Not dead yet!
I’m sorry that I’ve been a bit quiet lately but life has gotten in the way I’m afraid. I’ve been really busy at work and then just doing family stuff in the evenings instead of sitting on my computer. Normal service will resume shortly! Thanks to all of those who’ve checked up on me! 
Run Auckland Race 2 2009
I had race 02 of the Run Auckland series yesterday morning and it was a smasher!
First off, it was my beloved wife’s first race and she had a great race. She did the 5K and listening to her great race report afterwards gave me a great big smile as the enthusiasm was pouring off her in waves. Here she is just before the start:
I met fellow blogger Aaron for the first time:
Unfortunately he had a crap race as he injured himself. I passed him hobbling along at the 3.5km mark. I’ve always dreamed of being fast enough to catch him but not this way.
The race itself was pretty good. It was two laps of the 5k circuit and my only real grizzle is that the course was long again. I find running races really hard (funnily enough more mentally than physically) and it really irks me when I have to run longer than the supposed distance. A hundred metres or so is fine. A full kilometer is not.
I ran a 10K personal record at 52.44 but unfortunately the race itself was 10.98 km according to my post race GPS download. I’m going to take the PR – naysayers be damned. 
These results show an improvement from my last race:
I finished 198th (223rd last time) overall, 136th male finisher (144th) an 44th (52nd) in my age division. Small improvements but I’ll take them! One funny thing from the stats is that apparently I passed 2 runners but 32 passed me in the second half! I haven’t quite got the hang of this whole negative split thing yet!
It’s quite interesting to see how the races affect me physically now. Last year I did the 5K option and for the rest of the day I was buggered. This year I felt great after the race. My fitness is definitely much improved.
A guest post from my wife
This post is written by my beloved wife
I started writing the guest post last year sometime… and then never got to finish it. My last draft is not really up-to-date with what’s happening anymore, so I had to restart.
You’ve all seen what an amazing transformation to his life, his shape and his confidence with himself through this new healthy lifestyle and running. You’ve all seen the photos of him before and “current”. What you may or may not have seen, is a picture of what he was like when I first met him… not a real picture, so you will have to use some of your imagination.
When I first met him, he was big, I mean BIG. Where I came from, I’m considered overweight even with a BMI of 20. So for me, he was HUGE and tall.
He used to be the one organising just about all the social outings we used to have. The University of Auckland is nicely situated on the top of the hill, sort of; while the town, ie. Food places and movie theatres are at the bottom. So I remember the times when we went to town for lunch, dinner, movie etc, coming back to uni for the car… actually I don’t remember walking with him much, without almost killing him. I can walk uphill the same speed as I can walk flat and I don’t walk slowly, other than in the shopping malls and supermarkets. So all I could really remember, was him panting ,deep breathing and just about half dead.
Once, we decided to go hiking with another two couple friends, before we were going out. We were happily marching along, and him and this other VERY skinny male friend; both of them on the way back uphill, were taking a lot of breaks and moaning why there isn’t an escalator in the middle of the nature bush walk. I must say, that was rather funny. I remember that was also the hiking trip that he was compared to a hippo (not by me), with all love and respect. Even though he’s always seemed to take the fat jokes quite well but I’m sure deep down, it must have hurt and must have affected how he feels about himself.
Eventually, he started going to the gym and he was losing weight slowly; that was the end of 2002. I think it was sometime during 2003, when he’s not losing as much weight, he went on Atkins for a while. He was going to the gym every weekday before the wedding as well, hoping to look good for the wedding. I think 100kg was where he got to and found it really hard to go down anymore. I remember at the time, we thought, 95kg would probably be a good weight for him and it’d be a dream if he can be in early 90s but chances are he’ll never be able to get down below 90!
So, let’s assume 100kg wasn’t too far off from his “ideal weight”. Even then, trying to get him to go out for a walk is like a torture to him. His parents love walking, so do I. My parents also go for walks, too. Every time I tried to drag him out for a walk, it’s always a very short one. This is when he was doing regular exercises and losing weight on and off, yet, even just walking around isn’t something easy for him to do.
This all changed, when he started doing C25K.
Slowly but surely, he started to feel more energy and fitter than he was before. He’d even carry the little one out for a walk, after he had just came back for a run!! Many times I asked, are you sure?! He was still keen! He might have been a little sore but still keen to get out and be active!
So apart from the changes in what you can see in photos; this is the change I see as well.
I’d like to also add, usually, women get married and overtime, they get a bit more of their men to love than less. It is normal for a married man to start putting on weight, especially round the middle as the years of married life goes up. I must say, I’ve got one that actually is looking better and better as the years go by. He is feeling much better about himself; feeling more confident; being more active and healthier! That’s pretty good!
Also because of him, there are a few more of his friends and people he knows had started running as well, myself included. Most amazing one is his mother; she’s now training for her 15K race coming up!! She only started running late last year!!
