Another month, another half marathon

Annalie's third half marathon in three months was the Vineyard Half in Marlborough. This region is reknowned for amazing Sauvignon Blanc, which is made possible by the cool nights and warm, sunny days.

The autumn weekend that greeted Annalie over the Strait typified this - although she hadn't counted on the 1 degree Celcius temps as she got up that morning (thank heavens we'd recently invested in an electric heater for The Bach!).

Her walk to the start line rendered her fingers inoperable, despite the glorious sunshine that drowned everyone at the start/finish line.

 

Once the race kicked off, the rest of her body started to warm up. However it took a full 9kms to regain fully-functioning fingers! Not ideal during a pee stop at 7kms, when she had to try and pull up her compression tights over sweaty legs with hands that didn't work properly!

Eventually they regained a pinkish colour, but they weren't really required too much, except to reach out for some of the samples of the local, ahem, fayre that was on offer. You'll be pleased to hear that no alcohol was consumed on the course, but some yummy food samples were not refused (it's called sustainance!).

She wasn't aiming for a time and even turned the volume on her running app down so she didn't know what pace she was running. It wasn't until she crossed the finish line that she knew she'd done around 2 hours again. The official time was posted a couple of days later at 2:00:01 - if only she hadn't needed a pee! (Because the Sauvignon Blanc gelato was a necessity ;) The official course photos make it look like she finished strong too.

The course was incredibly scenic and it was a wonderful event - as she keeps telling everyone! We don't think she'll be alone next year! And when you get a "medal" like this, why wouldn't you?

The Bach heads south

Considering The Bach is an ex-rental, we are certain it has ventured onto the "Mainland", aka the South Island, before. However, this was its first trip with us. Well, with Annalie anyway. She had to leave Ian and Maddy at home due to work reasons.

Annalie was heading to Blenheim in Marlborough to participate in her third half marathon in as many months. This one, however, was called the Vineyard Half, and if you're aware of what Marlborough is famous for, you'll understand why!

Annalie travelled over on the ferry on the Friday morning to get settled ahead of the saturday morning race. She managed to wander from her campsite to the start line as a loosener on the Friday afternoon, but mostly to check she didn't need to take The Bach with her and avoid the traffig/parking queues that were bound to happen. A pretty splendid afternoon in general.

 

 

Here's all the "medals" waiting for everybody who completes the HM

 

Some crazy Kiwi-ness - but it was worth it

On July 30th, we're going to train with the All Blacks. No, that's no lie. It's the truth. Annalie and some friends won a competition to train with the ABs conditioning coach and three of the team - nice!

To win this, Annalie and her friends had to put together a video stating why they wanted to win. We did a parody of the Air New Zealand safety video featuring Richard Simmons! We hope that the competition sponsors, Powerade, had a good giggle when they got it!

The competition was supposed to see the top five finalists go to a public vote, but for some reason, the other four finalists were ineligible so we won outright! And Annalie was lucky enough to be picked to bring a friend, so Ian gets to go too.



Annalie also thinks it shows off her weight loss a bit too :)