Andrew is getting fit

Andrew is getting fit One day at a time. 2009-07-06T02:26:43Z WordPress http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/feed/atom/ AndrewIsGettingFithttp://feedburner.google.com Andrew http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com <![CDATA[A 10 miler before work]]> http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=1024 2009-07-06T02:26:43Z 2009-07-06T02:18:04Z

My wife and I had to head into work quite early today so I decided I would park the car and go for a run before starting work. That was the plan at least but I woke up to a tremendous rainstorm and was a little concerned for a moment or two. I decided that [...]

<p>My wife and I had to head into work quite early today so I decided I would park the car and go for a run before starting work. That was the plan at least but I woke up to a tremendous rainstorm and was a little concerned for a moment or two. I decided that I would go out anyway and as luck would have it the rain stopped as I parked the car.</p> <p>Conditions were actually really great to tell the truth. Here’s a photo from about 3.5 km into my run:</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theeberhardfamily/3691670091/"><img class="alignnone" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2503/3691670091_1d2aa0edb1.jpg?v=0" alt="" width="500" height="375" /></a></p> <p>You can still see the puddles! I actually scraped my knee on that metal barrier as I jumped up onto that little ledge at speed to avoid the puddles. Such is life I guess.</p> <p>I headed out towards Kohimarama Beach and then turned around to head back to the city and work. As you can see the weather was picking up nicely. I’m truly blessed to live in a city that has such beautiful running routes I reckon.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theeberhardfamily/3691670599/"><img class="alignnone" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2592/3691670599_770a16e5c1.jpg?v=0" alt="" width="500" height="375" /></a></p> <p>Overall I did 16.12 km in 1:38:10 for an average pace of 6:10/km. I’m quite happy with that – a nice easy run.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theeberhardfamily/3691677035/"><img class="alignnone" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3635/3691677035_afe832cc8b.jpg?v=0" alt="" width="500" height="313" /></a><center><script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"></script> </center></p> <hr /> <p><small>© ebsfwan for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2009. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/07/06/a-10-miler-before-work/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/07/06/a-10-miler-before-work/#comments">No comment</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/07/06/a-10-miler-before-work/&title=A 10 miler before work">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/07/06/a-10-miler-before-work/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/Ad8Uq3CqJqc" height="1" width="1"/> 0 Andrew http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com <![CDATA[Conditions: A-OK!]]> http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=1021 2009-07-03T07:46:27Z 2009-07-03T07:46:27Z

It’s been a good week for running so far! As you can see from the picture above conditions have been just about perfect for running here in Auckland. I went for a run yesterday morning at about 10:30 AM and it was a cracker of a day. The sun was shining but the temperature was only [...]

<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theeberhardfamily/3683605466/"><img class="alignnone" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2490/3683605466_67ae022680.jpg?v=0" alt="" width="500" height="375" /></a></p> <p>It’s been a good week for running so far!</p> <p>As you can see from the picture above conditions have been just about perfect for running here in Auckland. I went for a run yesterday morning at about 10:30 AM and it was a cracker of a day. The sun was shining but the temperature was only about 12 degrees C and there was no wind so it was just beautiful. I did 9.5 km in about 56 minutes.</p> <p>This morning I went for a predawn run with my wife through Cornwall Park. Once again conditions were perfect. There was a light mist that made everything rather ethereal. Unfortunately I forgot my camera so no photos! It was quite funny running past sleeping cows! We did a nice 5K in about 34 minutes if I recall correctly.</p> <p>It’s my daughters birthday tomorrow so I’ve got a cake baking in the oven – I’m a man of many talents!</p> <p>I also need to do a 8K (5 mile) run tomorrow morning at marathon pace according to my training program and then on Sunday I need to do a 13K (8 mile) long run. It feels funny to think of 8 miles as being a long run! Although having said that it wasn’t that long ago that 8 miles seemed like an incredibly long distance to me. Just goes to show that it’s all relative.</p> <p>Hope you all have a great weekend.</p> <hr /> <p><small>© ebsfwan for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2009. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/07/03/conditions-a-ok/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/07/03/conditions-a-ok/#comments">3 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/07/03/conditions-a-ok/&title=Conditions: A-OK!">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/07/03/conditions-a-ok/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/dJcK7H3iyn0" height="1" width="1"/> 3 Andrew http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com <![CDATA[Marathon training is go!]]> http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=1017 2009-06-30T08:48:29Z 2009-06-30T08:48:29Z

It is 18 weeks to go to the Auckland marathon! You know what that means right? It is marathon training time again! One of the problems with my last marathon is that I didn’t really follow a proper training plan. I took the Hal Higdon novice plan and thought that it was way too easy and [...]

<p>It is 18 weeks to go to the Auckland marathon! You know what that means right? It is marathon training time again!</p> <p>One of the problems with my last marathon is that I didn’t really follow a proper training plan. I took the Hal Higdon novice plan and thought that it was way too easy and started to tamper with it. Big mistake! For one reason or another I started off with a bang, doing very high mileage weeks way too early and then as we got closer and closer to the actual marathon my weekly mileage was actually dropping even though my long runs were getting longer and longer. I think I just way overdid it and burnt out somewhat.</p> <p>So this time I’m going to stick to the plan. I’ve decided to go with <a href="http://www.halhigdon.com/marathon/inter1.html">Hal Higdon’s Intermediate 1 plan</a>.</p> <blockquote><p>The <a href="http://www.halhigdon.com/marathon/Mar00novice.htm"><strong>Novice</strong></a> and <a href="http://www.halhigdon.com/marathon/advancedint.htm"><strong>Advanced</strong></a> training programs in my <strong>Marathon Training Guide</strong> represent the extremes. The former program is designed for runners running their first marathon, or experienced runners who are happy with that level of training and see no need to do more. The latter program is designed for those <em>very</em> experienced runners, who have done a number of marathons, perhaps have plateaued in their times, and want to maximize their ability by training hard and incorporating speedwork into their training.</p> <p>In between, there’s a broad area for runners just like you! If you previously have trained using the Novice program, you now can increase your mileage a bit, run some workouts at a faster pace, and seek improvement. That’s why I designed two separate schedules for two levels of intermediate runners:</p> <p>The <a href="http://www.halhigdon.com/marathon/inter1.html"><strong>Intermediate-I</strong></a> program offers a slight jump in difficulty from the Novice program. You Begin in Week 1 with a long run of 8 miles instead of 6 miles. You thus get to 20 miles for your long run by Week 13, which permits a second 20-miler in Week 15. Midweek mileage is slightly higher, but instead of cross-training on the weekends, you get more serious about your running and do a second run of 5-8 miles, often at marathon race pace. You now do your cross-training on Mondays, instead of taking the day off.</p></blockquote> <p>Today’s run called for a 3 miler so I did 5.5 km instead. Slightly longer but I was aiming to get 30 minutes in.</p> <p>One other thing I’m going to try and do is get my eating back under control. I’ve been eating mainly healthy food but way too many snacks and I’m starting to look a bit too round around the middle for my liking. So this seems like a good place to get back on the weight loss wagon. I’ll go stand on the scale again tomorrow morning first thing. I’ve been avoiding it a bit for the last two months or so…</p> <hr /> <p><small>© ebsfwan for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2009. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/06/30/marathon-training-is-go/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/06/30/marathon-training-is-go/#comments">15 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/06/30/marathon-training-is-go/&title=Marathon training is go!">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/06/30/marathon-training-is-go/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/aoszok_h8Jc" height="1" width="1"/> 15 Andrew http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com <![CDATA[Run Auckland Race 5 2009 Western Springs]]> http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=1015 2009-06-23T08:29:25Z 2009-06-23T08:29:25Z

I did my first 5K race in a year on Sunday. It was race 5 of the Run Auckland series (I missed race 4 as I was doing the Christchurch marathon) and it was held at Western Springs Park. My wife was doing it with me which was great so we headed off at about 7:30 [...]

