The Mount Maunganui Half was supposed to be my very first half marathon in preparation for the Auckland Marathon in October 2012.  However my knee decided to throw a wobbly a couple of months back and I’ve been able to run anything further than a few laps around the “Ludus Island”

Since we had already arranged to travel down and had booked accommodation for the long weekend we decided to go anyway, after all James can still run so he shouldn’t “miss out” 😉

I had hummed and harred over what event I would enter into.  I knew I could probably run 5k without too much pain and thought I could probably push it through 10k but that it was probably at least 2k more than I would be comfortable with.

I had a friend who had entered the 5k event and this was her very first official fun run I asked her if it would be ok for me to hang out with her.  I personally hate running with anyone I envisage is a “runner” and to A I am a “runner” so I thought it was awesome that she still let me tag along.

Since J was running the half he started an hour before us and apparently his aim was to beat A and I to the finish line (although I didn’t know this or my competitive side would have come out) 😉

The half marathon course was a dog leg to start then a straight another dog leg then a lap around the mount and they did that twice which gave me an opportunity to snap some photos of J on the course while I waited for my start time.

The picture on the bottom left is when he past me on the mount track on his way to the finish line, he cheerfully yelled “Hi Dove” as he ran past on his way to a personal best half marathon time of 1:38:48!

The 5k event started out on the road but the majority of the course was a soft track that went around the base of the mount. I loved running the mount track, it was undulating but soft under foot so my knee didn’t feel a thing and the views were AMAZING.

I would run the hills and wait for A at the top so I had a chance to snap some pics ..

Pilot Bay – the start of the journey around the mount.

A running one of the hills.

A did amazing in her very first event especially since she only started running.  She even inspired her husband because he’s thinking of entering next year too.

If you have to run, you may as well run somewhere as beautiful as this!

The Mount Joggers and Walkers Half Marathon was SUPER cheap to enter an entire $20.00 per person regardless of the event you entered!  But you would never know this was a “budget priced” event because the race packs were great (and included things like chop chop chicken and full sized packets of popcorn), race pack pick up was well manned so you were in and out within minutes.  They had organised road closures and to top it off the race was timed.

Add to those things the course was spectator friendly, the mount is one of the most beautiful places on earth and the start and finish lines were right across the road from all the cafe’s and this is one event that everyone should do.

I’ll definitely be back next year!

Till next time