Friday before the event I flew up to Christchurch in time for the race. On arriving I popped down to briefly help some friends from the Shoe Clinic in Riccarton/Asics do some setting up in the marathon expo before heading off for some food and an early night at a friends of mine who had kindly offered to put me up for the weekend, Thanks Di! . Saturday was spent working in the store over there again before having a belly full of food and an early night. I hadn't slept great on the Friday night with it being in a new environment and new bed etc etc... But Saturday was much better after getting use to the new surroundings. Gem and some good friends Emily and Lar was doing they bit again this week helping me to get ready for the event mentally as I was feeling a little low about the race I didn't feel great in my self and body wasn't up to much. Again a big Thank You to them for being good friends and being by my side when needed :-)
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| Race ready! |
6:15am on the Sunday the alarm rings out I look over at the weather and it's at a lovely fresh -2 degrees. For most people this would be freezing and wouldn't even dream of getting out of bed but I must say I really enjoy running in the colder climates and was happy it was a dry/fresh morning. Good bowl of porridge and a banana and I was ready to go. Kit was good to go, my Nathan Phantom Pak to carry some gels (This is an awesome sleek and classic bounce free design with a weather resistance pocket.) Hoka One One Stinston Tarmac with the usual shorts and vest! Di again was helping me out by getting me to the race on time, great not having to worry about public transport.
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| Result from good old black ice. |
After a good warm up and thoughts gathered it was time for race start!
8:30am the gun went and off and off we ran into the distance. I found it particularly hard to pace the run from the start as they had a 10km, Half Marathon and the Marathon all going off at the same time and as you can imagine so many different paces. If there is one thing I have learnt over the years of running its to run your own race and not worry too much about what others are doing around you, this defiantly helped me in the first 21km of the race. Once I had started moving I wasn't feeling too bad apart from being a big sluggish, I kept thinking that my legs would just stop going at some point with them being so tired from the last 2 weeks of racing and training. Around the 26km mark was the biggest hic up for me in the race as I put my left foot down on a stride it just slid right from underneath me on some black ice that I hadn't seen and I just hit the deck with a thud! A couple of seconds to gather myself and I was back up with both knees cut open and my left arm and elbow all bruised and split.. This wasn't going to stop me finishing the race for sure! Every one has heard of the quote "Go Hard or Go Home" I wasn't ready to go home. I continued to tick the KMs off and push towards the finish line back at the Airport where we had started the race. I was relative pleased at how I had managed to keep a steady pace over the distance (not a fast one by any means) and I crossed the finish line in 15th overall and 13th Male in a time of 2:53. Always lots of room for improvement for sure!
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| Km Splits |
All in all job done and another marathon completed what takes my tally of races above the marathon distance to 20! Time for a little rest and some solid winter training here in New Zealand before deciding on my next challenge.. Thanks again to everyone who is always there supporting me and to Nathan Sports NZ for their constant support with the latest hydration packs/belts/bottles! Much appreciated
Paul x
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