<p style="text-align: left;">I did my first 5K race in a year on Sunday. It was race 5 of the<a href="http://www.runauckland.co.nz"> Run Auckland</a> series (I missed race 4 as <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/06/01/my-first-marathon/">I was doing the Christchurch marathon</a>) and it was held at Western Springs Park.</p> <p style="text-align: left;">My wife was doing it with me which was great so we headed off at about 7:30 AM and boy was it freezing! The temperature was about 4 or so degrees Centigrade when we left which is not particularly cold compared to some parts but it was plenty cold enough for us!</p> <p style="text-align: left;">We got there bright and early and then had ample opportunity to stand around and freeze a bit. To be honest it wasn’t that bad if you were in the sun but as soon as you went into any shadows the perceived temperature plumetted.</p> <p style="text-align: left;">Last year the race was extremely wet but this year it was nice and dry. The cold temperature was actually rather good was we started running and fortunately there was no wind to speak of so conditions were actually perfect for running.</p> <p style="text-align: left;">The 5Kers started about ten minutes after the 10Kers and to be honest I found the first K rather hard going. Most of it was up a longish hill and I’ve never been too found of longish uphills! I know that by the time I got to the top of the hill I was thinking that maybe I should just wait for my wife and have a nice run with her but I knew I had to write my race report so I didn’t want to do that!</p> <p style="text-align: left;">At the end of the 2nd K I was starting to go faster but still wasn’t feeling my best. I remember asking myself if I had really run a marathon 3 weeks ago as I was struggling to run 2ks! By the end of the 3rd K I was starting to enjoy myself a bit more and by the end of the 4th K I was thinking it was a pity I hadn’t entered the 10K! My last K was definitely my fastest of the day as I was really starting to find my stride by then. I did a sprint finish for the last 100 m or so as the 10K finishers were just coming in and they inspired me to try and go fast. I finished just behind the 3rd place man so I think some folks thought I finished 4th in the 10K! <img src='http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theeberhardfamily/3652837361/"><img class="aligncenter" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3394/3652837361_2bd62cdd92.jpg?v=0" alt="" width="462" height="491" /></a></p> <p style="text-align: left;">I finished in 26:12 which is not anywhere near my PR in the 5K but it did beat my last 5K time by a good minute and 25 seconds so I’ll quite happily take it.</p> <p style="text-align: left;">I’m having trouble getting my data off my Garmin for some reason. It’s not playing nicely with Windows 7 so I’ve had to resort to my map from last year. Just ignore the time. <img src='http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p> <p style="text-align: left;"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theeberhardfamily/2598254985/sizes/o/"><img class="aligncenter" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3276/2598254985_7b8518b1d6_o.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="298" /></a></p> <p style="text-align: left;">Overall it was a fun outing once it was over! That seems to be the way it is for me with the shorter runs. I much prefer the longer distances to be honest.</p> <hr /> <p><small>© ebsfwan for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2009. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/06/23/run-auckland-race-5-2009-western-springs/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/06/23/run-auckland-race-5-2009-western-springs/#comments">8 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/06/23/run-auckland-race-5-2009-western-springs/&title=Run Auckland Race 5 2009 Western Springs">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/06/23/run-auckland-race-5-2009-western-springs/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/x1AmY26-xsY" height="1" width="1"/> 8 Andrew http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com <![CDATA[A late afternoon run with my wife]]> http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=1013 2009-06-19T07:29:41Z 2009-06-19T07:29:41Z

I’ve had a busy week at work (a busy year actually) and I have to nip in early tomorrow (Saturday) so I thought I’d get a run in this afternoon. Fortunately my lovely wife was keen on a run as well so we headed out together. We just did a local loop and it was nothing [...]

<p>I’ve had a busy week at work (a busy year actually) and I have to nip in early tomorrow (Saturday) so I thought I’d get a run in this afternoon. Fortunately my lovely wife was keen on a run as well so we headed out together.</p> <p>We just did a local loop and it was nothing serious but it was very nice. Sometimes it’s just nice to get out and run with someone special. <img src='http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p> <p>I’ve got a 5K race this Sunday and I’ve just realised that this will be the first 5K race I have done in a year! It’s the same race so it will be interesting to see if I’ve made any progress over the last year. <img src='http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';)' class='wp-smiley' /> I did it in<a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2008/06/22/run-auckland-race-5-western-springs/"> 27:27 last time </a>and the conditions were terrible so here’s hoping I can beat it.</p> <p>I still need to do my lessons learnt from my marathon post but I’ve just been rather slack at getting on to it!</p> <hr /> <p><small>© ebsfwan for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2009. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/06/19/a-late-afternoon-run-with-my-wife/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/06/19/a-late-afternoon-run-with-my-wife/#comments">6 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/06/19/a-late-afternoon-run-with-my-wife/&title=A late afternoon run with my wife">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/06/19/a-late-afternoon-run-with-my-wife/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/xmkhdcoN_ic" height="1" width="1"/> 6 Andrew http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com <![CDATA[Damn you Steve Spiers]]> http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=1003 2009-06-09T08:21:34Z 2009-06-09T08:21:34Z

I’m doing the hundred pushups program again. I’ve just done the intial test and all I could eek out was a measly 20 pushups. Not too long ago I could do close to 50. How quickly it disappears when you don’t practice! I’ve started and restarted this program many a time and always pike out [...]

