Mud Sweat & Tears 5k

Moats filled mud, tunnels filled mud, runners covered head to toe in mud: welcome to my Sunday!

This was the first year of Mud Sweat & Tears in Dunedin at the Wingatui Race Course.  The 5k course started out easily enough with a few hay bales to jump over, but then the fun began when we had to wade through waist-high muddy water.  The slippery obstacles proved to be more challenging than I expected, but the average participant would have been able to conquer them all.  I particularly enjoyed bum-sliding down a hill just before I arrived at a monstrous slide which sent me right into more mud.  

Our handsome reward for completing the race? A nice cold can of Tui! Yum! There were also mugs of hot soup waiting for us as well.  The pumpkin soup was delish!

More pictures can be found on the Dunedin Mud Sweat & Tears Facebook page. I definitely recommend doing the race; I'll plan on the 10k next year. 

Autumn in Aotearoa

The Mãori name for New Zealand is Aotearoa, "the land of the long white cloud.” 

Fiordland trip March 2012

Lately, it seems as though that long cloud has been bringing cold, wind, and rain with it!  But, on a nice day like today, there is plenty of sun and just enough of a breeze to watch leaves softly floating to the ground.

Yesterday, I volunteered at the Lovelock Relay races, an annual event held to honor Jack Lovelock.  Lovelock was from New Zealand and a gold medal winner in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.  

My job was helping Helen keep track of teams as they came across the finish line.  Hands down, the under 12 relay was the cutest event.  This little girl was on a team of other kids no older than 4 or 5.  

Last night, I attended a birthday party where everyone had to dress up as a famous person.  I tried dressing up as Lady Gaga, but only managed to pull off the hair. Sort of.

Still, it made for a fun evening!  There was a Katy Perry, Marilyn Monroe, Michael Jackson and even a Paper Bag Princess.  

It hasn't been all play, though.  I'm still working on a manuscript on the response rates to a mailed survey based on the type of incentive the women received.  I turned in a rough copy to my advisor, but I have some major work to do. Here's hoping I turn out something brilliant, or at least publishable, when it's done!

Must Love Goats.

I keep a map of Dunedin in my room and after a run I draw my route on it.

Today, I pre-planned a route along Pine Hill Rd.  Almost immediately after I started, I found myself slogging up the hill.  My body was fighting every step and I thought about calling it quits.  Perhaps it was the steep incline or perhaps it was the two glasses of wine, two pints of beer and swig of absinthe that I drank the night before that made this such a labored run?  Regardless, I bucked up and carried on - I'm not training for anything and I didn't have a running buddy that I was holding backs, so what difference did my pace make?

After about 20 minutes of huffing, puffing and cursing, I was rewarded with a sweet view of the Otago Harbour and the peninsula on my climb.  

But, alas, I had no camera with me to take pictures.  This is something I will have to remedy at some point, not bringing a camera on my runs, because the view of the harbor wasn't the only thing I would have documented on film.

As I climbed up Pine Hill Road, I enjoyed watching farm animals go about their day picking at bits of grass.  Just as I (finally!) was about to turn left and start my return back to Abbey, a goat caught my eye and scurried away. Hmm...

As I got closer, I found quite the scene: five young male goats were hanging out hidden out of sight from other farm animals behind trees with empty beer bottles scattered about.  It's as if the goat that scurried away was rushing over to tell his buddies, "The jig is up! Hide the booze!"  I stopped to chit chat with them because they were cute, furry and friendly then went on my merry way - wishing I had a camera to capture the moment that I caught 5 goats looking something like underage yahoos trying to have a good time.

More Cowbell! Stadium to Surf 10k.

I can't help it, I only workout when I have a race coming up.

So, I signed up for my first race in New Zealand, the Stadium to Surf 10k.  The race started less than 10 minutes away from where I live, on one side of the Otago Peninsula, and finished on the other.  The course was extremely flat considering there are hills, hills, and more hills surrounding us.  The route took us mostly through residential sections of Dunedin, with a finish across a grassy field and finally to the beach.

Here's a picture of the finish line, although you can't see it just above the beach on the right-hand side.

I was disappointed that the couple hundred spectators standing around, just watching us finish, were not cheering at all.  Jeebus, there was not even one single cowbell, either.  What kind of finish line was this?!  So, I tried to pull a "Bob Stocks" by raising my arms up, smiling big, and yelling, "WAAHOOOOOOOO!!!" as I crossed the finish line.

No one cared.

I actually think I saw one woman shake her head and whisper something to a small child next to her.  Probably something like, "Poor girl, she must be delirious from dehydration!"

I'd like to give the Kiwis the benefit of the doubt.  They could have been distracted by other things, like, oh, let's say... the scenery around us.

I grabbed a post-race celebratory apple and enjoyed the beach before jumping on a bus back to the start line.

(Completely untouched by photo editing software!) 

Just 14,893 kilometers to New York City!

Today, the race was mentioned in the Otago Daily Times.  In the photo, I am in the top center and wearing a yellow shirt.