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
Yesterday I completed my first Olympic distance triathlon, which has been the primary goal of my training for the last 17 weeks. For a more structured race report with times and such, you can read my report on BeginnerTriathlete.com here
After completing my first triathlon, the Sprint distance at Mission Bay last December, I decided I wanted to do the Olympic distance being held at the same venue at the end of the season. It's a great spot for a triathlon, based around a small, popular beach with a large grassy reserve, near Auckland City and surrounded by cafes, bars and restraurants. The course for the bike and run is dead flat, with a nice smooth surface. It's also probably the most popular triathlon in Auckland, largely due to the central location and welcoming atmosphere, but also helped by the severe lack of well organised triathlons in Auckland.
In preparation for this event, I've been following one of the free training programs from Beginner Triathlete, the 16 week Olympic 3x Balanced program (meaning 3 workouts for each discipline per week, with an even emphasis on all three). I followed the program pretty closely, I missed a couple of workouts when I went away over New Years, and stretched one of the weeks out a bit around the North Shore Coastal Challenge. In the peak week of the program I swam 7.2km, rode 170km and ran just over 40km. I was very happy with how my speed and endurance progressed over the program, and felt well prepared for the race.
The Race
I was up at 4:30am to get ready, giving myself plenty of time to eat, shower, dose up on caffeine and drive in; arrived in heavy darkness at the venue just before 6. It was nice to be there early enough to get a park real close to transition, and a great spot in transition: there were probably only 10 or so bikes racked when I arrived.
The sun had just come up when the race started at 7:05, the start actually came up sooner than I was expecting and I commented to my mate Oly (who I've shared the triathlon journey with) that I didn't feel prepared - in a short term/mental kind of way. I hadn't got myself into a preferred spot for the start, so I was roughly in the middle of the lineup and a few people back from the front. This put me right in the thick of the busiest swim start I've been in. Fortunately I'm not too phased by crowded starts, but it's still not my preference and I got quite frustrated by not being able to settle into a steady pace. I think I have a lot to learn about how to get the best out of myself in a busy open water swim.
Anyway, my swimming is still at a point where I'm mostly thinking about getting to the end, and thankfully the 1500m went by quite quickly, and I was into T1. Apart from being slightly held up trying to get around some dudes who were walking to transition, T1 was fast and smooth. Had the wetsuit around my waist by the time I got to my bike, quickly got it off and my helmet and glasses on and I was out of there. Blew past a bunch of folk standing on the mount line trying to get clipped in as I jumped on the bike and pedalled on top of my already clipped-in shoes as I got up to speed. Slipped into the shoes easily and I was quickly hammering along at a good rate.
Crossing past the transition area on my second lap
I took a GU gel, calmed myself down and tried to get my heart rate down below 165. I knew this was going to be a tri of massive draft packs, further to my post complaining about drafting in this series I had found an official description of the events as being geared toward participation rather than rules compliance, so accepted it would happen but decided to stick to my guns and ride my own race, head on into the wind at all times! Apart from a bit of rain making things a bit damp, I really enjoyed the ride. I maintained a pace I was very happy with the whole way and was clearly closing the 3 minute gap that Ollie had put on me in the swim.
Unfortunately on the third lap (of 4) I saw Ollie at the side of the road fixing a puncture, meaning there would be no epic battle between us on the run. I was a lot more assertive on the bike this time round, in terms of warning people I was coming through or asking them to make way, possibly because I was actually overtaking a significant number of people (probably mostly doing the Sprint), and was not interested in getting caught up in a crash due to a lack of communication. Any time that I came up behind someone or a group of people who I was only marginally faster than, and thought there was a chance they'd try to jump on the back, I increased my speed enough to not give them a chance to get in to my draft, which proved 100% successful in keeping my ass free of leeches.
This picture is from my first race here in December. I find it interesting to see how much worse my position was then. Also, note the leeches (those guys didn't even try to take a pull)
On the final lap of the bike the wind started to pick up a bit, and I was starting to really feel the burn in my hamstrings and glutes after close to an hour in the aero position at a high level of effort. I started to wonder if this was going to hurt me significantly in the run, and if perhaps I'd been pushing too hard, but I think I needn't have worried. I sucked down a second gel shot about 2km from the end of the bike.