<p><a href="http://hundredpushups.com/"><img class="alignleft" src="http://hundredpushups.com/images/onehundred200x200.gif" alt="" width="200" height="200" /></a>I’m doing the <a href="http://hundredpushups.com/index.html">hundred pushups program</a> again. I’ve just done the intial test and all I could eek out was a measly 20 pushups. Not too long ago I could do close to 50. How quickly it disappears when you don’t practice! I’ve started and restarted this program many a time and always pike out around week 4. I’m not too fussed if I pike out again as even just getting to week 4 means I’m doing well over 100 pushups a session which is not too shabby and is definitely a lot more than I’m doing at the moment. <img src='http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p> <p><a href="http://www.twohundredsquats.com/"><img class="alignright" src="http://www.twohundredsquats.com/images/twohundred200x200.gif" alt="" width="200" height="200" /></a>While I was checking out the program again I spotted the <a href="http://www.twohundredsquats.com">two hundred squats program</a> so thought I would start that at the same time as I really think squats are awesome. I did 41 in my initial test so we’ll see how I go. I suspect I’ll get to 200 squats long before I get close to 100 pushups myself!</p> <p>For those of you who don’t know <a href="http://www.runbulldogrun.com/">Steve Speirs</a> is the chap who started the 100 pushups challenge and got me hooked on them. He also has a <a href="http://www.runbulldogrun.com/">great running blog </a>where his feats amaze and astound me.</p> <p>My wife has reminded me that I actually have a 5K race this weekend so I’d best get cracking on the running as well! Is it too soon after my marathon to think of a 5K PR? Probably! Anyway, my treadmill calls. <img src='http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p> <hr /> <p><small>© ebsfwan for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2009. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/06/09/damn-you-steve-spiers/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/06/09/damn-you-steve-spiers/#comments">19 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/06/09/damn-you-steve-spiers/&title=Damn you Steve Spiers">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/06/09/damn-you-steve-spiers/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/tZtgLa2OnEY" height="1" width="1"/> 19 Andrew http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com <![CDATA[The Joy of Running]]> http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=999 2009-06-07T23:38:05Z 2009-06-07T18:54:07Z

I’ve been without a run for a week now and it’s driving me a bit batty so I’m going to restart my running today. I reckon a week off is enough time for recovery after a marathon. A lot of folks have sort of jokingly asked me when the next marathon is going to be. I [...]

<p>I’ve been without a run for a week now and it’s driving me a bit batty so I’m going to restart my running today. I reckon a week off is enough time for recovery after a marathon.</p> <p>A lot of folks have sort of jokingly asked me when the next marathon is going to be. I think folks assume that I’ll say one is enough and leave it there! Actually, I’ve already signed up for the Auckland marathon in 5 months time. <img src='http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p> <p>One of my <a href="http://zeusmeatball.blogspot.com/">blog buddies</a> has just started<a href="http://www.c25k.com"> C25K</a> and is discovering the joy that running brings to one’s life. Head <a href="http://zeusmeatball.blogspot.com/">on over</a> and give him a bit of encouragement. I love reading people’s C25K journeys as that is where I started not too long ago. I still remember the joy of being able to complete each week and the sheer elation of reaching the 5K mark.</p> <p>It’s funny but you forget how hard it was to start this whole fitness journey sometimes. I’ve gotten a bit blase about it but when I stop and reflect on how far I’ve come it is nothing short of astounding. I was on the pathway to an early death via the couch of doom but now I’m running marathons.</p> <p>If anyone out there is reading this who thinks that they can’t run then I (and all the other C25Kers) am living proof that they are wrong. You can do it and you will feel fantastic doing it! Of course you may want to die at times but hey, such is life. <img src='http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p> <hr /> <p><small>© ebsfwan for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2009. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/06/08/the-joy-of-running/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/06/08/the-joy-of-running/#comments">13 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/06/08/the-joy-of-running/&title=The Joy of Running">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/06/08/the-joy-of-running/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/TcokeAfm0mo" height="1" width="1"/> 13 Andrew http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com <![CDATA[My first marathon]]> http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/06/01/my-first-marathon/ 2009-06-01T02:03:59Z 2009-06-01T01:53:01Z

I had set my alarm for 5 am but there was no need.  By 4:30 I was up and raring to go.  I’d been woken up quite a few times in the night by the sounds of the wintry storm that was lashing Christchurch with heavy rain and I’ll freely admit to a few moments [...]

