Taupo Half Marathon 6/8/22

[Me_time]

I left work early yesterday & my sister took the day off. We drove to Taupo about 275km away. It usually takes 3-3.5hrs, it took us an hour extra due to a couple of crashes on State Highway 1.

We reached here just in time for dinner. Had dinner at a restaurant we both loved when we did the Tongariro Crossing hike together a few months ago. We drove 1hr to Taupo at that time to find a restaurant and absolutely loved the food at that time. So we went there this time too as we were already in Taupo.

I woke up this morning with a extremely sore tummy. Not sure if it was due to the heavy dinner last night or just being anxious for the HM.

We were at the Riverside park by 8am, picked up our tickets, dropped off the bags at bag drop off. Did some stretches & took a few photos. It was a bit cold, so I wore a full sleeves top and a half sleeve on top of it. Kept the rain jacket tied to my waste too even though the forecast was for overcast skies.

The HM started on time at 9.15am. The lake Taupo was just beautiful and so many people turned up to support the race. There were more than 1000 participants & loved the festive vibe there. I took a few photos and kept a slow pace, my tummy just was not liking any movement. By the end of 10k, it didnot look like I could carry on. The sun had come out and I could barely take a sip of water/electolyte at the drink stations as my tummy was just too sore to add anything to it. We still kept running slowly. At 14k mark I just could not run & decided to jeff the rest of the distance. I also seemed to have developed a localised sharp pain on the outside of my left thigh. At 16k mark it looked like I might have to walk the rest of the distance due to my tummy pain not improving at all & a sore thigh, I told myself it is only a parkrun distance now. Didnot like holding back my sister but she would not go ahead & finish the run so we continued jeffing.

I could almost hear you all cheering me on from the otherside of the world & some across the ditch in Oz and a fellow Kiwi just a few hundred km down the road

Thank you Irishprincess  Frenc  TailChaser  Shake-and-run  RunWillie  lexi6  Cmoi  Stephen_UK  RunBrianRun  linda9389  Sandraj39  Katnap  aliboo70  for the support & encouragement, helped me to keep going and complete the distance. As for the result, we completed in 2hr 53min 30secs.

There was massage being offered at the finish line so we both got that done. There was also hot soup & bread rolls being offered so I just had some soup and she had soup and couple of bread rolls. She was still starving so bought her some coffee and cinnamon role from a nearby cafe and walked to our accomodation and straight into a nice & warm spa. It helped my tummy as well as my leg!

 Had a bit of rest after that and went out for dinner. My tummy is much better now and I hope it stays that way for the drive back home tomorrow 🤞

The course was beautiful, have attached some pics of the new blings & some parts of the run.

[Cmoi Graduate10]

Many congratulations Me_time , completing despite everything is a real achievement. It looks and sounds like a wonderful event. Cute bling too, and I say that as someone who dislikes medals!

[Sandraj39 Graduate10]

What a great run report and fab photos! Well done to you and your sister - so impressed that you pushed on through despite the discomfort!💪👏👏 Love that your sister stuck with you when she could have pushed on ahead❤️ - I ran my first HM with my more experienced sis a few years back and she stuck with me, helping me to a PB! Lovely medals too - what a great running journey you have been on this year - well done!🙂🏅

[RunWillie Graduate10]

Well done Me_time

Sorry to hear about your tummy troubles. It is hard to run when that happens so big kudos for persevering. 😍

[Instructor57 Graduate10]

Very well done completing the distance with walking or not you pushed on !Glad to hear the tummy is on the mend .

🙂👍

[Dendev75 Graduate10]

Congratulations, beautiful scenery - you completed it and that’s all that matters. Such a shame about your tummy on the day though. The spa sounds like it helped at the end 👍🏻

[CBDB Graduate10]

Oh wow! That looks like a gorgeous course! And those medals! And so we’ll deserved, running through a sore tummy ache! 😣

👏🙏👍🏽🏃🏽‍♀️🥇🥇🥇🥇

[Stephen_UK Graduate10]

Great report. Well done on surviving what sounds like quite a challenging event! Amazing that you kept going despite everything. A huge achievement.

[Irishprincess Graduate10]

I’ve been watching out for your report and I so enjoyed reading it! The bling is fabulous, I love it!

Congratulations and very well done to you 🥳💪👏 you did brilliantly, especially considering your tummy problems. That must have been hard to keep going at times, so you should feel very proud of your achievement.

And how lovely of your sister to keep going with you, such precious memories that will last 🤗 and great photos too to look back on 🙂

[Yesletsgo Ambassador Graduate10]

Well done for preserving, not sure I'd dare to run if my tummy was bad.

[Frenc Graduate10 60minGraduate]

Oh super well done Me_time , and same to your sister too of course! I’m sorry your tummy wasn’t feeling great, I hope it’s feeling a bit better now. Those medals are just ridiculously nice, so colourful! Hurrah on a great HM 😁😁😁.

[linda9389 Graduate10]

You superstar! To feel poorly and want to stop at 10k, but go on to complete a half marathon is an amazing feat of determination. To do it in such a good time is awesome. Huge congratulations!

[lexi6 Graduate10]

I've been looking out for your post Me_time but was looking on the wrong forum. Great post and photos and that's an awesome time you ran, especially with your tummy discomfort. Hope you are feeling ok now. Congratulations to you and your sister 👍

[ForbiddenPlanet Graduate10]

Excellent going, especially considering the tummy tantrums! Many congrats. 👏👏