A beautiful morning run
My first marathon is 4 weeks away today. That’s a rather scary thought to be honest.
Anyways, today’s schedule called for a 20 miler (aka a 32 kmer for those of us in the metric system). I used map my run (the NZ knockoff at least) to plan out a route that was 32 km long and set off before the sun came up this morning.
The first leg of my run from Remuera out towards St Heliers was beautiful. It was dark out and the sun was slowly coming up and conditions were just perfect. I wanted to head around Cliff Rd and then down to Tamaki drive but I failed to notice my turnoff and ended up running an extra 2 or so km before realising admitting it to myself and turning around. This meant I’d added about an extra 3-4 km to my route so I needed to do a bit of on the spot improvisation and shave a few km off here and there as I ran along.
It turns out I didn’t do such a great job of this and ended up doing 33.65 km which was a bit more than I wanted. Fortunately the last 1.65 km were all downhill so that was a relief.
The only other eventful thing that happened on the run were a big dog chasing me for a bit. I just stopped as he seemed more friendly than vicious and his owner was frantically chasing him down.
One thing you notice when running around Auckland is that 33.65 km is a long way. Boy the marathon is another 8.55 km further than that. On the plus side I’m very convinced I can complete the distance (albeit slowly) but on the negative side it’s a freaking long way!
So 33.65 km in 3:43:27. That’s pretty slow even by my standards but I’ll take it. It wasn’t so long ago that even running 5K was a major event. 
Comments
18 Responses to “A beautiful morning run”
Daily Mile
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RoadID
Looks like a nice day for running.
Don’t blame you for being a tad nervous about the marathon. I know I would be!
Good luck!
Greg at Live Fits last blog post..Striving For Perfection In Fitness
Twitter: livefitblog
Honestly? On the day you’ll get to that 32km mark and sure, you might have a few moments of thinking “still another 10km to go”, but there’ll be so much going on around you and you’ll be so determined to finish that the last part of the race – well – it won’t exactly fly by but it won’t be as bad as you think!
Andrew, I suggest that you use the routing functionality on the Garmin 305 in future so as not to miss any turnings on your planned route. It’s functionality I only came across recently, but it really is an awesome feature.
I also suggest using http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com to create your courses and to upload them directly to the device (Summary Tab – Download section – tcx option for the 305). Have a quick re-read of the manual for a refresher on how this works, but you’ll wonder how you survived without it for so long when you get used to it!
Fair play regarding the full – every right to be nervous – you have to treat that distance with respect or she can be vicious!
Chriss last blog post..Another bad run
I’ll definitely give this a go. I didn’t know you could do this actually!
Twitter: AndrewENZ
Getting from 32/33/35 to 42 is easy peasy. Apart from somewhere about 37-38k in! Yesterday was such a lovely day for running- and 3:43 is a perfectly respectable time for a long, slow, run,
Kates last blog post..Retraction
Being a little nervous is a great thing … you need to respect that 42.2!
Andrew(AJH)s last blog post..Wherefore art thou?
SO EXCITING.
I hope some day to ever get close to running a marathon.
Counting down with you,
Miz.
MizFits last blog post..PB2 (video post).
Slow (and that’s debateable), steady, and definitely LOOOOOONG. Nice run!
Vavas last blog post..Sporting Life 10K – Race Report
Did that dog look like Cujo from Stephen King’s novel by any chance? Just kidding. I am glad it wasn’t a pit bull or even a chihuahua.
You have every right to be nervous about your FIRST marathon. I am excited for you. Believe it or not, the first few minutes into the marathon, you are going to have a BLAST!
Teds last blog post..Pictures from NJ Marathon/Long Branch Half Marathon
Twitter: seetedrun
Yeah, it’s great. It’s part if the navigation functionality of the 305 – easy to miss if you don’t have call to use it. Brings up warnings before turnings, a compass to the next waypoint, etc – very handy.
Good for you, Andrew. I’m glad that I’m not the only one who occasionally misses the correct turning point to achieve the desired distance. Nice, in sum that it was that much too long, and not that much too short (where you’d have to add extra at the end.)
Run strong.
Waiting is the hardest part and these last few weeks will likely be maddening! The important thing is to enjoy your running and not let the mind win!
David H.s last blog post..5 miles – Where’d that come from?
Twitter: runningbecause
Simply awesome. In a couple of years we’ll be seeing you TV running those 100 mile ultramarathons…
John’s Weight Loss Blogs last blog post..5 Things I Have Learned Since Gaining The Weight Back
Twitter: johnisfit
You’ll do fantastic. The last few miles are the easy ones! (Don’t believe all that b.s. you read about a wall
)
It’s all taper from here. Enjoy.
Jeffs last blog post..Frederick 2009, Half of 2008
Are you still training using HR data? I bet the encounter with “man’s best friend” sure got the blood flowing.
Best of luck on your final weeks of training for the marathon.
That looks exciting! Good luck on your big run.
Lyns last blog post..The Deep Issues Behind the Fat
Great blog! I found it through AJH, and yep, he’s a top bloke.
My biggest hate is being chased by dogs when I’m running. I carry a stick called “Ecky Thump” and I’m not afraid to use it!
Audreys last blog post..Doin’ The Happy Dance!
Good luck on the Marathon but you have been training hard so it should not be a problem.