<p>I had set my alarm for 5 am but there was no need.  By 4:30 I was up and raring to go.  I’d been woken up quite a few times in the night by the sounds of the wintry storm that was lashing Christchurch with heavy rain and I’ll freely admit to a few moments of trepidation.</p> <p>Both my mother and my father were running in the half marathon event.  My dad doing his 6th one and my mother her first ever (Go mum!).  My beloved wife had originally planned on coming to cheer us on but we decided that she and Emma should stay home as the weather was just atrocious.</p> <p>I had a website open that was reporting current conditions and the temperature was varying between –1 and –11 degrees centigrade as the wind gusted through the town.</p> <p>Luckily I had come prepared and had some cold weather tights and a long sleeve top as well.  I’d never worn these when out running before and I recalled the advice that one should never do anything new on race day but I decided that being warm was better than freezing and that I would take my chances.</p> <p>Here I am just before leaving for the event:</p> <p><a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/dsc00828.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="DSC00828" border="0" alt="DSC00828" src="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/dsc00828-thumb.jpg" width="504" height="337" /></a></p> <p>We got there about 40 minutes before the start.  The bag drop was very well organised – it looked like they had the air force cadets on duty doing all the work.  Another vital prerace activity is the bathroom visit.  The bathrooms were top notch as we could use the heated indoor ones in the Christchurch Town Hall.  Best prerace pitstop I’ve ever made.</p> <p>At about 20 to 9 the race director urged us all to get into our starting boxes so we went outside.  The sun was shining and I thought that maybe I was a bit overdressed.  I went out and in a burst of optimism decided to line up with the 4 hour marathoners/2 hour half marathoners.  At about 10 to 9 I was glad that I had my cold weather gear as there was an icy blast of wind and then we got hailed upon.  This was the first time of many that I got hailed upon in that race!</p> <p>I didn’t actually hear the gun as it were but all of a sudden everyone started to move.  Then we all came to a standstill again as the crowd bunched up.  It took me about two and a half minutes to get to the start but once I did I gave a ‘Hell Yeah!’ and started my very first marathon race.</p> <p>The Christchurch marathon is a two lap circuit.  The half marathon is one lap and the marathon itself is two laps.</p> <p>The start of the race was great.  Most race starts are I find.  The adrenalin is rushing through your body and you are surrounded by thousands of other runners who drag you along.  I made a deliberate attempt to go out reasonably slowly.  I figured I would try and maintain 6 minute kilometres for the whole event and that way even if I slowed down somewhat in the second half I should still come in in under 4 and a half hours.</p> <p>I stuck to this for the first kilometer.  I even stuck to it for the next four kilometers although I did noticed my speed was slowly picking up.  I made a point of walking through the drink stop and making sure I got in a full cup of water.  I’d been warned that even though the conditions were cold I would still get dehydrated if I didn’t take enough liquids in.  At the end of the first 5K I felt great.</p> <p>I took my first gel at this point and much to my disgust managed to spray it all over my face and arm.  I had a sticky arm and face for the next few kilometers until I got to the next waterstop and could grab a sponge to wipe myself down.</p> <p>For the next 5K my pace went right up to 4 hour marathon pace.  I was going great and felt like I could maintain this pace indefinitely.  I slotted in behind a group of people who were running very comfortably at the 5:30 – 5:40 minutes per km pace and was quite happy being dragged along by them.  The weather wasn’t too bad at this point.  It was rather windy but the wind was at our backs and so there were no real complaints.</p> <p>At the 9.5km this all changed when we turned back towards the city.  It was rather windy and I felt my pace slipping somewhat.  Having said that I still felt good and decided I would try and keep it up and still did around about 5:50 kms.  I kept these up until we got to Hagley Park.  The wind was rather bad there as there were no buildings to stop it and I was starting to feel the strain somewhat.  My pace plummeted to 6:30 but at that point I wasn’t too bothered as I figured I could easily make it up once I was out of the gale.</p> <p>My brother was at the 20 km mark and I quickly gave him my jacket and gloves as I was starting to get quite warm.  It was good to see him and he told me my dad was only 30 seconds or so ahead.</p> <p>Running through the start finish chute was bittersweet.  It was great to hear everyone cheering and it was great to know I was halfway but on the other hand all of a sudden I realised I was only halfway and I’d already been running for 2 hours and 7 minutes.</p> <p>The first few kilometres of the 2nd lap were rather strange as I transitioned from running with heaps of people to pretty much running by myself.  Every so often I’d pass someone and to be honest a lot of people looked like they were struggling somewhat and I was still feeling pretty good.  I was a bit surprised by how good I felt.  I was tired and all but still very upbeat.  Normally I hit a patch during my races where I absolutely hate it and start to question why I’m doing this.  I hadn’t hit that patch yet and was hoping not to!</p> <p>My first real thoughts of boy this is hard started at about the 25 km mark when I could look across the Avon River and see the runners on the other side.  There was a mix of slower half marathoners and walkers so there were still quite a lot of them but I knew that to get to that point I still had to run another 9km and even then there would still be quite a distance to go.  At this stage the struggle was a bit more mental than physical as I was still feeling reasonably good although my pace was slipping quite considerably.</p> <p>At about the 26km mark I started to stiffen up a bit.  I could still run quite comfortably but I just could not take big strides.  This would get worse and worse as the marathon progressed but at this stage it was more of an annoyance than a problem.  Up until the 30 km mark I went along quite comfortably if slower than I would have liked.  I was consistently passing people and only rarely being passed by others.  There was a chap doing a run walk and he would run past me and then I would pass him when he stopped to do his walk.  We probably kept this up for about 12 km.</p> <p>One thing the marathon does is give you plenty of time alone with your thoughts.  I stopped to think about my journey from being a couch potato to running in the marathon and I knew that there was no way in hell I was going to pull out of this event.  It just meant too much to me.  I got on to thinking about my inspiration for all this and it all comes back to my beloved wife.  None of this would have happened without her gentle unwavering support.  I owe her big time.</p> <p>At the 30 km mark things started to get extremely tough.  I reached the point where I turned back towards the city and back into the wind.  I knew I had this pretty much all the way to the finish so I hunkered down and just focused on putting one foot in front of the other.  To make matters worse it started to snow, hail and sleet down.  This combined with the icy wind meant that I was rather cold and it really stiffened me up.  I made a point of trying to relax my body as much as I can but I think in those conditions it was really beyond my control.  I really started to regret giving my jacket and gloves to my brother as I was really struggling.  I found that my stride was getting shorter and shorter as my hips tensed up and as a consequence my pace was dropping quite dramatically.  I know going into the marathon I’d said to myself that there was no way in hell I could ever go slower than say a 6:45 min per km pace but I watched my pace first hit the 7 min mark and then even the 8 min mark.</p> <p>To my surprise even though I was going slow I still felt good.  I was so stiff and cold that I could hardly move but my spirits were high.  I was going to finish and it was wonderful.</p> <p>Would you believe it but at about the 37 km mark the sun came out again and I had to carry my cap for a bit as I was overheating.  By the 39 km mark it was freezing again.</p> <p>One thing that was great was that all the marshalls and policemen on duty during the event were really supportive.  Quite a few of them commented on the fact that I was still smiling even though the conditions were atrocious.  I felt quite sorry for them having to be standing still in those conditions as they must have been freezing.</p> <p>Kms 39 & 40 were the toughest of the marathon I think.  I was running in Hagley Park again and the wind was blowing something fierce.  I was extremely stiff and was down to a shuffle but I kept going and I still had a smile.  I was going to finish.</p> <p>The organisers had put up heaps of posters with motivational sayings on them.  My favourite was: “It’s not that I finished but that I had the courage to start.”  I have to agree with that one.</p> <p>I got myself through those two tough kilometres by chanting my wife’s name over and over like a mantra.  I told myself that I would give her a call as soon as I crossed the finish line.  I checked my phone and what do you know, there was a message from her.  I must admit I teared up a bit at that point and resolved to get to the finish line that bit quicker.</p> <p>After I passed the 41 km mark I though I’d better try and shuffle a bit faster as I suspected my brother might still be around and sure enough he was.  It was quite funny as he was standing next to a marshal who said that he’d been waiting very patiently and hadn’t let any foul language pass his lips even when it got bitterly cold.  It was good to see that he’d stuck around and I told him I’d see him at the finish.  I even joked that he might get there before me at my current pace.</p> <p>The last kilometre was both long and great.  I knew I was going to finish but the finish seemed rather far away.  As I ran down the last stretch I saw my parents and the Sri Chimoy Running Team gathered at the side cheering me on.  My mother is friends with them that’s why they gave me a cheer!  Rather nice of them.  The announcer called my name and I crossed the finish line!  I am now a marathoner!  4:54:53 – a new PR! <img src='http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p> <p><a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/myactivitieschristchurch31052009.png"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="My Activities Christchurch 31-05-2009" border="0" alt="My Activities Christchurch 31-05-2009" src="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/myactivitieschristchurch31052009-thumb.png" width="504" height="316" /></a> </p> <p>I gave my wife a call and I was pretty emotional.  Enough said about that!</p> <p>It was a brilliant experience in torrid conditions and I learnt a lot about myself and marathon running.  I’ll do another post with lessons learnt.  I think this one is long enough.</p> <hr /> <p><small>© ebsfwan for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2009. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/06/01/my-first-marathon/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/06/01/my-first-marathon/#comments">38 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/06/01/my-first-marathon/&title=My first marathon">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/06/01/my-first-marathon/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/PlVturcE5k8" height="1" width="1"/> 38 Andrew http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com <![CDATA[Vincero!]]> http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=988 2009-05-31T05:55:37Z 2009-05-31T05:54:49Z

Snow, sleet, hail & gale force winds. You’ll have to wait for me to recover to get the full report but it was a fantastic experience and yes, I finished! © ebsfwan for Andrew is getting fit, 2009. | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Who is linking? Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

<p>Snow, sleet, hail & gale force winds. You’ll have to wait for me to recover to get the full report but it was a fantastic experience and yes, I finished!</p> <hr /> <p><small>© ebsfwan for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2009. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/05/31/vincero-2/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/05/31/vincero-2/#comments">12 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/05/31/vincero-2/&title=Vincero!">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/05/31/vincero-2/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/LGZaMeDgO_c" height="1" width="1"/> 12 Andrew http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com <![CDATA[1 day to go!]]> http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=985 2009-05-29T19:20:05Z 2009-05-29T19:20:05Z

I’m here in Christchurch and I’ve got one day to go to the Marathon! I went along to the expo last night to pick up my race number and race pack and I’ve got to admit that the quality of the race bag is rather low. Just a bunch of advertising material and nothing else. Oh [...]

