So it is now May 2019 and I have finished my second half marathon in Napier NZ. What an awesome place!
Preparation for this half was nowhere near as good as I would have hoped, my job kept me flying between Melbourne and Canberra and I did not have the luxury of being able to maintain my training regime. Long days, combined with plane travel meant that many of my scheduled training days either did not happen or were cut short. Long runs only happened within the last few weeks and I only managed one 18klm run prior to departing for NZ.
The same group that went to Queenstown in 2017, also decided to do the same run in Napier so we had lots of friends with us. We arrived in Napier a couple of days before the run and we only managed a short 5k run before the actual event. I felt a lot of anxiety as I felt that I had not completed enough training to run my best on the day.
The day of the half marathon
We all met first thing in the morning, slipping into our various groups of 10k, half, and full marathons. Kyle and I boarded the coach to the starting point of the half. It was a very cold morning with a temperature of 2 degrees. The grass was white with the morning dew and pealing of the layers of clothes getting ready for the run was very cold indeed.
Kyle ran with me throughout the run and he kept pushing me to maintain a solid pace. The first 10k went by and our pace was under 6-minute kilometers, or under an hour, and at this rate, we would finish the half in less than 2 hours, That was a big ask for me who had been training at a 6.10 pace. It is actually amazing how the pace can affect your overall performance.
At the 15k mark, I was starting to feel tired and our pace slowed down. And then at the 18k mark, I was toast and just wanted to walk, but Kyle was there and kept pushing me to continue to run. So we walked, ran, and finally crossed over the finish line.
I will give all kudos to Kyle for keeping me on track, although at times I could have just given up.
I finished the run at 2 hours 13 which was a personal best time.
