Mountain Biking in Queenstown (and Wanaka)

As I mentioned I would be in my post about mountain biking in Rotorua, over my summer break I headed to Queenstown to spend about 10 days with my old mate Alex, mountain biking our way around the various trails in the area. Get yourself a cup of tea and get comfy, this has ended up being a pretty long post...

Packing my bike for air travel ended up being a lot more work than I expected. I ended up having to remove: bars, stem, wheels, rear derailleur, seat and post, pedals, and was just able to avoid removing the forks by letting all the air out and using cable ties to hold them fully compressed. Even having done all that, the box was bulging in the middle where the hubs protruded more than the width of the box.

Bike finally sufficiently compressed to fit in the box

I've been to the South Island several times (including landing in Christchurch just in time to experience the 7.2 earthquake!), I've never been to Queenstown or really any of the alpine areas near the west coast. Boy, had I ever been missing out

View of Lake Wakatipu from the Lake Dispute track

 I'm quite lucky that Alex is fairly well connected in the mountain biking world - he worked in bike shops around the North Island for about 12 years, including running his own in Wellington for a couple of years, and spent several months building trails in Chile with a bunch of other kiwis. Through his various mates who had rode in Queenstown, he was able to get the low-down on the various trails and parks worth visiting, and put together a decent list of rides for us to do. And as a bonus, his family owns a house on Lake Wakatipu

View from the house we stayed at, Queenstown is on the right

So, here's a bit of a rundown on the various trails we rode

Moke Lake > Arthur's Point (Moonlight trail) > Frankton
Distance: 28km, Climb: 1200m, Trail: Gravel roads, 4x4 tracks, singletrack (rocky)
GPS log here

This trail starts on a gravel/4x4 road, following the Ben Lomond track (I think...), before at some point becoming the Moonlight trail. There are several steep climbs - I've never done so much riding in my granny gear, and we even had to get off and push a few sections. When it eventually becomes single-track, which must've been after about 8-10km, it gets quite technical. The path is narrow and very rocky in places - really intended more for walking than riding. It was particularly difficult for me because: a) I suck, and b) this was my first time mountain biking with cleats, and I wasn't yet comfortable with quickly unclipping when I lost my balance, so I was quite on-edge for a lot of it.

Stopped for a break

Looking back, the trail we were riding is on the left

 

The Shotover River ahead, and Arthur's Point

One of the Shotover Jets in action

The descent down toward Arthur's Point was a combination of rocky, technical sections and fast single track. After a very small jump I found myself caught in a rutted out channel which lead to quite a high-speed bail onto a graveled path. A few scrapes on my leg, arm and shoulder, but nothing too nasty. Shortly afterward the trail turned from a dry, exposed path on the edge of a mountain to a very lush, green area dense with foliage, which was nice.

The second half of the ride, from Arthur's Point to Frankton, was largely on gravel roads - still reasonably fun and a lot faster than single track, but a bit tedious. We pretty much followed the Shotover around to Frankton, where we parked up at the local pub for a delicious meal and a jug of beer each (this was followed by a very ginger 7km ride home)

Fern Hill Loop (not loop) (Skyline)
Distance: ~7km, Climb: ~550m, Trail: Mostly single-track (dual use), some gravel road
GPS log here

So the trail is called Fern Hill Loop, but we went to the top and then turned around, rather than doing the whole loop. This trail starts at the midway point heading up the access road to the Skyline Bike Park. Unfortunately there is no vehicle access to that point, so you get to begin it with a ride up a very steep gravel road. The climb up Fern Hill is very tricky at times, lots of step sections annoyingly covered in roots, rocks or both. Fortunately the entirety of the climb is well shaded by dense forest, so it's relatively cool. Toward the top we reached one of the most insanely rooted areas I've ever seen - even pushing the bikes up got too hard so we ended up carrying them. It must have continued for around 300-400m I think, before we reached a very abrupt clearing into tussock, with the top of the trail coming shortly after.