<p>I’m here in Christchurch and I’ve got one day to go to the Marathon!</p> <p>I went along to the expo last night to pick up my race number and race pack and I’ve got to admit that the quality of the race bag is rather low. Just a bunch of advertising material and nothing else. Oh well, you don’t run the race for the goodies bag do you?</p> <p>The weather forecast for tomorrow is rather daunting:</p> <table id="todTom" border="0"> <tbody> <tr> <td>Max: <span id="todTomTomMax" class="maxTemp">7</span> °C</td> <td>Min: <span id="todTomTomMin" class="minTemp">1</span> °C</td> </tr> <tr> <td>(Day)</td> <td>(Overnight)</td> </tr> <tr> <td id="todTomTomSum" colspan="2">Sleety showers and strong cold southerlies.</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p>There was a warning at the expo that we should dress for cold. Even though the temperatures aren’t that low apparently the windchill can take things down way below freezing. I’ve got the cold weather gear I’ve just never really had to wear it in Auckland even in the coldest outside runs. Something to look forward to I’m sure and it will add a bit of dramatic flair to my race report!</p> <p>Thanks for all your support!</p> <hr /> <p><small>© ebsfwan for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2009. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/05/30/1-day-to-go/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/05/30/1-day-to-go/#comments">17 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/05/30/1-day-to-go/&title=1 day to go!">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/05/30/1-day-to-go/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/HtscpRg_7m8" height="1" width="1"/> 17 Andrew http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com <![CDATA[6 days and counting]]> http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=982 2009-05-24T19:06:49Z 2009-05-24T19:06:49Z

Well, it’s 6 days to go to my first marathon and I’m feeling severely undertrained. I’ve done very little running this last week (only 3 runs!). I’ve had a cold, recovered from that and then got a stomach bug which involved a lot of running but only the few metres to my bathroom! I’m hoping [...]

<p>Well, it’s 6 days to go to my first marathon and I’m feeling severely undertrained. I’ve done very little running this last week (only 3 runs!). I’ve had a cold, recovered from that and then got a stomach bug which involved a lot of running but only the few metres to my bathroom! I’m hoping all these bugs are just my body recovering.</p> <p>Anyway, I’m feeling great today and am really looking forward to going to Christchurch later this week. Temperatures are pretty low there at the moment (2-6 degrees C) and my parents (who live there) reckon it could get even colder.</p> <p>Speaking of the cold I’ve been finding it bitterly cold at home. One of the side effects of weightloss is that you really feel the cold a lot more. All that blubber acts as insulation I guess! I felt cold last year but nothing like this year. I’ve been wearing multiple layers of tops under my jacket just to try and stay warm. I guess its time to get out the heaters!</p> <p>The marathon countdown is rather exciting. I vacillate between thinking it’s going to be very tough and hard and I’m a nut for doing it to thinking it’s it going to be very tough and hard and I’m a nut for doing it! But a happy nut. <img src='http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p> <hr /> <p><small>© ebsfwan for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2009. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/05/25/6-days-and-counting/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/05/25/6-days-and-counting/#comments">23 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/05/25/6-days-and-counting/&title=6 days and counting">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/05/25/6-days-and-counting/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/BoJUKlJz7Rs" height="1" width="1"/> 23 Andrew http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com <![CDATA[An afternoon run]]> http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=980 2009-05-17T17:39:11Z 2009-05-17T17:39:11Z

I’ve had a pretty crap week in the sense that I had an annoying cold. I took two days off work which helped a bit but overall I’d much rather have been well. Anways, as a result of all this I didn’t run at all during the week…not really a good idea with a marathon [...]

<p>I’ve had a pretty crap week in the sense that I had an annoying cold. I took two days off work which helped a bit but overall I’d much rather have been well.</p> <p>Anways, as a result of all this I didn’t run at all during the week…not really a good idea with a marathon in two weeks but such is life. As such, I was determined to get out for a lung clearer yesterday afternoon.</p> <p>I did my usual Tamaki drive loop but I extended it to go through Glendowie. I’d never been on this route before and in hindsight it was not the route for me after a week of no running. The first half was great. I really enjoyed it. The second half was extremely hilly. I knew there would be a hill or two but I didn’t think there would be quite so many. For the first time in quite a while I could really feel my legs once I got home.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><a class="flickr-image alignnone" title="My Activities 17-05-2009" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theeberhardfamily/3539680592/"><img class="aligncenter" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2032/3539680592_650ee3f3d2.jpg" alt="My Activities 17-05-2009" /></a></p> <p>19.97 km in 2:07:29. Hmm…what are the odds of the marathon coming in at under 4:30?</p> <hr /> <p><small>© ebsfwan for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2009. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/05/18/an-afternoon-run/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/05/18/an-afternoon-run/#comments">16 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/05/18/an-afternoon-run/&title=An afternoon run">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/05/18/an-afternoon-run/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/Jp1gSWOBkGM" height="1" width="1"/> 16 Andrew http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com <![CDATA[Run Auckland Race 3 2009]]> http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=978 2009-05-11T18:31:21Z 2009-05-11T18:31:21Z

I was a doubtful starter for this year’s Eastern Beach Race as we had no baby sitter lined up and it was my wife’s turn to run the race. Fortunately the night before my wife’s cousin phoned up asking if we still wanted him and his wife to come over to babysit! Apparently we’d arranged [...]

