Hemerodromos

It is a truly filthy day here in West Auckland maybe not as cold as it has been, but the rain has been biblical. Not ideal timing, given that I was meeting up with Matt and the Riverhead Forest Trail Runners for a weekend long run.That said, the run was fantastic: There was 21k of gravel trail running goodness (albeit in the pouring rain) with a bunch of other runners, talking smack and enjoying the hell out of it. The positive side to a cold and wet run is that it's great when you finish, go have a hot shower, hotter coffee and get something to eat.


After Matt, Eugene, Tom, Dave, Gene and I finished up the DCMF loop in Riverhead, I went back out to make it up to 32k so I could reach my target for the week of 105k. It takes a little bit of willpower to do this, but I'm always pleased when I do.


I made it home to some blackbean chilli, sweetcorn relish and guacamole in soft tortillas*. I would have had it with a beer, but it was a bit early in the day. Either way, it'…

The Penny Drops.

It was at about 8pm the night before the Tarawera Ultra that realisation set in of what I had actually signed up for. I was going to run the longest distance I had ever attempted, over ground I had never seen, following a couple of days of persistent rain. To understand quite how I got here, you need to be aware that beer, credit cards and internet access are a dangerous mixture, especially when my brother-in-law Craig is egging me on to enter an event. It is not so much that he isn’t supportive (he is, incredibly so, as is the rest of my family) or that he bullies me in to things (he doesn’t) but he seems to operate a kind of subtle guerilla marketing campaign when he knows I want to do something, but maybe need a bit of a nudge. I finally hit the “submit” button at 7:01PM on 20th December.
“Hi Gareth, Thank you for your order. This email is confirmation of your purchase and is generated automatically by our online system.” I’m still surprised that it to…