23 May 2021
https://www.strava.com/activities/5341421248
19km, 705m vertical
The Day
I drove Neville and Michal out to Shakepear Regional Park (pickup at 6:45 was about right for an early 8:30am start).
The forecast was for strong easterlies, so the smegs enacted an alternative course that avoided the beach (even though it was low tide) and instead substituted the 'mid' run for the first half.
It was windy, but nothing too nasty and it didn't even (quite) rain :)
The Run
We 3 started strongly (plus Gary Walden, my sometime 50+ nemesis), and ran mostly together for a few kilometers up the first big hill and back down. I felt good, and tried hard on the uphills to put the pressure on :)
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| Near the start. Me, Nev and Michal |
After a bit Michal dropped back a smidge, while Nev sat on my tail relentlessly all day. After 30 minutes we overtook Gary and slowly dropped him further behind. Yay!
The course was very hilly, with a total Z of 705 meters. Lovely grass running for most of it.
Each positive gradient I would smash up and gain 20 seconds on Nev (who would deliberately walk the steep bits).
Each negative gradient Nev would come crashing downhill and catch me back up.
This pattern repeated throughout the run, although each time I gained a little bit more distance on Neville.
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| Me |
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| Neville |
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| Michal |
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| Ed |
At the halfway stage, we were still locked pretty close together, and apparently Michal was only another minute back and never letting us get too far ahead. (although I didn't see him).
I finally managed to put some time on Nev during the hills of the second lap, and managed enough downhill speed to stay reasonably ahead.
Michal almost sprinted enough to catch Nev, but not quite!
I finished in 1:35:31
Nev in 1:37:00
Michal in 1:37:13
Ed Duff and Helen Duff ran for Run Like Crazy for the first time. Nice!
Ed kindly *let* his son Hamish beat him by a minute :)
John and Suzanne were there, with Suzanne making the brave choice to run the original (rock/beach) course for the thrill!
Wrap
I took out the 2nd place in 50+, with Owairaka runner Troy Harold beating me by over 10 minutes! (and coming 4th overall). Hopefully he isn't doing the series - at least I put nearly 3 minutes on Gary :)
It was a fun race, made all the less dangerous (albeit correspondingly less exciting) by the change of course to avoid the coastal rock hopping.
My hamstring was completely fine (yay!).
We all felt good on the day, and Michal did especially well backing up from the previous week's marathon.
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