ADRA Charity Run 2008 - Race Report

The ADRA charity run was run along Auckland's eastern bays. While being one of the most popular areas of Auckland to go running I've never actually run along here before. Running by the harbour is a novelty for me and it was great!



Interesting to note that this takes in some of the second part of the Auckland marathon course (my big goal for 2009).

Aside from a moderate hill in St. Heliers in the first third the rest of the course was pretty flat.



The Run

First things first - the weather was absolutely stunning. Even though my run finished just after 8:30am in the morning it had started to really warm up. Here is a photo I snapped on the way home of the start area. The weather was like this the entire time!



I started in the back third of the start area to make sure the start was conservative and was warming up properly before getting into a comfortable pace. My right knee had been given me problems in the week up to the run so it was an interesting mindset to race with. Trying to do your best but being a bit conservative and really watching for any pain or soreness.

The first km I passed quite a few people - clearly I was a bit too far back in the pack! - and passed the 1km marked in something like 4:45. The course had km markers which was really good. Going OK and no niggles.

At around the 3km mark I heard my name called out and saw my Irish friend D. He had turned up late and missed me at the start - not suprising given he had just done the round lake taupo bike ride the day before! Good to have some company and we chatted a bit about the ride (160km) and todays run. I think the pace was just about right as we could just about carry a conversation with difficulty. Before I knew it we had hit the 8km marker and the flat part of the course. Unfortunately for D his legs were fading and I went on alone (he went on to finish in a 1:52 which I thought was a great effort after the monster ride the day before).

From around 8km through to 13km I started passing a few people that had faded a bit from taking off too hard at the beginning. Chatted to a couple of blokes that were clearly having fun - they had been singing football songs earlier in the course.

Around the 13km mark my knee started to get a little bit tight which started to worry me - did my best to put it out of my mind and concentrate on keeping good form and distracting myself with the scenery.

However I ended up distracting myself too much - grabbed a powerade cup at the 15km aid station instead of water. Turns out that powerade is very sticky especially if you splash it all over your face in an effort to cool down. In fact you end up holding for the next aid station to wash it all off. Haha - lesson learnt I guess.

After the turnaround just after the strand it was 5 or so km back to the start. The knee wasn't getting any worse - just a bit tight - so it was all about keeping everything consistent. I think I was on about 4:30 pace or just under at this stretch. Tried to run the last km or so hard but not much left in the tank at this point - I think the "sprint" finish photo will be somewhat interesting when its available.

Great feeling to finish and get handed a goody bag and medal. All the half finishers got a medal while the goody bag had a blanket(!?!), chewing gum and the usual collection of brochures and stuff.



The Time

My net time was 1:35:13 which is a new PB! The gun time was 1:37:48 - took me over two and a half minutes to cross the start line but that's what you get for starting way back in the field! 13 seconds outside of my training "A" goal but given a niggly knee in the lead-up I'm more than happy with the outcome :)

The gun time was good enough for 57th out of 606, 50th of 285 males, and 19th of 104 in M30-39. ADRA used championchip to track results - here is the summary of mine.

ADRA is a great event and was well organised. The fact it was for charity was good too. I think I'll be back in the future! My knee is still a bit sore but I'm giving it a rest in the lead up to Christmas with just some gentle shorter recovery runs and excercises.