Cathay Pacific Half Marathon

As I was unsure of the start times, number of runners and walkers and the process for registering the Cathay Pacific half marathon I was up at 5.00 AM for my usual pre-run breakfast of two slices of toast and an instant coffee. I was out the door by 5:30 and on site at the start line at Okahu Bay by 6.00, thirty minutes before the late registration office opened.

Once I had bought myself a coffee from an all night café and got my self registered it seemed I had been over cautious! But I did get a park by the finish line which was great as I could have ended up an easy kilometer away later on.

The event is informal with no results taken, plus the start time for the 2 hour half marathoners was officially 8.30 and I was not going to hang around for 2 hour. As it is such an informal event you can pretty much start when you like, so I watched a couple of runners go off with the walkers at the official event start time of 7.00 and elected to run at 7.30 which was what I was guessing would have been the start time for the runners anyway.

I had a good start, as always faster than I wanted, though I was felling good for the first 8Km’s and played tag with another couple of runners which kept the motivation going. I was running a few seconds faster than my planned pace and I think that did not server me well later on, though I was reasonably cautious. By local standards this is quite a hilly half and I was feeling good up the first few climbs taking advantage of the water stops with a brief walk while I drank the water down. The morning was quite warm even at that time of day and by the time we hit the waterfront again at Kohi I was soaked and suffering a bit from chafing. The last 4kms were tough, even though it was dead flat with a mild tail wind I struggled to finish. Normally I can put in a fast last kilometer but I just had nothing left for this one. The lack of sleep, the amount of training in the past week and the complete lack of carbo loading finally caught up with me in the run. I finished in 2:01 which is 1 minute out of my target time. I was disappointed yet happy with the time given the bad build up to the race.

There is one more half to do before the full and I hope to complete that run a lot quicker than this one.

There are some big training weeks coming up over the next month so diet and sleep are going to be essential, I am a bit concerned with the chaffing issue as well as I am using an ant-chafe cream.

Sunday afternoon I went out to a free concert in Huia, I saw Tahuna breaks and a bit of Ddub. Both reggae/blues style. It was a great show and I took a couple of shots.

Tahuna Breaks


Ddub




I Reloaded the MP3 player today with a broad mix of pop and a small smattering of punk and metal ready for the next long run. I plan to run home from work on Wednesday night, 17kms. It is going to be tough as I am not great straight after work.

Back into the training

On Monday night youngest had a kayaking and BBQ evening with scouts out at Cornwallis Wharf. I decided to run out there from home after work as a penance for not training for a while and to kick my training back off again.

The run is only 15km but there are a couple of quite tasty climbs with a very steep climb in the middle to contend with. Naturally the evening was warm! One of the girls at work had recently leant me one of those running belt thingies with 4 small water bottles on it, so I filled a couple of those with tap water and left home. I struggled to begin with but soon got into a rhythm up Titirangi Rd and through Exhibition drive. I kept the pace right down due to the heat and my lack of running though I was soon sweating like mad, I kept up a low fluid intake from about 30 minutes of running and I do think that made a difference. I managed to jog all the way up the ‘hill’ which pleased me as it is damn steep and is 10km into a hilly run. The rest of the way is not too bad, one other climb which is easy compared to the ‘hill’ and the last two kms are pretty much down hill. The run took 1:40 which I was happy with considering my two weeks off and this was the hilliest run I have done and even better I was not utterly broken at the end.

I was looking forward to jumping in the sea for a cool down swim when I arrived but the tied was miles out and I did not fancy a 100 metres slog through the mud to get me knees wet, so a disappointing end to a decent run.

I have decided to go back there one evening, my car ! when the tide is high and take some photos

I had Tuesday off and did a quick 8km block run on Wednesday night, I started off slow and then picked the pace up through the middle, I was feeling the effects of Monday night and the heat by the end though. When I got home and checked the time I saw that I had posted one of, if not the, fastest times for the Godley/Portage/Astley/Taupo loops.

