Petite Feet Runaway

Taranaki Round the Mountain  New Zealand 100 miles (160km) Friday 4 November 2016 at 17:00 Undulating road Preperation went pretty well in October. First I entered the race. Then I went on holiday to the Great Barrier Reef for a week. This was followed by a week in Myanmar and then another in Borneo. Three weeks of sweating, having a dodgy stomach and drinking beer. If anything, I'd prepared too much. I pretty much entered because both my father and Sarah love to crew me so much. I thought that it might be nice to look at Mount Taranaki. Having seen Mt Rainier, Mt Saint Helena and Mt Hood in July, I then visited an erupting volcano in Vanuatu in August! Seems that I now love volcanoes so much I want to run the entire way around one. With this being a long race and having no training, I warned them that it might get a little ugly. They were still up for it.  My father and friend Sarah sorted the race logistics while I worked on my suntan, swam with some tur...

    Another day in New Zealand, another national park. Today (or on the 27th of December) we are in the Nelson Lakes National Park running around Lake Rotoiti. This translates to small lake which means that I'll run it twice. Don't want to be a wimp. Although I probably should have expressed this desire sooner than the night before the adventure. Scott and father are up for a kayak / run tag team for one lap, leaving my wee sister's boyfriend Tom getting roped into running the two laps.   We start on the hour long drive late for a leisurely start. The starting point is at St Arnaud where there's a toilet block, car park, pebbly beach and jetty.  Half of Tom's family are joining the festivities with a walk and a picnic. Tom, Scott and I start off in anticlockwise direction full of enthusiasm and jet plane sweeties. There's a few miles of road pounding before we get to the track running near the lakeside. It's all niceties and turn-taking ...

We've had the wedding edition and now it's time for the honeymoon edition. The wedding was eighteen months ago, therefore largely forgotten and unlikely to be referenced again in the post. Just like any quality marriage really. Pre-race The race starts in Glasgow at approximately 21:00 hours. There's a bit of a storm brewing on the day; what we're nowadays calling a weather bomb. I smash some impressive splits on my bike cycling back from work only to find out our flight has been delayed. We're not too concerned as we're keen to kick the adventure off in style by hitting the champagne bar at the airport. Planning error; Glasgow Airport doesn't have a champagne bar. The choice is between Frankie and Benny's and a Wetherspoons. Hmmm. We decline the flight upgrade upon registration although do score ourselves exit seats. Like the night before any big race, we fail to sleep at all during the flight. Cool...