Paul Petch

Half marathon to ultra trail in 6 months

My first half marathon

It was only a few months ago that I decided to start running proper. By proper I mean longer runs at the gym and the park and then my first half marathon at the Christchurch SBS so I suppose you could call it training. A conversation with my good friend Spencer started all of this craziness with talk of how he was running up the Rapaki track some nights to help out with endurance while mountain biking. I then discovered that he had run a marathon or two while living in Auckland and I decided there and then that I’d like to give it a go. It sounded like it could be alot of fun.

The plan that got me to my first half marathon was to join an organised group at work (in the gym) who were training for the SBS half marathon.  So with about 9 weeks training on a tread mill in the (as I could never make the group runs due to finishing to late…doh!) and a few solo jogs around the local park I then ran in the SBS half marathon with a time of 1.55.18 and absolutely loved it! The best part was when I saw my time on the big clock on the finishing straight and I was coming in under two hours! I sprinted with everything I had left in me along the last stretch with the iPod blasting….I WAS TOTALLY HOOKED!

Alas, my body does not like running…it seems

The nine weeks or so leading upto the SBS half marathon were not exactly full of fun if I was to be honest with you. Within a few weeks my left foot on the outside edge was hurting like hell. After visiting the physio I discovered that it was tendinitis- which was a sign that I had over done it. Looking back, I had upped the KM’s from 5 to 15 in under two weeks with no prior running experience, so no surprises to the cause! Things were not getting any better after another couple of weeks, so off I went to a Podiatrist to discover that I also pronate in both feet and in particular the left one. With a pair of new runners to replace the pair that were 3? years old! and wearing the orthotics (that felt bloody terrible) for a few days the tendinitis cleared up and I was back in business! Hoorah!

By now I only had about 3 weeks before the SBS half…..and I had not run close to the 20KM mark. I was getting worried. Then there were the aches and pains…..the tight hamstrings….confusion about technique….the list goes on and on. All of which I’m sure that you can relate to if you have just started running or have decided to increase your KM’s. But being a stubborn bastard that I am….I kept going and during the following weeks I managed to run the magical 20KM… just in time to wind down for a week before the event. What a frustrating and confusing experience that 9 weeks of training was! But finishing the half in under two hours made up for it….and motivated me on to run more.

Let the craziness continue

Anyway, since the SBS half I’ve continued to run a fair bit and I’m now upto about 40KM/ week plus a bit of core work too. A few weeks ago I got caught up in some silly staff room chat and then before I knew it I was setting my alarm for a 6.2oam a week ago to wakeup and enter the Kepler Challenge. I’m sure that you know about this event, but if not I’ll quote the Kepler website;

“The Kepler Challenge Mountain Run is described as “the jewel in NZ’s mountain running calendar”. The event is organized by a voluntary committee with the support, on race day, of approximately 200 Te Anau residents. This gives the event a truly “community” feel.

The 60km event plus the sister race the Luxmore Grunt (27km) is held on the Kepler Track in Fiordland National Park, part of the South Westland World Heritage Area.

Limited to 400 competitors in the Challenge and 150 in the Grunt, fills in very quick time when it opens “online” on the first Saturday in July each year. The events attract a wide range of competitors in both nationality and age groups. The Nature of the event for the majority is as the name suggests a personal challenge.”

The more I think about the task ahead, the more I realise that I have a lot of hard work, personal insights and training ahead. All of which I’ll be sharing with you all…from training to the day. I already have a coach, a great physio, podiatrist and more recently a sports masseur….I’m now just waiting for a training plan.

With a mantra of FORWARD, UP & OVER I’m keen to let the fun begin!

Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates.

Related posts:

1. My first ultra marathon distance of 49KM
2. Kepler Challenge – some ultra marathon training tips
3. Running in 2010
4. Copper Canyon Ultra Marathon
5. Those aches and pains & how I’m fixing them

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 11th, 2009 at 9:19 pm and is filed under Thoughts & Training and tagged with kepler challenge, physio, podiatrist, sbs marathon, ultra trail. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.