I took the camera to work on Friday as I had seen a bit of street 'theatre' I wanted to shoot on Wednesday and I was it was still there. It was and here it is, I also liked these jandals !

My next run was on Friday night, again it was warm, I think warmer than Monday and I left fairly soon after work for a 13km loop from home up through Titirangi and Exhibition drive again, but this time I turned round at the end and ran home. I managed a good pace up the hill to Titirangi and was feeling pretty strong at the top so decided to keep the pace going and see if I could do a good time. I felt good all the way though to end with a slower patch in the middle to ‘save myself’ for the finish. I have not checked thoroughly back through my records but my time of 1:09 was the fastest I have found. I was utterly soaked in sweat by the time I got home as well which was rather unpleasant !

After the run on Friday night Deana and I watched “Thank you for smoking” – what a great film, found it so funny, especially as I am an ex-smoker. The best movie I have seen for a while.

Saturday I was up early (but not as bad as Friday when I was up at 6.00 to take number 1 son to work) and on the road to Tauranga where the office was moving locations, at least 100 metres up the road. The day went well, bit of down time in the middle of the day when I should have fed better than 2 bits of cold pizza (in hindsight !). I had all tasks done and was out of there for the drive home at 8.00 PM and home by 10:30 which was good. As I was home early enough I decided I would do the Cathay Pacific Half Marathon the following day. Wish I had eaten better…..

The weekend

With tapering for the first half marathon and then flying to Australia and spending 4 days lounging around eating and drinking and then coming home to 4 incredibly busy days I have not run for two weeks. This has really stuffed my training plan up completely. I seemed to have not gained much weight which is good, but I must have lost some of the fitness I was building. I hope to get out for a decent run tonight and back into a regular rhythm again this week. The two friends who were also planning on running the marathon have pulled out which is a real bummer as I was going to look to them as training partners once the KMs start to build over the next few weeks.

The weekend was really busy, I had planned on running on both days but it just did not happen. Saturday started with youngest’s softball match, straight to the supermarket on the way home, picked up my wife from the airport and then straight to a friends child’s 1 year birthday. Home from there to prepare food for a BBQ at our house with some friends to welcome my wife home after almost a month away.

Sunday morning I was up early and off to watch the senior and junior classes at the Auckland round of the National MTB XC champs at Riverhead, I could not stay for the pro-elite class sadly as I wanted to doing something with youngest. The racing was good, very warm and the people I knew who were racing did very well, two firsts and a second placing. After the racing I shot home and picked up youngest and a mate and took them snorkeling at Goat Island. The place was jam packed, I have never seen it so busy, the tide was way out as well so it was quite shallow. Plenty of marine life around though and the water was remarkably clear. The trip home was slow due to traffic so it was straight in and cooking dinner so that there was food on the table when my wife got home from work. Straight after dinner we were out for half an hour at a friend of our daughters 18th birthday BBQ. Home knackered….

Bought a Decendents CD on Friday – how the hell did I manage to miss them for so long… Been listening to a lot of Red Lorry Yellow Lorry as well lately, I am quite into that bass heavy post-punk/early goth sound at the moment.

Gold Coast trip

It has been an interesting two weeks since the last post.

The first few days I did not do much that was post worthy, was really busy at work, did a couple of light training runs in preparation for the Pukekohe half marathon and didn't go out taking photos. Youngest did start his first year at high school, he seemed to enjoy it and is in a class with one of his good mates which is cool.

On the Friday morning I had the call from my wife that I had been waiting on, that my father in law had passed away peacefully in his sleep and the funeral was on Tuesday. I spent most of Friday arranging flights and places for youngest son to stay and booked myself a trip to the Gold Coast for Sunday morning returning on Wednesday night. Sunday was going to be my first half marathon of the season and a part of my training program, but as always, family comes first. The following Saturday was manic with youngest’s softball, shopping and work.

