2016 in review

I've been a little bit slack at writing anything lately and because of that I am quite late at writing my review for 2016.  I know that right at the beginning of the year I had the goal of completing two half marathons.  I had decided on The Great Forest Event (Waitarere) and Wellington Half Marathon.  I met this goal and more.  First up was The Great Forest Event and the best thing about this was I had a training partner for the first time ever and this made all those long runs seem not so long.  It also met I was able to try out some new running areas and I did a number of trail runs in preparation for the event.  I loved it and was even able to find a little go right at the end and cross the finish line with a smile.

I guess part of the problem with such a good run at this event, I thought the same was going to happen when I ran Wellington.  This was not the case unfortunately.  I started off well but I just ran out of go in the last few kms.  The positive was that I finished and it was another half marathon completed.

I came away from Wellington with a few injuries and this put me on the back foot for a while.  I discovered I was wearing the wrong shoes and it was making the whole running experience painful.  Forward a few months, I was improving and a new event of the Manawatu was advertised.  The North Range Traverse and the Humdinger.  I settled for the Humdinger which was 11km but half of this was up hill.  I really enjoyed it and did so much better than I imagined.  Even better I was able to win a spot prize which was entry into Feilding Half Marathon!  That would mean completing 3 half marathons in one year!  And 7 half marathons in total.  After the recent events I decided on no time goal for Feilding but rather to just complete the whole course running (I had been walking in the previous events).  It ended up being my slowest time to date but I ran it all!  I finished the year having run over 1000km.  Such a huge achievement for me.  

Now a new year is upon me.  I have already registered for my first event for 2017 and will be heading to Rotorua in March to complete the Off Road Half Marathon there.  To say I am excited would be a bit of an understatement!  I'm not sure what else is on the cards for this year yet, but I promise to keep updating you all in here.

Until next time ...