View from the top

Coming back down the trail was way more fun! It was mostly quite fast, despite being very technical in some places. Did have to watch out for walkers but we only went past maybe 2 or 3 groups on the way down. Once you get back to the start of the trail, you have the option of jumping onto one of the purpose built mountain bike trails to descend the bottom half of the hill, or you can head up to the top of the Skyline access road for more sweet DH action! We chose the latter :)

Queenstown Bike Park (Skyline)
Website 

Queenstown Bike Park is a purpose-built downhill mountain biking park, usually serviced by the gondolas which run from bottom to top (where there's a cafe, luge, paraponting and other fun stuff). Unfortunately during the period that we were in town, the gondola is closed to mountain bikers, supposedly to reduce the mayhem that could occur on the trails if they operated during this busy period of the year. This meant we had to ride/walk to the top, so we only did 2 runs down. The trails we rode were Hammys, Vertigo and Original. They were all good fun, lots of jumps and nicely bermed corners as you'd expect, plus a number of structures. For someone relatively inexperienced like myself, it would've been great to be able to do several runs down each to build confidence and familiarity with the tracks, but as it was it was still a blast. The trails were pretty dry and dusty, which made things a bit slidey but it was pretty manageable. All the ones we did could easily be ridden by riders of almost any skill level and still be a lot of fun.

7 Mile Bike Park
 GPS log here (I didn't log the whole ride)

Entering from this end = kinda annoying, although the ride back out is pretty cool

7 Mile is a small bike park about 6-7km out from Queenstown on the Queenstown-Glenorchy road. There's two carparks - you're much better off going to the furthest one rather than the one closest to Queenstown, as it's much closer to the trails.

The trails are laid out around two hubs (called "The Hub" and "Eagles Nest" from memory), with several trails leading down to one up-trail. It was all a lot shorter than it looked on the map. Our favourite trails were Kachoong, Grin and Holler 2, and the dual use trail back to the carpark was nice and technical/fun too (apart from the climb at the end!). The up trails were very exposed and pretty steep, which made the ride back to the top an obscene sweat-fest on the hot, sunny day we rode there.

The downhill trails from The Hub had a lot of nice jumps and were mostly pretty fast. Some areas were carpeted with small pine cones which were like riding over marbles and quite hard to deal with at times.

Sticky Forest (Wanaka)
GPS log here (didn't log the whole ride)

View from the carpark

Sticky Forest is another bike park, this one situated near Lake Wanaka. The trails are mostly laid out heading down either side of a ridge which has a fire break running through it, lots of downhill trails and just one or two ups on either side. On the side of the ridge which faces the carpark and Lake Wanaka, the trails were quite dry and dusty; these seemed to be more frequently ridden as they had big tracks worn into them in a lot of areas. The ones on the other side we found to be a lot more fun - the trails were a lot less dusty, had more jumps and other fun stuff, and I think they weren't so steep so you didn't lose hard-earned elevation too quickly.

Our favourite trails were down the left here

The worst thing about Sticky was the lack of any sort of trail maps. Apparently you can get them from somewhere in Wanaka, but there's absolutely nothing at the park itself. We were lucky enough to get some directions from some locals, but even then we got lost on our first ride down, and ended up doing a bit of a loop around the edge of the lake. Here's a quick video of Alex hitting some doubles at the bottom of a trail called Kooza. They look a lot smaller here than they do when you're approaching them on a bike :)

Arrowtown > Macetown
No GPS. Distance: 35-40km (return), trail: mostly 4x4 track, 20+ river crossings each way

Disappointingly, by the time we got to this ride it had been three days since we'd slept anywhere with power and all my electronic devices were dead - so no GPS and no photos. Arrowtown is a former mining settlement, now a small town that seems like it's mostly a tourist spot. Macetown is another former mining settlement, now a historic site with numerous preserved/restored miner's huts and equipment. It's a cool place to look around and there's lots of information boards telling you about the history of the area.

The ride out was a blast, lots of ups to test your fitness and downs to test your bravery. In a few areas the road got pretty sandy which is quite draining on the energy. The real highlight is the river crossings, there's supposedly 21 each way between Arrowtown and Macetown, but we went further up the road to check out an old quartz battery which sent us through probably another 5 or 6. Some people warn against riding through the crossings due to the damage the water can do to your componentry, but we rode them all; we did have a bottle of chain lube which between all these river crossings and the other dusty trails we rode, we almost used up during our trip.

It ended up taking us around three and a half hours to ride out and back, after which we rode into the main street in Arrowtown and found a pub to get some dinner and a beer.


