Relax for 20 minutes ---

[Bazza1234]

and watch this interesting TV doco from 1980 about the famous "Round the Bays" fun run in Auckland NZ. I guess it was "the Greatest run on Earth" in 1980!!!

nzonscreen.com/title/the-gr...

[ancientrunner Graduate10]

Well, thank you so much for that Bazza. Bizarre and dated as it was. I was living in Auckland in 1980 and we had never come across a mass participation event like it. Needless to say couldn't contemplate doing it - however, 35 years later, last March I did it. We even changed our departure date to fit it in. It was a great day, such beautiful scenery and very much something people took part in rather than watched. We walked back along the route and it was still packed with people/families all shapes and sizes just strolling along on their annual outing. I spoke to a lady dong her 17th run. So I really enjoyed the glimpses of the route. They used to sell a poster of the thousands of people on the move together that I would now love to have but there were no "souvenirs", sadly no bling at all in fact. Running it was definitely one my rewards for taking up running.

[Bazza1234 Graduate10 in reply to ancientrunner]

I am DEFINITELY going to put this one on the "watch" list for next year - it is only 8.4 k and would fit nicely into a couple of weeks car tour of the North Island. I also will miss the Sydney City to Surf in August this year - so possibly next year might be a time for me to chase after "big" fun runs - rather than more serious events. I spent all of the early part of this year training for a 10K run at the University of Queensland - and the gold Coast Half Marathon. Both of these are serious runs - nobody dressed up as Smurfs at all!!

I have found that I do enjoy these really big runs - so much to look at along the way!!

roundthebays.co.nz/