The Sprit of Ed
Sir Edmund Hillary said a lot of good things, but probably my favourite is this...
"In some ways I believe I epitomise the average New Zealander: I have modest abilities, I combine these with a good deal of determination, and I rather like to succeed."
I'm not a New Zealander (yet) and I'm certainly not going to win any races; although I do live in Waitakere and run on the trails, as did the great man himself in preparation for the Everest expedition of 1953. I like the idea that underlies the quotation; that normal people can through a good attitude and hard work achieve great things. I'm hoping that with a little hard work I'll be able to complete The Hillary Trail Run in a sensible time by the end of February 2016.
For those who aren't familiar with the Hillary Trail, it is a 77km long trail in Waitakere just outside Auckland. It runs from the Arataki Visitors' Centre on Scenic Drive down to Huia, along the fringes of the Manukau Harbour to Whatipu and then up the West Coast through Karekare and Bethell's Beach before finishing at Muriwai. It takes in sub-tropical rainforest, including Kauri forest, coastal sands and a few small road sections. In many parts it is utterly beautiful. The Hillary Trail Run is an ultramarathon, where a group of assorted lunatics and fruitcakes try to run the entire thing in a single day; although there is a 34k and a 16k race also along the same trail, all ending at Muriwai. I have run three half marathons (PB of 1:35ish) a couple of marathons (PB 3:25ish) but this will be my first ultra. Wish me luck.
A few of you might be familiar with my other blog Gun & Run in which I talk about training for competitive rifle shooting, at which I have had some success; however Spirit of Ed is intended to be different to that blog, which is very word-driven and which focuses mostly on the technical or high-performance aspects of the sport. Being a mediocre runner, I'm hoping to try a few different things with this blog and will include videos of my runs. I'll try and get something out every week or so, but that may be difficult depending on how work goes. We'll see.
In the meantime, here's some video of my run from Whatipu most of the way to Karekare and back, which I shot on Sunday 13th December.
This is the first time I've done this, so I'm still working out how to do pretty much everything from the editing, splicing segments, filtering and probably hardest of all the narration. It feels a bit weird talking to the camera as I jog along, but it's something I think I'm going to have to learn to live with as it's meant to be an integral part of the blog. On the postive side, if I can keep talking I'm probably running at a sensible pace.
"In some ways I believe I epitomise the average New Zealander: I have modest abilities, I combine these with a good deal of determination, and I rather like to succeed."
I'm not a New Zealander (yet) and I'm certainly not going to win any races; although I do live in Waitakere and run on the trails, as did the great man himself in preparation for the Everest expedition of 1953. I like the idea that underlies the quotation; that normal people can through a good attitude and hard work achieve great things. I'm hoping that with a little hard work I'll be able to complete The Hillary Trail Run in a sensible time by the end of February 2016.
For those who aren't familiar with the Hillary Trail, it is a 77km long trail in Waitakere just outside Auckland. It runs from the Arataki Visitors' Centre on Scenic Drive down to Huia, along the fringes of the Manukau Harbour to Whatipu and then up the West Coast through Karekare and Bethell's Beach before finishing at Muriwai. It takes in sub-tropical rainforest, including Kauri forest, coastal sands and a few small road sections. In many parts it is utterly beautiful. The Hillary Trail Run is an ultramarathon, where a group of assorted lunatics and fruitcakes try to run the entire thing in a single day; although there is a 34k and a 16k race also along the same trail, all ending at Muriwai. I have run three half marathons (PB of 1:35ish) a couple of marathons (PB 3:25ish) but this will be my first ultra. Wish me luck.
A few of you might be familiar with my other blog Gun & Run in which I talk about training for competitive rifle shooting, at which I have had some success; however Spirit of Ed is intended to be different to that blog, which is very word-driven and which focuses mostly on the technical or high-performance aspects of the sport. Being a mediocre runner, I'm hoping to try a few different things with this blog and will include videos of my runs. I'll try and get something out every week or so, but that may be difficult depending on how work goes. We'll see.
In the meantime, here's some video of my run from Whatipu most of the way to Karekare and back, which I shot on Sunday 13th December.
This is the first time I've done this, so I'm still working out how to do pretty much everything from the editing, splicing segments, filtering and probably hardest of all the narration. It feels a bit weird talking to the camera as I jog along, but it's something I think I'm going to have to learn to live with as it's meant to be an integral part of the blog. On the postive side, if I can keep talking I'm probably running at a sensible pace.
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