10km "fun" Run

After spending the last 3 nights working at the South Pacific Netball Champs (serving the VIP section) Adam and I were pretty tired so headed home and ended up missing the end of netball party for all the volunteers that went to 5.00am this morning!

Lucky we did though as we were up at 5.30am and heading for the 10km fun run. I decided to enter just to support Adam even though I have never run this far in my life before. It was nice and cool and calm at 6.30am when the race began. The initial crowd took off at great speed so I found my own plodding pace and settled in. My aim was to at least run 5km and maybe have a 5km warm down as I walked back!

We headed out around the North Eastern side of the island. It was very nice running beside the sea and watching the sun rise. The thing with running in Samoa is that you have to go at stupid o'clock in the morning otherwise it's far too hot. The other thing is that you have to be ready to shout encouragement to those already returning back past you, wave to passers by hanging out of bus windows and say "Malo" (or Hi) to people standing on the side of the road watching as many pairs of palagi legs run past along with a few Samoan ones!

I reached the halfway point and was feeling OK. Nearly did not put my foot over the line so was nearly disqualified but with a bit of a sideways hop got there and had my number ticked off. As I was feeling alright and as it was a bit of a gentle downwards slope I continued to run.

The NZ High Commissioner, Caroline Bilkey went past me at the half way mark and was soon followed by Helen who also works for the NZ High Commission. These two ladies are part of the relay team that Adam is running in later in August half way around Upolu. Good to see they are all out training.

I made it as far at the 7km mark before I decided the legs were getting a bit heavy and to have a walk. It was a nice refreshing power walk in the shade. When I reached the corner where Adam reakoned it was 2km to go I decided to start to run again and see if I could run home. At the Moataa School sign away I went. I was surprised at how comfortable I was feeling and soon reached Apia Park where we play netball and knew I could make it home from there.

My time in the end was 1 hour and 8 minutes. Caroline came in at 1:01 and Helen must have been about 1:05. Adam was 57.5 so in the end after thinking I was miles and at least 1/2 hour behind everyone else my time wasn't too bad.

Feel stoked to have made it 10km only problem now is that I have raised the benchmark! After going home and having a quick shower and some breakfast I headed back out to netball and umpiring training. Now I'm working - what a day!