With it drawing closer, I thought I would pen some thoughts about The Pioneer which some people new to the event may find interesting, and what other people can add to.

Yikes, so much has happened over the last few weeks/month so this could be lengthy.  Firstly I got to do my first run with my sister which was a very cool event and was stoked to share this memory with her.  The run was the 10km crater rim, essentially up and back down Rapaki.  I had some goals… the biggest being to push my mind and to keep going. Well I smashed that out of the water and finished feeling great.

The following weekend was the first big hike and kayak adventure for me and Mike. First up, a kayak from Lyttelton to Quail Island straight across the harbour.  This was mine and Mikes first real experience with our kayaks in the waves and both handled well.  I felt completely stable, although very wet, as the waves came crashing over the front of the boat. It was very entertaining to watch Mike disappear between each swell.  It took us about 2 hours return as we were straight into an easterly and choppy 1metre swells on the way back.  The most entertaining thing about this trip was the lack of water around the back of Quail Island.  Happily paddling along, out of the wind to discover I was ‘beached as’ and had to drag my boat in the middle of Lyttelton Harbour, in ankle deep water. This best thing about this trip was the confidence I got going into our Grade two.

The second adventure of that weekend was Richard had us going up Mt Oxford. The plan, to take our time and enjoy the spectacular views.  Wow! How can I go 35 years and never know this place existed. The hike to the summit took us through spectacular scenery and then out into the snow line where we hiked another 20mins in the snow.  Snow angels was definitely a must! The loop with a few wrong turns, but some stunning waterfalls took us just over 6.5hrs.(walking).  But man was I sore the next day and a couple of days after that. Mike however took a good week to recover.  

Grade 2 Kayak course. This was 3 weeks ago. This certificate is required for the Coast to Coast and without it, all this hard work would be for nothing. It was a 4 day (2 overnights in the Hurunui) course and I was absolutely exhausted by the end of it.  Everyday we were kayaking in little whitewater kayaks for 8 hours.  The first day was in a pool for rolling and basic survival then out to a lake to practise using the kayaks.  These are hard to manoeuvre and I became very frustrated, very quickly at how fast they turn into a spinning top.  The second and third day had us on the Hurunui, where I spent most of my time upside down! Myself and Hurunui become great enemies, but slowly I managed to workout how to work with the river instead of against it and slowly the relationship become more friendly.  The third day was a little more successful and would have stayed relatively dry if we weren’t actually thrown in the river to practise survival situations and 101 rolls. Another river run and although I still don’t feel like I know what Im doing, I did get the certificate in the end.  The week was meant to finish with the mission mt somers race.  But with an aching body and pure exhaustion we decided to pull the pin.  I wasn’t in a great mental space and this may have just broken me. I was having many thoughts of whether I was ready to compete the Coast to Coast.

Over the last couple of weeks we have continued with a lot of fitness based training.  Multiple kayaks up the avon and a bike ride from Lyttelton to Diamond Harbour (which if you remember I did in late August and found really hard). This time Mike and I managed this trip the whole way without stopping and knocked 40mins off our previous time! We were so stoked.  We also did the first Team CP Crossfit class – a lot of fun and a CP group ride, again a lot of fun especially with all the hill fitness.

And finally Im at the end… yesterday Mike and I tackled Mt Somers.  Mission, to run all the flats and downs, and eat/consume 50g of carb every hour.  This was the first time I had really tried gels and although yummy the kick I find makes me dizzy for about 5mins, I will get used to it though. Mike and I biked for an hour beforehand to the other end of the track and started. It’s fair to say it’s a rather steep climb to start off with, but we were definitely rewarded with the views at the top. Waterfall after waterfall!! The rest of the run wasn’t too bad with a few difficult climbs, rain, hail and sunshine and a few river crossings (a first in our training). We managed it in 4.5hr, an hour faster than I had predicted.