Remarkables DH
No GPS this time

We spent the good part of one day doing some shuttle runs on some of the DH trails around Queenstown. First stop was The Remarkables. I believe there's several trails here, running down beside the access road to the ski fields. The National Downhill Champs were held here the weekend after I left, bad timing as it would've been cool to go and watch. 

The trail we did was probably about 1-1.5km long, and was a good, challenging run.  The first half is very fast, has a couple of very steep descents and plenty of jumps, several times I found myself riding way too fast to be able to react to what was coming up on me (mostly because I'm a noob). Toward the end there are several rock gardens, which I have to admit are not my favourite features in the world, but it was a good challenge to navigate them safely. 

Coronet > Skippers
Distance: 3.5km, Drop: 400m
GPS log here

Another trail we shuttled. This is very fast, with the big limiter being bravery. Most of the way down you're riding in a trough worn by sheep, which is quite narrow and deep enough that you have to be very careful where your wheels are - touch the sides when you've got some decent speed up and it could really ruin your day. I had a couple of scary moments which convinced me to back off a bit. Good fun purely for the speed, the drive back up the road is fairly slow so we only did it once. The real fun is down the other side

Zoot Downhill
No GPS, Distance: 1-1.5km

This trail starts from very near the last one, but runs down near the road up from Queenstown. We shuttled this one probably 5 or 6 times, the drive between is very quick so it's a great one to shuttle. A great DH track that has plenty to offer the crazy fully armoured DH guys on their 20kg, 8" travel rigs, or people like me on cross country bikes who get excited every time they manage to land a small double. Here's a video I found

Moke Lake > Queenstown (Lake Dispute Track)
Distance: 22km, trail: single track, 4x4 track, some road
GPS log here

Another track from Moke Lake, this time heading in the other direction. The first part of this, up to Lake Dispute, is all singletrack and lots of fun. A wee bit of climbing but it's all very manageable. Eventually you hit some 4x4 tracks and some fast, rocky descents: plenty of opportunity for injury if you get too carried away with your speed going down, but all good fun. After a bit of the 4x4 track you return to single track, and after about 50 minutes of riding you reach the Queenstown-Glenorchy road.

After a brief ride along the road you can turn in at one of the carparks for the 7 mile park and ride through there until you reach the other carpark. Or, if you're a bit dense, you can do what we did and continue riding along the edge of the lake hoping you'll find the beginning of the trail that goes back to Queenstown. We eventually reached a point where we couldn't go any further without taking the bikes for a swim around some rocks and decided we'd bush-crash our way back to the road.

This was very hard work to get through with bicycles in tow

It took us about 45 minutes of frustration, we both got well scratched up, and I lost my sunglasses, but eventually we got to the road to continue our journey. After a bit more riding along the road, we found the trail we had been looking for and rode single track all the way in to Queenstown. After some delicious ice creams (can't remember the name of the place) we headed back to Kelvin Heights, where we were staying.

Kelvin Peninsula Trail
Distance: however far you want to go, trail: 1-2m wide gravel path
GPS log here

This was a trail I used frequently during my stay, thanks to it being directly outside the house. It was a busy track, used by many walkers, runners and cyclists staying in the area. In the direction in the GPS log, it's all pretty smooth and flat, with a few gentle ups and downs. Going the other way things get a bit more technical, with lots of sharp turns and several very rocky sections. I went for a great run along there one afternoon and really enjoyed those more technical sections, makes a nice change from the pavement pounding that most of my running constitutes. It was also great having the icy cold lake there to dive into at the end of each run. Nice way to cool down and get clean(ish) after a hot run, pity it was too cold to stay in for more than a few minutes.

Other Stuff
A couple of nights camping, a bit of a 4x4 trek through a high-country sheep farm in Wanaka, and a freakin awesome canyoning adventure in Mt Aspiring National Park added to the extreme awesomeness of my holiday, but I've already written far too much so I'm just going to drop some pics and leave it at that

  

Mountain Biking in Rotorua

Last weekend (edit: more like 3 weeks ago since it's taken me so long to finish this post) myself and three mates headed to Rotorua to spend three days on the legendary trails down there.  I'd never ridden there before, being quite a newbie to the whole mountain biking thing, but my old mate from high school, Alex, and usual riding buddy James are both experienced riders who have been there many a time.

