Karen writes: Wellington Marathon 2013
Early Sunday morning, there I was, stumbling round the cluttered hotel room trying to put together weetbix and milk in a mug by the light coming from the half ajar bathroom door. The room looked a bit like a clothes shop had exploded, our luggage when it finally turned up the previous night, over a day late, had been accessed... shall we say...hurriedly.
Cup of green tea, a quick kiss on the foreheads of sleeping whanau, an energy gel on the way out the door and I headed off into the dark, quiet, damp, and oh that's so cold Wellington. Fortunately my brain was just working enough that I paused at the lobby to check with the slightly bemused night manager about how to get to the run venue. The Hotel had main doors leading to big roads on opposite sides of the building, I tended to walk out of either door and find myself heading away from wherever I wanted to be. It was a case of "If I go out this door here I turn LEFT to get to the stadium...is that right...yes, left, ok, right".
It was really strange heading off without Kate, we have done these early walks together heading off to marathons in strange cities, starting off being the only people around and eventually joining a stream of other athletes the closer you get to the venue. I was delighted to walk past the Beehive, but sadly had no-one to speculate with on the chances of running across a real-live politician lurking. I was glad of my multiple clothing layers, but as usual worried that I had it wrong, would all my layers be enough with wind chill added in, would the polyprop leggings sag halfway down my legs if they got wet, would it all be too much as running heated me up? I stopped worrying when I got to the stadium and it was bitterly cold inside and out, it wasn't just because I was a wimpy Aucklander, the hat, scarf, glove and puffer jacket brigade were well represented. I sat in a chair, put my feet up on another and watched lots of people burning off energy, I figured I needed mine so I would just hang onto it.
0725, start time, I stayed in the shelter of a crowd of runners as we all headed off into a still pretty dark Wellington morning. Along the waterfront, by Te Papa museum, and out along the coast on the flattest route I have ever run. There had been a change to the course because of the damage done by the storm in recent days, instead of straight 21km out and back along the coast we ran 16km, turned back for 5km, turned again for 5km, then ran 16km return. The wind came and went, drizzle came and went. I swapped strategy with one neat lady who was doing her first marathon and had an ITB injury until I ran on. One lady happily told me she was the first of her extended family of over 100 in number to do a marathon before she headed off, we called out each time we saw each other on the out and back out and back course.
It wasn't a big field so we were fairly spread out, I saw a few familiar faces which is always nice and a couple I was sure I recognised but wasn't confident enough to call out a name, I mean, do any of us look like we usually do while running a marathon? After about 15km I got bored and decided to play my game of 'mad smiley runner', some people play the game really well with big smiles back, but I concluded that this marathon wasn't the friendliest I'd done. Fortunately, by the time I tried the same eye-catch-smile trick on the same person for a second time they got the hang of it and a face twitched, by the third time there was a smile back, perhaps it took that long for the facial muscles to unfreeze for some?
I took my wind-jacket off at about 10km, my thermal top off at about 15km, but the leggings stayed comfortable and the hat and gloves were essential, especially for the wintry wind blasts on the exposed bits of the run. On the last leg I ran with an amazing woman from Auckland, we talked about studying for our Masters degrees, a bit of politics, and the world in general, she was neat and someone I would never have come across otherwise but that's what running does for you.
I got to the end and there was the whanau, both girls had run their mile race and looked fabulous with their race numbers on their shirts, wearing medals, downing banana's and swigging the ubiquitous powerade provided after-race. I was very proud to be hugged by the junior athletes as I shuffled over the finish line, 4hrs 43, a couple of minutes slower than Rotorua, not sure why that was given the course was so flat but you can't say my times aren't consistent. The 1.7km walk back to the hotel was a bit tough, there were some stairs down which required concentration and my insides were feeling very dodgy by this time, probably the result of not having had reliable eating patterns for the previous couple of days, but a long hot shower, food, feet up for a bit, more food, and all was fine.