We have only 4 weeks until we go away on our big Europe adventure.  In that time we have 2 kayak races – one this Sunday and then the big one which takes us down the Coast to Coast course on 11 Dec.  I am incredibly nervous about these. Finally I hope everyone has faired ok after the earthquakes, Tsunami evacuation. Im also coming up to a year since prognosis so have scans etc coming up as well, hopefully all this exercise has had a positive effect.

Ok, so after a quick read of my previous post Ive realised Ive got a lot to catch you all up one. The first exciting news is 4 weeks on from breaking my finger I am now typing with two hands!!!
It has been about 3 weeks since my last post and with the school holidays being in play, I have a lot to talk about.  Mike and I have been on many 3 and half hour walks (being thats all I could do) and have the Mt Pleasant – summit road- Sumner – Ferrymead walk sorted. Most of our walks even had us with our heads in the clouds!! We are now at the point where we are running down at great speed, until we hit the flat of course. I also did Mt Isobel in Hanmer with my wonderful friend (that is coming to Florence for New Years), Kellie. We hiked up to the top and got to take in the incredible views, and snow, I really felt like I was on top of the world and then enjoyed the very quick run back down!! Its fair to say though that that was the hardest walk I had done and it took a good 3 days for by poor, obviously underworked legs to recover. Mike and I had also been on a few good wee runs and have managed to find a good speed that we can both cruise and talk at.

Cycling outside and kayaking unfortunately had to take a back seat while my poor wee finger healed. But of course I was determined to make the most of the down time and work on my strength. With the wind-trainer set up in front of the TV and some Good Wife episodes to watch I started interval training and strength training. I have grown to love the determination required for the wind trainer and find it a lot harder than biking outside.

This now leads me to our first duathlon. A 35km ride followed by a 14km run. This was going to be the first race where I could practise nutrition and the transition. Richard and I had put together a plan and should everything go the way we wanted with my finger (removing the splint so I can actually brake) I was ready to go. The goal to finish! Now for the last week I have been trying to sum up this race in the most diplomatic way. Yes I managed to do it and finish it so goal achieved. Yes I learnt a lot, like, I need to eat and drink or I hit a MASSIVE wall that I struggle to get over and I need to get over the fact that someone has to be last and that may be me. No I didn’t enjoy it. Actually thats not completely true and although we had a head wind both ways on the bike I really enjoyed this part of this race and felt stronger and fitter, which is ironic because this was the part I was so nervous about. The run however, well that was mind game after mind battle and I really don’t think I would have made it to the finish line without Mike willing me on, my parents willing me on and of course Richard, my coach. (glad I convinced Mike to do the Coast to Coast with me).
On the kayak front I have bought a kayak and will hopefully get out next week, now that I have been given the go ahead from the doctors.
On a side note my finger is quite entertaining at the moment. It is stuck in one position and with all my might I can not move it. I look very posh with it stuck out. We are hoping this isn’t permanent and with some exercise it will hopefully start moving again.

Finally in the next couple of weeks we have our grade 2 kayak course (eek!!!), mission mt somers (21km trial run/walk/limp). We also have the crater rim this weekend which will be my first run with my sister so very excited – goal is to not give up. And of course lots of little finger exercises.

4am – We were all up and completing our final race preparation. I was really excited and looking forward to racing with my Wellington teammates Nicole Ranger and Marta Zanetti. We were giving Marta her first taste of adventure racing and the course looked interesting. Mainly I felt that the hills looked smaller than last year and the navigation looked trickier with plenty of route choice. We set off on the hour drive to start line. The ‘kiss and drop’ really was that and we jumped out of the car, said our farewells and headed to the start line.

6am – It was start time! It was a short fast 1km run to the rafts. Craziness broke out at our raft with confusion over people taking the wrong life jackets. We were so eager than we nearly left without our raft guide! It was a long paddle this year so we kept a pace steady. We had some tussles with the raft in front of us, eventually took them down which meant our raft was sitting in 3rd place.