We stayed at the Rotorua Thermal Holiday Park, which is about 2-3km from the main entrance to the trails, so each day we got up, got some food and then a quick ride along the road and we were in business. Our cabin was fairly tiny with 2 single beds and a pair of single bunks, no fridge or bathroom, and with 4 bikes inside I'm sure we would've all perished trying to get out in the event of a fire

The first day was definitely the most epic of the three. We were all nice and fresh and did two sessions on the hill. In the morning we mostly rode the trails on the lower half of the mountain (can't decide whether the area counts as a mountain, but since we were mountain biking I'm going to claim it). The first thing that struck me about the trails was that due to the surface being mud/clay based, as opposed to the sand/dirt base where we usually ride, the ground was packed nice and hard, and the trails rode really fast.

Here we all are at the top of a trail called Hot X Buns

The way the trails were built tended to utilise natural features such as roots, stumps and the general shape of the terrain to create jumps and drops, whereas at Woodhill most of the jumps are constructed from timber (presumably because the sandy base wont hold together to form a ramp). Some areas in the lower section had been logged, which made it feel a bit like you were riding through a wasteland, plus the lack of shade meant the surface was dry and dusty.

Stopped for a break at the lower carpark

After about 35km of riding we headed back to the cabin for some lunch (mmm Burgerfuel) and a bit of a rest, then went back out in the early afternoon. In the afternoon we took advantage of the shuttle to reduce our climbing a bit. The shuttle runs from part-way up the mountain to near the top. I felt a little bit like I was "cheating" taking a shuttle uphill so I could ride downhill, but it was still exhausting work so I got over it pretty quick. There were a number of trails we did from the top which still required a decent climb to the start of them - these included "Billy T" and "Split Enz", which I'd consider to be two of the best trails in the whole park. Below is a video of the Split Enz trail from the website, below that is a picture I took of the view (which coincidentally is where the video finishes)

The view from the Split Enz trail

In our afternoon session we hit some of the proper downhill tracks for the first time. These trails are just such a blast to ride, the one from the top called Huckleberry Hound has almost endless doubles, supposedly there's around 45 jumps on this trail, all of them very forgiving and it was great practise and a real confidence builder. Here's a video I found on youtube, business starts at 1:32

Returning to our cabin we had clocked up about 65km for the day, and I was completely shattered. By about 9pm everyone was in bed and asleep or nearly there: a bit nana-ish but we wanted to get the most out of our weekend of riding. Sunday was a solid day at the mountain, we arrived early enough to catch the shuttle leaving from the very bottom and did several runs of the downhill tracks, including another jump track called "Little Red Riding Huck" and a sweet one called "Corners", which features a good 20 or so nicely bermed hairpins.

Our bikes loaded on the shuttle ready to head up for the day

We ended up doing about 45km on Sunday, and thanks to the weather packing in around mid afternoon we were drenched and our bikes a bit of a mess by the time we got back to our cabin.

Our final day was a relatively short one; exhaustion from the previous days, lack of a shuttle due to it being a weekday, and the hours of driving ahead of us meant we only rode about 25km, most of them with a definite lack of vigour. We did manage a pretty significant climb to the top of one of the hills which had a pretty fantastic view down over Rotorua

The felling makes it less lovely, but there were plenty of trees through most of the park

Alex and James taking a break at the top of the climb

The problem with racking up 140km of mountain biking is the associated injuries - as you can see in the pictures below my shins took a bit of a beating. A number of these are pedal scrapes that would've been avoided if I was using cleats (lesson learned, I now have cleats on the MTB), but I think before any other big weekends of riding I might get some shin/knee guards too.

During the trip I discovered that Alex is going to spend the Xmas/NY holidays riding in Queenstown - sounded like a great way to spend the break so I decided to join him: 10 days of riding, should be a blast!

Training for my first marathon

Today I have a long day at work babysitting an engine running through an automated test cycle - so I thought I'd kill some time by writing another blog post. I virtually didn't update this blog at all through my marathon training, so thought I might recap it, just to give some insight into what preparation it took to get me through my first marathon.

