Some Photos

I forgot to mention in my race report a couple of things that I have just remembered:

1. Around 4km or so in to the race there was a spectator with a bugle. Got quite a few laughs when he played "the last post" when we went past.
2. The courier company Pace had a few signs out along the course. Slogans like "Pain is temporary, pride is forever" etc. I'm sure just before the bridge there was an "You are almost at the finish" which was almost as good as the bugle.
3. A few nutters were running in costumes. I saw Darth Vadar and Bobba Fett from Star Wars. Doing it hard under those helmets. There was also someone in what looked like a red diving suit.

Anyway here are some photo previews from marathon photos.com. Suprised I don't look nearly as bad as I felt towards the end.

Auckland Harbour Bridge - what an experience going over this.

Feeling quite good after the bridge.

The hat is off and that is normally not a good sign. I read that everyone feels pain over the last 6 miles and you have to suck it up. I guess this is my entry.

Through the finish. I saved the smiling until afterwards...

Race Photos (and some answers)

Race photos from the half of two weeks ago.



First photo was at around the 13km mark or something. Quite possibly the worst sprint finish ever - not smiling at the end - it was more HTFU to get over the line.

Haven't run much since the race. 4 shorter runs in December so far total of 27.44km - the knee is OK but I think it might be time to retire my current shoes soon. My normal running pace is averaging on 4:30min/km at the moment. I think I might need to start doing some intervals to improve. My next race is the 10km for Run Auckland - 29 March 09 - although Round the Bays might be something to do this year (a very crowded 8km fun run) on 15 March 09.

Christmas function season but the damage hasn't been too bad - weighed in this morning at 85.9kg. But I think its time to start logging daily again on physicsdiet.

Some answers to comments of past posts:

- The Tiger Beer, that is good after a training, is definitely the one from Singapore. We do have some good beers in New Zealand.
- I work for MRP as an engineer. I was quite often down in Kawerau earlier this year for the new power station there. Got in some good runs after work in nearby Whakatane. The current project is near Taupo so we'll see if I can get some lakeside training in.

Glory Shot

As promised in my post on the North Shore City half here is the photo of me coming in to finish. Glory shot might be a bit much it's more the normal "just don't stop" face.



http://www.marathon-photos.com is a pretty cool site. Since we weren't wearing numbers for this race I had to sift through a number of people also wearing red tops. That was interesting in itself seeing the expressions of people coming in to finish.

I don't think I'll buy this photo (you pay for a non watermarked one) maybe save my money for the Auckland half later this year. Larger events seem to have a number of photos you can choose from.

Talking of photos I saw this gem on a training run a while back and had to go back the same day to record it. Incidentally my home town of Auckland is known as the city of sails (because of the twin harbours and the multitude of sail boats).

The sign made me laugh though - clearly someone wasn't paying attention at school or maybe they had their mind on going fishing ;)



Also I managed to get past Week 3/Day 3 of the Hundred Pushup challenge. This called for 30/22/22/20/max(min 27) with 120 seconds in between sets. Managed 31 on the last. Bring on Week 4...