Marathon success

Well as most of you know i set a goal of doing the Auckland Quarter Marathon. I started training a few months ago approx 2-3 times a week.

Sunday the 2nd of November was the Marathon and i spent Friday and Saturday having a quiet night in. The quarter marathon started down in the Viaduct (down by the harbour at 7am) so it was an early morning for me.

Goldman Sachs had a tent and after dropping off my stuff i headed to the queue for the Quarter Marathon. The gun went off to start but as i was at the way back i just kind of shuffled forward for awhile trying to decide what to start my run to (i opted for "Black and Gold" by Sam Sparrow).

I found someone ahead of me who seemed to be going about a pace i liked and just kind of followed him (it started with the guy in the red shorts and then i moved to the Singapore Airlines girls). The course went all along the water. The first 3km breezed by. I got to a water stand but running and drinking does not appear to be a skill i mastered. I got just out of the city and hit a bit of a wall.

There was something beautiful about jogging along Tamaki drive being able to gaze out at Rangitoto Island. It was really nice. But after a short walk i jumped back in to jogging. Around the 7km mark and had to slow down and walked for about 6 minutes.

The course


Knowing i could do 3 km easy pushed me to the end but i was definitely finishing it. I made it to the finish line where Matt was waiting for me and saw i was coming in at 1:15;34!

Rounding the end to the finish


Smiles to the end


Wide view


In the end I made the Quarter Marathon (10.5km) in a net time of 1 hour 10 minutes and 14 seconds! Out of 2,754 finishers i came in 1,421st place. Out of all the women i came in 748th place out of 1793 women.

Champion in Auckland


Needless to say i'm really, really proud of myself. 70 minutes was the best time i could even fathom doing it and am shocked and proud i was able to do it.

Bring on the half marathon next year!