Marathon Training Plans
There are a ton of marathon plans available online, in books and magazines, catering for everyone from a first timer just looking to finish, to a seasoned runner wanting to achieve a particular time goal. I spent a bit of time looking around, one that caught my eye was the Furman Institute of Running and Scientific Training (FIRST) first timer's plan. The plan differs from many marathon plans in that it only involves 3 runs a week, with additional conditioning coming through cross-training. I liked the idea of this, as running 5 or 6 times a week is quite demanding, and I wanted to have time to do other activities that I enjoy, such as cycling. I was worried that it might be a bit light on miles compared with most plans, but after reading several good testimonials on various forums I decided to give it a try. See the FIRST programs here

The FIRST Program
There are actually two 20-week programs - one for first timers and one for experienced runners, they both use the same basic structure but the one for experienced runners has more strenuous speed-work, and builds the long run much more quickly. The three runs are:
Speed work - intervals of various distances at a prescribed pace, dictated by your 10k race pace. These were usually around 9-12km, with up to 6km of that being at a fast pace.
Tempo run - ranging in distance from 8km up to 16km, either at a constant pace (i.e. 10k pace + 10sec/km), or using a pattern such as 3km slow, 3km @10k pace, 3km slow
Long run - ranging from about 18km up to 33km (i.e. 20 miles), pace prescribed as planned marathon pace + xx seconds/km.

On top of that, you are to do 2 30 minute cross training sessions per week, I usually just did one mountain biking session of about 2-3 hours, and occasionally added a 5-10k run.

Me and FIRST
Initially I started out on the beginner's marathon plan, but after a couple of weeks I decided I didn't think it was pushing me enough, so I switched to the experienced marathoners plan. With only 2 half marathons under my belt, I was a long way from an "experienced marathoner", but I decided that if I could manage the runs at the paces set by the plan then it would be fine.

I probably struggled the most with the speed sessions, it may have partly been that it's difficult to monitor intervals of the order of 200-1200m using GPS, but often I wouldn't quite be able to make the target pace. After 7 weeks of the program, the O'Hagans 5k series started again after a break over winter, and I replaced the speed sessions with a weekly 5k race. In the first 3 races of the series I dropped about 20-30 seconds per week to bring my 5k PB down to 18:23 :)

The tempo runs were great, a nice combination of distance and speed. I usually managed to knock them out quicker than the required pace. I haven't actually raced a 10k, so I'd guessed my 10k pace to be 4:20/km based on a half marathon pace of 4:27 and 5k of about 4:00. Looking back, I suspect I should've started around 4:15 and I think I could possibly manage a sub-40 10k now.

The long runs were long. For the first few I started out around 5:30/km, but I found running at that pace my stride was quite poor and I would get sore knees very quickly, so most of my long runs were in the range 4:50-5:15/km, depending on length. I did find I started to run out of gas once I got around the 30km mark, which made me reasonably concerned about how I would handle 42km! Also FWIW, my initial planned marathon pace was 5:00 (for a 3hr 30 marathon), but later on I was working with a planned pace around 4:45 (actual pace was 4:38).

Weekly and long run distance for my marathon build up. Note week 19 is race week

As you can see above, my weekly distance varied between 35 and 63km through the program, which is really quite low for a marathon plan.

Injuries and Down time
I think one of the excellent things about the FIRST plan is that 3 purposeful runs per week makes you less likely to suffer injuries than running 5+ times a week and clocking up 70-100 slow kilometers. I didn't suffer any specific running injuries during my training, although I think I came close during the O'Hagans 5k in which I set my current PB - it was only a couple of days after a 33km run, and I got a sudden sharp pain in my hip near the start which almost made me stop, it disappeared shortly after and I pushed very hard over the last 200-300m, leaving my legs in a pretty sorry state for several days afterwards.

I had about 1.5 weeks off early in the program due to getting the flu, it was the first time I had gone an entire week without running since sometime last year, and my first sick day in 2 years at my job.

Life and Marathon Training
I found the demands of marathon training to be a lot less of an impediment to other parts of my life than triathlon training had been over summer. The Rugby World Cup was on during the last 2 months of my training and most weeks I went out at least once to a bar or one of the "fan zones" in the city with my mates to watch a game. I did my part in supporting the New Zealand liquor industry during those weeks, and I also had plenty of time to get to work on my cars, making good progress on some fairly major work I'm doing on the MR2 which I hope will be finished some time over summer.

