Rotorua Redwood Forest Half Marathon 2007

Sunday 11/03/07: A very tough day...!
OK, so I've finally made it home, unpacked and managed to drag my sorry arse upstairs to the office - shortly to be followed by dragging same to bed! Just had to come online to check the results and post about the race, including a couple of photos. Tomorrow I will post some more about the weekend away (we had a great time) and post some photos from that. But right now - to the point:

#304 - Vicky Montgomerie - 1.42:08
Overall place: 69/571
Female place: 14th
Masters Women 35 place: 8/74

If I'd entered the Open Womens: 4/113 (but I didn't so won't dwell on that!)
Therefore, a Personal Worst in an HM by 5min2secs.

But - believe it or not, I can't say I'm terribly disappointed. It was an extremely difficult course, over extremely challenging terrain. I can honestly say I never could have imagined that it was going to be that hard! Even the winners mentioned how hard this course is in their speeches. In saying that, the first man (Mark Williams) got home in 1.15:42 and the first woman (Sarah Devoy) in 1.28:11.

As Em said in a post about her last race - no excuses here, these are just the facts. The weather was stunning, not a breath of wind and sun breaking thru the clouds by just after the 8.30am start time. Due to my Mum being rather 'technologically challenged' Courtney was in charge of my digital camera! She insisted on some photos while we were milling around the starting area, about 10mins out from the gun!

All smiles at this point. Got underway right on time, organisation was superb. Started quite near the front and almost immediately found myself in a bunch that held 3-4 of the leading females. This made for a rather quick first km (3.51min) but as the first and last kms were the only ones on the tarseal (and flat) it was good to get a good start.

Right after that we hit the first hill and it went on from there really - lots of hills, all over very rough gravel and rocks, narrow and bumpy tracks in some parts, lots of obstacles to dodge and never a dull moment! I spent most of the time looking at my feet, trying not to fall over (alot did - some quite seriously.) I was not only dropped by the leading females on the second hill, but a couple of others sailed past also. There was absolutely nothing I could do about it - sticking with any of them was just not an option for me at that point.

By the 5km marker I was wondering what the hell I was doing there - all thoughts of PBs or placings had gone from my head and I knew it was going to be a matter of digging deep and concentrating on surviving! Sounds dramatic I know, but thats really how I felt out there. I even did something I have never done before - I walked thru (all be it for about 10secs) 2 of the 4 water stations. I'm not too proud to admit it - I was struggling big time. But I was adamant not to give in to any of the hills, no matter how much I wanted to stop on some of them. The other hard thing was that even tho the uphills were generally followed by downhills, you couldn't open up on them at all due to the hazardous terrain, instead it was a matter of holding yourself back and gingerly picking your way down as best you could. I couldn't begin to count how many times I tripped or stumbled on this course!

By about the 10km mark I was also feeling the isolation. Everyone around me was very quiet (too buggered!) and the scenery was not at all as I'd imagined - rather than thru the beautiful, soft pine-needle covered trails where the towering Redwoods are, almost the entire course was thru the 'boring' part of the forest and in fact a lot of the time the foliage on each side of the track was nothing but weeds - or worse rock faces with no foilage at all and no view either! Just then a couple of guys came up behind and they were chatting a little. One thru me a little phrase of encouragement and that was it - I latched on! Got into a (broken) conversation with him about where we were from, what HMs we had done before, etc. This really gave me a lift mentally and physically. We stuck together for several kms and walked the 2nd drink station together, before he went on ahead of me and much later I went ahead of him.

Several more ladies went past me around the 15km mark. Again I didn't attempt to hang on to any of them. The hills were still coming thick and fast, my ankles were aching from the terrain and I had a blister on my left arch as my feet and shoes were moving around so much more than usual. However when I knew I was nearing the 20km mark and a lady overtook me, I was determined to hold onto her. I knew there was a sealed downhill over part the last km to the finish line. I overtook her at the start of the downhill and could hear her right behind me all the way down, but I kept the pace up all the way to the finish line and finished 7 secs in front of her! Courtney and Mum were yelling for me from the side and I heard them, but was otherwise fully focused on getting myself over the line! The commentator 'announced' me as Renee for some reason - which just happens to be Courtney's middle name! Weird!

I don't think I've ever finished a HM so sore. Its sure been an exercise in why you need to develop some mental toughness. Several times out there I reminded myself of the massive task 2P and Ewen and all those doing SFT had taken on the day before. I really don't know how anyone could run 45km thru that sort of terrain and worse - I honestly don't. Still to check out how they got on, but sincerely hope it went well.

Had to ask myself the question - did I go out too hard in the first km and pay for it? I don't really think so. Yes it was too fast, but at the end of the day I don't think it would have made much difference, if any. The rest of the course would never have been kind or easy, no matter how slowly I'd started off!

As you can see, I wasn't looking quite so chipper by the end! I downed two cups of terribly mixed Gatorade and a cup of water before I even considered walking back to the car or stretching! All I really wanted to do was sink to the ground and stay there for a long time! Instead I had to rush back to the motel so I could shower and check-out before 11am. An ice bath would have been a Godsend - unfortunately I had neither the bath or the time for one.

We then returned for the prizegiving, which was held in this stunning location not far from the finishing area at 12.30pm.

However, despite the event having just over 600 entries (571 finishers) which is much less than most of the events I do and lots of great spot prizes, I was still not lucky enough to get drawn out!! Still I have to commend all involved in organising the event on their superb event management, it really was great.

So, while I can't say I 'enjoyed every moment' that I was out there (like normal!), I did enjoy certain aspects and moments. The positives I'm taking from this PW event are that its taught me a thing or two about mental toughness, being prepared for anything and being prepared to change your game plan as you go along. I'm happy that altho my time may not be 'up there' it wasn't due to anything bad happening such as injury or illness on the day, being ill-trained or under-prepared. It was just a bloody tough course. Yes, more hill training and more off-road training on this sort of terrain would help greatly, but you can't cover every base on an out of town, unknown course. I saw several very fit and able looking guys who had pulled the pin due to cramps or other injuries and were walking to the nearest aid station - I'm so glad that wasn't me. I saw several people bandaged up afterwards from taking serious falls - again I'm glad that wasn't me.

The biggest disappointment of the day was my Polar. I thought it was going to be a great asset during a race, but despite calibrating it on the track last weekend it was totally inaccurate. Perhaps it was the terrain and therefore my gait, but I could see fairly early on that it was reading wrong. Therefore I hardly looked at it, except for the time. I even had the autolap function all set so I could give my km splits, but they are now totally useless. By the time I had completed 21.1kms, it said I had done 17.4kms! It said my Max pace was 3.23min/km and Ave was 5.52min/km. Of course even I can work out that my Ave was in fact 4.50min/kms... I did change the battery the day before just to be on the safe side, but would hardly think this should effect anything? Perhaps I am being unfair, perhaps it is totally unrealistic for me to expect it to perform normally, when I certainly couldn't!! Will do some of my 'measured km' tests on it next time I run and see.

So there you have it. Not quite as expected, but regardless my first off-road HM is done and dusted. I have just Anti-flammed the hell out of my legs and put the Skins on for the night! I am absolutely dreading the stairs in the morning - my ankles, calves and quads are already hurting like hell! But, I very much doubt that they - or anything else for that matter - will prevent me from sleeping like the proverbial log tonight!!