XTerra Shakespear Park 2023
2 July 2023
21km, 417m, 1:48:37
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/11466804820
https://www.strava.com/activities/9370966127
Race Day
The Auckland weather had been pretty terrible all week, and the ground was sodden. In addition, it poured early on Sunday morning !
However, fortunately it mostly stopped raining just before race start, and it was good conditions for running.
It was just me at this event (and the Duffs and Petrussssses). I chatted to Glenn a bit (on his motorbike and his partner having a baby in November).
Racing
I wasn't planning on smashing myself today - I had sprained my ankle a fortnight ago, and was treating this as a hard training run. The lack of my normal peers reduced the required effort levels a lot :)
The course this year went a different route - most noticeably anticlockwise around the beach/rock section. So, after a shortish hill section, I got down onto the rocks for the beach scramble. This went ok... I was very slow compared to some runners, but negotiated the rocks, crevasses, seaweed, mud etc without incident. There were some quite spectacular waterfalls coming down off the cliffs, which was unexpected and pretty!
The rocks seems to finish quite quickly (at the 7km mark I think), and then the hill slogs started. This was fun due to the incredibly wet and soggy and muddy underfoot. There were areas (even on the flat grass paddocks) where every step was sinking into the 2 inches of muddy soil.
But the traction wasn't bad since the ground was soft rather than slippery (mostly).
I ploughed through and had a fun run for 1st in 50+. (with basically no competition)
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