So after about ten seconds that was a bad idea, six runners that were obviously from proper athletics clubs took off ahead at the start and weren't seen again. I find it a bit annoying when all these serious club runners turn up to the park runs and just smash everyone. The worst part is they don't even bring barcodes to register their name in the results, so it just fills up the top of the table with a whole bunch of 'unknown' and probably aren't volunteering much or at all.
Back to the running, not to recount a boring running story in detail, but I was somewhere in the next pack of runners after those guys, got into a sprint finish with two guys in the last kilometres which I would have preferred not to do, but got ahead of them and ended up being 10th spot. My goal had been to finish in single digits (1st to 9th) at every park run, for no reason other than it looks good on the results history page. So will have to be finish in the top 10 now. Or go back to Christchurch...
Sweating like crazy after a hard run, but drove over to the farmer's market at Riccarton Bush before going back to the hotel. Pretty good market, heaps of different cakes and donuts and other stuff. Not sure about their interpretation of a cronut though, it was basically a donut.
Drove to Bottle Lake forest park next, I had planned to come along earlier in the week and try run of their running routes, but ran out of time for that. Instead walked part of the way, it was quite confusing because there was so many intersections and some tracks were for bikes instead of runners. Some of the track was sand too, which was annoying, but then reached the forest part which was better. Don't think I came across a bottle lake though.
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| Think where we'd be without sand. |
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| Bottle Lake forest. |
Just past the park was New Brighton, and probably old Brighton too, next to the beach. Like any beach ever it was really hot and bright, too bad I left my sunglasses at the hotel. I love the heat, but hate feeling like my skin is on fire, not sure how that works exactly. After lunch went down to the water - South Pacific Ocean I suppose - the sand was almost in flames too, and I didn't even pack sandals! I still had keys in my pocket so only went about knee deep, but if it works for footballers rehab I guess it could work for me too.
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| Brighton. |
Nothing much else to see so drove back to the hotel to clean out the car and return it. Filled up with fuel on the way, got stuck with another attendant who got to the pump before I could tell him I could manage myself. Awesome job by this guy too, I caught a glance that he spilled petrol down the side of the car while connecting the hose, then instead of cleaning it up just tried to stand in front of it to hide it. Lucky it wasn't my car, but really, you have one job to do and can't do it right.
Dropped of the car, think I must have left my hat inside. It was a bit old and inexpensive, just annoying to have to walk around without a hat the rest of the day. So just back to the city again, visited the cardboard cathedral that is somehow waterproof, a few scattered bits of street art, earthquake memorial and a few other places. Had dinner then went back to the hotel to pack.
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| Cardboard cathedral |
Steps: 21000 + 8km run
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