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Jun 2, 2024

Auckland Marathon Runner Comments

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Course 4.2

Organization 3.8

Spectators 3.2

Number of comments: 19 [displaying comments 11 to 19]

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m. k. from Anchorage, Alaska, USA (11/10/2005) "Well organized, fun course, fans are tops" (about: 2005) 3 previous marathons \| 1 Auckland Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 I ran this race as part of a holiday in New Zealand, and my marathon experience was the highlight of this terrific adventure. I showed up at packet pick-up with nary a clue of where to go or what to do other than 'run.' Without the fantastic organization of events, I certainly would not have made it to the start line much less met my goal of breaking 4 hours. The cages for taking runners' clothes and accessories from the start line to the finish? What a great idea! Ferry ticket sales at the same place as packet pick-up? Too easy! One help would be to post mile markers along with the kilometer markers. A typical American, I completely forgot about racing in km and am used to seeing miles posted with km during races. On race day, the start-time issue did bother some folks, but those of us who are proud just to finish didn't seem to mind. The one problem? Certainly the potty situation, as written below. Fans and on-lookers were extraordinarily pleasant and supportive.
Michael Wray from Wellington, New Zealand (11/2/2005) "Good for my first, but what a strange start" (about: 2005) First Marathon COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 5 The day started at 4am, which is not a time that a day should ever be allowed to start. It's more the sort of time that you associate with the end of a good evening. I got to the ferry terminal at around 5am. That was surreal, as there were lots of people still enjoying their night out. I was amused by the two drunken chaps looking on in disbelief before exclaiming, 'Oh my God! What are you people thinking?!' I could only turn to my neighbour and point out that our observer had a point. We arrived in Devonport at 5:30am and I realised that the first order of business was to locate some toilets. There was an endless row of portaloos and queues of unbelievable length behind each one. There were something like 7000 people there, with both the half and full marathons starting at the same place and time and it seemed like everyone needed to go. I picked a line and then waited for 45 minutes for my turn.... with ever more urgent clenching than I can describe in good taste! I wandered to the start line with a couple of minutes to spare before the 6:30am start time to find utter confusion. The race had started, accidentally, six minutes early. Off I set. At this point, I can admit that my training over the last 6 weeks had been poor. No 30km run since June. A combination of long hours at work and an inability to commit to early morning runs until 2 weeks out did have me coming in with doubts. However, I am nothing if not stubborn, so figured that a controlled early pace would see me through. I decided that 5:30/km for the first 30km would be a realistic target, but knew I'd lose at least a minute per km for the final parts of the course. I had been warned about the first quarter of the course containing large hills, but I didn't find them to be that bad. Had I been trying to stick to the 4:40 that I target for halves, I would probably have been bitching about them! There was only one hill during the course that made me puff a bit, around 11.5km. At 10km, my time was 54:40 and I felt comfortable. The bridge was a little steeper than I expected, but nothing to get upset about. At 15km, my time was 1:24:05. Still within the 5:30/km target pace, albeit a little off, and I still felt comfortable At 20km, my time was 1:50:40. I'm normally at 20kms about 15 minutes sooner when doing half marathons. When I reached 25km, my time was 2:20:49 and for the first time I was starting to feel uncomfortable. It was the first split in which I missed my target, being a 6:00/km section. I thought Id experience a slow down around this time, but had hoped I could fend it off for a bit longer. I was becoming aware of how hot it was and mentally praised myself for getting a white running top and cap, instead of wearing my customary dark colours. At 30km, my time was 2:52:10. My pace was now falling below 6:00/km. The first half of the course took us from the North Shore to the Viaduct. The second half of the course was an out and back to St Hellier's. I was hanging on for the mental satisfaction of getting past the turnpoint, which I knew would be somewhere around 31.5km. I know it's an artificial milestone, but I wanted to know that I was at least homeward bound. The 6km section of the course heading into the turnaround point is very windy it was tough to turn each bend and see that I was going to have to turn at least one more bend before the turnaround! Finally, I reached the turnaround at St Helliers and began the homeward leg. At the drink station around 33km, I stopped to take 2 cups of water and walked with them until they were consumed - well one consumed and the other poured over me. I normally run through the waterstops, taking sips from a cup as best as I can, but I really needed to drink something cool properly. At the 35km mark, my time was 3:26:10. My pace was now dropping towards 7.00/km. At 36km, I began to feel quite sick. I've experienced feelings of nausea before whilst running 30kms, but this time I really thought I was going to vomit. I stopped running and walked whilst I prepared to 'do the business' hoping that would allow me to carry on. The feeling subsided after a couple of minutes, so I set off. I repeated the water station approach at the next water stop; I knew I was shedding minutes, but I was feeling really dehydrated. I did have some made-up replace fluid in a fuel belt, but by that time didn't want anything that tasted sweet or sticky. It's a lesson learnt for next time that I need to put some of each fluid in the fuel belt. At 40km, I felt really slow. My time was now 4:07:15 and with the disjointed progress the pace for the preceding 5kms had fallen to below 8:00/km. It woke me up a bit and I knew I was close, so I picked it up a little bit. My feet were killing me and my right IT band was feeling sore. I felt confident that I was not going to hit the wall now, but I was in pain! I tried to reach a normal pace, but just couldn't get the legs to respond. I got to 7:00/km, but the legs wouldn't go any faster. However, I figured that it would be enough to get me in around 4:20-ish, which would be just fine. At 41km, I encountered my wife. I took off my fuel belt and cap for her to take from me. She ran with me for half a km. I think she thought I needed that in order to