<p>I was a doubtful starter for this year’s Eastern Beach Race as we had no baby sitter lined up and it was my wife’s turn to run the race. Fortunately the night before my wife’s cousin phoned up asking if we still wanted him and his wife to come over to babysit! Apparently we’d arranged it months ago and totally forgotten that we’d asked.</p> <p>So Sunday morning found me toeing the line for a 10K race.</p> <p>I bumped into Aaron again and it was good to catch up. I also saw a few of my colleagues from work at the event. It’s pretty good seeing all the different folks out there actually.</p> <p>The weather in Auckland had been rather atrocious as it’s been thundering down and even hailing at times but fortunately we had a great gap in the weather for the race.</p> <p>The Eastern Beach race course is a out and back 2.5km stretch that is flat and straight. As such I had to do 4 loops and my wife 2. I was hoping to set a new PR as I figured this was my best chance to set a 10K PR for the year.</p> <p>The race itself was pretty good. The first 2 laps I was quite quick and well ahead of the time I needed for a PR. In lap 3 I started to realise that I’d gone out a bit fast and was struggling to maintain the pace.</p> <p>I saw a lady ahead of me collapse and heard someone say ‘tell a marshal to get the ambulance’ so I made a note to tell the next marshal. A lady who was ahead of me beat me to him but he mumbled that he didn’t have a phone so please tell them at race control. I ran past the lady and at the turnaround point for lap 4 had to stop to tell the ambulance folks that their coffee break was over. I then resumed my race. I have to admit the ambulance folks were pretty fast as they overtook me within a minute.</p> <p>Lap 4 going out was a bit of a struggle – not so much physically but more mentally. My wife (who was on the other side of the course) said I looked like I wasn’t enjoying it but I was actually. It’s rather surprising as I don’t normally have such a good time during the race but love it afterwards! The in lap was good as I kept trying to up my speed.</p> <p>Looking at my stats for the race I can see that my first 3 laps were the fastest and then that last lap was. I’m still going out a little too fast I think.</p> <p>Overall a good race. I set a new PR of 50:19 (Garmin time). I was a tiny bit gutted that I didn’t break 50 minutes (only 2 seconds a km faster required!) but then realised that a 2 minute PR was a pretty good result! Overall my average HR was 164 with a max of 174 so I think I can go a bit faster yet.</p> <p><a class="flickr-image alignnone" title="My Activities 10-05-2009" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theeberhardfamily/3523020192/"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3588/3523020192_cbd66a2064.jpg" alt="My Activities 10-05-2009" /></a></p> <p>Here’s the race results graphic. It looks like everyone was a bit faster this time:</p> <p><a class="flickr-image alignnone" title="Capture" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theeberhardfamily/3523023134/"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3391/3523023134_074a6a3f9f.jpg" alt="Capture" /></a></p> <p>My wife had a good result too with a new PR of just under 30 minutes. Funnily enough the official results show she did it in 18:39 and finished 1st amongst the women!</p> <p>It’s really nice being able to have her doing the races with me. You know if anyone had told us that we’d both be running races even just a year and a half ago we would have called them mental. Life is grand.</p> <p>As we got back to our car the heavens opened in a thunderous deluge and we were very glad to be inside the car and not still on the course!</p> <hr /> <p><small>© ebsfwan for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2009. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/05/12/run-auckland-race-3-2009/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/05/12/run-auckland-race-3-2009/#comments">11 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/05/12/run-auckland-race-3-2009/&title=Run Auckland Race 3 2009">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/05/12/run-auckland-race-3-2009/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/Qe4aRKXE4To" height="1" width="1"/> 11 Andrew http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com <![CDATA[A beautiful morning run]]> http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=976 2009-05-03T09:15:58Z 2009-05-03T09:15:58Z

My first marathon is 4 weeks away today. That’s a rather scary thought to be honest. Anyways, today’s schedule called for a 20 miler (aka a 32 kmer for those of us in the metric system). I used map my run (the NZ knockoff at least) to plan out a route that was 32 [...]

<p>My first marathon is 4 weeks away today. That’s a rather scary thought to be honest.</p> <p>Anyways, today’s schedule called for a 20 miler (aka a 32 kmer for those of us in the metric system). I used <a href="http://www.mapmyrun.co.nz">map my run</a> (the NZ knockoff at least) to plan out a route that was 32 km long and set off before the sun came up this morning.</p> <p>The first leg of my run from Remuera out towards St Heliers was beautiful. It was dark out and the sun was slowly coming up and conditions were just perfect. I wanted to head around Cliff Rd and then down to Tamaki drive but I failed to notice my turnoff and ended up running an extra 2 or so km before <span style="text-decoration: line-through;">realising</span> admitting it to myself and turning around. This meant I’d added about an extra 3-4 km to my route so I needed to do a bit of on the spot improvisation and shave a few km off here and there as I ran along.</p> <p>It turns out I didn’t do such a great job of this and ended up doing 33.65 km which was a bit more than I wanted. Fortunately the last 1.65 km were all downhill so that was a relief.</p> <p>The only other eventful thing that happened on the run were a big dog chasing me for a bit. I just stopped as he seemed more friendly than vicious and his owner was frantically chasing him down.</p> <p>One thing you notice when running around Auckland is that 33.65 km is a long way. Boy the marathon is another 8.55 km further than that. On the plus side I’m very convinced I can complete the distance (albeit slowly) but on the negative side it’s a freaking long way!</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><a class="flickr-image alignnone" title="My Activities 3-05-2009" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theeberhardfamily/3496631244/"><img class="aligncenter" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3544/3496631244_6abca24431.jpg" alt="My Activities 3-05-2009" /></a></p> <p>So 33.65 km in 3:43:27. That’s pretty slow even by my standards but I’ll take it. It wasn’t so long ago that even running 5K was a major event. <img src='http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p> <hr /> <p><small>© ebsfwan for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2009. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/05/03/a-beautiful-morning-run/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/05/03/a-beautiful-morning-run/#comments">18 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/05/03/a-beautiful-morning-run/&title=A beautiful morning run">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/05/03/a-beautiful-morning-run/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/RDkSYAp_4v8" height="1" width="1"/> 18 Andrew http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com <![CDATA[Inspirational Bloggers: Andrew’s Blog]]> http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=966 2009-04-30T20:31:40Z 2009-04-30T20:31:40Z

I’m starting a new series of posts where I’m going to highlight some of my favourite blogs. One of the things I personally find very helpful is reading about other people who have been there and done that and the first of these that I’m going to mention is my friend Andrew (AJH) from Andrew’s Blog. [...]

<p>I’m starting a new series of posts where I’m going to highlight some of my favourite blogs.</p> <p>One of the things I personally find very helpful is reading about other people who have been there and done that and the first of these that I’m going to mention is my friend Andrew (AJH) from <a href="http://ajhblog.wordpress.com/">Andrew’s Blog</a>. One of the great things about blogging is that you get to become friends with people you would not normally meet.</p> <p>A bit about him in his own words:</p> <blockquote><p>In July of 2004 I weighed about 40kg more than I do now, and I’d been overweight for the previous 20 years of my life. By June of 2005 I had lost about 24 kg by sensible eating and increasing the amount of exercise I took – primarily walking and cycling. I wanted to lose a bit more, but started to find it really tough, hitting a plateau – big time. I joined a gym and started a 6 month plan with a personal trainer – this helped a little, but not a lot. My PT kept telling me I should run, but I had never been a runner, and didn’t think I could do it. However, he persisted (as they do) and I decided to try – it was oh so hard at first (run a few steps, die a little, run a few more), but gradually I got addicted.</p> <p>In 2006 I completed my first half marathon, in 2007 I completed my first marathon and in 2008 I completed my first triathlon.</p></blockquote> <p>A more visual representation of his transformation:</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://ajhblog.wordpress.com/my-before-and-after/"><img class="aligncenter" src="http://ajhblog.files.wordpress.com/2007/04/me-before-after.jpg" alt="" width="381" height="368" /></a></p> <p>Andrew’s blog is more than just a running and fitness blog. It’s a bit of a personal journal and I’ve learnt quite a lot about Melbourne and his life just by reading his blog for the last year or so. If you are ever in Melbourne on a Saturday odds are you’ll find him in the Victoria Markets!</p> <p>I think each blog has a main theme or lesson that you can get from it and this one is no exception. Andrew is one of those folks who’ve lost the weight, gotten fit and kept himself that way successfully for a few years now. The main lesson I’ve picked up is that you have to keep exercising. Persistence and dedication do pay off.</p> <p>Head on <a href="http://ajhblog.wordpress.com/">over</a> and introduce yourself to him.</p> <hr /> <p><small>© ebsfwan for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2009. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/05/01/inspirational-bloggers-andrews-blog/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/05/01/inspirational-bloggers-andrews-blog/#comments">11 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/05/01/inspirational-bloggers-andrews-blog/&title=Inspirational Bloggers: Andrew’s Blog">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/05/01/inspirational-bloggers-andrews-blog/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/vLCKsstT-KY" height="1" width="1"/> 11 Andrew http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com <![CDATA[Not dead yet!]]> http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=968 2009-04-29T03:58:14Z 2009-04-29T03:58:14Z

