Karen and Kate's journey to Ironman and beyond

Been taking smallest daughter down to touch rugby practice on a Tuesday evening. I drop her off with her mates and head off for a nice run myself, out to Beachlands for a few km, then back to Te Puru to run round the field while keeping an eye on how she is doing in her new chosen activity. There are other runner mums, the possibility is there for a bit of company sometimes which is a bonus. I hadn't realised however until the first game of the season yesterday just how popular the game actually is. I mean the Beachlands and Maraetai townships aren't that big in the scheme of things but there were thousands of people at Te Puru, multiple fields going and game after game starting with the young ones and ending with the more mature. I watched the small ones run and dodge and the spectators expend lots of energy yelling encouragement... often to both teams at once as it seemed there were more than a few siblings playing each other. All was followed up by the ubiquitous sausage in ...

Bike ride in 4 weeks, you know, that little 160km round lake Taupo with one or two minor hills along the way?  Apart from intermittent spin sessions, I have had 3 rides to train for this event so far, one 20km ride, one slightly longer version, and then 73.3km last week (I'm a bit desperate when I have to count the fraction).  Yep, should be a doddle.   But then, the real trick, 2 weeks after that is the Rotorua half-Ironman. I'm pretty ok with going into the Taupo ride knowing I am fit, but not 'bike' fit. It will just mean there will be no personal best (ha ha), and things  might be a bit challenging on the way round.  The triathlon is likely to be less forgiving though so yesterday I drove into central Auckland to have the swimming lesson I won off the Ironman 70.3 competition (thanks organisers!).  It was to be delivered by Andrew of Boost coaching.  It was at a pretty nice place (I was impressed that they had pot plants and towels and coat hange...

I'm staying with my friend in Wellington for the long weekend. The weather is rather windy and not suitable for running in. Well I am a fair weather runner so we went to the gym. I've never been to a proper gym before so it was a new experience. I was shown how to use the running machine and off I went. It kept me true to the speed, I ran 5 km and walked for 1 km to slow down. It was quite funny because it had a map of me running around a track that was 400m, I think I ran around 13 times.  I then went on to the spin bike for 20 minutes, had a stretch and that was it. We stopped at New World to get food and then home. But we got home and no power. So we are sitting in our gym stuff smelling.... hope it comes back on soon.

My mum passed away last week and I have had an urgent trip back to the UK. I thought I would run whilst away so packed my running gear. But it has turned out to be a journey of life and just too busy to run. But we did have a stop over in Korea on the way to the UK and I did go for a lovely walk. I wore my GPS watch and will be seeing my walk on the computer once home. Mum loved her fitness and went to 3 different classes a week. Her road bike is still in her out house, not sure when she last rode it, and her running shoes by her bed. I have many memories of her but one was of her in her health and beauty outfit. Now this would have been in the 1960's. She had a white silk top and blue knickers and off to movement class she went. She had a little badge that she wore on the shirt with a lady flying through the air. We are our mothers daughters. She will be missed.

I went for a bike-ride on Saturday and managed a whole 20 km on a blustery day with occasional hail, that's 1/8th of the distance needed for the next event.  Went for a run on Sunday, did a lethargic 16 km, that's pretty ok, I can manage the half marathon distance if I can stay at that level. Today, Monday I was determined I would have a swim, I haven't swum since May.  I went to work with my swimming gear and at the end of the day went over to the Otara pool.  It was SHUT for maintenance.  But I was so committed, I drove home, dug out the wetsuit, squished into the thing with less trauma than I had expected given the scales are telling me a really, really sad story, and went over to the beach for a swim. I managed 300 seriously chilly meters I estimate, oh, only 1700 m to go!

