Below is the race report I submitted to my running club newsletter. (AREC)
At the LA Marathon expo, I entered a drawing for an entry to the Auckland Marathon. I won an entry and decided this would be a memorable trip to a country I've wanted to visit since watching the Lord of the Rings. I used my FF Miles to make this happen and hooked up with Marathon Tours. Downtown Auckland is very beautiful and cosmopolitan with a diverse mix of ethnicities. I was especially surprised to see almost 20% Asian and another 15% Maori. Surrounded by water, it reminded me a lot of SF. The air is so clean and the sky true blue. No LA smog, although rush hour traffic can be pretty bad. I was fortunate to spend several days before and after the race for sightseeing. Since this is not a travel report, I'll go on to describe the marathon.
The race starts in Devonport. I got up by 4am to get ready and catch the 5am ferry to Devonport. It's a quick 10 to 15 min ride. Get off the ferry and its a quick walk to the race start line. I rested on a park bench then used the restroom and walked into the start corral. There is no National Anthem before the race. At 6:10am, it was GO time. For the next 3:45 min I had a ground level "tour of Auckland". One highlight was crossing Harbor Bridge and taking in the beautiful Auckland skyline. The aid stations are about 2 miles apart. They provide water, Powerade, or coke. No gels or solid food. Runners are responsible for carrying their own nutrition. The crowd support and volunteers were quite good for a race that starts so early in the morning. They start early partly to avoid the warmer afternoon temps and to reopen the bridge and roads. It was a warm day by New Zealand standards, probably low 70s. It is Spring in New Zealand. The ambulance and ER were busy as several dozen "down" runners were attended to and transported to the ER. This was attributed to the "heat". Personally, I was coming off an injury suffered in a bike crash 1 week before the marathon. I cracked my helmet and have road rash on my left hip, shoulder, and hand. I also had Ironman Florida scheduled for the week after Auckland. I was torn between taking it easy to conserve my energy for Ironman or to run for a PR. Race morning I felt so strong, I went for PR pace. Unfortunately, I missed my PR by a couple minutes. And I paid a heavy price during the bike and run segments of IM Florida, as I suffered from "dead legs". However I am still pleased with my sub 14 hour Ironman finish, 6 days after running a PR pace marathon on another continent. 3 continents down. 4 to go!
