Where's my bike?

I did a running race.  Yes, going fast without a bike.  Okay, so I don't go very fast without wheels, but I did it all the same.  Megan asked me to do the City to Surf run with her, but I said "no thanks", that the 5km Surf to Surf would be a big deal for me and that I wouldn't want to pay to run such a small distance (can do it for free anywhere, really).  So it was never marked on the calender... until I won two free entries to the damned thing!  I offered my spare entry to Megan and we signed up for the 5km Surf to Surf.

It was an early start for me again, slipping out of the house at 6am which was actually now 7am because of the daylight savings change.  Body clocks don't change so easily though, so the house was in silence and darkness when I left.  I picked Megan up in Cambridge and we drove through to Mt Maunganui, arriving with  plenty of time to spare.  It was nice to be able to take our time to find a park, pick up our race packs and then walk into town to buy Megan some undies.  Megan, I can only organise you so much - you have to do the rest yourself. ;)

The start of the run was cold, with some light rain and a cool breeze blowing onto the beach.  We lined up near the front (why not?) and got underway, jostling, bumping, and elbowing (sorry Megan).  I fell into my slow pace and tried to hold it there.  I was dodging kids who were running all over the place and stopping and starting as it pleased them.  Megan was in front and slowing increasing the gap between us.

I wasn't ready for this.  I had run 5km once, almost 2 weeks prior.  Since then every run I'd done had been cut short with stitch.  Trying to fit my runs in around kids and mealtimes was not very easy.  Not to worry, I was going to give it my best shot.

Smile and wave

We were soon running past the lighthouse on the seaward side of the mountain and I was thinking that we must be halfway.  A couple more little hills and I could see the beach.  I almost couldn't believe I was nearly finished.  Glancing at my stopwatch told me that I had not run for long enough for it to add up to 5km.  One last killer hill and a silly wave to the photographer, then time to descend to the beach and run along the sand (yuck!) to the finish.  22:11 on my watch, for what I think was 3.5kms.  Pretty slow, but okay all the same.  What a long way to come for such a short run!  We had loads of time to relax afterwards, have lunch, hang around for prizegiving, and do a spot of shopping.

It was a really enjoyable day, even though there were no bikes involved.  Maybe I could do some more little runs like this?  No! Don't be silly!