I’m sorry that I’ve been a bit quiet lately but life has gotten in the way I’m afraid. I’ve been really busy at work and then just doing family stuff in the evenings instead of sitting on my computer. Normal service will resume shortly! Thanks to all of those who’ve checked up [...]

<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/thunderchild5/191629167/"><img alt="" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/46/191629167_50271dcf5d.jpg?v=0" class="alignnone" width="500" height="333" /></a></p> <p>I’m sorry that I’ve been a bit quiet lately but life has gotten in the way I’m afraid. I’ve been really busy at work and then just doing family stuff in the evenings instead of sitting on my computer. Normal service will resume shortly! Thanks to all of those who’ve checked up on me! <img src='http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p> <hr /> <p><small>© ebsfwan for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2009. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/04/29/not-dead-yet/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/04/29/not-dead-yet/#comments">4 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/04/29/not-dead-yet/&title=Not dead yet!">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/04/29/not-dead-yet/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/OTfDzPohiwo" height="1" width="1"/> 4 Andrew http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com <![CDATA[Run Auckland Race 2 2009]]> http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=961 2009-04-20T00:26:40Z 2009-04-20T00:26:40Z

I had race 02 of the Run Auckland series yesterday morning and it was a smasher! First off, it was my beloved wife’s first race and she had a great race. She did the 5K and listening to her great race report afterwards gave me a great big smile as the enthusiasm was pouring off her [...]

<p>I had race 02 of the Run Auckland series yesterday morning and it was a smasher!</p> <p>First off, it was my beloved wife’s first race and she had a great race. She did the 5K and listening to her great race report afterwards gave me a great big smile as the enthusiasm was pouring off her in waves. Here she is just before the start:</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theeberhardfamily/3454968012/"><img class="alignnone" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3371/3454968012_9c5b4c0b56.jpg?v=0" alt="" width="375" height="500" /></a></p> <p>I met<a href="http://justdontstop.blogspot.com/"> fellow blogger Aaron</a> for the first time:</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theeberhardfamily/3454970514/"><img class="alignnone" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3622/3454970514_58f34d9b70.jpg?v=0" alt="" width="375" height="500" /></a></p> <p>Unfortunately he had a crap race as he injured himself. I passed him hobbling along at the 3.5km mark. I’ve always dreamed of being fast enough to catch him but not this way.</p> <p>The race itself was pretty good. It was two laps of the 5k circuit and my only real grizzle is that the course was long again. I find running races really hard (funnily enough more mentally than physically) and it really irks me when I have to run longer than the supposed distance. A hundred metres or so is fine. A full kilometer is not.</p> <p>I ran a 10K personal record at 52.44 but unfortunately the race itself was 10.98 km according to my post race GPS download. I’m going to take the PR – naysayers be damned. <img src='http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theeberhardfamily/3454163299/"><img class="alignnone" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3389/3454163299_7ec6bef65c.jpg?v=0" alt="" width="500" height="438" /></a></p> <p>These results show an improvement from my last race:</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theeberhardfamily/3457722822/sizes/o/"><img class="alignnone" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3612/3457722822_69d46f79f2_o.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="483" /></a></p> <p>I finished 198th (223rd last time) overall, 136th male finisher (144th) an 44th (52nd) in my age division. Small improvements but I’ll take them! One funny thing from the stats is that apparently I passed 2 runners but 32 passed me in the second half! I haven’t quite got the hang of this whole negative split thing yet!</p> <p>It’s quite interesting to see how the races affect me physically now. Last year I did the 5K option and for the rest of the day I was buggered. This year I felt great after the race. My fitness is definitely much improved.</p> <hr /> <p><small>© ebsfwan for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2009. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/04/20/run-auckland-race-2-2009/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/04/20/run-auckland-race-2-2009/#comments">23 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/04/20/run-auckland-race-2-2009/&title=Run Auckland Race 2 2009">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/04/20/run-auckland-race-2-2009/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/P59yxNj91lo" height="1" width="1"/> 23 Andrew http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com <![CDATA[A guest post from my wife]]> http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=959 2009-04-14T09:17:43Z 2009-04-14T09:17:43Z

This post is written by my beloved wife I started writing the guest post last year sometime… and then never got to finish it. My last draft is not really up-to-date with what’s happening anymore, so I had to restart. You’ve all seen what an amazing transformation to his life, his shape and his confidence with himself [...]