Gear!
Fortunately I didn't spend nearly as much money buying gear or entering races as I did over summer, but I did add a few more shoes to my collection. I replaced my beloved fluorescent green Saucony Kinvaras with some fluorescent orange Saucony Kinvara 2s. The old ones had over 1000km on them and were starting to get quite worn on the soles, although with claims that the Kinvaras would only last 300km or so I was pleasantly surprised that one pair lasted me about 6 months of quite heavy use. I also finally got some nice trail shoes, the somewhat legendary New Balance MT101s. I haven't used them much yet, but they look awesome, are very comfortable and seem like great shoes, I might post up some detailed thoughts on them once I get a chance to really put them through their paces.

Two brilliant pairs of shoes, MT101 on the left and Kinvara 2 on the right

I did however blow a decent chunk of money on a new mountain bike. It's full suspension Norco with about 6 inches of travel front and rear, riding it has seen my bravery over jumps, drops and descents increase significantly, I love it! A group of us have been discussing a trip to Europe next year which will include the Pass'Portes du Soleil mountain bike race, nearly 100km of mostly downhill riding through the Alps, it looks amazing!

My steed after a particularly muddy ride at Riverhead

Song of the Day
This damn song! I listened to it several times the day before the marathon and it was continuously looping in my head for most of the first 20km or so! A classic from the Canadian rock band, Rush - Tom Sawyer, this one is a live performance with a nice little cameo from the South Park boys. Enjoy!

My First Marathon!

Finishing the Half Marathon in
Melbourne last October

Well, today I ran my first ever marathon. I’m going to start my story just over a year ago, when I ran my first half marathon in Melbourne. Having just completed the 21.1km, I was incredibly proud, but at the same time in awe of those who had undertaken the much bigger task of running the full marathon. I remember running the last section where the marathon and half marathon courses joined and looking at the marathon’s kilometer markers with big scary numbers on them like 36km - and just thinking I was so glad that I didn’t have to run that far! But somewhere, very quietly inside me, something said “I wonder if I could do a marathon?”. So moving ahead about 54 weeks in time, last night I was sitting on the couch, carb loading on pizza and beer (full disclosure: I only had about 2/3rds of the beer before feeling bad and stopping), and realising that tomorrow I’d be answering that question.

I was never going to get a lot of sleep, the 3am start to get down to the ferry, combined with pre-race nerves and anticipation meant I only got around 1 hour of sleep, in two short bursts (but got through a few episodes of The Big Bang Theory in between). I wasn’t too concerned, all the “big” races I’ve done in the last 12 months had been preceded with only 2-5 hours of sleep and it has never been an issue. Breakfast was coffee and 2 pieces of toast; between 5am and race start at 6:10am I had 2 gels and a bottle of Powerade, and went to the toilet twice...

My target pace for the race was 4:45 per km, for a time of 3 hours 20. I thought this was ambitious and expected I’d probably manage it for the first half but possibly fade in the second to finish somewhere around 3:25-3:30. I hit the 1km board around 4:30, and continued to put in similar splits for the following ks. To non-runners that 15 seconds per km might not seem like much, but I was still a bit concerned that I was going too fast.

Something you only ever get to practice during a race is the art of drinking out of a cup while running. It had been a while since I last attempted that and the first aid station at 4km left me covered in Powerade and choking. The second aid station came up pretty quickly and was my cue to take a gel, the plan being to take one every second aid station or roughly every 8km. By that point the field was already pretty spread out, I was running with a woman from the YMCA marathon club and we were holding a pretty consistent and comfortable pace, and I was feeling good.

Rounding the corner onto the motorway just before the bridge, about 13km in, there was a group of people playing those big Japanese drums - it was awesome! You really appreciate the support from the crowds, and people going the extra mile like that really puts a smile on your face. The harbour bridge ended up being a lot easier than I expected. The section up to that point is really quite hilly and I was surprised by how good my legs felt at the top of the bridge. The view was great, but there wasn’t a great deal of time to enjoy it! By now I was about 3 minutes ahead of my target time, and I think I made up even more time on the way down the bridge.

Top of the Harbour Bridge

I’d been drinking Powerade at every aid station, and as I came through Wynyard Quarter at about 19km I realised I was definitely going to have to stop for a piss. I didn’t really want to lose my pace buddy, but I also didn’t want to wet myself! The stop cost me about 60 seconds, but I still came through the half way mark at 1:37, 3 minutes up on my target. I was starting to think my goal time was looking more and more achievable.

