Kerikeri Half Marathon Race Recap...

On Saturday I ran the Kerikeri Half marathon. I wasn't sure if I would survive to see the finish how I would go only 2 weeks after doing a full marathon and since my body had been on strike for two weeks, but I actually really enjoyed the race and am happy with how I went.

Because of the last two weeks, I decided that I wouldn't have a time goal and that all I wanted to do was to finish it and enjoy it and not die. Check! I was also happy to be doing it with these wonderful ladies who were all running their first halves:

At the start line. Super proud of these babes!

It was a crazy hot day and the first 7kms were pretty much one long gradual up hill... Yay! I didn't want to crash and burn on the hills so decided to start out nice and slow and then if I felt ok after the hills, pick up the pace a little.

I started out behind the two hour pacer and was following behind her until about 12kms where I caught up to her. At around 14kms I overtook her and felt like I was happy to pick up the pace some more. With about 500m to go I decided I was just going to nail it to the finish line. Ok, so by nail it I mean sprint and by sprint I mean run as fast as I could after 20kms of running already (which was probably pretty slow compared to some!). I also decided I would count (in my head of course, out loud would just be plain rude!) the amount of people I passed... The total was 14 people... BOOM! Haha.

Sprinting towards the finish, not aware of the camera or I would have donned my best running pose instead of looking a tad special.

I got to use my Garmin which was the best part of the whole race. It helped me with my pacing and then the best part was hooking it up to Garmin Connect after the event to see all of my stats and details of the race. My average pace was 5:36mins/km. My final finishing time was 1:58:29. Rather happy with that indeed.

This is a really great event to do. It's a reasonably fast course as the last 14kms are pretty much flat or downhill with the odd small up hill in there. It is also a great day out. We stayed afterwards and had a picnic in the domain while waiting for the prizegiving where, true to form I did not win a thing, but it was a really lovely day out with the family and friends.

Loved running the race, and loved being able to celebrate with these superstars at the finish. A great day all round!

This was us at the finish - bare feet never felt so good!