Coming in to T2 I was feeling pretty good and psyched for the run. I'd already slipped out of my shoes, and to avoid knocking them off the pedals I carried the bike slightly off the ground with one hand as I ran to my rack, overtaking a number of very tired and spent looking people on the way through. Again, things went very smoothly. I racked the bike front-first by the brake levers, slipped into my magical Saucony Kinvaras, and ran off, putting my race belt on as I went. I'm not sure why, but I didn't feel anywhere near as bad as I usually do coming off the bike, and was running strong from the beginning.
Although I no longer had to worry about Ollie, I'd been keeping an eye on a third person with whom we also have a bit of a running battle with - Mark, an Engineering Faculty member who lectured us both during our degrees and who is now Ollie's supervisor for his Masters project. He's a very quick runner and has thoroughly routed us both in the run of the last two triathlons we all did, and at the O'Hagans 5K races. I was guessing I had about 2 minutes on him at the last point I'd seen him on the bike, and expected he'd be up to 5 minutes faster than me on the run.
As soon as I hit the run, I started overtaking people. I was feeling pretty good, but was weary about going out too fast and running out of legs before the end; so I sat at what was a comfortable pace, and progressed through the crowd. The run course is 2.5km out along the bike course, then back again, obviously with 2 laps to make it 10km.
About 1km into the run I saw Ollie go past on the bike, at the point I knew that there would be no miraculous comeback and I'd have a hollow victory on that front. After the first turn around I saw Mark and guessed I was around 500m ahead of him, he was looking strong and I was sure he'd be upon me in no time. I crossed Ollie at about 3.5km, we high fived and shouted encouragement as we passed. Coming to the turn around at 5km I ran through the central area and saw my family who had come along to support me. I'd caught brief glimpses of my dad while on the bike but this was the first time I'd spotted my mother and sister too. It's always great to have support!
Didn't get in many pics, but here's me in the background. Most of the people around me were in the Sprint distance
Since about 4km a guy I passed had been sitting right behind me. We'd had a couple of brief exchanges and he seemed like a nice guy, but around 7km I decided I had enough in the tank to pick up my pace significantly so decided it was time to bring the pain. I had been running with HR around 158 (lower than usual, was feeling limited by muscle tiredness more than aerobic ability), and stepped it up to 165+. I'd guess I went from a pace of 4:35-4:40/km to 4:15-4:20. I lost him quite easily, and began catching a few reasonably quick guys and girls who had been just ahead of me. Some of them tried to keep up but I think I'd paced myself really well because none could hang on. After the final turn-around at 7.5km, I crossed Mark at roughly the same point we'd crossed on the first lap - shortly after it was the same with Ollie! Apparently I was running at close to the same pace as these two who are significantly faster runners than I in open runs - very pleased and feeling great. Around 9km I was overtaken by a very speedy woman, probably in the 40-49 age group - I was well impressed by her pace and had no intention of trying to keep up!
Coming through the 5K mark with my new buddy on my heels
Coming through the last couple hundred metres I gave my last kick - unfortunately nobody ahead worth trying to chase down, but I wanted to finish knowing I'd given it all I could. Coming across the finish line I found I'd finished in 2:27:xx - comfortably under the 2:30 I'd predicted. My time for the run was 44:47 which is faster than I expected, and is now my 10K PB.
Because this post is getting quite lengthy, I wont go through my post-race activities, but I will say it involved a lot of high carbohydrate foods, a giant Belgian beer, a spa, and about 4 hours sleeping on the couch in front of the TV.
So the next challenge is a half marathon in 5 weeks. My aim is sub 1:40, but based on how I ran yesterday I really wonder if I might have more like a 1:35 in me.
