Everyone keeps asking “and, are you ready?”. Thing is, I don’t know. I haven’t been running in two weeks and they all say that doesn’t matter. After 5 months of training two weeks break don’t change anything, I should still be as fit as I was two weeks ago. But I guess I won’t know for sure until tomorrow. And then there is the knee situation. I know it’s going to hurt but I don’t know how much because I haven’t been running in two weeks. So lots of uncertainty and I hate uncertainty.
And then there is the pressure factor that makes me kind of nervous. I started this whole blog because I wanted to share the journey and also because I thought it would help with the motivation if everyone knew what I’m up to. It totally worked and all your encouraging messages and words have been really great. However, now it means the pressure is on! Everyone knows I’m doing the half marathon tomorrow and everyone expects me to finish and be just fine. So now I’m thinking it would have been easier if I hadn’t told anyone. Cause I could just relax and try my best tomorrow and if I finish I could have surprised everyone with the news that I just finished a half marathon and if I wouldn’t finish it I could just not say anything at all and no one would ever know that I failed.
But then again, sharing this experience with people has also been a really great experience and I would have missed out on that if I hadn’t told anyone. Not to mentioned that I wouldn’t have gotten all these encouraging messages ;-)
Anyway, tomorrow this time it will all be over so now point thinking about would have and could have now.
But now, as promised a bit more about the actual race course. I’ve put in a map below.
As you can see, it starts on the North Shore, opposite of the Auckland City Centre. That means in the morning I have to take a ferry over to Devonport to the start line. Thinking about it, it actually seems kind of weird to start there. If I were to organize an event in Auckland which would require about 7,000 people to be a location around the same time, I would not pick Devonport. There is only one road going into Devonport or you can take the Ferry from the city. There is like zero parking and the one road going there is also part of the course. So it will be a total mission to get there. The half marathon will start at 7am and I plan to be at the Ferry terminal downtown around 5.30. There will probably be some waiting required at the Ferry and I want to make sure I make it over in time.
The race then starts pretty much next to the Ferry Terminal in Devonport. It then leads towards Narrow Neck Beach and then north towards Takapuna which is where about 1/3 is done. It then turns west towards Northcote and then South towards Auckland city. The Highlight is the Harbour Bridge. The whole approx 14km until the top of the bridge are hilly. They officially call that ‘slightly rolling hills’ but I think that makes it sound much less hilly than it actually is. It’s pretty much up or downhill all the time, there is hardly a bit that is just plain even. Which, by the way, is typical for Auckland – it’s a Volcanic Island after all.
On top of the Bridge about 2/3 are done. Once down the bridge, the rest of the course it flat and leads along the waterfront towards the city. The course ends at Victoria Park, which is pretty much in the middle of the City.
The weather forecast is pretty good. It’s suppose to be a sunny day and it might actually get quite warm in which case it is good that the marathon is so early in the morning. I dehydrate really quickly when it’s warm and sunny and need a lot of fluid. So I prefer a bit colder and a little cloudy.
Tonight I will have a good dinner with pasta and mushrooms (lots of carbs) and then go to bed early so when the alarm goes off at 4am I’ll be rested and fit (or at least as fit as I can possibly be at 4am in the morning).
OK, more tomorrow once it’s done (one way or the other).
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