City to Surf Run

After months of training, Sunday 25th March was 'The Day" for the annual 'City to Surf' run. The 'City to Surf ' takes entrants along the River Avon to the Queen Elizabeth II stadium; a journey of 12km. One can choose how to participate; you can walk, run or use inline skates. Many companies use this opportunity to promote themselves, and Meridian Energy was no exception. They paid the entry fee for staff and family, supplied us all with nice, breathable running tops, and laid on a BBQ afterwards.

Pete and Mark competed in this event last year so Pete had high hopes of bettering his time and beating Mark again. This year, Helen looked after Ryan and Emily so that Lisa could compete, too. And yes, even I turned up to join in this 'fun' activity.

The starting hooter sounded before we had made our way to the start line, so we just continued walking to the start line, trying to find a clear path through the masses of people. I never even saw Pete, but managed to glimpse the backs of Lisa and Mark until approximately the third km.

Even though it was a warm morning, I was running at a good pace, and by the time I had reached Porrit Park (the 7km point) I knew I had to keep going. I was not going to walk. Tiredness eventually set in but as soon as I saw the stadium I found some more energy and managed to sprint down the track to the finish line. During my sprint, I heard side line encouragements from Pete, Mark and Lisa. I collected my certificate and 'trophy' - a bottle of Pump- and went in search of my supporters.

Pete told me my finishing time; I completed it in 72 minutes. Not bad considering I was aiming for 80 minutes. Pete was slightly disappointed. He had hoped to do it in less than 50 minutes, but he came home in 52 minutes. What was even worse, Mark finished 20 seconds before him. Lisa ran it in a very respectable time of 53 minutes. We then made our way to the corporate area, and found the Meridian Energy BBQ. We only had to wait a short while before Helen and the kids turned up. They had missed us finish, but joined us for the barbecue anyway.

After we had munched on a few burgers, we all headed back to our house to enjoy a beer in the sun and bask in our self-rightousness. The rest of the afternoon was spent undoing all the good work at the 'Dux de Lux' eating nachos and enjoying their finest ales!

All in all, it was a great event, and I guess we will have to continue training, so that we can do this all again next year!