Half Marathon

One thing I quickly noticed about Taranaki is that there are a number of major outdoor events throughout the year, especially during the summer. As weather starts to warm up a bit in Oct, the newspaper has a marathon that goes around town. Shortly after is the Round the Mountain Relay, which I participated in a year and a half ago on a team from work. Then there’s the Round the Mountain Cycle challenge, the trail run series (which I have also participated in although it was a gut-buster of a hill to get up for the one I picked!), and several other run/walk/cycle events. In early March is the Mountain to Surf Marathon.

So this year I decided I wanted to participate and chose to train for the half mountain option of this race. If you run the full marathon, the course starts at the entry to the National Park at the base of the mountain. The half marathon starts in Inglewood, which is a sleepy little town a few kilometers from New Plymouth. This is the “downhill marathon” that runs from the base of the mountain to the beach in Waitara, another smaller town a short distance from home. I thought that limiting the number of hills was a good way to survive my first major run.

So I have spent the last couple of months training, running as much as 5 days a week sometimes. It was a nice way to get outside and enjoy the good weather, especially after sitting inside all day at work. It also meant getting to see the beach on a regular basis since my favorite place to run is along the coastal walkway. I did plenty of hill training as well though, which was tough but in retrospect very good for me. Our house is on top of a hill so it does not matter which direction you start, there are big hills either coming or going. Thanks Troway for helping me train and encouraging me to keep going J

So race day came Saturday morning. Race headquarters was at one of the hotels in town, where you could catch a shuttle out to the start line to avoid traffic congestion. So I showed up in time for the shuttle, and enjoyed a nice chat with some ladies from Queenstown who had come up for the race. We got to Inglewood just before 9, which allowed plenty of time for stretching and warming-up, or nerves, as we did not start until 930. Our start was the halfway mark for the full marathon runners, so it also gave us time to cheer them on a bit, and—if you were me—thank yourself for choosing the half over the full.

Two of my co-workers were also running the half so we started together, which was a nice surprise. We were out of town almost immediately, and running along the less busy back roads until we had a short bit on the highway which took us into Waitara and through town to the Marine Park at the beach. As I was running past a beautiful smelling chicken farm around kilometre 14 (of 21) I was amused to remember that the run was advertised as letting you view the gorgeous Taranaki farmland. I guess they were right but could have done without the smell to go with the scenery J

I finished in 2 hrs 13 min. I was quite happy with that, as I had thought it might take a fair bit longer (although I had certainly hoped it wouldn’t!). Thanks to my hill training the few small-ish hills we did have felt easy, and I made it through with no injury or major fatigue. I was certainly tired, and am just now starting to not feel sore, but I did enjoy it. I thought the event was excellently organized with sufficient water stops along the course, plenty of traffic management, and a positive atmosphere from supporters along the way. There were even some familiar faces when I was about 1 kilometer from the finish. Some co-workers were out to show their support for us, which was perfect timing for a much needed boost of confidence to get to the finish.