A tale of three weddings
About a year ago I went to my brother’s wedding and compared a photo of myself with a photo from a wedding that I’d been to a year before. Well, coincidentally I went to a wedding this last weekend. 
The me on the left is 2007, middle 2008 and right this year.
I need to start organising a wedding for 2010!
P.S. My Traineo buttons on the right have gone wonky. Just ignore for now.
Run Auckland 2009 Race #1
About a year ago I ran my first ever race. The Run Auckland 2008 Race #1 at Remuera and yesterday I did the 2009 version of the same event. The key difference was that this year I ran the 10K race rather than the 5K event.
Conditions were beautiful! A bit too much so actually as it got rather warm. I actually prefer the overcast days to clear sunny ones for running myself. There was literally not a cloud in the sky.
There were just over 600 people in the 10K event and about 250 or so in the 5K event so there was a good crowd out for a Sunday morning jaunt. The course had a few rolling hills (undulating is the word I think) and was two laps of the 5K course.
I was not expecting to break any PRs as I know that this course is long by about 800 metres.
In all my previous races I’ve made the mistake of starting out way too fast so this time I deliberately went slower than I know I can go. I decided that I would try to stick to my HM pace for the first lap and then speed up for the second lap. Well the first part of my plan worked but the second part where I go faster in the second half didn’t. For some reason I just couldn’t really find the mental determination to speed up much – in fact I slowed down! My splits were 28:37 and 30:24. Which means my final time was 59:01 for 10.8K. So definitely no PR – in fact that is my slowest race in a long time. I still enjoyed it though so I’m not too bothered.
We’ve got these nifty results graphics now so you can see whereabouts in the pack you finished. So I’m definitely not the fastest but not the slowest by a long shot!
My new treadmill
My treadmill arrived this morning at about 8am. The guy who delivered it was 60 years old and he had a heart condition. The treadmill weighs 125 kg and could I give him a hand getting it off his truck? Why certainly.
He didn’t mention that it was buried under about 20 other packages and once we got to it that I had to do the heavy lifting. I recall wondering why I had paid $100 for delivery if I had to do the lifting myself?
It was quite funny in a sad sort of a way that we had to have a rest after moving the treadmill about a metre as it looked like the poor old guy was going to have a coranary.
We eventually got it into my basement/rumpus room and then he diffidently asked if I would mind giving him a hand loading all the parcels back into his truck! Needless to say I did but there was some quiet muttering under my breath!
Click more to see my installation fun (warning! lots of photos). Read more
A long run that didn’t work so well
I went to a wedding yesterday (watch for a post about that!) and didn’t get home till quite late. As such, my normal Sunday morning long run became a Sunday afternoon run. My plan was to get in about 25 or so km and after reading about the Onehunga-Southdown cycleway on Aaron’s blog I decided that I would incorporate it into my run.
This took me through a part of town that I have never really run through before. It was rather industrial and empty of other folks.
I think this is a photo of the Southend Power Station.
And this is the view from the Cycleway.
I was going pretty good up until I hit the cycleway even though I got lost at one point! Unfortunately when I hit the cycleway my lunch started coming up to say hello. I think a big greasy fried rice mix about 30 mins before starting a run was a mistake. Actually I’m very sure it was a mistake.
I started having a few walk breaks but things weren’t really getting better. I hit the end of the cycleway and then didn’t really know where to go. There was a road but there was no footpath and it looked very busy. There was a little track heading off into the bushes so I figured that would be the way to go. A bit of a mistake! I walked for about 400 metres down the road and passed a junk yard with a wide open gate. About 425 metres down the road I saw the junk yard dog having a snooze. That’s when I thought it might be a good idea to pick up the pace a bit! About 450 meters down the road I heard him start to bark very nastily and come running. I sprinted hard out for about 200 meters and found an exit that went into suburbia. Luckily the dog didn’t head towards the open gate.
I really felt crap at that point and so I decided to call the run to a halt and I gave my lovely wife a call to come and get me. She was there pretty quickly God bless her!
Overall about 14.5km in 1:37. A bit disappointing but I think discretion was the better part of valour on the day.
I bought a treadmill
Despite calling it the dreadmill I actually quite like running on a treadmill, especially when it’s windy outside. I realised that the only reason I go to the gym is so that I can use their treadmill first thing before work. Now that my daughter is in daycare I can only actually go to the gym on Monday mornings as if I go after I drop her off I can’t get to work on time even though my gym is at work! My gym membership had expired so after chatting with my wife she kindly agreed that it made more sense to buy a treadmill than to keep paying gym membership fees. So in a moment of weakness she said I could buy one so I did.
I can’t wait for it to arrive! I’ll post more when it does. Pictures and all I promise.
A pre-breakfast run
I got up at 5am today in order to get in a quick run before work. I just did a gentle loop of my local neighbourhood but I found it surprisingly hard for some reason. Maybe I was a bit tired. Anyways, I was glad to get out there! As sometimes happens, the best part of the run was when it ended.
Round the Bays 2009
Yesterday, 70 000 of my closest friends and myself went for a wee little run around the bays of downtown Auckland. The Annual Round The Bays Fun Run was on and it was great!
Here’s the crowd at the start. This mob went back about 2km I’m told.
As you can see conditions were absolutely wonderful with not a cloud in the sky. As a matter of fact they were so good that I ended up weaving towards different trees along the course to try and stay in the shade.
I took this little video about 1km in.
As you can see there were a lot of people around! Apparently there were about 50 000 official competitors and 25 000 pirates. I’ve no idea why so many people did the run without paying but what can you do? I’ve had a week off running for one reason or another and I was really glad to be out there running. It was great that so many other folks had decided to come out too. There’s something about a running event that just fills everyone with joy.
My official time was 45:28 for the 8.4K but my Garmin time was 44:52 which I’m very happy with. Overall it was lots of fun and I’m really glad I did it. The bbq at the end was fantastic and I probably had one too many veggie dogs!
Weigh-in #10
A reasonably good week on the old Physics Diet.
I’ve had a reasonably nasty weekin terms of fitness etc. as I caught my daughter’s stomache bug and had a nasty time of it. Having said that I’ve come out the other end (!) and I’m better now.
I’ve got the biggest race of the season (in terms of people) coming up this weekend so I’m looking forward to that. Race report will follow on Sunday!
Weigh-in #9 The absent blogger
I’ve been away from blogs this week as it has been an extremely busy week at work so I’ve been working in the evenings and early mornings rather than blogging. It didn’t help that my laptop died as well. My daughter has been very sick and so things have been a bit stressful alround.
Despite that my weight has been pretty stable so I’m reasonably happy. I hope to catch up on all your blogs soon.
Back on track
I’ve been sick so haven’t really been doing much but I’m better now so I’m back on track. It’s amazing how your mindset can change overnight from bleh I don’t care to let’s get going again!
I went for a great little 5K run last night and it felt really good to be outside running. 
Daily Mile
-
RoadID
