One Scary Tunnel!

Ann-Marie and I drove all the way out to Mission Bay for the Cathay Pacific half marathon only to find that it had been cancelled due to an expected tsunami on the East Coast. There was an earthquake in Chili that caused the tsunami and the Civil Defence made the call to cancel. A fair call as it is better to be safe than sorry and so we headed back home.

Both of us were still keen for the run and so we drove over to Lower Huia Dam which is along the West Coast and run a track out there. It is a hilly run, 6ks to the end and 6ks back to the car. 12ks, not quite the 21 that we were hoping for but exercise all the same. We ran up the first hill and onwards up a few more climbs until the track evened out. Ann-Marie runs at a slower pace and seeing as we were only doing 12ks I wanted to try and run it as fast as I could. I had prepared myself for a half marathon and so I needed to make this run worth while. Soon the gap between us grew. Ann-Marie warned me of the tunnel and suggested we just run to it unless feeling brave enough to go through. I had forgotten about the tunnel and have NEVER run through it on my own. When I reached it, well, I didn't want to go in on my own and so for a moment or two I hovered and hoped my friend would catch up so we could go through together. I'm not very brave at times!

Deep breath and hoped and prayed I'd get through it unscathed and off I went. It was pitch black inside and so I was sure to run in the middle as it was difficult to determine how far away the sides were. There is a bend in the tunnel and so you can't see the end until you get most of the way through when finally there is some natural light for guidance. SILLY REALLY! At the end I turned around and headed back knowing that there was a fair few climbs ahead and I decided that I wanted to keep running hard once at the top of each hill instead of slowing down to recover.

I found this was good training from when I used to run with the chaps from Watercare during the training for my first marathon. They were good, natural runners and I'd call in once or twice a week to join them in a few shorter training runs. The aim was for me to try and keep up with them. I always struggled on the hills and once at the top they'd keep me moving and within a matter of seconds of gentle recovery running they'd pick up the pace and I had to keep up! I HATED it at first but eventually I began to recover a lot quicker. I miss those guys!

I ran the 12ks in 1hr 8mins and so not overly fast but I felt good and strong. It was a shame about the half marathon as I was really looking forward but such is life. Just the OXFAM event to look forward to now which is in April...Next training session will be Monday night with 2 of my team mates.