Sometimes, it may seem weird, but it’s really amazing the influence he has had on others, simply by doing it and sharing his experiences.
You can read her blog here.
A run towards breakfast
I was up bright and early this morning – 4:30AM to be precise. My cousin had invited us to head over to her place for breakfast at 9AM and I decided that I would run over and work up an appetite. Truth be told I don’t need a run to work up an appetite but I figured it would help burn off the Easter eggs. My cousin lives on the other side of Auckland in Titirangi so I would be running to a place I’d never run before.
I left the house just after 5:30ish while it was still dark and headed out towards the waterfront. I took a bit of a blurry photo of a big passenger liner that was docked outside the Hilton hotel:
I had to do an emergency bathroom stop in the Viaduct area. Fortunately there was a public restroom available so public indecency charges were avoided.
The sun was starting to come up as I headed through the marina. I ran under the harbour bridge that is in the background:
I headed back towards the North Western motorway via Ponsonby as I knew there was a bike track that travelled alongside the motorway that I was keen to run along. After a few false starts I found the entrance to it and headed down it.
The run was pretty uneventful up until the last ten km or so as the gradient started to trend upwards. I must admit it was a real struggle and my pace slowed right down. I finally reached the high point and thought that I would be able to blast down the last two km as the road was heading down pretty steeply but it was actually almost worse than climbing up as the impact on my tired legs was rather jarring.
Anyway, I finally arrived (a little late) and sat down to a fabulous breakfast of croissants and hot cross buns. The easter eggs after were just the icing on the cake!
This was my longest run ever at 31.14 km (almost 20 miles) at an average pace of 6:45 min per km. Those hills really killed my average pace today but I was going for distance not time. Overall a good cross Auckland run. I was very glad that my wife had driven the car there and I didn’t have to run back as well!
Auckland Marathon 2009
Well, call me nuts but I’ve entered my second marathon before finishing my first!
Entries for the Auckland Marathon opened today so I thought I’d get in quick.
Tickets sold out quickly last year so if you are thinking of doing it then go buy your ticket now!
A damp run
One nice thing about having a treadmill at home is that I’m more inspired to run outside! Ironic I know.
It was raining yesterday morning but I was really keen for a run outside so I did 10.2km before work.
It was a great run and I really enjoyed it. I’m hoping to do a 30 km run this weekend but we’ll see how I go I guess.
My longest long run yet
Daylight savings came to an end in New Zealand last night. That normally marks the end of summer and I for one am glad. I much prefer running in our mild winters as I hate the humidity of summer here in Auckland.
Anyways I woke up at 10 to 5 then realised that with daylight savings it was only 10 to 4. So I was up bright and early for this run! I grabbed a quick bite to eat, 2 coffees and then headed out the door.
It was quite nice running in the dark as there was plenty of light due to streetlights being on. However, when I got to Cornwall Park it was absolutely pitch black as there are no streetlights in there and the trees block out the starlight. It was quite cool running along the street not really being able to see anything.
I then ran along the same route I took on Friday and the sun started coming up. By the time I got to Newmarket it was starting to get pretty light and the sun reflected off this piece of art that I’ve run past many times but only really noticed today. It’s funny how that works.
I got into the Domain after that and ran down Lovers Lane (a walking track) which was quite dark at times too. I thought of my lovely wife as I went down there and made a mental note to take her for a walk along that track as it’s quite nice.
I was really enjoying the run and at this point I headed down towards the port. It was really quiet – I guess most people were enjoying the extra hour in bed rather than being out running. Weird I know!
I ran around the Hilton Hotel and then headed out along Tamaki Drive and then back home.
Overall I did 28.55 km and it took me just over 3 hours. Slow but my longest run ever so I’m pretty stoked with it. Average heart rate was 136 so it was definitely an easy run.
2 months to go to my marathon!
A glorious morning run
I love my new treadmill and having been rediscovering my running mojo on it.
Having said that there is nothing like getting outside on a beautiful predawn morning in Auckland. I had a 7am appointmentso I decided that it would be a good move to wear my running gear, get my wife to drop me off and run in to work afterwards.
I started off by heading towards One Tree Hill (which still has no tree on it) and running around it. I then headed in towards the city via the Domain.
It was a beautiful time of day to be out running and I just really enjoyed it. I think I’m going to make a point of trying to run in at least one day a week.
My new treadmill is pretty good. The only problem I have with it is that the distance travelled seems to be coming out about 7% low so I’m going to try and tighten the belt a bit and see if that helps. For example if I run at 10KPH for an hour I should travel 10 km. The machine says I’ve done about 9.3 km so that’s not good.
March has been a bit of a disaster on the weightloss front as I’ve consistently gained. I haven’t really been eating too unhealthily I just been eating too much. Such is life I guess.
Daily Mile
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RoadID
