I’ve been doing a bit more physical activity each week to try and improve my level of fitness since October last year.
On the 21st of January a few members of IS along with a few others in council (who will remain nameless) decided to partake in a Biggest Loser competition to help motivate us all to lose a few kilos. The $100 entry fee was a good additional motivator.
On March 10th I took part in my first half marathon, the Copthorne Off-road Half Marathon.
I surprised myself and my friend Allan (who had done a lot of marathons) with a time of 1:52:07.
Allan (my running mentor) then challenged me to a 5km running race in Rotorua on the 27th of April. The race was all over, done and dusted in 22:01
So I had only been doing 5km training runs to improve my short distance pace. After beating him by a small margin, he joked by saying I should enter the marathon.
Having completed my first half marathon two months earlier, this seemed like the most natural progression. So with no distance training I nervously entered the full marathon for that coming Saturday (five days before the event).
Registering on the Friday afternoon was a painless process, one more sleep to go!
Slightly scared and apprehensive about the whole thing. I turned up on the Saturday morning 30mins before the race was to begin. Lots of nervous people lining up to use the bathrooms in the EEC. I bumped into this old fella who had these 50th balloons, I thought he was a bit premature knowing that the 50th was next year, but it turned out to be his 50th marathon.
He said he ran his first marathon when he was 53, He finished 3/5 out of the over 80 male division. Well impressed!
The first 25km felt fine, may have had too much water prior to the start as I needed to stop to pee twice. It was definitely a physical battle, certainly from the lower half. My lungs and heart coped fine but my legs didn’t want to cooperate. I ended up walking a lot of the final 13km from the Whakatane turn-off. Luckily I was going around with this guy I know, Kelly Hemana from OGO. So together we helped keep each other honest, and at the 40km mark we checked the time and thought we might be able to get in under 5hrs. We dug deep and jogged through the pain for the final 2.2km. I was stoked to have come in with a mat time of 4:59:44!
Two days later I was still hobbling around, my achilles tendons were tight and I could only just start lifting my legs without the assistance of my arms!
Next year’s the 50th Rotorua Marathon, I’ll be signing up as soon as the registrations open and will be much better prepared, both mentally and physically. With some decent training and lead-up I hope to come in under 4hrs!
I’d like to thank Kylie Lang from Event & Venues for the complementary entry.
I burnt over 4000 calories, this is what I consumed during my marathon:
- Almost 5lt of water
- 7x carb shots
- 2x carb bars
- 3x bags of sports beans
- 3x bananas
- 1x Snickers
My running progress on my RunKeeper profile.
We have two weeks of the biggest loser competition left and It’s come down to a two horse race between me and another worthy competitor. Watch this space!
