first up I want to apologize for not posting in a while, but, as many of you know, I have been on holiday these past three weeks and haven't gotten around to it until now.
You may have also noticed that I didn't write a pre report for the March Marathon, but there really wasn't much to write about. The Marathon was self organized and therefore there was almost no planning involved, except for the route, which was done by my mum, which I will get to a bit later. Unfortunately I have been carrying around a cough with me for several weeks now, which also halted my preparation for this Marathon, but let's start at the beginning.
After a relatively easy recovery from my last Marathon, I was able to get into training again pretty much immediately. That went well for a few weeks, before I caught this annoying cough. At that point I simply ran a few short and slow recovery runs each week. The flight to New Zealand didn't really help either with the air conditioning blasting away and not being able to sleep properly. After we arrived, we went on a 4 day hike, which got my muscles working a little, but it wasn't quite the same as running. The week prior to the Marathon went according to plan and I was able to do all the runs as usual.
I didn't have to do much, my mum used her bike tracker to measure the distance and work out a good route and we also used mapmyrun to see if it was accurate and it was. The distance was slightly over 43 KM, so we were confident that it would indeed be a full Marathon, even if there might have been small discrepancies. Up until this point, the weather hadn't been that great, but today of all days was going to be the best day yet - Awesome!
Since we were expecting high temperatures coming up to midday, we wanted to get an early start, so we planned to leave at around 7.15. Mum had planned to run a large portion of the route with me and was going to meet up with me at KM 7.5, so she went ahead and hid some refreshments on her way, so that we could fill up on drinks a bit later. Christine also sent me off and met up with us again later.
Almost on time, at 7.25, we got going. I ran the first 7.5 KM with Ray, my mums' partner. I hadn't really thought too much about the pace I wanted to run and I had to adjust the pace to match Ray and mum anyway and knowing that I had the next Marathon in 17 days and was still carrying that cough around with me, I was quite glad about the moderate pace. So we started an easy run at about 10°C. We followed the river a little towards the Sea, before we crossed it and headed south along the new motorway. As mentioned, at KM 7.5 we met up with mum and said goodbye to Ray. We filled up on drinks and continued on in a slightly slower pace. Mum had only been running 10K runs for the past few months and today she had planned at least 19, so it was quite a stretch for her also. We continued south until we got to Raumati, where we took a right and headed west towards the Sea again. Once we got down to the shore, we took another right and headed back up north. We followed the coast line for quite a bit until we got to about KM 18, where mum had hidden drinks. We had a small break, filled up our drink bottles and continued on north.
Everything was going well at this point. Our next stop was going to be the meeting point with Christine. To get to that point, we had to follow the coast line all the way to the river, before heading east again to find a bridge to cross. A few hundred meters on the other side of the bridge, we found Christine waiting for us. We filled up again and continued on together, Christine being on the bike. At KM 27 it was time to say goodbye to mum, who needed to head up the road for about 3 KM to get home. I was a bit jealous of her, since I had another big loop ahead of me. Later on she told me she managed another 2.5 KM or so, completing the half marathon distance, which was a really great performance considering her previous training levels.
Christine and I continued on north. The ground was quite stony and we had to cross a few roads, which mad for a tough stretch. At KM 30 I had to take my first break. Even though the pace was not exactly fast, running for that amount of time does get very exhausting also. A photo of the picturesque landscape and the scrappy foot path is further below. When the new motorway ended at Peka Peka, we took a left and headed towards the Sea again. It was starting to get really warm, which went a little to my head, as I was starting to experiences headaches. Christine did her best to motivate me, but I had to have a few more break regardless. At KM 40 I told myself no more breaks and tortured myself for the last 2.5 KM, until my watch said 42.58 KM. I added 300 Meters to make absolutely certain that I had completed the distance. It was another 800 Meters until home, but I had no intention of running that bit as well, so I swapped places with Christine and took the bike. Just before we got home, we switched again, so that I could at least run across the "finish line", which mum had decorated quite nicely. Mum then hangs a medal around my neck, to give it a bit of real Marathon flair.
After 10 Minutes, a little stretching and some drinks, I'm starting to feel good again. Then I jumped into the shower and lay under a tree in the garden for an afternoon snooze. I didn't really have much pain at all afterwards and probably could have gone for a run again the next day, which was mostly due to the pace I was running.
Overall I can say that I am happy. It was a nice Marathon and I really got to enjoy it at that pace. Considering I was slightly ill and have another Marathon in 17 days, it was probably for the best anyway.
What also made this Marathon special is that I got to be in the local Kapiti News paper. I have posted a snapshot of the article below, but you can also read the online article
here.
Since I am writing this report rather late, it is not even a week until my next Marathon in Boon on the 2nd of April. I have been doing a few regenerative runs as usual. Since I'm still experiencing that cough when exerting myself too much (I tested it yesterday with a Kilometer at maximum pace), I am still contemplating my plan for the Marathon, as I don't want to risk too much going into it. I do have a long time between the next two Marathons, so I will try to at least stay under 4 hours.
I also still owe you an overview on the donations, which I will publish via Facebook shortly.
Speak to you (very) soon!
Stefan
The running crew!
Meeting Christine at about KM 24.
Quick bite to eat and a sip of coconut water, and on we go.
The scenery on the northern loop. You can also see the new motorway and the rough pathway quite well on this photo.
We are only rarely disturbed by cars here.
With the mountains behind me and pain in my legs, I head up the road.
42.6 KM, the face says it all.
The "Finish" line.
The last few meters.
1st place!
Receiving my medal.
A photo of the winner of Kapiti Coast Marathon! :)
And another photo with my number 1 supporter!
Having a snooze under the tree.
A snapshot of the paper article. Unfortunately their was a little misunderstanding, as the reporter understood that only 10% of the donations would go to the organization, while the other 90% were being used to cover my costs. The online article is correct, but still a bit of a pity.
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