NZ Life

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I signed up to run a marathon relay (42km/4), and my survival was in question. Well, I made it!

The circumstances leading up to the race were particularly bad due to work travel. Angela was in the US the preceding week and only arrived back in NZ the day of the race. But Westport is 3.5 hours from Christchurch so there was no possibility of her providing cheering or driving support. Worse yet was a surprise trip to Japan that I had to make which had me back in Christchurch the evening before the race. I didn’t even bother driving home, instead heading straight from the Airport to the B&B I booked near Buller Gorge. After 20 hours of air travel, that drive royally sucked. But the B&B was nice and I got a good night’s rest. The original plan was to camp in a colleague’s friend’s back yard (and that’s what my three race mates did), but once the Japan trip arose I prompted opted out of that idea.

Despite all of the logistical and physical worries, once the starting gun was fired it was all good from there on. The Buller Gorge route has fantastic scenery, not too much traffic, and the weather cooperated very well. I’m glad I ran the first leg as it was nice and cool. Though I had been running some since around X-mas, the furthest I’d run before the race was only about 3 miles, and the race length was 6.5 miles–hence the pre-race worry! As it turned out, my pace ended up about the same as the 4 mile Steamboat Classic I ran in Peoria two years ago, so suffice to say I was very happy with the result.

Check out the photoset at the usual spot. Select the “Map” view to see where in the world Buller Gorge is.