Great Lake Relay 2011

Last Saturday was the Great Lake Relay at Lake Taupo. It was an amazing experience to say the least.  When training began 6 weeks earlier I couldn't even run around the track at Church College.  Infact I only made it half way.  200 metres.  And then I died.  Literally.  But I had a goal and the fact that we trained as a team made it easier to stick to it and push myself.  Don't get me wrong, I hated it every single training run. But then when I finished I'd think "hey that wasn't so bad" and the next night I'd be out there again.
So race day came and I felt really ready.  My leg of the race was only 6.1 kms and was classed as easy.  It was a great feeling starting off and even passing a few people.  The first half of the run was cruisey as it was mainly downhill - I even managed a conversation with a man running beside me.  (yeah, I didn't know he was there and was singing really loud to my i-pod).  Then the hills started.  One of them was 900 metres long.  Yeah, that wasn't fun.  But I kept going and then finally I saw the van again and Jonathan gave me a drink and told me I only had 1.5kms to go.  I was like "yes - I'm nearly done"  But I kept running and running and no finish line came into sight.  I started to think I must be running really, really slowly for it to be taking so long.  At last I saw the changeover station which gave me a boost of energy and I was able to pass a few people.  I tagged Jonathan for the next leg and pretty much collapsed in the ditch on the side of the road.  haha.  I was wasted.

Yep, that's me in the ditch :)

Then the team told me  that the leg had been mis-measured and I had infact run 7.3 kms.  Holy Moly.  That probably doesn't seem like much, especially to people like Paul who ran 14 kms at 2am but for me that was a big deal.  The most I had ever run was 5.5 kms.  So yeah, I was pretty happy with that.  And I even managed to do it in less time than I was alotted for my 6.1 kms.
All in all it was a great day.  It was awesome to be part of such a great team of people.  Running over the finish line together was pretty cool.  We'd made a hair brained goal at a family feed a few months before and actually accomplished it!  It took us 15 hours and 26 seconds to run 156 kms. We came 109th.  Bring on next year!


THE RUNS
Back Row L-R:  Wally, Nigel, Jonathan, Paul, Rene, Sach
Front Row L-R:  Nakita, Kelly, Me, Sam, Kara, Asher