City-to-City Half Marathon

The first time that I would be walking a half marathon. I’d been doing quite a bit of training, but I really did not know how I would go. I’d been having some trouble with sore shins and tight calves, and was a bit worried that they might slow me down significantly.

The previous year I had walked the Wainui Mountain Race and found that I could just keep up with Dorothy Gardiner, while her husband Gavin was quite a bit faster. They were both walking this event, so I decided my strategy would be to see if I could keep up with Dorothy again. The starter called us to the line. I made my way to the second row, close to Dorothy.

The field very quickly separated into a fast bunch of about 11 and the “rest”. After about 1km, the front bunch had split into two groups, with a faster group of four leading out the front. I was waking in the middle of the second group, with Jan Bliekendaal. We were both complaining of sore shins, and working hard to keep touch with the three women (including Dorothy) at the front of our group.

After about 35 minutes my shins had come right, but my legs still didn’t feel great. We were now heading along the cycleway beside the motorway between Wellington and Lower Hutt. The three in front of Jan and I were having a great race – one would surge ahead and the other two would follow. Jan and I would then have a bit of a struggle to catch back up, and then our collective pace would drop for a short while. It was during one such moment that a bit of “partner swapping” occurred as my legs were warming up properly and beginning to feel fresh. As we went around a wide curve, I took the inside line and moved up beside Brenda. Together we moved to 2nd and 3rd spot in our group (6th and 7th overall, with Brenda 3rd female, and me 4th male). The woman at the head of our group put on another withering surge as we moved from the cycleway onto the shoulder of the road. My legs were feeling really good, so I sat right in behind her, while Brenda dropped behind a little. The surge was soon over, and I moved into the lead spot in our group.

Only a short way ahead the road climbed up and over the railway track. As I moved to the head of our group I noticed that the lead group had now split completely apart, and were not too far ahead. Brenda caught back up to me as I went over the overbridge. At that point we had done about 10km, and we were together for the rest of the race.

I looked back and noticed that our surge had completely split our group apart. Brenda and I were closing on the 4th member of the lead pack. The previous leader of our group was back a short way, followed a short way by Jan and Dorothy Gardiner (who had previously been sharing the lead), and then a slightly larger gap to another couple who had been at the back of the group.

Brenda and I continued to walk at a good fast pace, and soon caught the guy who had been 4th member of the lead group. I was hot wearing a polyprop, but he must have been roasting – he was wearing a jacket zipped up. We passed him very quickly and then Gavin Gardiner was in our sights. He looked like he was strolling along casually, but was still maintaining a good pace. We caught him at the end of the waterfront as we turned to follow a trail up the side of the river estuary. We pulled away from Gavin, and set out sights on the 2nd walker. He was some distance ahead, and moving quite quickly. We took the underpass under the road, and headed along towards the Shandon golf course. It was very hard going through the golf course – we were walking along a grassy stopbank, with quite a strong and gusty headwind. Both Brenda and I were puffing at the effort to walk fast into the wind. It looked like we might be gaining on the 2nd walker, but he wasn’t going to go without a fight. A long way in the distance we could see the 1st walker – my training partner, Barbara Tucker.

Place	Name	Time
1	Barbara Tucker	2:25:??
2	Andrew Shelley	2:28:41
3	Brenda	2:28:43

Brenda and I were both feeling tired, but we had settled into a good rhythm, and good keep up a good pace. As we approached the Ewen Bridge, we started to close on the 2nd walker quite quickly, and passed him just before the bridge. From here we started to wonder whether it would ever end. We thought it might be direct from the bridge to the finish line at the town hall. But, no, under the bridge and along a path at the top of the stopbank for about 1km, then off the stop bank, out to a turnaround point, along the bottom of the stopbank and back under the bridge. This must be it! Expecting only about 800m to the finish line, I put on a surge, only to find we had another out-and-back along a street. Around the library, and soon the town hall was in sight. One last surge, and across the finish line.