I had been looking forward to Christchurch Airport Marathon for ages. I’d booked Craig and me Business seats on Emirates from Sydney and back, and had also booked into a nice hotel adjacent to the start. I’d had three weeks to recover from UTA50 and knew the weather would be quite cool – ideal for a marathon. Things got a little tricky a few weeks prior when Craig’s uni studies saw an exam scheduled for the morning we were departing….
I was excited to go to New Zealand for this marathon. I was going alone with just a backpack of gear and it was going to be quite an adventure! New Plymouth is a town about an hour by plane south of Auckland. We’d no sooner taken off on that flight and the crew had run through the plane throwing food at us, than it was time to land! The mountain mentioned in the title of the marathon, known as…
Rotorua marathon is where it all started. Or rather, Craig suggesting we do the marathon instead of the distance I suggested, being 5km, is where it all started! Brand new to running – less than five months of experience – why not tackle a marathon?! We commenced training 18 weeks out from 1 May 2010. I researched plans for walking a marathon and then found a Hal Higdon beginner marathon program. We went out walking three to five mornings or…