Great Forest Marathon 2007

It was a new course this year - advertised as being "challenging", and it lived up to its billing. At 5:06:55 my time for this course is comfortably within the range of 5:00-5:10 that I normally walk for a marathon, but the course seemed to take a much greater toll on me than normal. The old, two-lap course had been within the northern forest. The new course started with 1.9km on the streets of Waitarere, 9.2km in and around the southern forest, another 3.6km through the streets, and the remaining 27.5km in the northern forest. While the addition of the short street sections could have made the course faster, the forest sections were now more undulating, and included sections of soft sand and more undulations.

At the start a lead group of three quickly formed - Chris Aroa, Lynton McClay, and myself. Tim Dutton was not far behind. We had a good initial pace, but then we were still on the streets. After some uncertain (and unmarked) turns through the streets, we entered the forest. By now Chris and I had a short lead on Lynton. The surface was intially very good, but shortly gave way to an uneven track through grass and sand. I decided to push for an advantage through this section, and opened a lead of a few metres over Chris. Eventually we came back on to a good metalled road, and we could pick the pace back up again. Around a bend and up a rise, I took the opportunity to check behind. Chris was still only just behind me, and perhaps 50m back Tim had passed Lynton.

Chris caught me as I stopped briefly to flick a stone out of my shoe, and then we walked together through to the end of the loop through the forest. At 11.1km we were back on the streets of Waitarere. 12km came up shortly, and I again took the opportunity to look back. An orange singlet appeared to be around 800m back, so that was probably Tim. I didn't conciously pick up the pace, but suddenly Chris dropped behind me. I was feeling good at this point, and felt I had a pace that could maintain for a long time to come.

Shortly before 15km we entered the northern forest. It immediately became clear that (a) we weren't on the same forestry roads as the old course, and (b) this year's roads were not going to be nearly as fast as previous. It also looked like a lot of feet had already passed this way, leaving a lot of the surface quite muddy and slippery. However, I was still making good progress along this section, and managing to hold a pace just a little slower than 7 min/km [see pace chart]. I started to catch the back markers from the half marathon and 10k walk. Initially there was just one or two, but as I crested one rise I was dismayed to see a sea of walkers in front of me. Most were easy to get around, although some weaving across the track was required, but there were also several large groups spread four abreast across the track.

Unofficial Finishers List for the 2007 Marathon Walk

	Name	Time	Place
	Tim Dutton	5:06:12	M1
	Andrew Shelley	5:06:55	M2
	Chris Aroa	5:18:49	F1
	Shirley Dixon	5:31:20	F2
	Lynton McLay	5:43:26	M3
	Janice Sangster	5:46:36	F3
	Kevin Vicary	5:50:59	M4
	Brian Sangster	5:53:52	M5
	Mike Leahy	5:54:04	M6
	Bruce Worsley	5:59:28	M7
	Averil Sheehan	6:05:18	F4
	James Reed	6:05:21	M8
	Donna Bainbridge	6:05:31	F5
	Ann Benney	6:05:41	F6
	Linda Derry	6:12:03	F7
	Albie Jane*	6:13:15	M9
	Ian Andrews	6:27:11	M10
	Sheryl Hunt	6:27:55	F8
	Wayne Hunt	6:27:57	M11
	Carol Vince	6:29:09	F9
	Ces Reed	6:29:11	M12
	Dave Scott	6:35:42	M13
	Elise Broadbent	7:10:17	F10
	Connie Nisbet	7:10:17	F11
	Lisa Johnston	7:10:17	F12
	Richard Leach	7:51:48	M14
	* officially entered as a runner, but had a broken arm and walked the entire way

On to a soft sandy section through the forest, turn right and up a narrower (but still sandy) track. Near the end of that track Sonja McLean from my harrier club, ran past. Also at the end of that track was a drinks table, and the marathoners turned left while the half marathoners went straight ahead. Initially we were on good roads, but again they deteriorated and we were on to softer sand, and several noticeable undulations. At two points we emerged on to the true left bank of the Manawatu river, although it was not a particularly picturesque sight. Turning away from the river for the last time, we had to climb a short, steep, sandy hill, which was quickly followed by two short, steep, sandy downhills.

My pace had now slipped considerably, having lost around 5 minutes over 6km. I reasoned that the roads home should be fast, so I might still be able to make the time up and finish at around 5 hours. I was also starting to grow concerned that although I hadn't seen anyone behind me for the last 15km or so, 5 minutes was giving them a big chance to catch up. Sonja was still visible from time-to-time, so I tried to increase my pace so that I could close the gap.

Finally we were out on to the hard packed gravel roads again and I could pick up the pace, at least in a relative sense. We were also back in to the throngs of slower half marathon walkers, and it was getting very hot in the sun. Down the road and again the half marathoners and marathoners parted company: half marathoners were turning left and heading straight for home; the marathoners turned right and headed away from home! A few hundred metres down the road we turned left and on to a track through the forest. I took advantage of the turn to look back up the road. To my dismay I could see Tim Dutton perhaps about 200m back. I immediately picked up my pace in an effort to hold him off.

