The Dual | 2014

This year Mark did The Dual 10km with me on the beautiful Motutapu and we also decided to camp overnight with a couple of friends.

Honestly, considering how competitive Mark is I should have known that walking with him would be a little…ummmm…painful! Also, he thinks he is being really motivating and all he does is piss me off.

This is the third year in a row that I have done this event and for some reason this time around I felt really nervous about doing it. Last year I had been doing some walking events and also Shake Up’s via MMNZ and I was definitely fitter than when I first did it in 2012.

2012 - 2:51:55

2013 - 2:37:19 (-0:14:36)

2014 - 2:31:14 (-0:06:05)

Improvement 2012 vs. 2014 - 0:20:41

So shaving 20:41 minutes off my time vs. the first time I did the event is pretty good. Still next year I will be aiming to try and do the event in much less time as I know that I will be fitter and hopefully I can add stairs and functional training back into my workout program.

For me The Dual is really a mental challenge as well as physical. I know every inch of the course and sometimes forget how hard the last 3-4km’s can be. I want to be able to do it faster and not dread each hill as it comes around. Definitely the first climb is much easier than the first time that I did it when I thought “what the hell have I gotten myself into”.

So the plan for 2015 is to train smarter for this event. Also, with the camping side of things we are definitely not camping the night before and we need more padding to sleep on and more blankets. Also, the food options were really disappointing so we will definitely be better prepared food-wise next year. It was still amazing to stay overnight as we felt relaxed and in no way rushed to try and get on the next ferry. We were able to swim, listen to music and just soak in the atmosphere. Overall, while it is a hard event it is also extremely rewarding and very beautiful.

The Color Run

Mark and I in the Colour Mosh Pit

So the first event for 2014 was the first ever Color Run in New Zealand. To be honest when I signed Mark and I up for this I was really excited and then on the day I felt a bit “meh” about it all.

Once we found the MMNZ gals I felt heaps better as it was such a nice way to see them all. It feels like a big (colourful) family when we are altogether.

We ended up walking with a few of the gals and it was such a cool family friendly atmosphere. I even got down in the colour and rolled around in it. So much fun! We will definitely be doing it next year.

I have decided that rather than just doing as many events as I can this year that I am going to be more selective with the ones that I do. I already decided not to do the Albany Lakes Series as quite frankly walking 2 x laps of 5k is just boring. Also, we will be missing Round the Bays this year as we will not be around.

So to date we have 3 that are definite as we are already signed up:

The Color Run

O Rock

Motutapu

From there I will decide what to do. I know that we will do the Auckland Quarter Marathon and I will do Sculpt, but I need to find some more that are interesting.

I am also going to focus more on resistance training than I did last year. I have definitely go the cardio under my belt and exercising at least 5 times a week is a well-established habit now.

What events have you done or signed up for that you love?

2013 Wrap Up

I thought I would do a really quick wrap up of the year that was 2013.

This has been a hard year for me and I am sure a lot of other people have had a rough time as well. There has been a lot of pain and splash of laughter and happiness. I am ready for 2014 to be a much better year.

This morning in RPM I thought I do not really want to make any New Year’s Resolutions for the single reason that every single day (even every hour, minute and second) can be a fresh start. I also do not want to set myself up to fail by putting a truck-load of pressure on myself with a huge list of resolutions that might not be achievable.

Really I just want to be a better person to myself and others. I want to be happier, kinder and more balanced. Most of all I want to be healthier and if that means losing some weight and getting fitter then so be it.

In February my father passed away and there are days when I feel his loss more than others. I thought that our first Christmas without him would be the hardest but in truth it was my first birthday that I really felt his absence and my heart just hurt. What I will say is that cancer is one of the cruellest diseases there is and it does not discriminate with who it takes. More than anything I was just relieved that when my dad passed away that the suffering for him was over. I strongly believe that he is with me every day (in my heart and memories) and that makes it a little easier.

It was a year of many firsts. 

I finally met my long-time online friend Pip from Invercargill which was super exciting. We have probably been talking for over 3.5 years and we met through Twitter. Pip was up for a wedding and so we made time to catch up and go for lunch. 

We purchased our first house together and although it was not without some major hurdles we have just spent our first Christmas here. There are days when I drive into the driveway and it seems surreal that we own this place and we are not just renting. We just had one of my oldest and closest friends and her husband come for a lovely BBQ dinner on Saturday night at our new house. It is so nice to have people come over and see how house and it is possible that we will have a house-warming at some stage.

I finally tried Body Attack (which I am slowly starting to enjoy more and more) and Bikram Yoga. I tried Paddle Boarding and also joined an amazing, supportive community of women (MotivateMe NZ). I did quite a few walking events and also two RPM/Spin events and a flipping obstacle course. I already have a few events booked for early in the New Year which is really exciting including my third year doing The Dual on Motutapu and this year Mark is doing it with me and we are camping there overnight.

