Land of the Kiwis A runner in New Zealand

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Wow, let me put it out there that today was one of the most jam packed (and best) days I've had in a long time.

I haven't written a running update to anyone (Mitch included) in a long time. Not because I've been particularly lazy but because, up until now, there hasn't been too much of interest. Here's a weekly summary: 33 miles, 53 miles, 57 miles, 67 miles. That's really all you need to know. All mileage was at a steady effort and I've just been getting back into the grind and plugging away like I did last (northern hemisphere) summer. The difference? I'm 100% healthy! I'm hoping to keep it that way by focusing on the new calf/glut routine, yet keeping with past ankle/flexibility/drills that I found useful under Mitch's watchful eye. So now that you're caught up in under 5 sentances, let me narrate the result of that work.

I'd been looking forward to today's 2k XC race (steeples included) for some time now. Not just because I love racing, but because I was going to get an experience I hadn't before and may never have again: International XC! Man we're a bunch of wimps in the States, running around on manicured golf courses and calling it rugged XC. Today however, I got a dose of kiwi XC and "Hey Mikey, I think he likes it."

Lead up: Yesterday, I meant to only do 45min to freshen up for this race. That plan was confounded when I hit the restroom mid run. I only realized the significance of said event when I returned to the door of my apartment and realized my keys were no longer in my possession. Thus began the second half of my run, a 40 minute out and back, with 20 of those minutes in earnest prayer the keys had not been noticed and nabbed. Fortunately, they were sitting right where I absently placed them and 85min after it began, I finished my Friday "shakeout" jog.

So today I was once again in the "Screw it" mood, happy to just bake in the sun and enjoy the scenery. Man, this is real New Zealand. I haven't realized how much time I've been spending in the city! It's been 3 months since I saw the grassy hills and dells of the rest of the island, but today, our race was enveloped by rolling hills of cow-studded farmland (I've never seen cattle so fit, not even on Stone Hill). I jogged the course with a smile on my face. Well, that is until I saw the course. There were 6 hurdles total (the last of which was a meter high and at the top of a ridiculously steep climb) and 1 murky stream. I was in for some fun alright, but would I survive this "fun"?

Eventually, I donned my borrowed Scottish club singlet and took my place on the line next to the Kiwi 1500m champ, Hamish Carson. My goal was always to stick with him and push him through the line. However, when the horn sounded, and we leapt off the line, I saw my hope run away from me as fast as the long-haired fellow I sought to push. So 400 flat meters in I found myself in no man's land, 20m in front of the peloton but 20m back of my opponent. However, I felt a flicker of ambition again as I realized Carson was no longer pulling away from me. Soon after  awkwardly clearing my first two ever steeple barriers, the competition ceased to matter. The course is what captured a majority of my thought and 800m in, 4 steeples down, it was just me against the course. This might be why I was surprised to come up on Hamish and gave little thought to passing him as we began our first gradual incline. The move I thought stupid at the time (why would I lead on a course I'd never run before?) turned out to be the right one as I discovered Hamish was practically gasping for air at this halfway point in the race. I suppose that's what you get for burning rubber out of the blocks buddy. To his credit, he was going for the course record, and neither of us would have run as fast if he didn't take the chance.

After the gradual incline, we pulled a U-ey and headed right back down... towards the stream. Now, about 4 steps from the water, it occurred to me I had made a mistake during my earlier warmup scouting expedition, and was now lacking a crucial bit of intel -- Water depth. Not that I think any of the spectators minded. I'm sure it was an entertaining sight when I took the leap of faith and landed 6 inches earlier than my best guess of knee height. Fortunately for the rest of the world, a camera was on scene to capture the event in stop-motion.

The course got really interesting for the remaining half mile and, for this reason, kept my mind off of the burning in my legs. Then, quite suddenly, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself 100m from the line and I dashed home to tag off the next leg in the relay (oh yeah, this was an XC relay with 6 members to a team). It finally donned on me what I had accomplished and several other bits of information brought a new smile to my face. Not only did I have the fastest time on the day, but one of the fastest ever, and in fact running the race faster than even Nick Willis had done in his lifetime! I'm going to take this as a really good sign of where my training is headed.

I ran a significant 40min cooldown, taking advantage of the fact I was once again in the beautiful hills and trails of backwater NZ. I finished the meet with some small talk and a nice juicy sausage hot off the "barbee".

The rest of the day was spent visiting a friend in the area, playing a little 2 on 2 basketball, and organizing an "American-style" party with Cary, jointly for his birthday and my farewell.

Well that was the "Good". The "Bad" and the "Ugly" are what happened that night and the next morning, but I'm not going to elaborate on that...

Suckers!

Hi mom