Norsewood to Takapau Fun Challenge

Sunday May 12, 2019:  A point to point race between Norsewood and Takapau using back country roads.  It is organised by Takapau School  as a fundraiser - at $25 for a half marathon it is great value.  It's most definitely a no-frills event - no medals here, times recorded manually at the finish - but I love the grassroots style event.

This was to be my 6th half marathon, and my training had been far less consistent than what I would usually do in the lead up to a half marathon.  I usually schedule in long runs with building distances, but this time around, while I'd still been running three-four days a week I hadn't run over 10km since the Ruapehu Express in February.

A few weeks before the event I took part in the LedLenser Night run in New Plymouth, 12km in the forest with a reasonable amount of elevation, which I managed quite well (better than I thought!) despite thinking I didn't have much endurance in my legs.  

My mate Kevin had invited me over to do the Norsewood-Takapau and I figured I might as well give it a go, see what I could do with a very different training lead up.  At the very least, it would be a good experiment that I could learn from!

With only 51 individual runners and walkers (with another 12 in the teams division) it was a much smaller field than other events I've done recently.  The atmosphere was great though - lots of chatter on the start line and as is typical in small towns, everyone seemed to know each other.  Manawatu Striders were well represented on the day with 15 runners and walkers heading over the Pahiatua Track to take part.

Runners had the choice of starting at 9.30 with the 'social' division or at 10.30 with the 'fast' division.  Kevin, Peter and I opted for the 9.30 start, as did the majority of other participants.  We'd talked about my goal to PB on the way over, the plan was to start together and see what happened... Like most runners, I didn't want anyone to feel like they had to run slower just for me, so I wasn't worried whether I was going to be on my own or not.  But I did hope to be able to keep up for at least a little bit!

It wasn't long before the runners were quite spread out - I settled into the first couple of kilometres and chatted to someone I had seen on Facebook but not met in person.  Kevin and Peter were already quite a bit ahead and at this stage and I actually thought that was the last I'd see of the for the next 2 hours or so.

My new friend Melissa and I were running comfortably and chatting away until the first big hill struck.  Then it was head down and bum up!  I caught up to Kevin and Peter again at this stage (leaving my new friend behind, sorry Melissa!) and settled in.  A short dog leg - (2km out and back to make up the half marathon distance) gave us a chance to see everyone ahead and it was at this stage that I realised I was third female at this point.

I'd been warned about the 'gully' coming up - a sharp downhill followed by a just as sharp uphill on the other side - but it was still a bit of a shock!  Even running downhill was tough - there was a very steep camber which had me feeling like I was running diagnonally downhill.  On the way up the other side, the guy in the red shirt we'd been eyeing up as a target for several kilometres had slowed to a walk and I was extremely tempted to do the same at this point!  I just told myself to grind it out, get to the top and my legs would have a chance to flush after that.  We caught and passed the red shirt guy, although he stuck with us for quite a few kilometres after that.

That took us to halfway.  The average pace at this point was around 5:18min/km, which was well on target to beat my PB.  I just had to hang in there and do it all over again!  Usually in a half marathon I start having my doubts about whether I can do it around 11km, and that can last til around 15-16km. It was no different this time. My goal was to just concentrate on each kilometre at a time, sipping tailwind every time my Garmin beeped to mark a kilometre, and whenever I thought about it in between.

The guys told me the last 5km to go are pretty much flat or downhill, so you can just run it in, well it turns out they'd forgotten about a few hills along the way!  Not that I could say anything to them as they'd started pulling ahead at this point.  Kevin had taken on his secret rocket fuel (feel free to ask him about that one - people like me with heart arrythmias aren't allowed to touch the stuff!) and he was off.  I could see them ahead but with no chance of catching them back again, I just settled in to getting the job done, checking my watch every now and then and realising the average pace per kilometre was 5:18min/km and as long as I kept up the pace, I was going to PB.  

Coming into Takapau we turned into a bit of a headwind, I actually felt a little cold and goosebumpy at this point, not sure what that was about.  As I turned into the finishing straight and could see the finish line, I realised it was going to be quite a bit under 21.1km.  Kevin and I have a joke that "if it's not on Strava/Garmin, then it doesn't count" and if I was going to PB, I knew I had to keep running past the finish to get the extra distance and the Half Marathon Record on my Garmin.  Kevin had done exactly the same (finishing a few minutes before me) so ran the last 300m or so with me to finish my 21.1km (thanks to the marshal who saw me coming and yelled out that there was no cars so I could run straight across the road!).  

Finish time 1:51:51, a whole 4 mins and 30 seconds faster than my last PB at Queenstown about 5 months ago! To say I was stoked is an understatement.  It was awesome to be able to share that with the guys, who I have to acknowledge had a large part in my success that day.

My finishing photo is pretty horrid: you can see the pain on my face and my form is pretty slumped - sign of a race well run when there's nothing left in the tank at the end.  I was cheered in by the race announcer, fellow Striders members, and other members of the public.  It was a great atmosphere - you don't get random people clapping and cheering you in at larger events!

We didn't stay for the prizegiving; but sounds like it was a good prize table with legs of lamb on offer!  All three of us had our numbers out for spot prizes, isn't that always the way!

All in all, this was a great day out, recommend if you're looking for a road half with a bit of interest and lovely scenery.

💖 K8