It was the anniversary of meeting my mate Duncan, a.k.a DD, so we thought it best to do a last minute sign up for NewRun. Last minute being we were both pretty trashed from racing the previous week. As is typical with DD we planned for this to be a shirtless run but I had no idea he was planning for this to be a shirtless and budgy smuggler's run! Standing around in only running shorts it's fair to say I was feeling pretty overdressed!
On the start line we bumped into our Wooter mate Mark who'd already been out for 25km before lining up for the half marathon. He's been putting in some massive prep for UTA50 and I'd say he's right on track. After a bit of a chat the gun fired and we were off and racing albeit a little slowly as the three of us were pretty beat up.
It didn't take long before the heckling started and man was it funny. The people just wouldn't leave Dunc alone, which was pretty fair. We cruised along at about a 5:30 pace for the first 8km before heading up through King Edward Park. Mark and I kept a slightly faster pace up the hill just to be comfortable and Dunc caught up heading down the other side.
Reaching the turn around point at Empire Park even the commentator got in on heckling Dunc. My cheeks were already sore from laughing the whole way with the boys and this commentator just stepped things up a notch. Heading back up Memorial Drive I felt remarkably good for a hill climb. Seems all this trail running was really paying off as I've never been this tired and yet felt great running a road hill.
Winding back down through Kind Edward my legs started to feel fatigued and pretty sure Dunc was feeling a little worse for wear. Mark was still running like a legend which was amazing. Back along Newcastle Beach we sooked about the headwind but it was no way as bad as competing with the rain and wind from last year.
Out the breakwall for the second time the heckling just continued. At this point I wasn't sure what was more sore, my jaw from laughing or my legs from running. In either case we were having a ball.
Heading back past the Brewery, retired NBN sports presenter, Mike Rabbitt, also jumped on the sledge Dunc bandwagon. I don't think I could cope with any more laughing with a couple kilometres to go but needless to say the giggles continued to the finish line.
The three of us finished with a time 2:02:45 so certainly didn't break any land speed records but undoubtedly had the most fun any of us have had on a race.
Race day stats:
| Distance: |
21.1 km |
| Time: |
2:02:45 |
| Avg Pace: |
5:41 min/km |
| Elevation Gain: |
129 m |
| Calories: |
1,923 C |