Off the raft and onto the mountain bikes we went. It was a short ride mainly along four-wheel drive tracks. We had a smooth transition from the bikes onto the trek. This was the stage where we really had to watch our navigation. Nicole was our main navigator, I was the backup navigator and Marta was on the control card clipping. We focused on the navigation more than speed through this section. It started to rain but it didn’t really bother us. At one point we ended up in a big clump of people. We made a good route choice to check point N where I took the front and bush-bashed a path through for the team. This put us in front of the big bunch of teams.

After a steady trek, we headed off up a hill on our mountain bikes. It was tricky deciding the best track to take. We decided on the four-wheel drive track, as the tracks would be slippery after the rain. Little did we know the chaos there would be – there were tones of teams from the 3hr and 6hr races (we think). We were trying to ride around them, which was difficult, and often ended up walking our bikes. It was chaos. We had some fun on a single-track section to get to control point 1 and the dam. We had a bit of confusion with the navigation after that point but eventually got back on track. Once we hit the downhill section it was AMAZING!!! It was super super muddy from the rain and the other teams which had been through. We decided the best way to ride it was to apply the ‘no braking rule’ thus meaning we were speeding down the hill like crazy! It was super slick and quick, sometimes it got difficult to see when you got mud in your eyes and then you would just hope for the best. I enjoyed a bit of a crash when I had to slow down for a slow rider on the line I needed to avoid hitting her…..so I hit the breaks knowing I was going to skid and hit the ground. A lot of the 3hr and 6hr teams were walking bikes down the hill or going down slowly. We just flew past them. By the end of the ride, Marta and I decided we were officially mud monsters as we were covered head to toe in mud!

Marta, Nicole (hiding just behind) and Rachel

We clambered through a nice ditch into the transition, which cleaned us up a bit. The last run went reasonably well except the first part where we weren’t very well sorted and focused on the navigation and tried to go the wrong way! The run was a nice leg to finish on as we could get the controls in any order and we ran through gorgeous Podocarp forest and along the beach. We kept a good steady run pace going. I navigated this section with Nicole helping. We got to check point 20, luckily Marta remembered to clip it, before we jumped in the raft and had a speedy paddle across the bay. From here all we had left was a run along the beach to the last control and the finish line. It was challenging running along the beach but also a cool way to finish. We made it to the finish in 10hrs 15min finishing in 4^th place in the open category and 6^th place overall. We were stoked! It was an epic race with a good variation of stages. We raced well for a team that hadn’t managed to train together and Marta and I had only really just meet. Our support crew did an awesome job – they were so focused they didn’t manage any photos and cleaned our muddy bikes and gear!

Now its time to recover and complete lot’s of assignments. Then I’ll turn my focus to training for GodZone Pure in February 2017.

Rachel, Nicole, Marta

Unfortunately this is going to have to be short as Im writing with one hand, but I’ll get to that later. The last two weeks have been really exciting as the training has really started to ramp up.  We have been kayaking twice thanks to Arawa Canoe Club, which have given us some fantastic tips on correcting our stroke.  The highlight though, finally using a kayak with a rudder and pedals, which I is definitely needed on the Avon I think, especially with the amount of rowers, whitebaiters and geese to try and avoid!! Feeling a lot more confident in a kayak though and looking forward to doing our grade 2, although this has now had to be pushed out 5 weeks.

Richard also had us back up in the porthills with instructions of going off track and exploring! I was quite tentative at first but after a couple of hours I settled in and found my rhythm.  The views are quite spectacular!  Our last few weekends have consisted of this and Mike and I have really enjoyed getting out and about! Our weekends have also consisted of cycling.  With our first CP group session last week.  It’s fair to say this really killed me.  It was the first time I have truly wondered whether I can do this.  We were warned that we were in for quite a challenge but I had no idea quite how extreme.  We were to bike up Mt Pleasant across the top and back down Dyers Pass.  So now come the excuses… my legs were already sore, I have done very little hill work,  and Im still getting used to cleats.  Unfortunately all of these excuses resulted in not making it to the top, and my legs being so jelly I couldnt even enjoy the ride down.  I had to walk!!! OUCH. This however was the wakeup call I needed and I decided to put everything into the follow week!

