Half and half

First Half 

As I wrote my last post I was one week out from my first half marathon of the year - the Shoe Clinic Wellington Half Marathon... and I was coming down with a cold.

That cold hit pretty hard and for three days I felt like utter shit. After a primo bike ride on the Saturday afternoon I just struggled to get warm for the rest of the day. The next morning it was all on and I was moving no more than the distance between bed and the couch. By Wednesday, I was feeling up to returning to work but running was pretty much off the cards for the entire week. So come Sunday morning on the start line I wasn't really feeling to choice about the 21.1km of pounding the road ahead.

Run courses don't really get much flatter than this one. The biggest climb is the ramp back up to the stadium concourse at about 400m to go. The rest of it is pretty much pan flat, out and back around the Wellington waterfront and Evans Bay. The biggest factor that comes in to play, external to one's own physical condition, is the weather. The day before it was as shit as Wellington gets really... it literally rained all day and was frigidly cold. I was about ready to pull the plug if it hadn't eased off by morning. Thankfully it had and the run kicked off under overcast skies and into a cool and gusty southerly.

The first 7 or 8km were knocked out with nary a care in the world but from then on I began to feel the effects of having a glugged up head and my pace began to consistently tail off with each kilometre passed.

By kilometre 18, I was well and truly in the hurtbox. Thoughts had turned to the opportunity cost of this versus just about any other activity, and jealousy of the people sitting in the cafes along Oriental Bay. It became a struggle to keep the legs ticking over. Walking is not an option on a course this flat... walking would be giving in to the pain. I tried to force a positive thought into my mind and focused on just how good the hot spa at home would feel.

So struggle through I did and a little adrenalin boost carried me up the stadium ramp and over the finish line. The emotions were mixed at this point. There was the satisfaction of having finished, tinged with the disappointment of missing my target time by nearly 20 minutes (having not recovered from my cold, I can't really let this haunt me). Then came the soul destroying clincher.... as I hopped into the car my partner broke the news that a power surge in the recent storm had triggered an overload cut-off on our spa pool. She had turned it back on but there was no way it would have heated up enough for me by the time we got home. At this point, if it wasn't for the delicious, warm latte from Milk Crate that she had bought for me I think I would have cracked emotionally.

The detail:
Distance - 21.48km
Climbing -  116m
Calories burned - 2,300+

Second Half

Fast forward 2 weeks and I find myself in Taupo for half-marathon number two - the Tauhara Trail Run. I love Taupo - the lake, the mountains, the forests... it has everything outdoorsy so close at hand. I used to spend a lot of time here and it's always good to return. Even on an overcast  winter's day such as I had they day I arrived, there's still something special about the town.

Race day dawned a stunner and the start area under Mt Tauhara got to witness a spectacular sunrise. I watched from the warmth of my car after picking up my race pack and a tasty latte.

It was a crisp 4.5 degrees when proceedings got underway. Perfect once warmed up, but cold enough to start the run in a jacket and gloves. We set out across farmland and down my end of the field there were a couple of the usual standstill bottlenecks as several hundred people tried to squeeze through narrow farmgates all at the same time. But by the time we hit the forest proper the field was pretty well spread out and I easily sat into a good rhythm for the first few kilometres.

After about 4 or 5km we left the forestry road and headed up a short steep climb into a fantastic section of single track that twisted and turned through the pine forest. At this point, the first of the 10km runners started to come through. I had a moment of age envy as a kid came flying past like he ws doing parkour!! I thought about trying the same technique of leaping off every berm and drop but decided that I'd rather sleep tonight in my own bed back in Wellington and not Taupo hospital.

In the midst of this section was local freelancer Allan Ure, who had set up a couple of strobes to get some fantastic action shots of the runners.

photo: Allan Ure, photorecall.co.nz

 This fantastic flowing singletrack came to an all too sudden end after a couple of kilometres. At this point the 10km course split off and whilst it was a little tempting to slack off and join them, I managed to follow the half marathon arrows back onto a gravel forestry road. Shortly, this road began to tilt upwards and carried on so for a solid couple of kilometres. By now I was down to a walk on the climbs to conserve energy knowing that we weren't yet at the halfway point. A good chunk of this was an out and back section though, which was morale building knowing that for as long as we had to climb, there was going to be a fun chance to stretch the legs on the run back down again.

At the bottom of the descent, and through the halfway point, it was a hard left back into the pines  and a long undulating singletrack section with some mint switchbacks and long periods of solitude with runners now well and truly spaced apart. This section felt endless, but the kilometres slowly ticked past. When the track finally popped back out of the forest and onto another gravel road, thoughts turned to what was coming up.

The final climb was described by the organisers as an "honest climb but not a technical one, so get the head down and guts it out".  Or not... With 18km in the legs I took the option of grabbing a drink and instead of putting the head down and gutsing it out I settled into a casual walk, answering a couple of texts and snapping off an Instagram selfie for Facebook. I was hurting a bit by now, but was nowhere near the survival mode of the Wellington half two weeks earlier.

The top of this climb marked the highest point of the course, at 648m on the flank of Mt Tauhara. It also offered up a glimpse of the cars and tents down at the start/finish area, some 1.5km off in the distance.  That 1.5km was all downhill too. Time to kickstart the muscles and get the body running again, dodging cowpats up to and over the finish line.

photo: photorecall.co.nz

photo: photorecall.co.nz

I was pretty stoked to finish this one and still be in pretty good shape. I'll never be competitive in running so it has to be something that's enjoyable. Whilst this was the longest trail run I've ever done, and I found it pretty hard at times, I did enjoy myself and I'll definitely be back again next year. The reward for finishers was a bonus too... a cold cider and a bbq sausage. Thumbs up for that! They hit the spot before I had to jump in the car for the long drive back to Wellington. The big bonus of the day was that, unlike after the half two weeks ago, the spa pool was hot and ready when I got home!!

The detail...

Distance - 21.61km
Climbing -  771m
Calories burned -3,000 odd.

Next event: 4 August - Mizuno half-marathon, Taupo.