<p><em>This post is written by my beloved wife</em></p> <p>I started writing the guest post last year sometime… and then never got to finish it. My last draft is not really up-to-date with what’s happening anymore, so I had to restart.</p> <p>You’ve all seen what an amazing transformation to his life, his shape and his confidence with himself through this new healthy lifestyle and running. You’ve all seen the photos of him before and “current”. What you may or may not have seen, is a picture of what he was like when I first met him… not a real picture, so you will have to use some of your imagination.</p> <p>When I first met him, he was big, I mean BIG. Where I came from, I’m considered overweight even with a BMI of 20. So for me, he was HUGE and tall.</p> <p>He used to be the one organising just about all the social outings we used to have. The University of Auckland is nicely situated on the top of the hill, sort of; while the town, ie. Food places and movie theatres are at the bottom. So I remember the times when we went to town for lunch, dinner, movie etc, coming back to uni for the car… actually I don’t remember walking with him much, without almost killing him. I can walk uphill the same speed as I can walk flat and I don’t walk slowly, other than in the shopping malls and supermarkets. So all I could really remember, was him panting ,deep breathing and just about half dead.</p> <p>Once, we decided to go hiking with another two couple friends, before we were going out. We were happily marching along, and him and this other VERY skinny male friend; both of them on the way back uphill, were taking a lot of breaks and moaning why there isn’t an escalator in the middle of the nature bush walk. I must say, that was rather funny. I remember that was also the hiking trip that he was compared to a hippo (not by me), with all love and respect. Even though he’s always seemed to take the fat jokes quite well but I’m sure deep down, it must have hurt and must have affected how he feels about himself.</p> <p>Eventually, he started going to the gym and he was losing weight slowly; that was the end of 2002. I think it was sometime during 2003, when he’s not losing as much weight, he went on Atkins for a while. He was going to the gym every weekday before the wedding as well, hoping to look good for the wedding. I think 100kg was where he got to and found it really hard to go down anymore. I remember at the time, we thought, 95kg would probably be a good weight for him and it’d be a dream if he can be in early 90s but chances are he’ll never be able to get down below 90!</p> <p>So, let’s assume 100kg wasn’t too far off from his “ideal weight”. Even then, trying to get him to go out for a walk is like a torture to him. His parents love walking, so do I. My parents also go for walks, too. Every time I tried to drag him out for a walk, it’s always a very short one. This is when he was doing regular exercises and losing weight on and off, yet, even just walking around isn’t something easy for him to do.</p> <p>This all changed, when he started doing C25K.</p> <p>Slowly but surely, he started to feel more energy and fitter than he was before. He’d even carry the little one out for a walk, after he had just came back for a run!! Many times I asked, are you sure?! He was still keen! He might have been a little sore but still keen to get out and be active!</p> <p>So apart from the changes in what you can see in photos; this is the change I see as well.</p> <p>I’d like to also add, usually, women get married and overtime, they get a bit more of their men to love than less. It is normal for a married man to start putting on weight, especially round the middle as the years of married life goes up. I must say, I’ve got one that actually is looking better and better as the years go by. He is feeling much better about himself; feeling more confident; being more active and healthier! That’s pretty good!</p> <p>Also because of him, there are a few more of his friends and people he knows had started running as well, myself included. Most amazing one is his mother; she’s now training for her 15K race coming up!! She only started running late last year!!</p> <p>Sometimes, it may seem weird, but it’s really amazing the influence he has had on others, simply by doing it and sharing his experiences.</p> <p> <img src='http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /><br /> <em>You can read her blog <a href="http://dtsnake.livejournal.com/">here</a>.</em></p> <hr /> <p><small>© ebsfwan for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2009. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/04/14/a-guest-post-from-my-wife/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/04/14/a-guest-post-from-my-wife/#comments">19 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/04/14/a-guest-post-from-my-wife/&title=A guest post from my wife">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/04/14/a-guest-post-from-my-wife/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/lo1yAQQBoXE" height="1" width="1"/> 19 Andrew http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com <![CDATA[A run towards breakfast]]> http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=953 2009-04-12T04:26:19Z 2009-04-12T04:23:45Z

I was up bright and early this morning – 4:30AM to be precise. My cousin had invited us to head over to her place for breakfast at 9AM and I decided that I would run over and work up an appetite. Truth be told I don’t need a run to work up an [...]

<p>I was up bright and early this morning – 4:30AM to be precise. My cousin had invited us to head over to her place for breakfast at 9AM and I decided that I would run over and work up an appetite. Truth be told I don’t need a run to work up an appetite but I figured it would help burn off the Easter eggs. <img src='http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';)' class='wp-smiley' /> My cousin lives on the other side of Auckland in Titirangi so I would be running to a place I’d never run before.</p> <p>I left the house just after 5:30ish while it was still dark and headed out towards the waterfront. I took a bit of a blurry photo of a big passenger liner that was docked outside the Hilton hotel:<br /> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theeberhardfamily/3433486390/"><img class="alignnone" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3656/3433486390_d643399db7.jpg?v=0" alt="" width="500" height="375" /></a></p> <p>I had to do an emergency bathroom stop in the Viaduct area. Fortunately there was a public restroom available so public indecency charges were avoided.</p> <p>The sun was starting to come up as I headed through the marina. I ran under the harbour bridge that is in the background:<br /> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theeberhardfamily/3433487114/"><img class="alignnone" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3393/3433487114_aec71d10c4.jpg?v=0" alt="" width="500" height="375" /></a></p> <p>I headed back towards the North Western motorway via Ponsonby as I knew there was a bike track that travelled alongside the motorway that I was keen to run along. After a few false starts I found the entrance to it and headed down it.</p> <p>The run was pretty uneventful up until the last ten km or so as the gradient started to trend upwards. I must admit it was a real struggle and my pace slowed right down. I finally reached the high point and thought that I would be able to blast down the last two km as the road was heading down pretty steeply but it was actually almost worse than climbing up as the impact on my tired legs was rather jarring.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theeberhardfamily/3432678345/"><img class="alignnone" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3549/3432678345_881406475c.jpg?v=0" alt="" width="500" height="300" /></a></p> <p>Anyway, I finally arrived (a little late) and sat down to a fabulous breakfast of croissants and hot cross buns. The easter eggs after were just the icing on the cake!</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theeberhardfamily/3432676917/"><img class="alignnone" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3580/3432676917_352525540e.jpg?v=0" alt="" width="500" height="438" /></a></p> <p>This was my longest run ever at 31.14 km (almost 20 miles) at an average pace of 6:45 min per km. Those hills really killed my average pace today but I was going for distance not time. Overall a good cross Auckland run. I was very glad that my wife had driven the car there and I didn’t have to run back as well!</p> <hr /> <p><small>© ebsfwan for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2009. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/04/12/953/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/04/12/953/#comments">21 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/04/12/953/&title=A run towards breakfast">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/04/12/953/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/wHG_u8FI2KE" height="1" width="1"/> 21 Andrew http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com <![CDATA[Auckland Marathon 2009]]> http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/?p=950 2009-04-09T23:51:22Z 2009-04-09T23:51:22Z

Well, call me nuts but I’ve entered my second marathon before finishing my first! Entries for the Auckland Marathon opened today so I thought I’d get in quick. Tickets sold out quickly last year so if you are thinking of doing it then go buy your ticket now! © ebsfwan for Andrew is getting fit, 2009. | Permalink | 17 [...]

<p><a href="http://www.aucklandmarathon.co.nz"><img class="size-medium wp-image-951 alignleft" title="untitled" src="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/untitled-300x167.jpg" alt="untitled" width="300" height="167" /></a>Well, call me nuts but I’ve entered my second marathon before finishing my first!</p> <p>Entries for the <a href="http://www.aucklandmarathon.co.nz">Auckland Marathon</a> opened today so I thought I’d get in quick.</p> <p>Tickets sold out quickly last year so if you are thinking of doing it then go <a href="http://www.aucklandmarathon.co.nz">buy your ticket</a> now!</p> <hr /> <p><small>© ebsfwan for <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com">Andrew is getting fit</a>, 2009. | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/04/10/auckland-marathon-2009/">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/04/10/auckland-marathon-2009/#comments">17 comments</a> | Add to <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/04/10/auckland-marathon-2009/&title=Auckland Marathon 2009">del.icio.us</a> <br/> Post tags: <br/> </small></p><a href="http://www.technorati.com/search/http://www.andrewisgettingfit.com/2009/04/10/auckland-marathon-2009/" title="Linking blogs to this article, on Technorati">Who is linking?</a> <p><small>Feed enhanced by <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/my-projects/wordpress-plugin-better-feed-rss/'>Better Feed</a> from <a href='http://planetozh.com/blog/'>Ozh</a></small></p> <img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AndrewIsGettingFit/~4/QAfzYIXm0sY" height="1" width="1"/> 17