So the weekdays have consisted of short runs which have been great and Ive loved having Mike run with me, I am a lot faster with him there to motivate me.  We have also had 1hour bike rides.  One was in the storm we had, which although mad, was good fun, another was along summit road, again it was a challenge but doable and the other is the reason I am typing with one hand!

It was Thursday just been, I had biked to Rapaki, ran up rapaki (with multiple stops) and was on my home when I suddenly found myself on the footpath with a little finger at right angles. (bike wheel got caught in the railway tracks and I went flying).  A trip to A&E and what I thought was a dislocation is actually a clean break in two!!! 5 weeks in a splint where I cant move my fingers! DOUBLE OUCH. But although Im wounded again, Im not out, in fact even more driven to knock this off the memories list (bucket list). We managed two, 3 hours walks (one up around Godley heads) this weekend and a strength workout and all with keeping the arm elevated – only condition the doctor gave me.

A massive thank you to the 3 cars and cyclist that stopped and waited with me, to my brother Euan for dropping everything and driving me to the hospital, mum for staying with me through although the x-rays and straightening and of course Mike for keeping me motivated!

So  a little bit about me.  My name is Millie and I unfortunately have been diagnosed with terminal Kidney cancer.  The Coast to Coast is on my bucket list and with the help of the Kathmandu Coast to Coast and Richard I will get to the finish line.  I have been completing a blog, and Richard suggested I start one here. So here is my latest post.

This blog is going to have to be summary of everything that has happened in the last 6 weeks or so.  Training has definitely picked up and its getting really exciting.

The biggest thing is that we have officially signed up for the two-day individual Coast to Coast!! Eek, there is absolutely no more excuses.  So where do a start… (ok I needed to go back and read my last post..I really need to write more) The weekend after my last post Mike and I went for a first two big adventures. A 2 hour walk through the porthills and a bike ride for an icecream.

Lets start with the leisurely walk through the hills.  Our mission – set by Richard of course was to get lost.  Well that we did and somehow ended up in Governors Bay.  Turns out walking down is a whole lot easier than walking up  and unfortunately what goes down must go up… so once we got to Governors Bay we went hunting for a track back up. An hour and half later, many stops, swearwords, and sore legs we made it back up to the car.  Sunday was going to be a first hill ride. What was with this weekend and hills. With an immense fear of going down hill and losing control we took off from Lyttelton with the glorious promise of an icecream in Diamond Harbour.  So it turns out it wasnt the downhill I needed to be worried about, turns out thats a lot of fun. What isn’t as much fun…biking up hill! the first few were ok and we took it slow. By the end of it, its fair to say we had well and truly earned those icecream calories.

The next couple of weeks consisted of a lot of running in preparation for the Woodbourne Half and another big walk in the Porthills. I also had a great session with Richard on biking up hill. Some great tips by the way.  Anyway I was tracking pretty well for the my next Half and was looking forward to running with Mike and my sister Francie (who was coming over from Sydney).  In fact I was the only one running more than twice a week… and was quietly skiting that I was sitting at the top on the Nike App.  But it wasn’t to be.  The week before the Half Marathon I got a phone call from the hospital.  “Mrs Smith are you free Tuesday. We have had a cancellation.  Can you come in for your hernia repair”  So thats what happened. Tuesday came, two hours of surgery and a hernia the size of tennis ball repaired.  The rest of the week was an absolute write-off.  I was surprised at how sore I was.  I think in my head I downplayed the surgery (especially because the last 2 surgeries had been so big). I really thought I would be ok. Mike and Francie both completed the half in under 2 hours, and both with having only done 4 runs. A massive achievement by both. I was so proud of them and loved cheering them on.

So after 10 days of just walking, we have finally got back to training.  We got cleats on our bikes last week and spent last weekend getting use to them.  I haven’t fallen over (Mike has, completely forgetting he was attached..) and getting slowly faster at clicking in.

