Official Stats:
Distance: 6.5km (I measured 7.47km)
Elevation: 138m
Time: 1:10:22
Pre-Race
I had been on holiday the week before this race and hadn't done any running - shame on me - however this meant that I went into this race feeling fresh.I love that these races start at 10.30am and this one was the least driving distance away so I stayed in bed maybe a bit longer than I should have. Breakfast ended up being toast instead of the usual porridge and I felt like I could have used something a bit more substantial later on during the race.
On the Course
The first kilometre was flat and since we had not long had a nice brisk 5 minute walk from the car park we decided to just start running with the crowd. It was a mixture of path and wooded trail and there was a bottle neck at one set of stairs |
| //images from Total Sport Xterra Trail Run Series - Auckland Facebook |
1 - 2 km was an uphill section that I mostly walked but we were on a dirt and gravel road and I was super grateful that there was no mud like last time.
2 - 3 km was a mixture of flat and gentle up uphill sections. We were told there would be a water station at 2.5km and we felt like there should have been one here but there wasn't. This made us think that we hadn't even done 2.5k yet and we started to doubt that we had been going as long as we felt we had!
3 - 4 km was a lovely long downhill stretch but it was a super narrow single track and you had to watch your footing very carefully. It was a bit difficult to pass people here but we managed to pass quite a few.
4 - 5 km this was where there water station was!
5 - 6 km there was a bonus water station here too. This was the start of a loop so we saw people coming in the opposite direction and they had the uphill bit, we went off to the left but all the way round I knew that the evil hill was coming! We were in a wooded trail and there were lots of stairs going up.
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| //Image from Google |
6 - 7 km was still in the wooded area but it was more flat and then there were more stairs but this time going down. And then it was the evil hill which wasn't that bad in the end.
7 - 7.47 km it started of with a bit of a downhill and then there was a steepish uphill section but we knew we were close to the finish and there were a couple of people in front of us that we wanted to pass so I dug deep and found some energy from somewhere and made a good finish.
Post Race
I forgot to turn off my app straight away so my time is a bit out and I was sad that there were no One Square Meals this time as I really could have used one. However, I did get my onions on bread and a Speight's Mid Ale so I was happy.After last time I had brought a full change of clothes but thankfully I didn't need them :)
Other in the series:
Nice work on the race! That looks like it was a cool course, too. It's nice when races start later so you can take your time getting ready!