So thanks Wellington, you put on an excellent event in spite of your recent traumatic weather troubles, how bad these were I only really realised after watching the news when I got home. Great experience, would love to come back and explore a bit more...in better weather, and preferably with some luggage this time.
Cup of green tea, a quick kiss on the foreheads of sleeping whanau, an energy gel on the way out the door and I headed off into the dark, quiet, damp, and oh that's so cold Wellington. Fortunately my brain was just working enough that I paused at the lobby to check with the slightly bemused night manager about how to get to the run venue. The Hotel had main doors leading to big roads on opposite sides of the building, I tended to walk out of either door and find myself heading away from wherever I wanted to be. It was a case of "If I go out this door here I turn LEFT to get to the stadium...is that right...yes, left, ok, right".
It was really strange heading off without Kate, we have done these early walks together heading off to marathons in strange cities, starting off being the only people around and eventually joining a stream of other athletes the closer you get to the venue. I was delighted to walk past the Beehive, but sadly had no-one to speculate with on the chances of running across a real-live politician lurking. I was glad of my multiple clothing layers, but as usual worried that I had it wrong, would all my layers be enough with wind chill added in, would the polyprop leggings sag halfway down my legs if they got wet, would it all be too much as running heated me up? I stopped worrying when I got to the stadium and it was bitterly cold inside and out, it wasn't just because I was a wimpy Aucklander, the hat, scarf, glove and puffer jacket brigade were well represented. I sat in a chair, put my feet up on another and watched lots of people burning off energy, I figured I needed mine so I would just hang onto it.
0725, start time, I stayed in the shelter of a crowd of runners as we all headed off into a still pretty dark Wellington morning. Along the waterfront, by Te Papa museum, and out along the coast on the flattest route I have ever run. There had been a change to the course because of the damage done by the storm in recent days, instead of straight 21km out and back along the coast we ran 16km, turned back for 5km, turned again for 5km, then ran 16km return. The wind came and went, drizzle came and went. I swapped strategy with one neat lady who was doing her first marathon and had an ITB injury until I ran on. One lady happily told me she was the first of her extended family of over 100 in number to do a marathon before she headed off, we called out each time we saw each other on the out and back out and back course. It wasn't a big field so we were fairly spread out, I saw a few familiar faces which is always nice and a couple I was sure I recognised but wasn't confident enough to call out a name, I mean, do any of us look like we usually do while running a marathon? After about 15km I got bored and decided to play my game of 'mad smiley runner', some people play the game really well with big smiles back, but I concluded that this marathon wasn't the friendliest I'd done. Fortunately, by the time I tried the same eye-catch-smile trick on the same person for a second time they got the hang of it and a face twitched, by the third time there was a smile back, perhaps it took that long for the facial muscles to unfreeze for some?
I took my wind-jacket off at about 10km, my thermal top off at about 15km, but the leggings stayed comfortable and the hat and gloves were essential, especially for the wintry wind blasts on the exposed bits of the run. On the last leg I ran with an amazing woman from Auckland, we talked about studying for our Masters degrees, a bit of politics, and the world in general, she was neat and someone I would never have come across otherwise but that's what running does for you.
I got to the end and there was the whanau, both girls had run their mile race and looked fabulous with their race numbers on their shirts, wearing medals, downing banana's and swigging the ubiquitous powerade provided after-race. I was very proud to be hugged by the junior athletes as I shuffled over the finish line, 4hrs 43, a couple of minutes slower than Rotorua, not sure why that was given the course was so flat but you can't say my times aren't consistent. The 1.7km walk back to the hotel was a bit tough, there were some stairs down which required concentration and my insides were feeling very dodgy by this time, probably the result of not having had reliable eating patterns for the previous couple of days, but a long hot shower, food, feet up for a bit, more food, and all was fine.So thanks Wellington, you put on an excellent event in spite of your recent traumatic weather troubles, how bad these were I only really realised after watching the news when I got home. Great experience, would love to come back and explore a bit more...in better weather, and preferably with some luggage this time.
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