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.

World Wide Half - Race Report

After entering this virtual event yesterday I was quite nervous and found it hard to sleep. It really did feel like a proper race. Weird eh? I think it was partly because I had annouced the entry on this blog and hence some pressure to put in a good effort.

Before the race I checked out the course from space (thanks Google Earth):



Headed out to the start line at quarter past 6 just before dawn here in Auckland on a cool but fine morning. No queues for the toilets and got a great pole position at the start (my driveway!). No start gun though this race so just pushed the start button on my G-Shock stopwatch and headed out.

On a serious note the early start was also so I could get the run finished while it was still cool. Running a half marathon with no planned drink breaks I needed to minimise dehydration. I had hydrated well the night before and had a glass of water after I had woken up.

The first 3km or so where along pretty flat suburban streets in Mt. Eden and Sandringham - Halesowen, Calgary, and Shackleton. This was the extra I had tacked on to my long training run to bring it up to half distance. Used that to ease into the run. Actually the start was great - there was no congestion with other runners! Usually a race there is a bit of congestion in the first part. I guess countering that there are no people to pace against later on and no crowd support. Have to say the atmosphere with a whole lot of other runners is something else (and what makes races fun).


The course wasn't too bad...

The 3km through 8km is rolling terrain up through Mt. Eden Village and into Grafton. Saw a few other runners out training and got a wave or two. They were probably wondering what the hell I was doing running pretty hard out early on a Sunday morning.

The domain was nice and pleasant - at around 9km the sun was coming up through the trees and it felt pretty good to be honest. I had started to feel fatigue round about here and the sunshine from down was a bit of a lift.

The section from 10km through 13km was pretty flat aside from a nasty little hill just into Gillies Ave. The sun was starting to come up now which was good.

13km through 17km was through Cornwall Park. Along this part of the run I tried to run on the trail and grass a bit - the uphill sections were a matter of just maintaining stride rate (albeit with a shorter step). In contrast really attacked the downhill sections felt like I absolutely screamed down the hill.

The last 4km of the run was tough. My feet, quads, lungs were starting to feel it. On the plus side not a peep from the knees and calves. Not much left for a sprint finish but certainly finished in better shape than my first half back in July. Still running reasonably strong. Absolutely stuffed though.


The face of victory! Well I am wearing a nike top and she is the greek goddess of victory. I'm shattered right about now.

I then took a photo of the time for the permanent record. Out of focus shot due to post race exhaustion.



1:35:47 which is a new PB! According to mapmyrun.com the route was 21.4km so average pace is 4:28min/km.

Doing the world wide half was great. As I said earlier it really did feel like a race! Even got a virtual certificate...



Absolutely brilliant and now I'm buzzed for the rest of the day. Hope everyone else had fun racing it.

1:38:10!

North Shore City Half Marathon (Run Auckland Race 6) - DONE!

First things first totally wrapped to have snuck under 1:40:00 on my first half marathon. The course kicked my ass a bit near the end though. Pleased to beat the running calculator prediction of 1:39:39 by a good margin.

The race was scheduled to start at 7:30 a.m. and there was the biggest turnout I had seen all season. I think the sheer numbers overwhelmed the organisers a bit - the actual start was probably closer to 7:45 and the drink stations were a bit random (only went through 2).

The actual start was a bit sudden didn't see a countdown we were all just off.

The course itself was great - pretty tough - and was an interesting mix. Some roads, some sand, some grass. Running on sand is pretty tough.

0-7km: This was essentially flat around suburban streets a loop around Lake Pupuke but I never got to see the lake! Lots of people running in this section it reminded me a lot of the volume at the Auckland Quarter Marathon 2007. I overtook a reasonable number of people at this phase having started slowish due to congestion and settled into what "felt" like 4:30 min/km pace. I'm coming off a cold from last week (no pushups or running) so that feeling may have been a bit out.

7-14km: This took in a roughly 1km stretch along Takapuna beach running on the sand. I found the sand quite tough to run. Around 10km I was being tailed quite close by another runner. Not sure if he was trying to slip stream or what. Round the 10km mark we struck up a bit of a conversation - he reckoned we were on time for a 1:40 and hoped he didn't mind using me as a pacer! Apparently I was looking "quite comfortable" - ha thats probably because doing 14km is a distance I had done a fair amount of training runs at. The hard yards were yet to come.