Song of the Day
To go with the rest of this post, I wanted to pick a song that's been heavily featured in my "run" playlist as I've trained my way to this race over the last 4 months. This does mean you probably wont like it, as I do like to listen to songs with some guts to them when I'm running. It's not my favourite song, but it really motivates me when I'm pushing through the end of a fast training run. The song is "Bradley", by the now-defunct band Coal Chamber
Yesterday I ran in the O'Hagans 5K, which I believe I've mentioned in previous posts, and happily managed to maintain my previous record of PBing the 5K every time I run one. My 5K PB record has progressed as follows:
Nov: 22:30 (training run)
Dec: 21:43 (training)
Jan: 21:00 (first 5km race, bit of a hill)
Feb: 20:57 (same race as previous, eased off on the final hill to keep heart rate down = error)
later in Feb: 20:05 (O'Hagans, flat course, possibly up to 30 seconds short)
Mar: 19:51 (O'Hagans)
Apr: 19:27 (yesterday)
I was amazed at how much I was able to pull off my last time. Although the previous two 5Ks I'd run had been during low-volume/recovery weeks in my program, I'm now fully in taper mode so perhaps that helped; it was also my first race in my new, feels-so-light-and-fast Kinvaras.
I suspect the biggest difference is actually the reason why I've been racing as often as I can, which is just getting better at executing a race. I felt like throughout this one I was able to stay focused and as a result not allow myself to ease off in the later half of the race when the discomfort levels are getting steadily harder to ignore. My average heart rate from the race was 171, and max 183 - both of these are the highest I can remember having seen (I have suspected for a long time that I'm a low max HR person).
I had a nice little sprint finish too, I'd been slowly closing in on a guy who'd overtaken me about 1km in to the run, and managed to really put the hammer down over the last 100m to close the ~5-10m gap and just edge him out. I was beaten by a friend of mine from uni who has been doing the series barefoot! He's made rapid progress over the last month or so since he first entered, I think his times have dropped from mid 20's to high 18's. I followed him quite closely for most of the way to the turnaround, but when we hit a section where there was grass he could run on rather than pavement, he absolutely flew and left me for dead.
Song of the Day
As promised, here's the obligatory song to accompany my post. It's another NZ band - this one is a now defunct group called Push Push. The song is nearly 20 years old, with a 80's hair-metal type of sound. I hadn't heard this in a long time but it appeared on a music channel on TV recently and I was reminded of its greatness. The song is called Song 27, I'm going to embed two versions, the longer one with no video has much better audio, but I thought I'd include the version w/ video too since it's not the same without video. Enjoy!
This morning I competed in my third triathlon, a sprint distance at Maraetai Beach, part of the Panasonic People's Triathlon Series. I don't want to make this blog another training and racing blog; I enjoy reading such blogs, but feel I have nothing new to offer on that front so will try to include only the more interesting/important events. If you would like to read my report on the race, you can view it here. What I'm going to discuss is the drafting that goes on in these events.
For the uninitiated, let me cover the basics of drafting in triathlons. The majority of amateur triathlons, and as far as I know all long-course triathlons (i.e. Ironman and Half-Ironman) are non-drafting events, meaning you aren't allowed to draft other cyclists on the cycle leg (as you usually would in most forms of bike racing). The idea is that triathlon is an individual time-trial event. There are some events that are draft-legal, such as ITU events and races at the Olympic Games - as well as the odd event such as the Contact Tri I did in Takapuna a month ago. In draft-legal races, different rules exist around the bikes you're allowed to use - basically your bike should be a road bike, as opposed to the bikes used in non-drafting tris which are basically time-trial bikes (which are way more awesome).
So anyway, interestingly I don't seem to be able to find any rules or links to rules on the website for the People's Triathlon Series, but as they're listed on the Tri NZ website I would assume they're operating under the Triathlon NZ rules which state that the event should be non-drafting. However, having done two races of the three so-far for this series, and having watched the other, I can say that drafting is rife in this series. The first event I did, I joined in the drafting since everyone was doing it, but this time I decided to take a stand and that I would have no part of it. The annoying thing though, was that I was probably the only one. The result was that when I came up to overtake someone (I had a great bike leg and did a lot of overtaking), they would simply tuck in behind me and stay there for as long as they could, conserving energy and being towed along faster than they were capable of riding. I was a bit bothered that I was working reasonably hard riding along at ~35km/h at the front while a gang of slackers sucked my wheel for the majority of the 10km return leg of the ride. I think I lost them all on the run though.
