I know I haven't posted much lately (in fact my last post was after my first full ironman in March).
The main reason for that has simply been due to lockdowns. In Auckland we have been in a lockdown since August. This has meant all the events we had lined up from August to December have either been cancelled or postponed.
During the Taupo Marathon at the end of July
The Tauranga Ultra was 50k in length and a road ultra. I have done a 50k ultra before (in 2018 off-road in Taupo). I had a couple of goals in mind for my second ultra marathon. I did the first one in 6:17 so for my second one I was aiming for a faster time. My "A" goal was under 5 hours. "B" goal was under 5:30 and "C" goal was just to beat my previous time. I didn't think beating five hours was unrealistic since this ultra marathon was going to mainly flat and mostly on the road.
When Auckland (and the entire of New Zealand) was put into lockdown part way through August I was still hopeful that the race would go ahead on September 19 as planned. I honestly thought the lockdown would be a week or two at most. Boy was I wrong. We are still dealing with the delta variety and this time I have had a couple of close calls (I have been considered a close contact of a case twice now through my job as a secondary school teacher).
Just before we went into lockdown I was contacted by a friend of mine who is in charge of a charity that is fundraising for research on Ovarian Cancer. They were doing a "Step Up for September" fundraiser and she knew that I was 'active' and asked if I would help by fundraising for the charity (Cure Our Ovarian Cancer). I was keen to help out and my 50k ultra would be the perfect chance to do that. So now I had a further goal of trying to raise $500 for the charity.
What I didn't know when I agreed to help fundraise that my grandmother (on my Dad's side) had passed away from Ovarian Cancer (a long time before I was born). So it soon became a cause that was personal for me.
In my Cure Our Ovarian Cancer t-shirt
As the lockdown continued I soon realised that the race was not going to go ahead as planned. The organisers had three possible postponement dates and were waiting for the country to come out of lockdown so the race could go ahead. Auckland stayed at the highest level of lockdown for 5 weeks, and then stepped down to Level 3 of the lockdown. The rest of the country went to Level 2 which allows for a lot more freedoms, but still not at a level that the race can go ahead.
Eventually the organisers came to the difficult decision to hold the race virtually on the 24th and 25th of October. If I am honest, had I not been fundraising, I don't think I would have gone ahead with the virtual ultra marathon. I had committed and I did not want to let my friend and her charity down (and all the wonderful people who had sponsored me).
The weekend of the race was fast approaching and I was watching the weather predictions. The weather on both days was not going to be great. Both days predicted rains and winds. The forecast for the Sunday was slightly better so Vince and I decided to run our 50k on the Sunday.
Vince was amazing- he decided to support me by running beside me!
A dry start at 7:30am and Vince's ultra mohawk.
We decided to start nice and early so that it wouldn't be so hot when we finished..... we needn't have worried about the heat. It rained for 90% of the morning, the only time we were dry was for the first 3k, then it continually rained for the next 47k. Cold was our enemy rather than the heat.
Our plan had been to do 9k out and back for the first loop and then two more loops of 8k out and back. We started at St Heliers Bay and ran towards the CBD of Auckland, which is a pretty flat run. Unfortunately we had to turn back before we had made it to the 8k mark due to the footpath being blocked for road works. This meant we did 3 x 8k out and back loops and then had to add another 3k out and back on the end to make it up to 50k.
A good friend of ours came and joined us for around 20k which was fantastic. He was someone else to distract us from tired legs. I would love to say we did the 50k easily but there were easily moments when I just wanted to crawl into a ball and stop moving. At the 30k mark we stopped and changed into dry tops and I put on a 'waterproof' jacket.
Before the rain really got started.
We were soon soaked through again. I had a dizzy spell at just before the 40k mark. We walked a little while I ate something. Vince was getting cold so I had to start running again. I am happy to say that once I had eaten something I was able to steadily run the last 7k. I had managed to raise $1000 before we started running, which equated to $20 a kilometre. So every few kilometres I reminded myself how much I had "earned" for example at the 10k mark I had earned $200.
The rain was not our only problem. We had heavy winds as well. On the way out they were behind us, but they turned into nasty headwinds on the way back.
Vince, Ant and I with 3k to go.
So
Our friend Ants who ran with us, stopped at the 47k mark and Vince and I completed the last 3k on our own but were met by Ants and his wife Rae at the finish line.
Our makeshift finish line.
I am really pleased to say that I ended up raising $1600 for Cure Our Ovarian Cancer.
So I more than tripled my fundraising goal.
I didn't quite managed my "A" goal of under 5 hours, but I did make my "B" goal and finished in 5:27- which I think is pretty good considering the conditions.
Surprisingly my time meant that I was 4th place overall, and first female!
Unexpected result!
Will I take part again next year? I am not sure. While I would love to do the actual race we already have a packed year of racing. All the races we were supposed to do this year have been moved into 2022. This means from the middle of January to the end of March we have one or two races every weekend! We are also still hoping to get to Samoa in July for two weeks of running. I have also started doing a Masters degree (while working full time) and I have picked up a second job (it is only a few hours a month- checking the marking of other teachers from schools around NZ) and I guess we should be planning a wedding! (although we are still waiting for borders to open properly so Vince's family from Australia can come). So 2022 is going to be a busy one- I can't wait!