Kate and friend in New Zealand

Molenberg Sub Ride or Stride 21km Run

Or:

The Story of a Hilly, Hot Half – with no Mars Bars!

A work trip to New Zealand is a great thing but when it comes in the middle of marathon training, well that's a different matter! Knowing how tough it would be to keep up the mileage whilst I was away for just over two weeks, I scoured the internet for any suitable races and found the Molenberg Sub Ride or Stride Events. Ladies only, these events are organised by Sarah Ulmer, Olympic champion pursuit cyclist, and as the name suggests, there are cycling, running and walking events. The cyclists take on either a 65km or 35km ride, whereas for runners and walkers there is the choice of 5k, 10k or 21k – half marathon to you and I. Over 800 women took part over the 8 events – for the half marathon there were 17 of us!

The run started at 1130 in the morning and in the middle of summer in New Zealand, that is not altogether the best time to be running. It was cloudy but 22 degrees – oh dear! Just before the start, the MC asked around the group 'so who's going for a win then?' I very modestly did not respond and just as well. The gun went and about 10 of the 17 girls flew off into the distance at a very fast pace. Don't worry I thought to myself, just treat this as a training run. I'd decided not to wear a watch, just to go with the flow, run the miles, enjoy!

The course was basically a cross shape, with three turnaround points on route but this meant for every sweeping downhill section, you knew that you would have to face it back the other way! There were lots of these! The course was undulating to hilly and with the added temperature – tough. Water stations at roughly every 3km were very welcome as was the light shower which briefly gave some respite after about 25 minutes running. The first few hills were not too bad (good old Long Buckby hill reps I thought!) but then they started to wear me down. By just over half way I felt I was really struggling and that I was definitely on for a PW (personal worst)! Because of the turnaround nature of the course, the leaders kept passing me in the other direction and although the lead girl was running very freely, I thought she was probably on about 1.45/1.50 pace with me at least 25/30 minutes behind. Oh well I thought, just get round. To this end, at the water station at 14km, I stopped and chatted with the guy whilst he very kindly filled my now empty water bottle. At the next two water stations, I also stopped and drank my water by the table – no point in rushing I thought, at least I'm not last. Had a good run into the finish and came in quite strongly. Name check as I crossed the line and the MC appeared with his microphone under my nose:

'So how was it out there Kate?'

'Hot and hilly!'

'What time did you do?'

'No idea, just treating it as a training run so didn't time it.'

'Well you certainly look like you left it all on the road today.' – His way of saying I looked like I was about to collapse I think!

Stayed on for the prize giving and was amazed when the time for the girl who won the race was announced as 1.30.20! Blimey, she had certainly been motoring. This made me suddenly think that maybe my time wasn't so bad after all.

Having now checked the official results, I finished in 12th place in 2.04.04 – my second best half time!

If only I hadn't stopped for those chats and drinks I might have even got close to breaking 2 hours again – that'll teach me not to wear a watch!

Kate