Figured since we could talk just a little it was about right. The hill at North head was tough though. North head is a pretty interesting place in its own right - there are tunnels and a Cannon or two from World War 2 when the country was worried about invasion by the Japanese. Absolutely brilliant view.



The far point of the run skirted this cannon.

14km-21km: Back down North-head and the way we came. Business time. 17 through 20 were pretty slow on the uphills and flats. Cardio wasn't too bad what was starting to tell were tired legs and calves. My pacer friend started to break away at around 19.5km but I didn't have that much gas left to stay with them.

20 to 21km was back along Takapuna beach (damn sand again!) and the finish. Got passed by 3 people on the beach which in hindsight wasn't as bad as it could be. The last 100m was on grass and down the chute. After the sand I felt I finished relatively strong - noticed a camera set up but I think that photo is going to be a shocker! Still will post the moment of glory if I can get a copy.

It felt really great to have finished the distance.

Got a handshake and pat on the back from the pacer - turns out he came in around 30s ahead of me. It was quite good having some company on the run in the middle to end stages.

A lesson I'll take away from today is to be better prepared for the last 2-3 tough kms. Part of this is experience and having my body now know what the distance is like.

Now for a few days off and then back into it. Finishing a half was a fitness goal for me at the start of the year. Have to reassess where to from here. A full marathon one day might be a long-term plan but more short-term I'm thinking another half towards the end of the year might be something. Now I have a target time to beat...

Run Auckland Race 3

Flat, fast, and furious?

Provisional results in : 42:49 placed 22/66 in 30-39 men. A PB and quite pleased with the time compared to the last race!!! :)

The course itself was 4 laps of this scenic route. Dead flat aside from judder bars and traffic islands.



Course map is here:

Auckland Quarter Marathon Race Report

46:14, 41st place, 26th place in category

This was way better than my target time (50:00) and so I was really stoked with this result :)

Background

So was too late to enter the half event (it had sold out and there is a limit of 7500 to run over the bridge). This was probably just as well because over a three month period I had worked up to the point of running for an hour remembering to just don't stop.

So I ended up going for the Auckland Quarter Marathon event. The Quarter is apparently not that common and is a total distance of 10.549km.

Most of my training runs were in the vacinity of One Tree Hill (made famous by the U2 song) and has a few hills. In training I was getting close to 5min/kms - in itself an achievement - and was hoping to sneak under 50:00 in the event.

My thinking was two fold:

• The actual course was quite flat whereas my training had some hills.
  
• A race environment would carry me through

These two factors helped in getting a better than expected time.

Race Report


The race itself was scheduled for a 7:00am start on the 28 October. It had rained the night before and the weather was looking a bit iffy but in the end it was quite cool and dry with no wind. We did get a small shower about half way through but nothing major.

The start was hectic - there were probably close to 2000 entries lined up.

Met up with my Irish friend D and his girlfriend J - he was supporting her trying to get under 60:00. After stowing the gear bags we ended up about a third of the way back from the start. The first couple of minutes or so was a matter of ducking and dodging between people walking the event and having lined up at the front. Madness. Passing people is on one hand good for the confidence but on the other hand distracting.

I managed to tag along with a small group of four people to around the half way mark. I was starting to feel the pace at that point (faster than training and my body was wising up to this) and the second half was more about just not stopping and trying to hold the pace as best I could.

It was definitely a positive split run though.


I remember the bloke in the adidas blue shirt zooming past me near the end but had no legs to sprint at this point.


Post race was good. There was complimentary powerade (lesson: the blue "flavour" is passable but the red is to be avoided) and more bananas than I had seen in one place before. Had a chat to Mr. blue shirt who was evidently in an athletics club and a regular runner so didn't feel too bad about being run down at the end. Ate a couple of bananas and waited for D and J to come in. J made it in 57:58 and was very pleased about that so a good day out.

A really enjoyable morning and the atmosphere was great.

On the way home time to reflect I quite like running after all especially having hated it at school. Not so bad if you don't stop before the end.