Sunday morning I was the airport at 7.00 AM for a not bad flight to Brisbane airport, I was met by my wife and brother in law who had just landed from a flight from Canberra. It was great to see my wife again after over 3 weeks. The next couple of days passed in a blur of shopping, lounging around, cleaning out the garage at my father in laws, getting utterly soaked by the rain and eating and drinking loads of wine. I took a few photos, but the weather was not kind, very heavy rain and I was juts not geared up to get myself and my camera gear too wet.

Rainy in Paradise



The funeral on the Tuesday passed with out a hitch and the wake was held at my mother in laws house, it was a small quiet affair. I took a few photos for one of my brother in laws who was on his way to Ecuador and un able to attend. The following day my wife and I were up around 4.45 AM and drove down to Surfers for a walk along the beach, a big breakie and a swim in the sea. The surf was crap sadly, but the walk and breakfast was great !





Soon after that I was back on the plane and flying back to New Zealand. My plane was delayed so I did not get home until after 2 AM and I was up at 7.30 the next day when youngest came home from his friends house for breakfast and to get ready for school.

Riverhead ride

Today was Waitangi day in NZ, bizzarely we have a public holiday on a Tuesday, I am not complaining though.

Even though youngest only came back from two and half weeks in Australia on Sunday he was off today with a friends family to go snorkelling up at Goat Island. I decided to go ride at Riverhead with a bunch of other Vorbers.

The forecast was for rain but it was a reasonably sunny, though windy morning. The six of us in the group and we decided to ride the Roadside trail we cleared a couple of weekends ago and then do the BikeParks loop and Eagles Nest trails. I havent ridden BikeParks for ages and have never done Eagles Nest. For a change I took the AC, the idea being on the AC I would get to hills and just say stuff it and walk up them, thus saving myself for the hlaf marathon this coming Sunday. This will mean I have ridden all three bikes in the last 10 days which is excellent.

The Roadside trail was OK, I would have liked to have done it last as Iit always takes me a while to get into the rhythm for twisty downhill tracks, especially riding the AC after riding a hard tail for a while. The first section of the BP trail is quite fun, down hillish with a couple of sharp pinch climbs that catch you out, the trails were really dry in most places with a couple of small holes as always at Riverhead. I made it half way up the road climb before quitting, only one rider made it all the way up, all three times. Eagles nest is a cool little trail off to the side with a couple of small jumps and steeper sections, we rode it twice which meant we had to do the climb a few times. Worth it. We then rode the rest of the parks trail back to the car park. A fun little ride, good group to ride with, not too fast and not too slow.

These are some photos from one of the other riders, on the climb I am the blob half way up the hill.
Me appearing at the bottom of Eagles Nest.

After the ride I was going to join the two oldest kids at Groove in the Park, a three stage dance music concert at Western Springs. I got a park about 2k from the gate which was better than I expected. My plan was to sift around and take some photos of the some of the bands. After queuing to get in for about 30 minutes and barely moving and with time slowly disappearing and rain clouds appearing over the horizon I gave up and went home. The main act I wanted to see was on at 6.15 and I had to be at friends for dinner at 6.30 so it was not worth hassle.

On recommendation from some blog I read I am listening to some free tracks from the Dismemberment Plan's web site, they are really cool. While do I only hear of these bands a few years after they split ?

Piha trip

After the ride on Saturday I expected a good sleep that night but it just didn’t happen, no real surprise there I guess.

On Sunday I was up earlyish and on the road ready to run by 7.30 it was another great day, no wind at all and warm but not too hot. I parked at Kohi again and ran back towards town. I kept to a slow pace again and was reasonably consistent all the way to the bottom of the hill into the domain. The domain climb was Ok, I didn’t really struggle though my calves were a bit tight on the way up. The run down was not too bad and the return to the car was a bit of a struggle, I faded a bit about the 12-13k mark, which used to be fairly common for me in the past but I have been pretty good with my runs so far this time. I did half perk up for the finish which was pleasing. I was pretty broken at the end though. I was expecting this after the ride yesterday, so I was not overly unhappy. The tide was in again so I had a refreshing dip before driving home. One week to the first half marathon, so I will drop a couple of the runs from the training plan this week and taper a bit.

