Saturday, February 14, 2009

Long Riverside Run

Just got back from Hamilton where I had spent Thursday and Friday for work. Hamilton is largely built around the Waikato river and there is a riverside walk on both sides - so I mapped out a course from the hotel:



Rained quite heavily from the 11km mark and my calves started complaining a bit largely from the forbidden stair climb of the day before. Kept a nice easy pace but towards the end I found that wet shorts is a bad recipe for chaffing - ow!

21.29 km in 1:48:25 (5:05min/km).

The course and views along the route were magic. It's all reasonably flat and when it was raining it felt like running through a rain forest at times. If you are ever in Hamilton I would recommend it. Some photos:


A view of the river at around 2km


Memorial Park - 5.5km before it started raining.

The ducks loved the rain - I saw one do a kind of slide/waddle over the track and into the river. Passed a couple of other mental people "enjoying" the conditions.

Footbridge over the river at 14km.


16km? and soaked through. Not in a happy place due to chaffing issues...


19km saw the Waipa Delta (paddle boat) cruise past.

Worst moment was getting back into the hotel looking like something the cat had dragged in. Needless to say got some strange looks from the hotel staff at the front desk!

The hotel has a small gym and so the next morning had a go at a few weight machines. Bit sore now though so a rest day today!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Interesting and well done blog!

Andrew(ajh) said...

Yes, I have suffered from "wet shorts syndrome" a couple of times myself, so I sympathise!

Bruce said...

That's a new one, Aucklanders recommending Hamilton as a place to visit - not from there are you? Did look like a nice place to run though.

Andrew is getting fit said...

I found myself wondering if I could come up with an excuse to visit Hamilton. Hmm...I did get invited to do a guest lecture at Waikato Uni...