Mizuno Half Marathon - Lake Taupo

I just got back from Taupo half marathon.

What a stunning day - it was super sunny and the views of the white mountains were fantastic, it was like they were inviting us for a ski - it was really quite tempting i must admit ;)

Apparently there were 2000 people doing the run and 1000 doing the walking option! pretty amazing really!

The race was good and pretty hard, we had quite a bit of side/head wind to fight, well that is my excuse anyway ;). it felt strange running on the road as i normally do my running in the forest, i prefer being in the nature surrounded by plants and birds and breath in the fresh air.

The first half of the course was pretty much all along the main road which is the highway and is pretty straight, but to keep us sane we got to see amazing views of the lake and the snowed in volcanoes, so i cannot really complain! From there it went across some grass fields and onto the cobbled walking tracks that follow the lake front. So you get to enjoy the nature despite it being a road race which is a big bonus!

I was being chased the whole race by a girl who looked like a runner and had a mean stride on her. Luckily i was a little taller then her, i guess that was my advantage but i don't know. Anyway i thought i had dropped her a little while after half way but i was quite wrong there. then i got a surprise when i could suddenly see her pony tale in the shadow that was following me as we were on the home straight 3 or so ks to go! (bugger!) From there she was pretty much stuck to my heals and i had to dig deep to keep her there rather then the other way round ;)

as i was running towards the finish line i was still expecting her to challenge me, and i was super glad to get over the line first ;) i think i got 20th overall, and 1st female (i know that one)

Fiona got in a little after me, she had a great run too!

we are now looking forward to the next half marathon (the last of the 3 in Taupo this winter) and it will be an off road one which is more our style, sweet! :)

ps: there was some hot soup waiting for us at the finish line, it might not sound like much but it was such a treat and warmed us up nicely :) thanks!

Brooks Half Marathon

It's been a while since I have done an event. It was good to have a break from it for a change, also I haven't got that much spare time for training and racing anymore now that I am working and not studying and with the short days - cannot wait for daylight savings! Yay we are slowly getting there! :)

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.

Scott Big 'O'Trail Run

My friend Fiona told me about the Big 'O' trail run a little while ago, it sounded great! The idea of running either 19 or 35km offroad through the bush, along lake Okataina and over farm land is very appealing. So Fiona and I decided to race the 19km starting at Miller Rd by lake Okareka as we both hadn’t done much more then 1 ½ hrs for a while. We went to explore the Western Okataina walk way on the Saturday prior to check out some of the race course (we thought! – but you only do this bit in the 35km course) and test the legs. The walk way was awesome – very beautiful with the native vegetation and the birds producing some good sounds ;) and no other people around! We ran to the look out and were stunned to see the ocean from there and it wasn’t even a clear day!
On Monday before the race I decided to change my entry from 19 to 35km – I wasn’t too sure if that had been a good decision I just made when I checked the weather forecast – it looked like a storm was going to come through on Saturday! Perfect weather to do a run of a length I had not done for 10 years! Ha, nothing like a bit of a challenge! ;)
But the weather wasn’t anything like they predicted! Lucky us the weather was a mix of overcast and sun but with a nippy wind. Some people were running in little running shorts – it made me shiver just looking at them! (ha something my mum used to say to me – I must be getting old ;) ) I felt a little out of place at the race brief – in bike shirt i looked like the mountain biker at the wrong event ;) the back pockets of the shirt were pretty handy for storing my food though.
The race started with a big climb, it took me about 20min to get to the top (also the junction to the look out) and from there it was undulating all the way to Miller Rd (that was the bit we had ran the week before). I thought that the first part (the Western Okataina walk way which is the first 16km) was going to be the hard one due to the big climb; little did I know that the next 19km was the hard bit. It was super stunning though as first you got a view of Mount Tarawera behind it’s Lake and then we ran through stunning and ever changing bush and parts we looked down onto Lake Okataina . And every so often I would hear a Tui showing it’s skills off.
There were many very steep climbs where you question how much slower it may be to walk instead of run (which was actually more a shuffle) and how much less pain your legs would be in if you’d give in and walk ;) it wouldn’t be a race without a little pain though. The run was getting harder with the legs getting more tired and really quite sore, but the terrain still didn’t get any easier – it still went up as soon as you think there is a bit of flat or downhill to recover on. Alos you had to lift your feet and watch where you are going as the Eastern Okataina walk way is a stunning walking trail with rots and a few rocks and a nice cliff to one side. I was eagerly anticipating the “3km to go – drink station” it did seem to take quite a while to get there and it was such a relieve to finally get there! But then the last 3km started with a super steep climb – and it kept on going and going – bugger! I was so ready for the finish line and managed to overtake (sounds like biking – guess there is a running term for this…) one more guy who was doing the 35km race who I remembered taking off on the first hill to put a massive gap on me (it was Graeme Pearson). I thought ‘He’s for sure going to get me back’, so I kept pushing on to the finish trying to ignore the pain in the legs. Seeing the finish line was awesome and quite a relieve :)
I got 4th over all and was 1st women. It was an awesome race and will for sure do it again!
Fiona made it over the finish line before me (she did the 19km); she was determined not to let me catch her ;) Awesome effort!

