sevendaughters - teams events are great - nice to finish 3rd fastest in your team.
Dubai Dave - you must be very happy with your running at the moment.
alehouse - yes, I'm pretty happy with the result.
What: Auckland Marathon.
Why: I'd entered and thought I just might be able to get away with it.
Up at 3.45am, on the ferry by 5.00am for 6.10am start. I was always going to start easy as I didn't want to blow myself to bits.
Lined up behind the 4 hr balloons, with a few others from my club. A few people said we were going a bit fast, 2 minutes up at 10km, the the first half of the marathon is hilly, and also includes the Auckland Harbour bridge.
Then I heard someone say that the guy with the balloons was only going half-way. Decided to just run the first half and then see what I had left. So 1.55.41 for half-way, then the wheels started to fall off.
I was very hot, and I was glad I had worn my hat, so kept on pouring water over my head. I really wanted to walk, but kept on telling myself, I had to run for at least 3hrs!
The second half of the course runs out and back along Auckland's waterfront, so you get to see the front runners on the return journey.
Tried to concentrate on them, as I got into my marathon shuffle. Told myself I could walk through the drink stops.
I started taking flat coke with water soon after half way, I had no energy, but with about 7km to go the sugar must have kicked in, and I was able to run reasonably to the finish.
Very happy to finish 4.09.46 2nd in my age-group F60-64
