Not darkness nor rain, nor freezing bloody northerlies will keep a little old man from his chosen assignment

That’s another marathon done, my second one.

This was a hard day. The race started in the rain, with strong northerly winds, and we ran in the rain most of the day as the strength of the winds increased. Byt the time I reached the furthest point and turned for home the wind was blowing steadily at around 37km/h, with gusts of 100km/h. That’s enough to stop a little old man dead in his tracks.

Things started off a little shaky. My alarm on my phone went off at 5.00am, as it was supposed to. But the app crashed and wouldn’t turn off and I couldn’t get my phone to turn on. Life does that to me sometimes – it throws little puzzles at me first thing in the morning to see if I’m really awake.

I sorted the phone, eventually and got ready for a fun day out trotting around the waterfront. Everything there went well, and I left my house exactly on time with everything I needed. I arrived at the Westpac Stadium for the start of the race, right when I though I would – all going well so far. Because I’ve done this race before, I knew what was going to happen, so I was pretty relaxed in the leadup to the start.

The ground was wet from overnight rain, but it wasn’t raining much now and the winds weren’t all that bad, really. I wandered around the stalls, and found some merino wool base layers on sale for the event at super-cheap prices. So I was determined to buy one when I got back to the finish.

The time passed reasonably quickly and we were called out to the start for the race briefing. That’s when the weather decided to arrive. The wind picked up and it started really raining, on purpose.

A bunch of us hid under an entranceway during the briefing, watching the rest of the runners get soaked before the race even started. But then it was time to move out and get ready to run.

We got a short countdown and we were off! I was right at the back, so I was a bit sheltered from the wind to start off with. But I soon picked up the pace and threaded my way through the pack. I was running at a nice strong pace, despite the rain and puddles, and I felt quite good.

There were no bands or stands or people dressed up on the side of the track this year. They were all sensibly still tucked up in bed. I passed one group of four with their legs tied together, doing the marathon walk (I think). They were still smiling at this stage, but not so chipper when I passed them later on coming back.

We passed through the bays and headed around Evan’s Bay towards the Mirimar peninsular. That’s when the wind really got stuck in and hit us. Now we would have a head wind to run into as we headed out and around the peninsular. I battled into it until two large guys from Auckland passed me. They were running at a pace just a little faster than I would have liked, but I snuck in behind one of them and got instant relief from the wind.

Aha! I thought. Now here’s a good trick. So I ran behind them until the aid station at Shelly Bay, where they stopped for a drink, and I carried on. They passed me later on, but they were going too fast for me to stay with them. And then I needed to stop to go to the bathroom.

But undaunted I sought out other tall people to run behind. This worked sometimes, but most of the time I was on my own, bent forward, being buffeted by the wind and pelted with freezing cold rain.

I was still putting in good times though, and at the half-way mark I was still in the running to finish in under four hours. My half marathon time last year was: 2:02 in ideal running conditions. This year, it was 1:57 (5 minutes faster) in really crappy running conditions. I was really happy about that.

All I needed to do was hold on to my pace, or slow down a little, and it was all on. The weather had something to say about that.

I got to the final turnaround at Breaker Bay (27kms) and dug in for the run home. My right leg instantly flared up – IT band syndrome. I haven’t had to deal with that for a long time. But I knew what the problem was and how to fix it once the race was over. For now I’d just have to tough it out until the end.

The winds picked up and the rain came back harder than before. It was becoming difficult to just keep moving forward. I’d come around a corner and wham! I’d get hit by a gust of wind that would stop me in my tracks. I pushed hard to keep moving and my calves screamed in agony at the sudden loading.

Things were now getting harder and harder. My split times went from hovering around 5:45 to around 6:30. I was still pushing hard, but I just seemed to be getting nowhere fast.

There was one kilometre, around the Shelly Bar aid station that was pretty sheltered, and my time for that one was back down to 5:38. So I still had working legs if I could just get out of the wind. But this is Wellington – getting out of the wind is a luxury, and marathons are generally light on luxury.

From the 34km mark to the end, it was a case of running when you could and walking when it was too windy. By now I had slowed down quite a bit. I knew the sub four hour time was not do-able, so I just concentrated on getting to the finish as soon as I could. That mean more walking than I wanted, but there was little else I could do. I was now too knackered to battle the wind.

The walking also meant I cooled down, quite rapidly. I was now struggling with legs that were frozen and didn’t want to run any more. My average pace for this section had dropped to around 8:30 min/km.

But each step, even when I walked, was bringing me closer and closer to the finish line, and I knew it was just a matter of time. I glanced at my watch and couldn’t help but laugh, walking along with the rain pouring off the brim of my cap, jacket flapping like an angry red chicken. I did the maths in my head, and it was pretty certain that I’d finish in almost exactly the same time as last year.

And as it turned out I did.

I hit the ramp that crosses the motorway and leads to the stadium, and put my legs into the highest fear they had left. I pounded up the slope and tore across the bridge at a pace a three legged turtle would be proud of. I kept running, despite the wind and rain, all the way to the finish.

Interestingly this year, after I crossed the line, I didn’t have a bunch of medics rush up to me asking if I was alright. I think they might have been off having a coffee somewhere. Either that or this year I didn’t look half dead as I crossed the line. (half drowned maybe).

I was thankful the race was finished and I could go inside out of the weather, and get warm. But warm didn’t happen. I was still frozen, so I gobbled my banana, bought the merino base layers I’d seen, and headed for the car. The weather was no kinder as I traversed the open, wind and rain swept carpark. But one inside my car, I could put the heater on and try to shiver less. That didn’t work either.

I was still shivering uncontrollably when I got home and it took two cups of tea to get me right again. (I’m not complaining about that)

Apart from the IT band nonsense in my right leg, everything else seems to have come through fine. So I think I’ll be ok for the WUU2K in two weeks. I’ll have to make sure I’m wearing my waterproof socks for that one though.

I had a look at my results from last year and compared them to this year, and they are almost exactly the same. When you fudge around a bit to even out the number or participants, the number almost match perfectly.

On the surface that would suggest no improvement over the last year. But last year the weather was nice, and this year it wasn’t. Last year I was nearly dead at the finish line, and this year I wasn’t. I beat my half marathon time by 5 minutes this year and was still able to run sub 6 minute kilometres at 3okms into the race. In the last 10 kilometres I was running/walking at pretty much the same pace as I ran last year – into driving rain and a strong headwind. So, yeah, I think there has been improvement, and I’m happy with that.

Check out my official stats below.

2018 results

2017 results

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Who else can tell you stories about impersonating an officer, stealing a military aircraft to go on a booze run, or steal military aircraft and go on an unsanctioned bombing run - and that's all before he turned 18!

Check out @len.george and find out what other madness he got up to!

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