With a rather successful winter running season behind me, as well as three half Ironman distance races under my belt, I am now down to the business end of Ironman!  January has seen me start to put some ridiculous hours into my training.  You never actually realise how much until you talk to other people.  Last weekend, at a BBQ:

A Friend: What are you up to for the rest of the weekend?

Me: Oh, you know….spending 5hours on my bike tomorrow.  Then I’ll get off and run for an hour…

Friend:  (Silence and wide-eyed look)…

Me: But it goes really quickly….really….

All up I can’t complain too much.  I have managed to stay injury free (touch wood), aside from a brief bout of plantar fasciatis which was quickly sorted by my physio and some brand spanking new orthotics.  A few more big training sessions and I should be ready to start my taper, which, when you are training a whole heap, suddenly feels like a holiday!

This weekend is going to be spent down on the course getting a few big miles in, as well as a big serving of motivation.  There is nothing like being out on the course, seeing countless other athletes all preparing for this one big day.

After Rotorua running Huntly felt like a walk in the park. After a mere 10km I realised I was half way already – and it felt like I had only just warmed up! At 21km I just remember thinking “oh, was that it? I don’t think I can even justify the big lunch I was planning on having….”. Then I thought “what could make this harder? I know…I can run it twice”. Sometimes I do wonder who this person in my head is…

All up Huntly was a good run. I finished in a comfortable 1 hour 30 in 6th place for the Open Women, a time I was happy with considering I hadn’t really run since Rotorua.

Unfortunately, after running a full marathon, a half does not seem to be as challenging as what I remember them as being….doh! what am I going to be like after the Ironman??

Someone once told me “oh, the Hawkes Bay marathon should be easy. It’s really flat…”. After I had run it, I found out they had 1) never run it and 2) clearly had no idea about the geography of the Hawkes Bay!

Leaving from the Havelock North domain I got to enjoy a fairly flat run…for the first 20km. It was sunny, scenic, felt easy, everything you could want from a Saturday morning run. I had a firm race plan in mind: making every 5km drink station in 22-25min, and taking gels at 15km, 25km and 35km. I stuck to this very well, keeping an even pace right to the end of the race.

What everyone failed to warn me of was from the 20km mark right through to the 40km mark we had nothing but hills…and most of them up!!! After I hit the first series of winding uphills I thought the worst was over. I remember thinking “surely this is flat to the end. What kind of sadistic sicko will make us run up even more than that this close to the end?”. Apparently the kind of sadistic sicko that organises this marathon! I had two more long climbs ahead of me until I hit the short climb that I knew would take me back into Havelock. The only thing that kept me going was the fact that now the marathoners were mixed in with the half marathoners, who were all looking pretty fresh, while we looked like we had….well….run the best part of a marathon already. That and the fact my parents were following me via vehicle around the course and getting quite excited by the whole thing. I couldn’t make them drive 42km following me the whole way and then walk in front of them!

The last 2km of the race was flat, but after all the hill work it was a struggle. I was sitting in 3rd place, and the very sad thing is I passed the woman who was in 2nd on a hill as she slowed to walk. What did I do??? Gave her an encouraging, motivational talk of course! You can take the girl out of the gym, but you can’t take the personal trainer out of the girl! Of course she started running again…and passed me! Doh! Maybe I was a little too motivational….but good on her! I tried very hard but for the life of me I couldn’t make my legs carry me any faster – I came in 3rd, only just behind 2nd place. I had a total time of 3hours28, and was the winner in my age group, which was a big bonus for me

I can’t wait for my next challenge and am looking forward to triathlon season starting…its time to put those bikes before those runs!