Run Like You Stole It!

From Rotorua

On my birthday, I felt inspired and signed up for the Rotorua Marathon, which would be my first international marathon. After a couple of weeks of rest from our South Island adventure, I had only five weeks of training until the marathon. I laid out a five week training schedule and worked it around our other adventures. It has been challenging getting in my training, while traveling, but it has also been a lot of fun. Parker runs with me when I need the company or if I was not motivated. We have ran on beaches, capes, tracks, country roads, major roads, around town, around lakes and on volcanoes.

The marathon challenges Lake Rotorua, the course circles the whole lake.'Take on the Lake' is the slogan. It is NZ's biggest and toughest 42 kms. I went to the start line, as always, with full respect of the distance ahead and ready to accept the pain that I was about to literally run into.

I met Varsha at the start with the 4:30 group. It was her birthday and her first marathon. We became instant running buddies and ran 15k together. After assessing my first hour, my legs were strong and I decided to pick it up a bit and separated from my 4:30 group. My ultimate goal is a sub 4, my PR is 4:09 and I coach at 4:30. With only five weeks training, I was hoping for anything between 4:30 and a sub 5 hour time.

Parker and the Silver Bullet followed me around the lake and cheered me on the whole way. They say that the race doesn't begin until mile 20, 32 kms. I got myself to the 20 mile mark, then I really dug in. It hurt but I felt great. I had a solid run and a strong finish at 4:20:25. 42 kms is no joke. What a long run.