I discovered that I absolutely love RPM and have been doing it pretty much every week since early in April. I am addicted and I have also encouraged the same addiction in friends…oops! I have established that stairs get you fitter faster despite the fact that they are EVIL!

A few of my friends have had beautiful children this year and my nieces and nephews continue to grow more beautiful with every month. In the last 2-3 weeks two of my friends have gotten engaged which is super exciting. Funnily enough Mark and I have 3 weddings to go to in 3 cities over a 10 day period. The second wedding in March is in the lower half of the south island which is am ridiculously excited about as I have not seen very much of the south island as an adult.

I attended a Tangi for the first time and met some truly amazing, caring, selfless people.  At the same time I had my heart shattered and I was taken back to being a 14 year old teenager in a heartbeat. What I have realised is that despite everything I am really strong and resilient even in the face of pure hatred. So, if you think you beat me…you did not and you will never have any part of me again.

I went to South Korea in June despite being completely freaked out in the beginning. It is an amazing country, rich in history and culture. I want to go back with Mark for a holiday so I can experience it with him and do the things that I did not get a chance to do. My dad would have been so excited (and proud) that I went to Korea and I thought about him a lot when I was there. Actually, my wonderful brother-in-law even asked me to write a blog for his website about my trip! No one has asked me to write a blog for them before.

I decided to leave Twitter after nearly 4 years which was both sad and liberating. 

I discovered some amazing new TV Shows including Elementary, The Walking Dead, Homeland and Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (very NEW favourite). Discovered some amazing new music via RPM and Julia. 

Finally saw Wicked!! Okay, so it was not in New York but I do not care it was amazing. It was the day that we were meant to go unconditional on our house and it did not happen that day. I cried during 'Defying Gravity' and I probably did not stop crying until the end.

I had the best birthday week with time down with Julia and Paul in Wellington and their fur baby family. Then in October I went to celebrate Julia’s birthday with her. These were two amazing trips that were filled with ‘pee your pants’ laughter, relaxation, good food and amazing company and a MILLION Piper, Vuk and Sophie cuddles.

I feel blessed to have a lovely group of friends who I consider to be my family. Life would not be the same and as rich without you all in it.  

So bring on 2014; a year of more exercise, better nutrition, more events and more happiness and calm.

Happy New Year to you all and let it bring you everything you hoped for and more.

Walking Stars

The beautiful, inspiring Liz and I

On Saturday night I walked a half-marathon (21km) as part of Walking Stars to support the Cancer Society.

It was an event that I signed up for way back in June and to be honest I always thought I would have done enough training so that it would not be a massive mission to do the event. Suffice to say I did not train for it with walking etc. After I did The Dual for the first time in 2012 I always swore that I would never do an event without training beforehand…oops! About 6 weeks out I knew that it would be really difficult or even impossible for me to complete the event and I wanted to pull out. A friend from MotivateMeNZ encouraged me not to pull out and so I went with trepidation in my heart.

It is the longest distance I have walked to date. Also, it is a night event which started at 8.30pm on a Saturday night. I would love to say that it was a beautiful starry night however it was overcast and showery at times. In retrospect this was probably good as it would have been hard going on a ‘hot summers night’ (yay Meatloaf).

I am not going to lie…it was hard and without Liz there I would have probably given up and caught a taxi back to the domain. At about 10.1km I was really starting to hurt; not muscle pain so much but my feet were aching. It probably did not help standing at a carboot sale from 5.30-10.30am that morning. I also moaned and slowed to a virtual crawl in some places. The long walk from under the harbour bridge to The Strand seemed endless and the point where I realised I had to do another lap of the domain just about brought on tears of frustration. The really good thing though was that I did not get blisters (thanks Kate for your Coconut Oil tip) and my joints did not really hurt like they have in the past.

I am amazed at the power of the human body and what it is capable of. We finished in 4 hours and 50 minutes.

However, it was the people along the way, the supporters, the volunteers, and the random high fives from people in bars, the toots and yells of support that made everything a little bit more bearable. Then there were the people who were in pain in the final few kilometres of their journey and they still managed to dig deep and be supportive despite their own struggle were amazing.

So many people took the time to really think about their outfits and we were surrounded by men and women wearing glow sticks, Christmas lights, bunny ears with lights and stars…it was amazing! I had outfit envy a lot.

I do not know if I will ever walk that distance again; if I do I will definitely train for it physically and mentally. However, I did realise that I never want to run a half-marathon as it is simply just not me. I thought I did and now I know that running is not necessarily for everyone.