It's a birthday again and back to a prime number, to boot. The day was spent: a GP appointment, a cafe-stop with language review, a 21km waterfront run, picking up my wife from work for a burger lunch (mine was free for my birthday) with my first L&P since I-cannot-remember-when, followed by dropping off a malfunctioning water station to a maintenance contractor, then home for a shower before taking mum out to a garden centre cafe for a coffee and shop. Shortly the day will wind up with a Turkish themed dinner from Ubereats. If described it would seem not very celebratory, but it ticks the boxes of what would be a perfect day for me.
I gave myself "a gift" the previous day: I am now entered in the Auckland Marathon. Auckland Marathon, along with being one of the more expensive marathons around, has a well set-up entry transfer function and I have now used it twice in a row to take an entry off the hands of an injured runner. There is no profit to be made in this to be clear - the transferer pays the transfer fee to get refunded what they paid (i.e. they've just "lost" the cost of transfer) and the transferee has to pay the current price to make the refund happen. Often it is someone getting back an "Early Bird" rate and the transferee paying something more expensive. Last year I managed to do this very early on (June, I think) and this is very late in the piece - I only have a month really to tune up, but overall I am happy with the deal.
This year has been an odd one. 2025 was stellar with a marathon, half marathon, 10km and 5km personal bests and I was training smoothly into 2026 expecting some progress. Perversely, both the half marathon and 5km PBs have not been under any threat at all - not even close. However, the 10km PB was smashed. For context, I broke 40 minutes for the first time in my life in 2025, but only just, with 39:56 at Te Atatū. In 2026, my 10km times were 38:55, 39:45, 40:42 (Te Atatū), 40:30, 40:51, the first two runs smashed my best from the previous year, but there was an odd drift upwards in times. The fourth race, though, I came third at Western Springs - a podium finish - which I never expected was possible.
Until the Auckland Marathon entry transfer yesterday, this year was possibly going to be the first since 2022 without a marathon. Without much information, it's hard to know what exactly should be my goal time because of the paradoxical results.
Last Sunday, I had the rudest of good results for the Devonport Marathon. In my "build" year of 2024, I achieved 1:30:30 there, which I was a bit unhappy with at the time. Two years on at Devonport, 1:30:32. I did the same course, with apparently better fitness, but 2 seconds slower.
But in the 2024 Auckland Marathon, a I had a tough 3:16 that I was still proud of but would not want to get this year.
But go back three weeks, I did the Millwater half marathon for the second year in a row. Last year, I got 1:29:56, and in the 2025 Auckland Marathon that followed, 3:09. This year, my Millwater time was 1:28:40, so technically I should be able to do better than 3:09, and thus achieve a PB?
Such is the complicated nature of choosing a goal time. While the overall time for each of these races is data, what led to each time is usually a complicated narrative. Devonport last Sunday was a disappointment but it was the weekend after two weeks without a Senior Teacher, and a sick Programme Leader in the two days previous, I was exhausted. I started too fast and struggled in the last five kilometres. And the conditions were tougher with a horrible headwind, which in itself isn't a big problem, but if you're knackered it might lead to a listless period where you just aren't pushing.
The Millwater event this year also had one of the most horrible post-run experiences. I went through the finish and while talking to a fellow competitor felt my plantar fascia becoming more and more unbearable, like it was spasming. I took off my shoes but it got to the points that I couldn't continue the conversation and I thought a calf massage might be in order. I struggled over to the massage tent but afterwards I could neither walk or stand. It took drinking electrolytes, taking in food and about 30 minutes rest before I could even hobble in the most ungainly way possible. A St Johns medic walked me very slowly for about 200 metres before I felt I could hobble without risk. I still ran 100km the following week without issue.
Running is such a fickle thing. Today's run was almost scrapbook perfect - and as a mid-week long run, something that I find hard to pull off with my schedule, it gives an impetus to what should be the two biggest weeks of training in a marathon. What comes of all of it will be revealed on 1 November.