This week Ive walked everywhere and gone for a bike ride to Sumner and back. We have a kayaking adventure tomorrow and another bike ride.  Sunday we are back into the porthills, getting lost and exploring everything Christchurch has to offer!

Ive got a special mention tonight as well, welcome to running Dad.  Our next race, the Crater Rim, is going to quite a family affair, with Francie coming over again and Dad joining in.

So with our Coast to Coast entries now complete and training well on its way, its starting to feel more real and instead being scared I am really excited. Lets do this!!!!

Fo more background of Millie’s Blog follow this link 

I’m back!

Last year my BHAG (big hairy audacious goal) was to complete the Queenstown marathon, which I ticked off not necessarily in style, or in the time that I was aiming for, but got the job done anyway. For anyone who is contemplating doing this run – do it! Not only is it a beautiful scenic run, it has enough undulations and a wee hill towards the end to keep the run interesting and the mind focused. So, what’s been happening since then? I have to admit that after the marathon I was on a bit of a high for a few weeks and when I spoke to Richard to de-brief, I was all about ‘yeah lets do that again!’. I was busy searching around the Internet trying to find another marathon event I could do before Christmas. His advice was to see how I felt in a few weeks…. In reality what happened was the euphoria wore off and the body and mind remembered the physical and mental effort it took to achieve that goal. I was quite happy to toddle off on holiday and have a break from training and I enjoyed just running for fun without having to meet targets and also not ‘having’ to run for an end goal.

While on holiday I went about planning what my next goal would be. I decided to see whether or not I could do a half marathon under 2 hours – my previous best was 2:19. I always lament about how slow I am and get frustrated with constantly being passed by other runners so, armed with a training programme from Richard I did the St Clair half and managed to improve on my time – or maybe it was the free bottle of wine at the end that spurred me on…

St. Clair Run completed

I also joined the CP Tuesday morning run group which has been a very steep learning curve for me. I am in awe of the athletes in that group (they are my run heroes) and I have gotten quicker just from trying to keep up with their warm-up pace! Christchurch half rolled round in early June and I surprised myself with a new PB. About 16km into the run I decided that flat, asphalt running did not put me in my happy place, so the mental challenge was to suck it up and appreciate the fact that the sun was shining and there was coffee at the finish line. At this point my achilles was pretty sore and if someone had offered me a ride to the finish, I think I may have been tempted.

My goal for a long time has been to run an ultra (will start with 50km!) and I have decided to aim for completing the Tarawera 50km trail run in November. As I write this, I am 117 days away from achieving this goal. Watch this space to see how the plan and journey unfolds….

We did it – we completed our first ever GodZone Pursuit the first time it was ever run! We were all new to expedition length adventure racing but had all competed in multiple shorter adventure races before. I did not know any of the guys before joining the team. A team member got injured at the last minute and we only just managed to get a last minute replacement. Thanks Simon!

Standing at the start line on the beach at Kaiteriteri, I looked around. We were the youngest team by miles with Nathan – 19 years old, Lachlan 19, myself 21 and our replacement Simon, bringing up our team age average at 58 years. When you are out there together as a team age doesn’t matter, what does is working together to get through the race. We were off on the first leg, which was coasteering and sea kayaking. The kayak was okay but not great. My stomach decided not to like me much, I was feeling pretty sick and threw up while paddling. Not a great start.

We got fantastic support from local friends and family at the Rabbit Island transition onto our mountain bikes. The guys are from Richmond so they knew the biking area reasonably well – we even biked past Simon’s house and his family was out cheering us on. I really enjoyed the single track in the Richmond Hills. We caught up with a few teams on this leg. There was a big climb up to control point (CP) 8, it was a bit of a slog so the boys pulled out the towline to give me a bit of a boost up the hill. Once at CP 8 we enjoyed an awesome downhill ride to the transition area (TA) to find our support crew ready to feed us some nice warm food.

