Breaking the ten mile barrier

It's nearly midnight on a Saturday night and I'm typing this whilst wearing a head torch because the lights blew in my flat this evening but I am so incredibly stoked about today that an update needed to be written. Today my mind triumphed over my matter and I completed the oldest road race in Auckland, the Glen Eden 10 Miler. Not only did I complete it, I loved every second of it.

Last night I'd resisted the temptation to stay out late with all my awesome friends and get a bit drunk on free cocktails (willpower, I didn't know I had it) and go home early in anticipation for this event. This led me to feel a bit crap about the whole endeavour. The marathon is now three months away (exactly, at least for another half hour anyway) and it's causing me to pike on fun social things. The distance and supplied map (with frankly TERRIFYING height graph) left me feeling out of my depth in terms of being able to complete, and the fact they anticipated everyone finishing within 1:45 made me feel like I was punching WAY above my weight with this one. This wasn't a "Fit is fun! All fitnesses catered for!" event. This was a "You must be this fit or higher to enter" and I felt like I'd been caught out standing on a book. It was with a sense of extreme trepidation that I drove out to Glen Eden on a gloriously sunny afternoon. Could I do it? Could I hit ANY of my goals for this event? I had nightmares of being picked up by a tail end charlie van and removed from the course for extreme slowness.


Thankfully, the Glen Eden Harriers are the friendliest bunch of runners you could hope to meet. After registering I was given a ten minute head start on the gun so I wouldn't finish too far behind the pack, and I even got my own photo taken of the off! Every marshal had a positive word and once I started being overtaken (by about the third kilometre) other runners were full of encouragement as they nipped past. Weirdly, knowing the massive hill was coming made it easier to handle and I was able to give a happy response to the overtakers even after three k of incline! The beautiful scenery of the Waitakeres helped and I got caught up in being somewhere new.

I had aimed to complete the run in 2 hours and felt pretty good to pass the half-way mark at 59:30. Unfortunately the next 2k consisted of the steepest part of the hill and my speed, erm, decreased. HOWEVER I managed to keep running (or at least making a running motion with my body, the speed aspect not so much), only taking a few walking steps at the the blessed water stop at the 10km mark. It was about here that the plethora of sticky plasters I'd put on to prevent bra-chafing came off, and my new trainers decided to start giving me arch problems (back to the shop tomorrow, sadly) However, I was rejuvenated by the refreshment and the last few inclines were taken with good humour and the final descent into Glen Eden was done pretty quickly, though as I could feel my legs feeling incredibly heavy on the flat I doubt I'd have run the whole way without the steep descent. I romped home in 2:03 (according to my watch), a proud last place but absolutely overjoyed at how I'd done. I got a warm congratulations from the timekeepers, who humoured me with my revelation that it had been the furthest I'd ever run and one chap even took my transponder off for me as I must have looked in no fit state to manipulate anything off my foot.

The club had laid on an afternoon tea for the runners and I gave in to my ravenous belly and had some cakes, pies, cookies and two cans of diet coke before the prizegiving (unfortunately my belly rebelled against this feast once I got home- too much, too rich, too soon. Oops).

Spot prize!

Excitingly, I managed to win my first running spot prize! As you can see, it's a lamp and some place mats. I actually needed a lamp so that's rad, but placemats would require a dining table so we'll have to see what else I can do with them. I spoke to a fair few of the harriers and found them to be extremely friendly and approachable, which makes me think that joining a club might not be such a dumb idea.

I was considering trying my luck at the Taupo half marathon next weekend but as they've upped the prices I may go check out the YMCA marathon club instead. I shall report back!

I feel like I've crossed a massive barrier with this event. If I can run ten miles, I can run 26.2 miles. If I can grit teeth for two hours, I can grit them for five. If I can run up THAT hill, I can run over the harbour bridge. I thought to myself on the drive there "If I fail this, then the marathon is over". Looks like we're good to go for a while yet...

Event goals


Complete (done)
Run entire event (done)
Complete event in two hours or less (close!)


Body report


Massive blister on arch of left foot and toe on right foot (taking shoes back for refit)
Cuts/chafing from sports bra despite taping (new bras in transit!)
Stiffness and ouch from not stretching properly after run (don't do that again- stretch before cake, always)
Sick from too much cake too soon after event (just because there is a massive spread doesn't mean you have to try all of it)