Four Weeks to the Master's Games

It is four weeks today until the 1/2 marathon walk as part of the Master's Games. Both Craig and myself have registered for this event along with the 10km a week later.

As part of our build-up Craig and I have spent two weekends walking a circuit from North Ground to St Clair. According to the "MapMyWalk" website, the distance is slightly over 14kms. Our walk today took 2hrs 25mins.

The course follows Great King Street onto Cumberland Street until we reach the Oval. We walk across the Oval passing the Kensington Tavern on King Edward Street. Once we hit Cargills Corner we turn right onto Hillside Road and then turn into Forbury Road heading towards St Clair Beach.

At this almost halfway point we walk along Victoria Road past the Forbury Park Racecourse. At the St Kilda roundabout we walk down Queen Street to Anderson's Bay Road. We walk a block towards Countdown and go along Teviot Street passing the Edgar Centre on the corner of Portsmouth Drive. We walked along this road all the way to the St Andrew Street lights going past the rear of the Railway Station. Just past the lights we turned into Leith Street following it all the way to St David Street. This section took in part of the University. We walked over the St David Street Bridge until we got back to the North Ground.

Walks Summary for 2011

Distance for 2011 was 2409kms. My target was 200kms per month or 2400 for the year. 29 Days were missed - 3 weeks were spent in North America and as I had to work for 5 weeks at the Dunedin North Headquarters and 13 days as an Examination Supervisor I could only do 5kms per day.

Summer Walks

For 2011 we have had four summer walks with the caversham Club. I have participated in three of them.

29 October Mainly along Saddle Hill Road from Coalstage Road 9kms.

12 November I had the pleasure to lead the group up Signal Hill Road, across farmland overlooking the harbour to Cleghorn Street. Back down North Road to the Gardens. 10kms

10 December - Around Port Chalmers including Back Beach. Also walked up to the Scott Memorial

An Explanation

No I have not been tardy with this blog but the frailties of technolgy meant the blog would not let me do new posts until now. It has been so frustrating as I have done a number of interesting things walk wise so I will fill in the gaps retrospectively.

3-7 October 2011 A week in Queenstown

Denise had to work in Frankton for a week so I accompanied her. We stayed at the Gateway Motel for the week. My friend Danny was also in Queenstown so we did four walks together.

3 Oct. (by myself)
Frankton Arm Walkway (to Queenstown return)
Frankton – Remarkables Park Shopping Centre (return) 16kms

4 Oct. Started Kawarau Suspension Bridge - Gibbston River Trial. Gibbston Highway Trail, Waitiri Loop Track 17kms

5 Oct. Started at the Arrow River - To Macetown and onto the Anderson Battery (return) 33kms

6 Oct. Started at Kawarau Falls Bridge - Kelvin Heights Walkway including a walk around the golf course perimeter 14kms

7 Oct. (1) Queenstown Hill. (2) Frankton Arm Walkway from Queenstown to Frankton 8kms

6 November 2011 Coastal Classic

Craig and I drove to Taieri Mouth to do the 12km walk as part of the annual Coastal Classic. There are also Mountain Biking events at the same time. When we arrived there was a strong wind and intermittent rain. 86 (incl. 15 men) walkers set off at 10am. The walk included beach, road and farm land. There is one steady climb up a hill on the road just before heading onto farmland. I actually found the farmland challenging as there were lots of divots from the cows and I was worried about rolling an ankle.

I felt reasonably comfortable doing a time of 1:47:49 and was the second man home and placed 10th overall. I enjoyed the walk and would do it again. My mate Craig was the third male home and he was pleased with his time as he wanted to beat 2 hours.

Niagara Falls 1/2 Marathon Course

This morning after breakfast, my Canadian friend Les(who has run 30 marathons) took Peggy (who has run one marathon) and I to the start of our half marathon walk on the Niagara Falls Marathon course. He measured 21.1kms from his home and dropped us off on the Parkway, a walkway across the road from the Niagara Falls River. Les and Peggy's home is 3.5kms past the finish of the marathon course.The temperature was 23 degrees and conditions were ideal.

Peggy is looking so good and impressed with her fitness. Our start time was 8:03am. I felt we walked at a fast clip and after one hour we had done 5.8kms which was good as we talked non-stop and I stopped to take lots of photos. Some of the homes we passed were so huge and impressive. The next time I looked at my watch was after 2hrs and 10 mins and we had done 12.1kms according to my pedometer.

We soon came to the town of Chippawa and there is a monument to James Cameron, the film director (Titanic, Avatar) who came from this town. We reached here at 10.33am and headed to Tim Horton's (a fast food outlet that sells excellent coffee and hot chocolate) for a comfort stop and a hot drink. We stayed for 17 mins and only had 3.5kms to reach the finishing point at Niagara Falls remembering we had the additional kms to get to the house. It was neat walking towards the tall hotels andthe Skylon Tower. We could see the flume of mist coming from the Falls.

We reached the finishing point denoted by the letter "F" painted in a carpark. We did not wait to look at the Falls as we were keen to do a reasonable time. Peggy was really going for it as we weaved through dozens of tourists. It was nice to get home at 12:08pm meaning taking off our stop at Chaippawa we did a 3:48 time.

Les is a member of the Niagara Falls Marathon committee and he gave Peggy a medal that was given to all the finishers in the 2010 Niagara Falls Marathon. Peggy ceremoniously placed it around my neck.

A Terrible Month Walk-wise

I think June would be one of my worst months walking with a number of disruptions. Firstly I was working at the University as an Examination Supervisor from 8.30am until 5.45pm. I parked down by the University Rowing Club and walked the 2km to Chem Lab where I was supervising exams. Sometimes I squeezed in a few kilometres at lunchtime. I also missed some days because of a back injury and then influenza. On one day I was working from 7am until 9pm in my roles as a courier driver, principal appraiser and assisting a Board of Trustees choose their new principal.

Pineapple Track Club Walk

Saturday 4 June

It was my pleasure to lead 19 club members over Flagstaff via the Pineapple Track. Luckily the weather was good although we struck some cold breezes at the summit. I was conscious of catering for the various abilities. Being safety conscious I ensured we had lots of stops. Once at the top, four walkers asked if they could go on ahead as I sensed they were frustrated with the stopping. The majority of us did the walk in 2hrs 50mins