My work sponsored the Iron Maori event in the Hawkes Bay this year and we ended up putting two teams into the event. I was asked if I wanted to do the run which I agreed to back at the start of the year, true to form I didn’t train at all for it.
The run was Quarter Marathon distance which is 10.5km and I know that I can manage a 10km without training without too many issues as I’ve done it a number of times before, although generally not in a race!
We were in Sydney for a week before the run on a short holiday (blog post to come!) so I decided to do a short run while I was there just to get the legs moving and to minimise any pain that I would feel after the Quarter Marathon as my Powerlifting Competition is today (1 week after the Iron Maori Quarter Marathon) and generally I get REALLY tight calves when I go on a long run for the first time.
The Hawkes Bay put on a STUNNER of a day for us and by 8am it was already heating up and we knew it was going to be a long HOT run out in the open! I didn’t actually know exactly where we were running but I figured I wouldn’t be right at the front so it didn’t really matter!
I have a pet hate for out and back courses as I’d much prefer a loop course so that you get a different view the whole way through the run. Turns out the Iron Maori was an out and back course that you did TWICE! Gahh!
At the start line there were two groups, one of people who intended to run the whole thing and one of people who thought they would walk some of it or those who were planning to walk the whole thing. This was a great idea as it meant we got a pretty clear run at the start and didn’t have to zig zag around people to get into our race pace.
Whilst I wasn’t a huge fan of the actual course itself it definitely did have some bonuses – there were two water stations and it was all run on a path so you didn’t feel as though you were about to get hit by a car the whole course.
The crowd support at the Iron Maori Quarter Marathon was the best of any event I have been to before! Everyone was yelling and cheering when you ran past no matter how fast or slow you were going, I even got two high fives from randoms who were running on the course as well at points where you would cross since we were on an out and back course.
I surprised myself and ended up doing a pretty decent time at 50minutes! I’m not 100% convinced it was a full 10.5km however as the runner in our other team mapped the run and it only came to 9.91km. We think that the extra 600m might be the distance that those doing the three events (swim, bike, run) would have covered in their transition?
Our team ended up coming 30th out of the 329 teams that were entered which is pretty good considering I don’t think any of us really did any training.
I’d definitely consider entering this event again, despite the out and back course as it was a nice easy (flat) track to run, the crowd support was great and the event was all wrapped up before lunchtime meaning that you could still spend the rest of the day doing other things!
Have you ever done a Quarter Marathon or would you consider doing one?
Fantastic job Amanda! Looks like it was a good day for it too!