The Goat run

Well this was my first 21km adventure run , it was on the 2nd Dec and was held in Tongorino National Park.

Me, Ed and Sam decided to make a weekend of it, so we left Wellington on the Friday afternoon. There was a wee problem - has i had the BIGGEST hangover(this is very rare, i think my last hangover was in London 2002 at "Church") from the Thursday night, I had far too many wines and what else was on offer that night . I couldnt barely drive let alone think about running 21 kms on a rocky trail ! Good news was that Sam did alot of the driving - hooray. Bad news was the car was playing up with this silly dashboard light kepted coming on - grrr

We staying in a really nice looking newly building motel which had spa bath in the unit PLUS an outdoor spa set up . We basically got there and went off rego for the event at the Powerhorn... then there were the people there were string beans , runner beans .... i think nobody was over 70 kgs - running is a thin person sport. I felt i made the weigh in, but i felt i was abit short on the experience front, has my only experience was a "mountain running race" was 10 kms and i had a personal coach running with me in Oct.

We had a lazy rest of Friday night . Sam was very organised and was packing and repacking , i just wasnt to sure what i needed, so i looked liked i was packing and repacking. Also enjoyed my faivourite TV show House. Then we went to sleep and the tap started to drip and then drip some more , and then it was a bit of a foundation . Me and Ed were able to sleep through wee issue, but poor Sam had afew issues.

"the day of" , we were up really early and its was really cold . We left Ed in the very warm motel room and ventured to the bus stop just down the road. It was 45 min journey to the ski field start. Lucky for me there was cafe that served REAL coffee. Also with another stike of luck , Sam let me borrow her iPOD to run with .

We were the last of the runners to go, "Wave 3" , i decided that i must be the slowest runner in the race and promptly hang at the back of the group. We were off in mass, down a hard road , my poor feet and knees didnt like that start. But once on the tramp track i was at home - just like running up the back of Karori. I soon realized that i was a bit better than my self seeded position, so i spend 2 hours passing people to get into a run group with people of similar ability - this is where the iPOD came in useful .

The track itself was interesting , we had river crossings, big rocks , small rocks , ice and snow . Also there was minium bush cover and it was a beating hot sun, it was good that i bought sun screen at the ski field shop .

My 21km effort was 3:57 in lenght - I was so happy to get under 4 hours and beat afew people i know from Wellington too. Sam did a great job and did the run in a time of 3:27. Post the event we bused back to the motel for a shower and spa .

We went the prizegiving and it was like normal sport prizegivings as it was very long and involved , i remember we had to sit on the floor and my arse just went numb. Sam won a prize thou so it was worth getting a numb arse thou. But the best was still to come .... we had dinner in town where i had the best steak with blue cheese sauce uummmmmmmmm.