It was dark when we headed onto leg 3 – the alpine trek in the Richmond Range. We climbed up Ben Nevis and had a clear night sky once we were at the top. We keep going along the ridge for a bit longer before stopping around 4am for a nap. We wanted to bank some sleep early on in the race and not to burn out too early. Lachlan and Nathan got to sleep quickly while Simon and I struggled and got really cold. I managed about an hours sleep before we had to get moving quickly as we were freezing on the ridge. The weather had deteriorated so we woke to fog. We keep moving until we hit a point where we were not quite sure where we were…This became a trend for the next 6 hours as we tried to navigate in the fog. We ran into some other teams in the same situation. We also discovered that our two compasses indicated that north was in different directions as one was 180 degrees out! Eventually, we found a point we could identify and then Nathan successfully navigated us out of the fog and onto the track.

It was pretty smooth sailing from there. Lachlan was having some issues with his knees but we still managed to keep moving. We walked along the track for several hours until we reached the bike pick up point. I was relieved to get there, as the soles of my feet were painful. We biked up a little hill to the transition area to find our support crew ready with hot chocolate and warm food. We were pretty tired at this point so we slept and hit leg 4 – a mountain bike in the day light. It was the most amazing sleep!

After waking, we fueled up and set off on the 73km mountain bike. We all felt good at this point, which made for a nice ride. We had a section on the road to start with and then a hill to get over. The downhill was awesome and we spotted a good view of Lake Rotoroa. Once passed the Lake an onto the next section of the bike were we had a super cool downhill section which was so much fun.

Then it was off the bikes and onto the paddle down the Matakitaki River. We had not done much training for this leg so we weren’t going to be super quick, but it didn’t take us long to get the hang of it. Lachlan knows how to raft guide so him and Simon went in front so we could follow their lines. We got though the ‘middles’ run section of the river and got ‘dark zoned’ just before the river run ‘lowers’. We camped up and enjoyed a nice long sleep. Fresh in the morning we set off on the river and had a blast on the grade 3 section. We got off the river in Murchison and headed along the road to the TA where we enjoyed some breakfast, yum – spaghetti on toast. We then set off on a short 34km bike to the next TA.

Before heading off on the 25km Alpine trek Lachlan had an injury checked, which gave us time to chow down some pies! We had a nice hill to start with, it was a steady climb but we made good progress on it. We keep moving steadily on the trek while keeping the eating and drinking up. It was good to be doing it in daylight with Nathan keeping on top of the navigation. We spotted some teams on a ridge but they were all Pure teams. It started getting dark on the downhill section. Everything was going well until the end of the trek where careful navigation was needed to ensure we took the right four-wheel drive track. We took our time and nailed the nav. As we neared the road we realised a bull was rapidly coming towards us! We jumped onto the side of the track to see the farmer herding it away from us and the track. Phew!

After the trek, it was onto the 140km mountain bike ride to Totaranui. Before starting, we had a good feed and had our feet looked at, in preparation for a long night ahead. Everyone still seemed to be in good spirits. We headed off on the bikes and into the night. The first part of the ride was just riding on the road so we tried playing a game called Goose to stay alert. It involved trying to spot yellow road signs and yelling out goose…..it seemed so exciting at the time……. We finally made it to the start of the Takaka hill roughly around midnight. It was a slog of a climb that we steadily conquered. The whole ride seemed to involve a few too many stops involving light issues/battery changes, layer changes and lots of peeing. Eventually we made the top of the Hill and we headed onto the Rameka Track (about 3am), an awesome single track that was super fun and kept me awake. We had a sudden stop when Simon spotted a Native Snail on the track and rescued it. Once we were back onto the road, I started to feel a bit drowsy so I smashed back a gel, which managed to wake me up. The last hill over to Totaranui bay was killer but we finally made it to the TA after a long night.

