the first of the two big(ish) hills - Hamurana. It was mildly steep, but didn't feel that bad to me - it still wasn't feeling hard. I went through halfway in 1h54 I think it was. At 24km you hit the other hill - Mourea. This one still didn't feel that bad - on the way up at least. Going down the other side is when I started to feel the pain - my calves and quads started feeling pain. I managed to hang on for quite a while - keeping on going until 32km when my legs were hurting too much and I started walking/hobbling. This is where cold weather doesn't help - the last 10km of the race is fairly flat and exposed - so a cold breeze just meant my legs seized up even more. I managed to "run" a little bit more, but not much. I was determined to run the last km, so I gritted my teeth and ran. 4h23min at the end. 1078th out of 1901 finishers. And a lot of pain.
By the evening, my right knee had started aching a lot - I've worked out that it's my ITB that's flared up badly, probably caused by having to run on the right hand side of the road the whole way - the camber exacerbates the problem.
So, I ran, I finished. I missed my PB from Gold Coast last year by 2 minutes (or thereabouts), but this course was a lot harder. So I guess I have to be happy with that. And live with very sore legs for the next week.

24 hours to go...

Until I'll be running around Lake Rotorua.  I've been trying to make sure I get lots of rest this week to make sure I'm as ready as I can be, considering the lack of training I've got through.  Weather forecast doesn't look too bad - just have to wait and see how I go now I guess!

It's done.

I've entered the Rotorua Marathon. I haven't managed to get in a whole lot of long runs - hopefully I'll get a few more in over the next few weeks.
But I'm doing it anyway!

Creating a good corporate image...

Peter's company Endace seem to be very switched on about creating/maintaining a good corporate image. So this involves them participating in various corporate charity events. The latest on was the 'Sport Waikato - Red Mile', the proceeds of which were supporting the Heart Foundation. This involved a 1 mile fun run down the main street in the centre of the city. It wasn't a 'race', there was no place getters, just random prizes and a prize for the best dressed team (Peter's company didn't win this - as you can see their team dress was very corporate looking and boring). That said Peter was 4th across the finish line, but didn't win any of the random prizes (one of the girls did win a kayaking gift voucher).

Cambridge is a long way.

After struggling to get going with my marathon training, I decided to just try out a long run and see how fit my bike riding has made me. So, the target was to run to Cambridge (well, Red Cherry Cafe actually, just before Cambridge) and meet Mel and the kids there for breakfast. According to Google, that's a distance of just over a half-marathon (21.5km or so). As it turned out, the run went really well - I felt pretty good the whole way (just a slightly achy knee and hips, but maybe I'm just getting old!). It took 1h55min, so that would convert to a pretty respectable HM time (for me anyway - my PB is about 1h52min I think).

A Declaration of Intent

I hereby declare that I intend to run the Rotorua Marathon in 2009.
There. Now that I've said it, I need to get off my behind and out of bed in the mornings and get some training done. I started this morning - it was my first run since mid-July. Hamilton seems like a pretty ideal place for running - it's pretty flat, has little traffic, and, probably most importantly, has very good weather. I found it really hard to do marathon training through the summer in Brisbane - it was just way too hot, even at sunrise. Hamilton, in contrast, cools down overnight, even through summer (average minimums are around 13C in mid-summer, as opposed to Brisbane's 21C). Which hopefully will make it more pleasant to run in. Let's see if it makes it any easier to get out of bed for those long runs...