My alarm went off at 3:55 AM this morning. Race day! At last. 
The weather forecast was for heavy rain clearing in the early morning and for once it was accurate. It bucketed down in the night but stopped at about 4AM.
My dad had flown down from Christchurch to do the race as well so we both got ready and then my darling wife dropped us off at the ferry terminal at 5AM. The ferry terminal is just outside some of the more popular bars in Auckland and there was some poor drunk bloke staggering home after a hard night out on the town who made me laugh when he blurted out “You’re all F***G mental!” Yes we are mate.
We got the timing just right and managed to get straight onto a ferry. 25 minutes later we were in Devonport eyeing up the portaloos. I have to give credit where credit is due and say that the race organisers had definitely put in plenty of portaloos! There looked to be about 500 meters worth of them.
My dad has a regular training partner who was supposed to be meeting him but by the time the race started he still hadn’t shown up so we just ran. About 100 meters into the race he showed up! 7500 people and he managed to find my dad. I was impressed! I left them behind at that point and set off on my personal quest.
I had decided to try and maintain a reasonably conservative pace for the first half so that I would still have plenty in the tank in the second half. In all my races up until now I’ve always shot off and struggled quite a lot at the end.
The course was quite congested for the first two kilometers so it wasn’t too hard to be restrained. I must admit that I was extremely happy to be out running this event. It wasn’t that long ago that I weighed more than 300 pounds and the thought of exercise filled me with dread. Fortunately I’ve kicked the couch habit and am now a runner.
I lost quite a bit of time at the drink stations. I think next time I will do what I do in training and carry my water with me. It’s much easier and I know what to expect that way. It was hard to get at the water and I didn’t get much in either I think.
At the 10K mark my time was 52:36 and I was very pleased. The race had been very enjoyable up until this point and I was going strong. I was actually ahead of my projected finish time and I was thinking the hills that someone had warned me about hadn’t been that bad. Oh boy, how wrong can you be?
Kilometer 11 - 15 was hilly! It started off with some small hills, then some big ones, and then the bridge! The bridge wasn’t nearly as bad as I had feared it would be. It was long and steep but I had done a lot of hill training in my training and I actually kept a really good pace up all the hills. Not once did I even consider stopping. The marathon photo people were on the bridge so I made sure to give them a big smile and a festive fist pump as I went past. I look forward to seeing those photos in the next few days.
Kilometer 15 was where things started to go downhill a bit. Both figuratively and literally! Literally in that it headed downhill after the bridge and figuratively in that a few things started to go wrong with my run. Firstoff, I started to get some rather serious stomach rumbles and I really didn’t feel good. I also made a rather serious mistake with my footwear - I wore shoes I’d only done about 20 km in, essentially new shoes. This resulted in some rather nasty blisters and both my big toes are bruised under the nails. This made running rather interesting.
Kilometers 16 - 17 I started getting slower and slower. I abandoned my 1:53 hopes. I abandoned my 1:55 hopes. I abandoned my 2 hour hopes.
Kilometers 18 & 19 I started to hate running and worried that I wouldn’t finish. I thought about walking but really didn’t want to.
Kilometer 20 I thought HTFU and run! So I ran. Could I make two hours? Hmm.
Kilometer 21. Where’s my cheer team? Run! Where are they? Run! Where’s my lovely wife? Sprint, there’s the finish! What’s my time! 1:59:04!
I didn’t actually see my wife until about 30 minutes after the race. She took the photo above and so I must have looked right at her but I didn’t see her at all. Apparently my mum was cheering like mad too but I missed them both. There were so many people lining the finish. I went through the finish and couldn’t find them so I went to the Heart Foundation tent and got my free massage. Then I went back and found them all at the bag pickup area. It was a bit disappointing that there was no finishers medals for the half marathoners. The medals looked so nice too. For a $89 entry fee you think you’d get something at the end. Oh well.
It was really special having my family there at my first half marathon. I don’t know who was happier about me doing it. Actually I do. My mum is my number one fan. :) Hi Mum!
Immediately after the event I was a bit despondent about my time as I’ve run faster in my training runs but that only lasted for about 10 minutes. I’ve come such a long way. A year ago I couldn’t run 100 meters. Today I ran that 100 metres and another 21 km. Wow! I also set a Half Marathon PR. I should be able to beat that one too in my next HM in February. I’m rather happy that this overweight middle aged fellow has managed to become a runner.
I have to run a marathon now. I just have to.
I’d like to use this opportunity to say something to my wife Sally. Darling, getting to the point where I could run this race was a lot of work but I know it was a lot of work for you too. You’ve supported me from the beginning and I could not have done it without you. I know I’ll never be able to express how grateful I am to you. Without you I would still be lost. You are the most amazing person I know and I love you. I’m always amazed that you love me too. Just as well considering we’re married! :) Thank you.
And thank you to all of you as well. This blog has really helped me achieve this goal and without all of your cheers and bits of advice and whatnot I don’t think I would have been nearly as successful. Thank you all.
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Tags: Milestones, PR, running by AndrewE
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