Happy New Year everyone. This is going to be my very first post for the new year. I have been doing lots of cool new things over the holidays hence the blog is a little neglected. Sorry for the MIA.
I went for my first ever trail run on Sunday and it was terrific. A little scary for me because I really didn't know what to expect. Maybe it was blessing in disguise anyway because I wasn't anticipating such a long run, most of the time alone. I went with 3 other friends but we were running at our own pace. We started out together and they lose me somewhere in the track. It allowed me plenty of personal time to ogle at the beautiful track and listen to the sounds of nature. We ran from the carpark and back, a total of 14km in 2 hour 15 minutes. Most part of the track is covered in gravel and clearly marked so it is very pedestrian friendly.
This track takes you through Okura River estuary and edge of the Long Bay – Okura Marine Reserve to Karepiro Bay and on to Stillwater Beach. It's a really beautiful track to run with plenty to see and I was lucky to be running on perfect weather day. Runs like this truly allows me to just lose myself and let my mind wander, not having to watch for traffic and pedestrians. All I do is just running and spending time in nature and listening to my own breath and sounds of the streams. It is worth the effort and pain.
It's so easy to lose track of time when you run in such a beautiful environment. It totally beats the mundaneness of running through the suburbs but you can't run an even pace because of the uneven terrain. This track is fairly easy if you are wearing trail shoes. I was wearing my good-old road running shoes and it got quite wet when I slipped into a swamp. I have to start wearing my new trail shoes although it is quite a bit heavier.
The bridge was one of the highlight of the run, plus my legs were fatigue after the run so it was such a joy to see it. I can't remember if this was before or after the 100 step super steep stairs. Unless you are superfit, it's surreal to run up all the way.
DOC (Dept of Conservation) has done an excellent job with the track,making it very inviting for leisure walkers and young children. I am looking forward to running a few more trail runs this summer before the bad kicks in. If I keep running lots of hills on these weekly trail runs, I hope to sport a pair of strong gluteus to power up all the hills on my road running sessions.
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1 comment:
This place looks so beautiful, I'm pretty jealous of the amazing weather you have on your side of the world while we're buried in a couple feet of snow and ice here in Canada!!
Looks like it was a gorgeous run!
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