The state of things: 2009
Well 2009 is at an end and it is time for a bit of a reflect.
Things that went well:
I should rename my site Andrew is Fit as my fitness level is higher than it has ever been. I guess a more accurate title might be Andrew is getting fitter!
I ran two marathons this year! I have to admit those experiences were pretty good. I especially enjoyed the first one. I felt super afterwards even though it was pretty tough during the race itself. I also ran two half marathons and various shorter distance races. The one I enjoyed the most was running with my wife for her first half marathon.
It has been wonderful running with my wife to be honest. It’s quality time together of the sort that neither of us thought we’d ever share.
Things that didn’t go that well:
I’m a bit peeved at myself as I’ve gained rather than lost weight this year. At one point I was within 8 pounds of my goal weight but now I’m back to about 29 pounds to go. Having said that it’s not too bad as I know what works for me and I’m going to make an effort to focus on healthy eating this year.
I find that when I get stressed I still resort to eating. It’s been quite a stressful year for me for one reason or another. When you combine that with the hunger increase caused by marathon training then the scale tends to move in the way that you don’t want!
Overall I think the year has been a good mix of things that worked well and things that didn’t quite work. It’s all about finding a healthy balance so I’m going to have a think about how to improve my life in 2010.
In other news I went for a 10K run this morning and it was great!
I went running on my holiday
As the title of this post suggest, I’ve been on holiday. My parents and brother live in Christchurch so we pretty much always go down for Christmas. The last time I was in Christchurch was for my first marathon experience but fortunately the weather was a lot better this time!
Now that I’m a runner the thing I notice most about Christchurch is that it is flat. Very flat. Which is pretty good for running to be honest!
I did quite a few runs but one that I quite enjoyed was running along the Little River cycle track. This track runs where the train lines used to be (trains don’t run there anymore) and it’s pretty spectacular.
As you can see it is definitely flat:
It runs primarily through farmland so there are lots of cows and sheep along the way:
The rocks on the path make the run a bit difficult on the ankles unfortunately so we abandoned the track and ran on the road after a while.
Overall spectacular scenery and a good run. I had great company too. That’s my wife on the road!
Away on holiday
Back on the 28th! Have a great Christmas all!
By popular demand: My wife reports on her 1st half marathon
I suppose I better get on with this one before I forget what it feels like!!
Sunday, 29th November, I got up at 4am and had a rather bad night of sleep actually… and got ready for the half marathon.
It is one that has quite a flat course and I thought, for the first half marathon, why kill myself over the hills! Let’s go for an easy one. Although in the back of my mind, I did wonder… what if I never beat the PR ever after th first one – because it is supposed to be an easier one? 
Anyways, off we went, picked up the race pack on the day, got ready.
I usually have to have toilet break, and I was hoping not needing one on the day, so I literately went to the toilet so many times that morning… 6+ I think, must have been 4-5 times at home and another 2 times there!!
In the end, I still had to run in for a super quick toilet break so I could focus on the run and stop worrying about needing the toilet break!!
It took me over the first 30 mins or so before I was more warmed up and that is also the time we had all the uphill bits. Well 1 hill as expected, till we got up to the top and ran around on a field… I was like, what? you mean there is more hills?! Well more like a small steep uphill footpath that most people ended up just walking up it – due to the slope or the traffic jam!
First 5km was slower than the training run but still keeping good pace. I really did not want to not finish because I’ve gone too fast in the beginning!
Then it pretty much was just a lot of running and listening to my Buddhism lessons on the MP3 player. Music just doesn’t cut it for me. There’s also the looking for the hubby who was running along (not race) with me.
As we got closer and closer to the turning back point, the last 10km (6.25 miles) or so, I started running faster and faster. I normally run faster in the 2nd half as I know, 1) I’m over half way; 2) the faster I run now, the faster I get home/finish!
There was a little bit of hill before getting to the turning back point, I was surprised that I kept on my faster pace and ran up and back. I think I’ve lost the hubby somewhere along the line. Eventually he was too far behind, I didn’t want to stop and wait. So I pushed on even faster.
I remember seeing the back of the people who was on their way back when I ran towards the turning back point. I started passing more and more of them.
At one point, I slowed down a little, after checking the watch thinking, I can’t make it under 2 hours!! Until I saw the next distance marker… 20km when I was expecting to see the 19km one! Then I thought, wooo 5:xx minutes left to 2 hours, can I make it? So I sprint the last kilometre and went for it… thinking, well even if I don’t make 2 hours, I can still make 2 hour 1 min or 2 or 3!!
I ran as fast as I could but just not fast enough to make it under 2 hours!! Although it was quite a good feeling to be able to sprint in the end and passing people who were ahead of me!!
The final time was 2 hours 35 seconds on my watch (pretty much just excluded the toilet break and included all the 5+ water break I had!)
I probably could have made it just under 2 hours if I had not stopped for the last 2 water breaks. Those 2 I stopped and stood there to finish the water and I really needed them!