What was more annoying, was some people would sit behind for a while - having a bit of a rest, then put on a bit of a burst, get in front of me for a short while until I overtook them again and then the cycle would repeat. In a properly-regulated race, the cyclist being overtaken has 5 seconds to drop back outside the imaginary drafting envelope, which extends 7m behind the front wheel of the lead bike. In this situation it is much more difficult for the rider who has been overtaken to re-take their position, unless they really are capable of riding faster than the person in front (or are willing to ruin themselves on the ride and have a terrible run). This rule is a joke if only one of the parties is following it, however.
I think the problem comes down to the culture within the competitors in general. Marshals can (and should) penalise people for breaking the rules, but if the rule breaking is sufficiently rampant then it becomes difficult to police; really you need the competitors to know the rules, to want to follow them (in my opinion it makes for fairer racing), and then hopefully the situation will police itself: if there was one person hanging off my wheel and everyone else was obeying the rules I would happily tell them what I thought of their parasitic attachment to my slipstream.
I suspect the problem comes down to the boom in the popularity of triathlon - there are a lot more people involved who have probably never familiarised themselves with the rules, and possibly not a sufficiently strong/influential community to spread the word and pressurise the masses into obedience. While I'm part of the new crowd, I always like to think of myself as the exception to the rule and usually spend a lot of time educating myself about whatever my latest obsession is.
Just to get a feel for how common this is, I put a poll up on the Beginner Triathlete forum - of the 12 responses at the time of writing, 8 have said they often see illegal drafting in triathlons and it often goes unpunished, 2 have said they occasionally see it but it's usually punished, and 2 people's cats have breath that smells like cat food (everyone loves Ralph).
I want to try and include a photo or two into each post I make, so here's a couple of pics from today, linked from the official event's website that help to illustrate my point (I'm actually reasonably sure the two in the first picture heading the other way were part of the group who followed me home today)
Big week this week, ran a "5K" on Tuesday, 2km of open water drowning tomorrow, and a sprint tri on Sunday.
The 5K went well, it's the 4th open 5k I've done and I set a new PB - 19:51. Unfortunately my GPS thinks it was 4.88km, so which makes it 4:05 pace or 20:25 for a full 5k (which is still a PB). It's also the first time I've had a good battle for the finish. In the final 500m or so there was a guy and a girl within about 20m ahead of me, and a woman just behind me (had been there for about the last k and sounded like she was suffering quite a bit!). As the two people in front were for me, I think I was the target for the woman behind: she made her push and drew up beside me but I was pretty sure she was pretty much spent. I'd paced myself well and felt like I had quite a bit left and made the push for the two in front. I got past the guy first, then slowly managed to draw in and get past the girl. With around 200m to go the guy caught up again so I gave my final kick and hammered home the finish, stronger than I ever have finished, and held the guy out by a few seconds. Good stuff! This 5K is quite a cool event, it's run by a pub down on the waterfront, costs $7 to enter and you get a free pint at the end! It's held every Tuesday evening and I think I'll look to do it a lot more frequently next year. It also draws decent field - around 130 people this week, and the winners are usually around the 16 minute mark (a bit more competitive than the first two 5k's I did where the fields were larger but I came in top 5 overall!).
I've really enjoyed the last 6 weeks or so, where I've made an effort to race in some way every week. I love competing, not that I'm highly competitive at the moment but it's a great excuse to push yourself and establish some performance benchmarks. Also, as a newbie to this game, regularly competing has been a good way to generally feel more comfortable and at ease in a race, to practice my rituals and find out what works and what doesn't. The way I see it, there's effectively free time available by executing a race well, from preparation to pacing, in similar manner to how in motorsport it can be easier get faster by making your driver faster than by trying to make the vehicle faster. In this case, my mind is the driver and my body the vehicle.
The 2k OWS I'm doing tomorrow is part of a series that runs every Thursday evening during summer; they offer 500m, 1000m, 1500m and 2000m distances every night. My first proper OWS was at this event in early December, I did the 500m in preparation for my first tri which was that Sunday. Since then I've been two other times, and stepped up the distance each time. This is the last event of the summer and it seems like it would be rude to not do the 2k! Last time when I did the 1500m it was a definite struggle: for me it's mostly a mental battle as there's just nothing to distract you from the fact that you're hundreds of metres out in the harbour, swimming a distance beyond what you've done before, that you've probably got another 20 minutes of work to go before you'll be on dry land again. Compounding that, time seems to pass agonisingly slowly, you feel very alone, and it feels like you never make any progress. I guess with time, as I continue to do more swims and become more confident in my ability I'll be able to relax a bit more and just get the job done, but I'm not there yet!