Out of the forest and back on to the road at the last drink stop, once again joining the walkers from the shorter distances. Tim was still closing, and with almost exactly 2km to go he drew level. We walked together for the next km, dodging around the slower walkers. With 1km to go Tim pulled ahead. I had run out of steam, and Tim continued on to win by less than 100m.

Great Forest Marathon 2006

New PB! Marathon number 10 on the 10th anniversary of the Great Forest Marathon. Went out hard in the first lap to complete the first half six minutes faster than planned. Held on for the second lap to record 4:54:55, a PB by 9:31. The temperature was cool for most of the race, partly due to early cloud and partly due to the shade in the forest, with the sun only really making its presence felt over the last few km.

Great Forest Marathon

An off-road marathon run in very pleasant surroundings at Waitarere Beach. My first time walking a marathon, I recorded a time of 5:04:26.

A very early start. Start time was 6:30am, so I needed to be at the start area at about 6am. I got up at 5am, got dressed, and warmed up some baked beans for breakfast. It was a little too early to eat much, so I only had about half the tin. Caught a taxi out to the start area, but had to stop at a petrol station to get cash because the taxi didn't take credit cards.

After a short while I met up with my training partner, Barbara Tucker, and her husband Mark. After final preparations we made our way to the start area. The marathon runners were starting half an hour after the walkers, so there weren't many people at the start - perhaps only about 6-8 of us. I guess walking marathons isn't perceived to be quite as much fun as running them. Then again, maybe it's just because training and racing takes that much longer.

I had splits for 5h:00m and 5h:10m written on my hand. There was a slim chance I could break 5 hours and, with Barbara's belief that she would only be able to do about 5h:10m-5h:15m, a possibility that I could even win. When I saw Peter Baillie at the start I knew straight away that I wasn't going to win this one. However, I did think that I might be able to stay close... until we were told "go" and Peter raced off into the distance. Never mind, second was still looking like a strong possibility, and I still had a time goal. Most of all, I wanted to beat 5h:08m, which was the fastest time that I was aware of that anyone in the harrier club had ever walked a marathon.

During the early stages of the race my shins were as painful as ever, and as usual my legs didn't really warm up properly until 50 minutes into the race. The effects of this can be seen in the pace chart at the bottom of the page - it's not until my legs were warmed up that I managed to sustain a pace faster than 7:30/km. Although I had sore legs, the initial few km were very picturesque, running beside the forest, looking out at a nice sunrise over the paddocks.

A short distance before the 6k drink stop we turned a sharp right-hand corner and then started the undulating section of the course. The undulations became larger, and the surface underfoot became slipperier (more grass and mud). I still managed to stay ahead of Barbara, although she closed in by about the 10km mark and we walked together for a short while. She fell behind again as she had a gel, and we turned into a short section where the trees were hanging in close and the course was very uneven under foot. I pushed hard to try and open a gap, which I held until I needed to take a toilet stop between 15km and 16km. Barbara caught and passed me, but I soon caught back up to her again. We walked together from the 17km mark until about 19.5km. Barbara had to stop momentarily, but I kept going. I was well warmed up by now and was keeping a very good pace. I came through the half way mark to see Nigel Doyle and Sue Kerr. I kept up my pace, wondering how far behind Andrew Kerr (who was running the marathon) might be. He caught me at about the 2km mark, looking and sounding very relaxed, and then very slowly headed into the distance.

I was starting to feel a bit sore by now. My hip flexors were a little painful and my legs were starting to feel tired. I was still keeping up a good pace, although Barbara was slowly gaining. I had a stone under the heel of my right foot, so I stopped to take it out. Barbara whizzed by, and now I was playing catch-up. I managed to keep pace with her over the next several km, and nearly caught her by the time we got back to the 6km drink stop. However, stopping to remove the stone had interrupted my rythm, and I was finding it hard to keep my speed up. As we hit the undulating section, I used short bursts of normal walking to try and give my hip flexors a rest.

Results

Name	Time	Place
Peter Baillie	4:36:00	M1
Barbara Tucker	4:59:43	F1
Andrew Shelley	5:04:26	M2
Averil Sheehan	5:30:44	F2
Roger Morrissey	5:45:56	M3
James Reed	5:49:14	M4

From there on I was pretty much on my own for the next 6km or so. Barbara was some distance ahead, and I passed a couple of marathon runners(!) at about the 12km mark, but other than that there was no one around. I encountered the 10k runners with only a couple of km to go. That was a good boost, and helped me keep my pace up. I was feeling very tired near the end, but managed to dig in and have a strong finish, recording a time of 5h:04m:26s (full times and placings are shown in the table at the right). My legs were quite sore, but not nearly as much as I recall from my first or second efforts.