A Funny Story

A shadow of three of our team
Sharon, Philomen and I left home in New Lynn at 6:30am to start our 'time on feet' training session. No hills as such, just distance to cover and a good way to assess out ks per hour at this stage of our training program.

We headed up through Avondale towards Mt Albert. Just after Pac n Save we met a group of youngsters fresh out from a party and off home, or so we assumed. There was a bit of banter between us which was amusing and onwards we went on with a whole lot of laughter behind us. This is where the funny story began...

We set a good pace for ourselves. Sharon was trying her new shoes out, complete with new socks and it didn't slow her down. I could feel a strain in my foot and so walked as fast as I could although painful at times. Because of the distance we were hoping to cover I perhaps over compensated to alleviate the pain and strained my other leg but it is a matter of working through it and keep focused on our end result.

A month out from out event there is no room for injury at this critical stage but I am also aware that our training is not yet complete and the more we do now the better it will be for us on the day.

Three hours in to our hike we were in town and walking up Queens Street from the Via Duct towards K Rd. As we passed Britomart...the funny story continues...who should we meet but the group of youngsters that had just finished partying! They travelled into town by train and we walked. The girls looked at us and if ever there was a look of absolute shock and surprise, well, we saw it. They pointed to us and stood dumbfounded as they tried to work out what to say while the chaps continued joking with us as they had done earlier.

What were the chances of bumping in to people we had seen hours before in a completely different part of town? We laughed all the way along Queens Street!

We stopped for some refreshments back in Avondale and arrived back home with 4hrs and 45mins of walking time after covering 33kms. Over this distance we are on approx 7kms per hour. Still too soon to predict how fast we will go on the day but at this pace we should be able to reach our goal of 100kms in 17hours. Here's hoping!