The room was a bit noisy overnight due to general hotel noise and a main street nearby, but overall not too bad. My alarm was set for 7am so that I would have enough time for a 10 minute walk to the train station, and made it with plenty of time to spare. The train trip was just one stop for about 5 minutes, then I was able to follow people to the nearby parkrun starting location. It was quite a unique place for a parkrun, starting and finishing on the middle of a footbridge elevated over the bay.
Soon after we set off half of the footbridge was closed so there was a narrow section until we got back onto land. The course had a lot more hills than I expected and some were quite steep although didn't last for long. My legs felt quite bad at the start but got better as I went along and finished in the top 20 at about 22:30 for 5km.
A quick walk back to the train station and then to the hotel to get ready for the free breakfast. The options were a bit more limited than a usual Holiday Inn Express but I got some hash browns, mango yoghurt, muesli, orange juice, and plain croissants.
After breakfast I headed down to the harbour for the race check-in. It wasn't too busy and was well organised, the first stop was to collect the race bib and free hat, then another area to collect a bag with a few free items like bagels and gels. The bagels needed to be toasted so I had no idea what I was going to do with those.
At the expo they had the Asics merchandise first since they were the major sponsor, and they had a special collection of marathon and half marathon tops with every participant named on the back. I thought that was a bit unique so got a regular t-shirt version, since it seemed better than the rest. Moving on through, one of the stores had the Australian shyu socks, where they match the colour schemes to some of the common racing shoes that are currently on sale. I got a pair to match my light green / blue Puma Deviate Nitro Elite 3, as well as some energy chews. I wasn't sure if I'd wear those socks tomorrow or stick with my better known Steigen pair, which are also a close match colour wise. On the way out there was also free Rokeby milk and Red Bull cans, and a long line for free barista coffee.
Heading back to the hotel I stopped at the local Pop Mart store to see if they had anything special for New Zealand, but it all looked quite standard. After dropping off my race stuff I walked to the local Countdown supermarket, which is sadly now just named Woolworths. They had the Anzac flavour of Mother Earth muesli bars which was good, as they don't sell them in Australia. Most other things were similar to Australia, so I just got some bread and drinks, plus a visit to Dunkin Donuts on the way back to the hotel for lunch and rest.
By the time I finished lunch it was 1pm but I didn't want to have a big and exhausting afternoon. I started out at a local games and collectibles shop which had quite a lot of stuff, but nothing I was desperate to buy. The next stop was a souvenir shop which had some good quality magnets with a buy two get one free deal. Then another stop at JB Hi-Fi to see what they had, but the collectibles section was very small. Finally I got some more food and drink at New World and then back to the hotel as my legs were starting to feel a bit tired.
I spent the rest of the afternoon resting and watching some videos on Twitch and YouTube before trying to sleep early ahead of the upcoming morning race.
Steps = 13,500 with 5.0 kilometres running
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