You Spin Me Right Round The Bays

First of all, I'm not back yet. But, there was an event, and I'm all about the event reports, so here you go :-D

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It's been just under a year since I first did Round The Bays, a fun run that starts off in Auckland's Central Business District and winds around some delicious coastline.

There wasn't the pre-race nervousness of past races. I really took this as an opportunity to chill out, not do anything too serious, and have a good time.

I'd done NO training for it whatsoever. Not even a 20 minute walk - even though I had told myself I should, would, and even wrote it into my training program, I never took it as seriously and decided, "Well, it is a FUN run after all, why not just have a good time with it?"

Unlike last year, I seemed to know a whole host of people doing the race. A group of people I know through Body Jam at Les Mills were entering, I knew Andrew was going to be doing it, Amal was doing it through her work, and The Fat Lazy Guy was having his first attempt.

It's hella hard trying to meet up with people during the race - I knew that from last year, where I was texting Worker Jay something ridiculous trying to find a way to meet up - so even if you do know someone, unless you start the race with them, it's very VERY difficult to find them later.

Which is why I was relieved to know people through Les Mills this time.

However, it wasn't to be. Out of the 5-6 people that I thought were going to do Round the Bays, only 1 of them entered. And, they were running the thing, so they had to be on the other side of the road.

Which left me on my own.

I tried to take a photo of myself walking up to the startline, though a kind gentleman stopped and offered to take this wee snap of me.

Yet in some weird way, I felt like I wasn't alone. Check out the badge I'm sporting.

It says, "Somebody in Colorado loves Me". My beautiful friend Christie sent me this, and I thought it was very appropriate to wear it today. In a way, it made me feel like she was with me, so I wasn't really alone at all.

I made my way up to the start line, eager to get going. However, as the start time approached, it was announced that a bus had lost a wheel and was blocking the race course, delaying the start time for another 15 minutes! None of us were impressed, but what can you do? It's just one of those weird crazy flukes where you go, "Of ALL days?!?!"

I tried to take a few photos of myself amongst the mob to pass the time.

Hhaha, I look like I'm crying, but really, I'm not! I'm happy as hell to be there amongst the thick of it all :-D

After the delayed start, we were off and I began my walk. I wasn't sure about what sort of pace I was going at, what pace I should be going at... all those normal things that fill my head whenever I go for a race. In a way, it was kind of liberating to be doing a fun run and really not care about trying to set personal bests, etc. My goal was to get through the race without doing any extra damage to the ankle. I had it strapped up, just to be sure. (I admit it, I haven't been very good at doing that since the physio sent me on my merry way.)

Because this year I wasn't nattering to anyone, I went into a weird zone, and observed the atmosphere around me.

This ridiculous mob of people down Tamaki Drive seemed to go on forever. I would've loved to have seen a satellite image of the walk, it must've been quite something to behold.

It was an absolutely stunning day. I thought the conditions were perfect last year.

Oh hellz no.

They were perfect this year.

Not a cloud in the sky.

No, seriously, take a look for yourself.

And those little white puffy bits in the bottom left corner are not clouds, they're sun distortion through the camera lens thingeymawhatsits.

Normally, this sort of day in March would piss me off - it would be second only to a muggy, sticky hot day. However, there was a cool breeze whipping through the whole of Auckland, and it did wonders to prevent anyone from overheating.

Picture says a thousand words? Maybe I should just stop typing for a bit and let you soak it up.

The grass LITERALLY looks greener on that side.

I was quite nervous about what was going to happen to my poor legs, given the calf agony that ensued after my first attempt last year. They were in agony I guesstimate about 6km in, and given that I had done NO training, I was worried that the fall out would be even worse this time.

However, I kept on going, and there was no calf acheyness. There wasn't even any ANKLE acheyness. I continued to think to myself, "This is too good to be true, they're going to get sore any second now. Right..... now. ... Now? ... Nnnnnnnnow? How about now?"

The only soreness that did eventuate was a bit of blistering on sole of my left foot from the strapping that was supporting my ankle (ahhh so THAT's why I don't like wearing it), but that was manageable.

This meant I was able to continue walking and not be distracted by the pain, acting less like a kid in the backseat on a family road trip all ARE WE THERE YET ARE WE THERE YET ARE WE THERE YET and more like an intrepid traveller.

...

As intrepid as you can be walking down a well known road that you've been down many times before, but what the hell, if you open your eyes, you see new things every day, no matter where you are :-)

Like so!

This bloke was leaning over the balcony of this 4th storey apartment with the hose out, spraying everyone that walked past - showering them with cool watery goodness. I think it was a really lovely thing to do, and having moments like that unfold in front of me continue to make me smile when I think about them years later.

I'm quite proud of this photo. I was moving at the time, so that's why I'm concentrating so hard. Check out the hair. Oh yeah, it be blowin' in the wind. How many roads must a man walk down before you can call him a man and all that jazz.

By this stage we weren't too far from the finish line, though ordinarily there is a signboard saying where the halfway point was. I already knew the course so I wasn't too fussed - and just enjoying the fact that my feet weren't in complete agony.

There was a promotion being run by Moro, and this meant that throughout the course, there were several guys stationed with megaphones trying to promote it. Many of the participants thought that they were official race marshals and asked them questions, many along the lines of, "How many kilometres is it to go?"

As we went around to the last stretch of the course, there was a Moro Man with the Megaphone there, and he said, "Ladies and Gentlemen, you're all doing very well, you have now passed the halfway point..." Everyone around him absolutely cracked up laughing since they knew very well that he was being naughty and winding people up. Some poor wee kids around me got a bit terrified though, thinking they still had half of the course to walk, poor things.

I crossed the finish line at 1 hour ~37 minutes. I was pretty close to the start line, so that's probably an accurate reflection of the time it took me to walk the 8.4km - I wasn't going nearly as hard as I could've been, which is why my calf and achilles were all still intact by the end.

Here's a map of the course:

I must say... I liked the change. It was refreshing instead of being all OMG HARDCAWW RAWR to just take it easy.

I rushed over to the barbecue site, gobbled a sausage and burger and got on the bus to get back to town.

I laughed myself silly when I saw the bus that Les Mills had selected to send us back to town.

It gets better!

Given the objective and outcome of the day, I'd say that sums it up quite nicely.