Rounding the tank farm with the bridge in the background, 20km-ish

My 22nd kilometer was my fastest of the race, a 4:19 according to my GPS. I was still feeling good, but the long haul out to St Heliers was looking moderately intimidating! From about 27 or 28km, I knew things were getting bad because I was constantly looking for the next kilometer marker, and the next aid station. Going back over the GPS log, I had been consistently splitting in the 4:30s but from the 29th I dropped into the 4:40s. Somewhere around here I caught up to and passed the YMCA woman from earlier who looked to be fading at this point

On the way out to St Heliers, 26km-ish

I checked my time at 32km, just after the turn around at St Heliers and 10.2km to go - somewhere around 2 hours 27, on track to beat my target but now running on very tired legs. Took my 4th gel and switched from Powerade to Coke at the 33km aid station. As I now know, this is where the hard part of the marathon starts! I started catching up to people who had been reduced to walking, and an even larger number of people who were still running but had drastically slowed. Every now and then I’d feel my hamstrings or quads give a bit of a twinge, which was quite worrying as cramping would be disasterous at this point. I was also now entering uncharted territory, the longest I’d run in training was 33km and everything beyond brought questions of whether my legs could keep pushing me along, whether my battered knees would bring me a world of pain, whether I’d been fuelling well enough to avoid the dreaded wall.

36km, another aid station and I chugged back some more Coke.

37km, only 5k to go, should be less than 25 minutes now.

38km, should be less than 20 minutes. Can I keep running for another 20 minutes, that’s kinda ages.

Up the small hill to the Tamaki Drive/Quay St/The Strand intersection. Is that the 39km sign? Take another gel, aid station should be up here.

Top of the hill, come on legs, I think we’re going to do this. Where the hell is the aid station? My mouth feels so dry after that gel.

Running past Vector Arena - here’s the aid station, thank fuck! More coke, lots of cheering and support. There’s the 40km sign, and bunch of people from Max College for Fitness Professionals - I recognise the woman from the Albany Lakes series, run past with my arm out and high five all of them, awesome!

Pace is increasing, nothing drastic but I’m going to finish this bad boy strong! Through the Viaduct and past the 41km sign, watch says 3:11 - should be over in 5 minutes!

Must be close to the finish now, check the watch again but it’s only 3:13, still more than half a k left.

Coming out of the Viaduct and there’s fences everywhere, so many people around! Lots of cheering and encouragement, no other marathoners in sight

Looking up at the clock, just before the finish line

Turn a right hand corner and onto the final 100m or so! I can see the clock - 3:15:xx, suddenly it hits me that I’m about to finish my first marathon and to do so in a time that I never even dreamed of!

Arms in the air as I go under the finish gate, I imagine this might seem strange but I almost wanted to cry/almost did.

Staggered to the final aid station beyond the finish, 2 cups of water over my head, 3 down the hatch, inhaled a banana, more staggering, got my finisher’s medal along with lots of praise and a bottle of Powerade, which also went straight down the hatch in no time. Collapsed in the middle of Victoria Park and just lay there for about 20 minutes, relieved to be off my feet, feeling pretty smug and dieing just a bit.

Eventually I got up and went to claim my free beer, which turned into 2 free beers and a long sit down in a chair in the sun. Felt great - physically I felt completely shattered, was hobbling around like a gimp but just felt amazing.

Spent

Despite drinking at every aid station and everything I consumed after the finish, I lost 1.5kg, presumably in sweat, between getting up this morning and arriving home afterwards. Since then I’ve been working on recovering the 3,600 calories I burnt, trying to sleep, and alternating the one bandage I have between my knees and ankles to give the joints some compression.

Done!

So my official time was 3:15:59, 6 minutes short of a Boston Qualification for 2012. First half split was 1:37:02, second half 1:38:56. Finish placing was 125th out of 2,307 finishers.

During the marathon training I didn’t do any swimming but mountain biked at least once a week. From here I’m going to cut my running back to probably twice a week, get a lot more cycling in and get back into the pool. Next goal: half ironman (don’t know which yet)


Song of the Day
Some Japanese drummers, much like those on the course before the bridge