get me to the finish, but there was no way I was going to fail to finish now. When I came to Victoria Park and could see the line was not, as I was beginning to fear, going to require a circuit of the park, I remember saying 'oh thank you' out loud! I went down the final straight. People were crowded round the barriers, clapping and cheering, but I wasn't really aware of it at the time. I had wanted to savour the finish and enjoy crossing the line, but in the moment itself that was all forgotten. I noticed the tannoy was calling out my name and origin. They called out I was from Wellington and I wanted to point out that I'm from Brighton not Wellington. When I crossed the line, I forgot that they film each marathon runner at the end, available for download along with photos. I should have remembered and acknowledged the crowd cheering me on and waved at the camera. Instead, I crossed the line, checked my watch as 4:22:33, ran through to the end and lay down After a couple of minutes, I got up, removed my shoes and walked through the lane where they gave me a finisher's medal - very nice quality. I found my wife and promptly told her that I wouldn't be doing that again! So there you have it. My first marathon. I'm now thinking about all the things, especially in my preparation, that I could have done better. I was too timid with my first half pace, too concerned with the wall. I justify that by knowing that failure to complete my first attempt would have been a major morale blow and better a conservative time than risking it. I'm already thinking about doing another one and this time under 4 hours
m. s. from new zealand (11/2/2005) "half-marathon first-timer" (about: 2005) 1 previous marathon \| 1 Auckland Marathon COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 3 This was my first marathon ever and I completed the half-marathon within 3 hours - 2 hours 58:28 to be exact. Had an awesome time with my sister-in-law. Hooked now and so can't wait till we`ve gotten over our aches and pains so we can compete in another. Thanks Adidas, this marathon was organized so brilliantly.
Mark Dabbs from Walsall, England (4/17/2005) "A long way to go for another twenty six!" (about: 2000) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Auckland Marathon COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 3 The furthest distance travelled ever for a marathon run, being bounced off continents, must be mad. Ferry across the harbour to start was just amazing, then to come running back over the harbour bridge added to its scenery. That nasty hill at around thirty odd kilometres must be someone's idea of a bad joke. Overall, pretty good, although I did witness one fellow jump into the sea as we ran along the coast road, crazy or what! Reception after at City Hall exceptional, they gave me a huge bag of gifts, thank-you Mayor Christine Fletcher.
S. M. from Vancouver , Canada (11/1/2004) "Nice Course But Not So Nice Organization" (about: 2004) 2 previous marathons COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 3 Actually I ran the half marathon. The course was shared with the marathon course too. Good things: - Nice but rather difficult course - Nice weather - Unique ferry travel to the start - Nice volunteers Bad things: - Water station placed on every 5km. It should be placed at least on every 2 miles (3.2km) - Very early start and yet short traffic cut off times - No kilometers marks from km 13th till km 16th (bridge crossing) - Poor variety of food (I could see bananas only) in the finish area I'd like to do it again, but I'd like to see some of the above mentioned things improved.
D. R. from somewhere in New Zealand (10/31/2004) "Ferry problems" (about: 2004) 1 previous marathon \| 1 Auckland Marathon COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 2 Race could have been good had it not been for the fact that 1,000+ of the runners (including me) missed the start due to the fact that there weren't enough ferries from Auckland City to Devenport. I started 20 minutes late and I wasn't even on the last ferry. The response to my complaint on this matter was very unsatisfactory and I wouldn't recommend this race to anyone.
R. F. from Long Eaton, England (11/20/2003) "NIGHTMARE FINISH" (about: 2003) COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 2 I was looking forward to the race despite the 6:30am start (which means eating breakfast around 4am!) The ferry to the start was unique. There were not enough toilets - but then again there never are at these races. The queue moved so slowly that I missed the start of the race. Never mind, I enjoyed the first half of the course through Devonport and over the Harbour Bridge. The people at the drinks stations could have spread out a bit more. Why do they have to stand shoulder to shoulder? After all, allowing for spillages, 1/3 of a small plastic cup of water is nowhere near enough when you're running 42K. The worst thing by far was the last mile where the marathon route joins up with the walkers... thousands of them... many walking in groups spread right across the road. At first I thought it was a political rally or march. I spent the next 5 minutes dodging in and out, trying to avoid an accident. You could run outside the cones but cars were coming in the opposite direction at speed - not wise! There should have been a seperate lane for runners - at least on the final circuit around Victoria Park. At the end of a race, you should be sprinting to the finish line, not zig-zagging or shouting to warn people or being elbowed in the ribs! Good shirt at the end though, but an accident waiting to happen at that 'nightmare finish'.
Andrew Hart from London, England (2/27/2003) "The course is spectacluar!" (about: 2002) COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 2 The weather for the 2002 race was perfect and made the coastal route even more attractive. The organization was good but not closing the whole route to traffic was an issue for some runners. Spectators were a bit thin on the ground at the turn-a-round point past Mission Bay - just when you really need them! However, the atmosphere at Victoria Park and the finish line made it all worth while in the end.
IRUN42K from Ohio,USA (11/12/2002) "not a race for slow runners" (General Comments) COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 3 The course is excellent, the volunteers great,the weather fabulous. So why did the organisers screw up by: A.) opening the course up for traffic 45 minutes earlier than advertised, B.) requiring runners to wait for the green light to cross the road into Victoria Park for the finish [see A] C.) placing the baggage pick up on the far side of the park most distant from the finish line? The fact that I nearly got hit by a car on Beaumont St at 21k is also a problem! This could have been a great race.

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