I totally forgot to mention that what really got me through the run was the fact that I was going to be rewarded with the worlds best massage on monday night ;) Pam Dickson rocks! Thanks heaps!!!!

nz single speed champs

pic: Single Speed Society President Gaz is having a good time :)

the weather was pretty perfect for the event - it was raining on an off all day - it wouldn't be right to ride a single speed on a perfectly sunny day. you might ask: 'but why would you wanna ride a bike with only one gear anyway?' oh well it's just a pretty crazy, fun event and great for a laugh and makes for good spectating. and you might as well do something a little crazy every now and then.
we all had to leave our bikes at the race village and walk up the road so we could then run to the bikes to not find them in 'our' spot. the spectators had been asked to move our bikes to a different spot while we walked off just to make it more entertaining for them, and us? as soon as we found our bikes it was pretty much a normal bike race, other then the fact that there was a short cut option somewhere along the course that you could chose to take as long as you sculled a beer or eat a weetbix with peanut butter, hm yummy! i realised how much of a short cut it was after not taking it in the first lap and then finding myself behind people i had passed a long time ago - oh well that learnt me ;)
i was adamant that Anja was in front all along and i assumed she had taken the short cut on the first lap so she would have made an even bigger gap on me, so i tried to catch her up..., was chasing her the whole race - little did i know that she was behind me all along. i was chasing a phantom ;)
i only found out that i was in the lead just before crossing the line.
Tim Wilding won the men's race!

crossing the finish line while the rain is starting to get rather heavy!

if you are wondering why i am bulling a face - it's because i just sculled a fizzy drink at the short cut tent, so it's not that i am not happy about winning ;)

ps: we weren't meant to drink more then 3 times and i thought i rather not try the eating option and do i long lap, or maybe i just wanted to see the scenic spots of the long course ;)

ps2: i guess my bike was the most fun to ride - i was riding my blur lt! :) (as a single speed obviously)

found an other pic, you can see my mean ride ;) and my red knee - hm shall i blame my skills or the beer for the crash? ;)

xterra 09

I got talked into doing xterra which was my first triathlon, or to be fair ‘let myself get talked into doing it’ just less then 3 weeks out from the race, so not much time to get my head around the swimming part (and I am not a swimmer – unless you count breast stroke :)). Hm, I guess that showed.
I did look really fast in my super fancy blueseventy helix wetsuit (unfortunately they don’t come with propellers so as soon as I tried to swim I did look more like the clown, but hey, someone has to be the clown right? ). I was second to last out of the water, 6min slower then the leading girl Monique Avery and look pretty much same time as the slowest in my category. This set me up really badly for the ride as I now had to try navigate my way through the field on the bike, unfortunately the bike was not very long and due to the traffic I didn’t manage to make up any time, I actually still lost some! But I made up one place.
The run was my best part of the race, I finally managed to catch up a few girls and I felt pretty comfortable and really enjoyed that part. I had the fastest run of the girls by 2min, am pretty stoked about this.
I ended up getting 3rd, less then 30sec back from 2nd. I knew I shouldn’t have fluffed around in transitions so much or maybe should have even practiced them. But it’s better to make the mistakes now and then do better next time when it counts, I reckon.


So I have got loads to work on and I am already looking forward to next year’s one.

Mtb Marathon champs

oh well it's now been a week already and i have been meaning to update this blog right away, ... sorry!
yeah so the Highlander 75k which was also nz mtb marathon champs were on last Sunday at the Blue lake Rotorua.
it was a stunning day, not too chilly and not too hot as there was a bit of cloud hanging about and the trails were in mint condition too, so all in all > perfect! :)

the course started with quite a bit of road before hitting the first single trail and then it took us through some mint trails - like Billy T! - and along some super scenic forest roads like along lake front road were you get a stunning view of green lake (it certainly puts a smile on your face) :)

i wasn't feeling too strong and energetic but managed somehow to keep at the front of the women's field and therefore won the marathon champs title, am happy! ;)

thanks for all the support i got along the race course, it's great to see and hear people cheer you on!

wishing you happy easter riding! :)

the final of the summer series

it was the 3rd and final round of the n-duro summer series that was held yesterday in the whaka forest. hope it wasn't the final of summer though!?! na, it's pretty chilly this morning but i am sure summer will return soon :)
the course was great and again different to the last two events, which makes for more interesting racing and riding. there were a few nice climbs in it and some cool downhill single trails were waiting as little treats at the top of the climbs ;)
we had quite a bit of rain on friday and a few more showers on saturday and over night to sunday but race day was dry, very lucky! a few of the trails were puddly but it wasn't too bad at all. i was riding most of the race by myself which was a bit odd and i kept thinking i might have gotten lost, but i hadn't. maybe i should have pushed a bit harder but there wasn't any urgency.
i won my race and the series, very happy about that.

what's so great about these races is the socializing before and after the race (and on the occasion while racing ;) ), there are so many familiar faces hanging about keen for a chat and to have a laugh. good times :)

sorry no pics again! :(

i think there is no racing till the highlander (5 April) for me now, but who knows there might be a fun race popping up somewhere in between?