Finally, I thought I'd share this. Can you tell the difference between these two garments? One is a compression singlet, the other - my jammers.
In my introductory post for this blog, I said I would introduce the various aspects of my life to provide some level of context for future postings, so here's another:
I tend to feel a little embarassed or ashamed to admit to having a love for cars and motorbikes, as I feel I run the risk of being stereotyped in a way that I don't think reflects who I am. Nevertheless, since as far back as I can remember, they have always been a fairly prominent part in my life (I wonder if I can find the picture of when I was 7 or 8, proudly sitting with my vast matchbox car collection?)
Around the age of 16, shortly after getting my first car and long before deciding I wanted to pursue a career in mechanical engineering, I started to get interested in the technical aspects of cars - learning to do all my own maintenance and repairs, trying to understand the fundamentals of operation of the various systems, and learning about the aspects that affect a vehicle's performance. Before long, my car (or cars) would spend increasing amounts of time in more pieces than is typically useful, as I worked on the latest modification, repair or upgrade. My increasing interest in the technical and theoretical aspects of vehicle operation and performance eventually lead me to realise that mechanical engineering was the best candidate I'd come across for what I'd like to do 5 days a week for the next 40 years (well...the best one that I would get paid for)
My current toys: Honda CBR600RR (red), Kawasaki ZXR250 (green), Toyota MR2 (um...it's the car)
By the time I had enrolled to do a Bachelor of Engineering, about 5 years after dropping out of school at the age of 16, I had spent considerable time (and money) working on and learning about all things automotive, and had gathered a decent practical skill set and reasonable understanding of the way things worked in the mechanical world, which ended up being a significant help as I tackled a university degree without having anywhere near the academic background that most students did.
Behind the wheel of one of our older FSAE cars, sans bodywork
It wasn't all about the technical side though - I thoroughly enjoy driving, especially racing (or pretending I'm racing). From the first time I drove a go-kart I was hooked, and would've relished the opportunity to get into motor-racing at a young age if my family had the money to do so. Instead I had to wait until I was working and able to fund my own way through such ventures - which still hasn't amounted to me doing any regular racing. As with many things in my life, I've dabbled - I have quite a bit of drag racing under my belt, plenty of driving in my mates' race karts (but never in a proper race), as well as a significant amount of time behind the wheel of Formula SAE cars.
Behind the wheel again, this time in the 2008 FSAE car at the Australasian comp in Melbourne
Wait a second, WTF is a Formula SAE car? Having spoken about the subject ad nauseum between 2006 and 2009, I almost just can't be bothered any more! But in a nutshell, they're cars built by university students (predominantly engineers), as part of a global student engineering competition. It was an activity that dominated my time at university - an awesome experience through which I grew tremendously as an engineer, a project manager, and as a person. I had the privilege of being the Chief Engineer for my last two years, and learned more than anyone would care to read about during my time in the team. It sparked a number of fires of areas of interest to me, nearly all of which will likely require me to head overseas if I want to pursue them as careers (the supply of interesting engineering jobs in NZ is tiny - I'd have to be very lucky to pick something up locally that tickles my fancy). Unfortunately, I quite like it here, so I'm in the midst of an internal debate about whether I should stay or not.
2009 FSAE car, my second as Chief Engineer
Before I finish up, I need to mention the joy that is motorcycling. I'd never really given bikes much thought until I got to university, where it seemed half the people were motorcyclists. When I eventually discovered the joy of riding, I was hooked. I have only been riding for a couple of years so far, but I just love the freedom you feel on a bike, and the connection between bike and rider - making you feel so much more a part of the experience than driving. It also helps that you can pick up an insanely fast sportsbike for just a few month's pay :) All that, combined with the ease of getting through congested motorways on the daily commute to work, have often lead me to think that I am a much less stressed person than I was 7 or 8 years ago, when my day consisted of 10 hours of work and 2-3 hours of commuting for the privilege...