A very long time ago Grandma said something along the lines that when you have made your first cup of tea at home you might never have been away.  For me it is   more like, when I go for my first run I might never have been away.  Last night I ran down to spin at Te Puru park, the Taupo 160km cycle challenge is in 8 weeks, I need some bike time and a spin class is as close as I can get during the week right now.  I got to Te Puru, the building was shut up tight, I looked in the window, no bikes?  Ok, something has changed in the couple of weeks I have been gone.  The joy of smartphones, I quickly found the facebook page for the gym people who run the spin, phoned and was told the session had moved to Pine harbour.  I grizzled that I hadn't heard of the change, and as I had run to Te Puru I wasn't going to get the extra 3km to Pine harbour in the 2 minutes left before the 6.15 start.  Oh that's ok she says, we don't have a 6.15 anymore, it's 7.15, ...

I was out having a little ride on my own, minding my own business when suddenly I was attacked by a magpie! 3 times it dove down and hit my hat. What had I done to up set it? I screamed like a deranged women and threw my hands around.  Not sure if it did much good. I was then up by Awhitu Church and this huge deer ran out in front of me and down the side of the road and into the bush. On my way home I got the magpies again! It was a day of animals. But fun too.

Back in Barcelona via a 2 hour train-trip from Zaragosa on a train that got up to 300km/hour according to the digital readout in the carriage.  After a little walk around new and unfamiliar streets on the opposite side of the city from where I stayed last time, I’m in a motel room on the 4 th floor being treated to a magnificent show of thunder and lightning out of my window which looks west to a range of hills.  The 6 days since the marathon have been spent mainly walking, walking and pursuing food.  I re-visited lots of the places I ran on Sunday, and have walked to cathedrals and museums and roman marketplaces and bridges (as usual over and under multiple times).   I'vé been so impressed with how both Zaregosa and Barcelona look after the walkers and cyclists.  Almost every street has a light which allows pedestrians to cross with ease, no buttons to push, you take your turn with the traffic and drivers seem to take stopping seriously...

The message was" Mountain Biking Tuesday evenings. Waiuku Forest starting Tuesday 1st October Meet Mine Site entrance for a 5.30pm start.  Plan is to follow the SMIM Course  With Daylight saving changing this weekend this will give us plenty of light to train on the SMIM Mountain Bike course or just get out and have some fun. There will be someone from the Sunset Coast Multisport Club each week to show you the way, or just follow the markers already put out." So why not go I thought! silly Idea. The SMIM (steelman ironmaiden is an event the multisports club put on each year   www.smim.co.nz have a look .)   I was lucky that  a fellow slow rider came as well and knew the route, as the fast bikers were off. It was an amazing evening. 2 hours of riding off road through the forest with the West Coast on one side and woods on the other. Through puddles and sand. I only got off once when i thought i might fall but it was great fun. roll on next week :...

In the past I have described how hard it is to let go of faithful items of running gear, or shoes, you share a lot of significant experiences and bunging these things unceremoniously in the kleen-sak to go to the Whitford tip just seems somehow...disrespectful.  Well, I brought an old pair of tri-shorts with me to run this marathon, they had holes in the inseams, the fabric was to too thin to be decent anymore, the leg-bands were sprung, it was to be their final race, their swansong as it were. Today I said farewell on a lookout in the bush high on a hill above a city halfway round the world. Thanks for the memories old friend! PS: I did actually put them in the bin.

We had 3 days training in Taupo and this was the photo of me under water.  I had been invited to spring camp with others who are training to do Ironman. The picture is of a large whale trying  to swim, but is actually me in an under water video. 

Ok, race report...starting with Sunday morning, 0700, trying not to jitter and resisting going out the door far too early for the 0830 race start, trying not to think I was going to run a marathon over 19000 km away from home, literally half a world away.  I told myself 0715 would be early enough, but I was a bit paranoid at this point, was I even sure where the startline really was?  What happened if I'd made a mistake and the start was over the other side of the city, would I turn up and find that no-one else was there?  Who would I ask, well, how would I ask? But at 0715 I was ready to go, I headed down to reception and for some strange reason I took the stairs which were dark, there seems to be a lot of power saving going on here, the lights are only on in the stairs during the day, I chided myself for my stupidity on this one as I gingerly felt my way down, only to miss a triangular stair and set my heart pounding as I recovered from that near tumble. Ok, c...