Here’s the official race result:
http://results.nz.eventdirector.net/View.asp?EventID=3818&Bib=2159
Net time: 2 hour 1 min 35 seconds (the super fast 1 min toilet break)
Gun time: 2 hour 2 min 23 seconds (took almost a minute to get through the start line!)
So I’d say that’s not a bad result. I’ve ran faster than I had ever done for this distance!
Although thinking back, I could probably run faster, because I was ready for another run 2-3 days after the event!
Overall, pretty enjoyable race, probably because it felt more like a leisure training run till the last few kilometres.
It was actually the first time I enjoyed the long run during the run itself!
In the beginning, I was aiming for a 2:30-2:45 finish, as more training runs went pass, I know 2:15 is not an unrealistic goal. Secretly hoping to get it under 2 hours (or beat the hubby’s 1:51 record) but under 2 hours just seems impossible with all the calculations and comparison stats with training run!
So having the final time came so close and if I had bothered to not count the water break, I probably could have done it.
So, I’m very happy with the result. 
Might consider do another one some day!
Oh and almost forgot, the best thing was…. I left the hubby behind for almost 5 mins!! (Although I think it was more because he didn’t really try running faster, rather than I’m faster than him!) But still, I came first
Santa Run 2009
I did the 2009 Santa Run last night and it was great! The Santa run is a 3km fun run where all the participants dress in Santa suits. It was for charity so it was fun and also for a good cause.
Conditions were beautiful:
My wife and daughter came along to cheer me on which was very nice. My little girl loves seeing Santa from about 10 metres away. As soon as a santa gets close she gets scared so it was a bit traumatic to have Dad dressed up as Santa!
The run itself was fun and can be summed up in one word: “HOT!” It is summer here in the Southern Hemisphere.
All in all there were about 800 or so Santas so it was a very red event.
I even managed to get my photo into the local paper which resulted in a bit of notoriety at work! That’s me number 691!
It was a fantastic event and I was very happy that I did it. The atmosphere was wonderful as everyone was happy and the weather was great. We took heaps of photos which you can see here if you like.
I like this guy!
via Eclicity
A pre-work run
I decided to get out for a run before work this morning and I’m so glad I did. My wife and I both work at the University of Auckland and after dropping her off I headed out for my run.
I decided to head out towards Mt Eden and run up to the summit. The views are normally quite good and I always feel rather virtuous after running up one of Auckland’s many volcanoes.
I headed out through the Auckland Domain and then up towards Mt Eden. There is a road that circles up the volcanic cone but I don’t normally like running on the road as there are a few tourist busses that go up quite regularly and the road is not particularly wide. So I normally head up the stairs at the bottom of Glenfell Rd and then take the walking track to the summit.
Going up these stairs is a workout by itself I reckon!
However, once you’re up the view makes it all worthwhile:
I then ran back to work through Newmarket and Parnell. It was a beautiful morning run and I was particularly glad to be able to do it, especially after having a think about this post from Tyler. Do you remember what it was like to be obese? To be honest I don’t think about it that much anymore but I do every so often remember that I never used to do physical activities because I couldn’t. And I’m never going back to that!
In other news I’m actually supposed to be on annual leave at the moment but work is still a bit busy so I’m in finishing a few things off. Hopefully I’ll only have to come in for a few more days this year.
New Push-up Record
I managed to do a record 50 push-ups in a row tonight. I can honestly say that is my best ever so I’m pretty happy.
Having said that I’ve found that (same as in previous attempts) that the step from week 03 to week 04 is very tough. I’ve been unhappy with the form of my push-ups in week 04 so I’ve decided I’m going to go back and redo the program from week 03 onwards and concentrate on good form. I found that I was cheating a bit to get my full quota in week 04 which sort of defeats the purpose of the whole exercise.
50 push-ups in a row! I’m very happy with that.
2009 Adra Half Marathon Race Report
My wife and I ran the Adra Half on Sunday and it was great!
The atmosphere was very relaxed as it is much more of a fun run rather than a serious race. Everyone seemed happy and the weather was great for running. Race number and chip pickup was on the day so we were at the venue by 6am.
We got given nifty little temporary tattoos which added to the fun atmosphere.
The course winds along the coast with only a short uphill detour to run around a local park.
It was my wife’s first half marathon and my job was to just to run along and give her support. This was my first reasonable run since the Auckland Marathon at the beginning of the month so I planned on taking it easy and letting my wife set the pace. She was hoping for under 2:10 but would have been happy with about 2:20 I think.
The first half was great. But at about the 14km mark she started to run a bit too fast for me and the distance between us crept up and up. In the end she actually finished just under 5 minutes faster than me with a 2:00:35! That absolutely blasted her prerace expectations and I’m very proud of her achievement.
I plodded in with a 2:05:26 which I’m very happy with. It’s a good 13 mins or so slower than my PR but I was never going for pace but rather enjoyment. Considering this is the first ever race where I haven’t questioned my sanity during it I think I met that goal.
Here we are at the end both of us looking justifiably happy:
Another highlight was the veggie hotdogs at the end!
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