The sun was up and it was a beautiful day to paddle the Able Tasman to Kaiteriteri. Paddling is not our teams’ strength, but we managed it. We all found ourselves dozing off at points and struggling to stay awake. Not that it mattered much as all we only had to make it through the paddle. We paddled around the corner and spotted the finish line. After 4 days 2hrs 27min we had made it! We had completed GodZone Pursuit, the first ever expedition length adventure race for all of us. It was an incredible journey with its ups and downs (literally), we stuck it out together as a team and made it through. We finished 4^th place over all in the Pursuit teams and 3^rd in the mixed teams. The Pursuit race was a good first expedition race as it made the organisation a bit easier and meant our support crew could look after us in TA’s. It was a fun way to experience expedition length adventure racing and made me want to do more. It is more than just a race – it is definitely an adventure.

We could not have done this race without our amazing support crew – Team parents. Thanks Mum, Nathan’s Dad and Uncle and Lachlan’s dad. Also thanks to Lachlan and Nathan’s mums who joined in on some of the fun as well (they provided lots of good food and brought us pies). The support crew seemed to work nearly as hard as us (they even gave us their beds at one TA) and were up at crazy times. Strangely enough, my Mum does not seem put off by this and already wants to come along next year. Also thanks to Awaken Bars, they were super yummy and easy to eat. I always looked forward to them while out on the course. So what’s the next big adventure?

The months after GodZone pursuit have been incredibly busy. After getting back to Christchurch (from the race) I had barely unpacked when I headed off on ‘Journey’, a 10-day tramp as a part of my Environmental Science paper. It was a fantastic way to recover from GodZone. Most days we only tramped for a couple of hours, did presentations and learnt about the environment. It was lots of fun.

After Journey it was back into study. I had another 2 weeks off training, but barely noticed it as I was focused on getting out whitewater kayaking and rock climbing to log hours in for my papers. I had not managed to get enough kayaking/rock climbing hours in during the holidays due to racing GodZone. This meant I had a short time to log around 35hrs of the 60hrs kayaking hours I needed as part of my Kayaking paper. The amount of theory work also increased. This meant hitting the books and spending time in the library. With all this going on I decided not to race the 3D Rotorua premier 50km multi-sport race this year as I could not train enough to be competitive. So I decided to do something different and entered the 3D Rotorua half marathon on Queen’s birthday weekend, which gave me a chance to improve my running. I also convinced my boyfriend James to race it as well, which was fun.

With only a couple of weeks training and a crazy week of assignments race day came. It was a chilly morning and reluctantly we removed all our warm clothes and headed to the start line. This race for me was just going to be a bit of fun and a way to see where my running was at. I didn’t have a serious race plan but was still prepared with water and a couple of gels. Off the start line we went. I did not want to start too fast, so eased into it. I saw James just in front of me, I wasn’t worried……yet I never saw him after that. Lots of people surrounded me for the first hill climb, I liked it when the field spread out a bit more. When I got onto the second hill climb, it was awesome -less people, gorgeous bush and awesome single trail. It was a good climb with a nice steady gradient to start, which got steeper as it went on. I slowly gained on a chick in front of me. I managed to catch and pass her but that was not the last I saw of her. I popped out of the single track onto a four-wheel drive track – yes the top of the hill! Ahhhh, wrong I was deceived as there was more hill around the corner. I was enjoying the downhill until seeing the chick I passed before was catching me. I picked up the pace, but she managed to pass. I kept the pace up and tried to keep her insight and not let her get away. Past the finish line – 10km done and onto the second lap. I got over the first hill and on the second hill and found I was gaining on the chick again. I pipped her just at the top but knew I would have to work hard to keep ahead on the flat and downhill. I did not stay ahead for long before we were running together and having a quick chat. I kept on her tail the rest of the way and tried to pick up the pace in the last few kms. She spotted this and did the same, I just didn’t quite mange to catch her before the finish. I was stoked to make it to the finish line having enjoyed my run with a bit of competition.

I enjoyed the half marathon and feel that I achieved my goals, well other than letting James (my boyfriend) beat me. This was my first official half marathon – the other I have done was the Outward Bound half marathon. Racing only one discipline was different for me and has given me an idea about how my running is currently. Next up is sitting down with CP coach Chris Stagg and setting out my goals and races for the rest of the year.