SBS Christchurch Half Marathon

An article by Debi Hazelden    1 Comment

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It was an early morning the day of the race. I had everything organised the evening before which meant I didn’t need to think about much. Just routine. I got up at 5am and turned on the pot which had some oats, water, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and raisins. Poured the cooked porridge into a bowl with some milk and yoghurt. Still half asleep I gobbled it down with about 500ml water to drink. Walked straight back to the bedroom and fell back to sleep.

My second alarm went off at 6:30am. I had a shower to wake me up properly. It was freezing so I had the heater on in the bathroom while getting into my race clothes – 4 layers on top, an orca top, a thermal, jacket and puffer jacket. Had a peek outside and it was wet, cold and very dark. I ate a piece of toast with peanut butter and jam, had another 500mls water and all ready for action.

Driving to the race, I managed to find a park just around the corner from the Town Hall where the race was starting. Bingo! I went inside expecting it to be so busy but there was hardly anyone there. It was about 7:45am. I sat down and had an Ems Bar and some water. Mmmm they are great. An easy pre-race snack. There was about 6000 people competing today so very surprised it was so empty. I went for a 10min warmup run just after 8am and ended up being so hot – even though it was raining lightly – I took off my jackets and went back to the hall to wait. Deciding I needed to go to the toilet – what a bad time. I finally made it out of the massive queue and into the start line with minutes to spare. Squashing in with the people who were aiming for 1hr 30mins half marathon.

5861 competitors waddling along at the beginning and having to run around lots of slower runners. I’m not sure why they are way up the front if they are not going to run at a decent pace. I had a wrist band on with the km times on it for aiming for 1hr 33mins. I kept up with these for a while. The first km I was up on the 4:23 I needed to get. The second km I was on track with 8:48, by the 6th km I could feel I had been running a bit fast. At the 10km mark I hit it just over 45mins. That meant an average of 4:30 per km.

There weren’t many supporters out watching the race because of the weather. Although I did see Harita from The Lotus Heart helping out on a stand giving competitors fruit and drinks. Thanks! The next 11km wasn’t so good. I dropped off the pace and averaged overall 4:45 per km. with a time of 1 hr 39mins 55 secs.

It was raining lightly for the race so the shoes were damp. They say it was 11 degrees but it definiely felt colder. Pretty sure the metservice said it was 4 degrees when I turned up at the race. But no wind!! That’s the best thing.

So all in all, a good race. I’m happy with the first half. I beat my last years time by 6 mins. And hopefully I will beat this years time by another 6 next year.

Great to see so many competitors out there in the bad weather!

Beginning of the race - I have my Canterbury Tri Club beanie on

The last quarter of the race. Running up the other side of the river

Running up to the finish line!

Gina Crawford was also running today. For those of you who don’t know who she is – she is a multiple ironman champion and a New Zealander – one of my idols. She did the 10km in a super time of 36 mins 36 seconds. Check out her blog on the race.

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