In the afternoon I picked youngest son up from the airport as he has come back from Australia ready to start school on Thursday, it will be his first day at high school.

Today was another good day, youngest and I went out to Piha for a swim late morning and the surf was just PERFECT for body surfing, I must have caught 20 waves, it was magic. We stayed in the surf for about an hour and by then the tide had gone out to far for the break to remain even and sized enough for a good body run. May well go back tomorrow.

Listening to some old Stone Roses today, damn they were good.

I snapped this shot of some rubbish bins on the way.

Rotorua ride

The great weather has continued through out the week though the wind has not yet dropped. El Nino summer means it probably will be windy for a while.

I had a good run after work on Thursday, did another 10ker along the waterfront, warm evening again and the wind had shifted so it was not so telling but it still had an impact in a couple of places.

After work last night I went up to One Tree Hill to take some pictures and try and get a decent sun set shot. It was horrendously windy there and the sun set was not too exciting so I went home for another quiet night in alone.

Today I was up early with the intention of remotely booting a server and then driving to Rotorua for a ride with a few Vorb guys. My plan was to leave 45 minutes earlier than I need to and take some photos of anything that caught my eye in the early morning sun on the way. Unfortunately the remote reboot didn’t work and I had to go into the office and physically restart the box. This pretty much screwed my photography plans ! Apart from a couple of bad patches I had a good ride down to Rotorua, I stopped to take a photo of this shack. I have been wanting to take photos of it for years as it has been decaying for a long time. I plan on snapping it every time I go down.



Had a great ride with 3 guys and a girl from Wellington and 1 from Tauranga. We rode the road to A trail and then Tickler and then ground and in my case walked to the top of Hot Cross Buns (HXB), I am struggling to climb on the DMR at the moment, the climb is averagely steep and has a spongy loose surface and I find it too hard to maintain traction on the SS. Easier to walk ! HXB is riding sweetly, it has been fairly cut up as they are now shuttling up there so there are a lot more riders going up now, I had a bit more fun as the rear brake pads are worn out, I hucked one small jump and almost went off the side of the track as I just about failed to slow enough to get round the following corner. The guys sessioned the jumps at the end of HXB for a while and I took a couple of photos.





After HXB we rode up to the Rollercoaster, which is rapidly becoming one of my favourites, through Chinese menu (Chop Suey, Spring Roll and Sweet and Sour) not bad trails though the Sour bit is a bit of a grind. These take you back to the top of Be Rude Not Too, which is a favorite, the trail is just so quick, fairly flowy with a couple of nice little drops to get some air under the tyres. Tauranga rider left us for the car park at the start of Diamonback. It is a toss up which is the better trail out of Diamondback and BRNT, though I bottomed by forks on an early drop and broke my speedo cable, third cable broken… I lost the rest of the guys while I tried to sort out so kinds sifty rode the rest of the trail, nailing it on the berm sections though as you just have to…

We stopped for lunch at Zippy’s Café which was damn good and then I made the two and half hour drive home happy and pretty tired.

18k run tomorrow morning !

Piha photo visit

I had a good run on Tuesday night. I was thinking about running along the waterfront after work but there was a very strong westerly blowing so I decied to go home and run Exhibition drive as it is a bit more sheltered. I drove up to Titirangi and parked outside Lopdell House and ran up Kohu St to Exe drive and then abck around to Titirangi again. All up I guess it was closer to 9km than 8km, and it had a nice gentle hill to start. The training program really kick in from this weekend with an 18km run this Sunday and increasing over the next few weeks as well as an extra run per week. I am really going to have to manage those rest days.

Last night after work, mowing the lawn and cooking dinner I went out to Piha to take a few photos as the sun was settings. I took a whole bunch of shots on different settings and tonight I will sit down and work out what settings had the best effect for the light.

Here are the best two shots.