Hemerodromos

Race report to follow for my loyal readers; all 3 of you! In the meantime, I finished in 30th place, taking 13 hours and 13 minutes to complete the course. Well chuffed.

I'm really enjoying my training for this year's Hillary Trail race and had been planning to get out on Saturday for my second trial run of kit etc... but unfortunately an unplanned lie-in and my kids' desire to go to Motat put the kybosh on that idea. I've rescheduled to Monday, which is looking a bit cooler and less wet. Still, I did manage to get out on the trail and go for a bit of a blast around Karekare. In total I did about 14k, most of which was spent running up Coman's Track, along Log Race Road to Piha Road and back; however I started off by walking up Zion Hill Track and then running down it at a reasonable pace. This descent is one of my favourites on the whole Hillary Trail because of its length, fairly non-technical nature and wonderful scenery. As the weather was fairly miserable I had to have the SJCAM in its weatherproof holder, which is nearly soundproof so I was unable to narrate. Rather than just post a silent video I cast my mind around for a

I had planned to go for a long run on Auckland Anniversary Day. While I ended up getting slightly more of an adventure than I had bargained for, it was a resounding success; I finished the day at Piha (having started at Arataki Visitors' Centre) absolutely knackered, utterly delighted and in relatively little pain. I learned a few lessons on my performance and my kit's performance along the way, and just as importantly I validated my initial race plan , which is now online. I *really* like how Strava strips out resting time. It makes me look so much faster. The Run I was joined by DB at Arataki Visitor's Centre at about 07:00 on Monday morning. He had responded to my advert on the HTR Facebook page and we were both gearing up for a bit of experimentation before the Hillary Trail Run at the end of the month. The basic plan was to try and simulate the first half of the race and run from Arataki to Piha (including the nature trail loop) with a view to checking target pa