Karen and Kate's journey to Ironman and beyond

Just had an unscheduled trip to Wellington for a meeting.  Oh dear, the training plan said I was meant to be cycling and swimming, but running shoes are ever the portable option so running it was.  Shoes and two sets of running clothes in the cabin luggage, I had more running gear with me than anything else for my one and a half days away. In the evening I headed off for my run, going down the long hill towards the harbour.  I wanted to get an idea of the distance to the mornings meeting venue and with my tendency to get lost, check out the route.  It was very windy, and I was wearing a light singlet and running tights which would have been absolutely fine if I hadn't stopped for what seemed to be dozens of traffic lights.  How do people run like that having to stop all the time?  Six km later it was getting dark and I was ready to return.  But I was hungry.  I saw lots of food places as I zigzagged up those confusing city streets, but nothing I...

I thought I was a bit nuts signing up for the Standard distance triathlon at Maraetai beach yesterday, I mean I had run a marathon the week before and logic would say there should be some sort of impact. I felt fine however, and I figured that really I am meant to be fit given we plan on riding the 160km round the lake in two weeks time. So I turned up on Sunday morning and it was an absolutely stunningly beautiful day.  The sea was completely flat, the temperature was mild, there was only the slightest breeze and not a cloud in the sky.  All of my doubts disappeared, it would have been such a shame to not take on the course, and also not to challenge myself a little bit. There were no familiar faces, but when you struggle into a wetsuit you can usually find someone to zip you up and often start a conversation.  In this case with the family of a young woman, Amy, she was doing her first triathlon, the try-a-tri version. The hooter went, I hung back so as not to spen...

This year I ended up, shall we say accidentally, with the Auckland marathon squashed into my annual programme, rather inconveniently between that ultra in Brisbane at the end of August, and the Taupo Cycle Challenge in November.  It only came up because the children wanted to run the kids marathon, I figured if I was going to be in town for that, why not tick Auckland off once and for all. But after an indifferent (inadequate?) training lead-up and a tough day on the road the Auckland marathon ended up a as something more than just a 'tick'. Starting with the trip into Devonport on a ferry straight from (almost) home. No driving for hours through all of Auckland, trying to find parking, hopping on another ferry etc, this was a case of driving 3km up the road, parking by the wharf, walking onto the boat and being at the start-line 25 minutes later.  Best of all though, sitting on the comfortable seat with my thermos of coffee, was seeing all of these faces familiar from all t...