Pam, Nick, Fiona and I all decided to participate in the Brooks Half Marathon in Taupo which was on today. It's a new event by the organisers of Whirinaki Quest. The event was really well organised and attracted close to 400 runners and walkers - man I wouldn't have wanted to walk in these conditions, it was freezing enough running! - just heard the wind speed was up to 70km/hr at times! no wonder it felt like you were trying to push through a concrete wall at times! ;)
We were super lucky with the weather as it was meant to be pouring down over night and maybe even during the event, but all we had to put up with the strong and frosty wind and some super dark clouds that kept eyeing us up but decided to hold off. Nice!
It was quite funny how just before the event EVERYONE seemed to be debating about what and how much to wear, it made for some random conversations amongst strangers ;)
The race itself was fun. The course took us around Mount Tauhara. There was plenty of uphill and downhill over farmland, through forest roads and a bit of single track and at one stage some cows had to share their paddock with us, they didn't seem to happy to see me, I must have been pretty smelly, they all ran off in a hurry.
Fighting against the wind was the hardest thing, at places it felt like you were not moving much, it didn't seem to help when I ducked down to try make myself smaller for better aerodynamic - I might have to practice that one ;)
It was a cool event, really well organised and no need to hang around for ages for prize giving as the spot prizes were in our registration pack and they handed me the trophy as soon as I crossed the finish line - forgot to say, I won :)
sorry no race pics ;(
Here a picture from the course, obviously not taken on race day, what a shame we didn't get to enjoy the magnificent views today. I did see the lake but Ruapehu was hiding under a duvet of clouds.
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