NZ Nationals - 20km Road Walk

Sunday Morning came around too fast. After spending a wonderful day strolling the streets of Wellington on Saturday with crystal clear blue skys. It was sad to wake up to a light breeze at 6am. My plan today was to keep the younger competitor behind me as I was overly confident that age and experience would see me through and that she in her youth wouldnt have the stamina to carry her through...........You know...there are many times I should just keep those thoughts to myself!!! lol

The course was an interesting one. Walking around the top most part of the westpac stadium (under cover) then out across the walk way that goes down to the trains. A 2km lap all on concrete. Which I thought .. YES!! this will be a breeze, nice and flat and fast. Man was I way wrong.

We all line up for the start. I had programmed my GPS watch to beep at time splits not distance and was all geared up for my 20km pace. The gun goes off and away we went. I was most pleased to have the younger one behind me. But as we came back in doors after going out and around for our first lap, I realised we were going way too fast. Infact my watch didnt beep til 40 mt past the start/finish line!! as we came round again the young one started chatting to me and I also noticed she was getting warnings for bent knees. Me being me, I offered her some advise and said "keep your toes up" but she didnt listen. At the 5km mark I knew there was no way I could keep this pace up for another 15km and said to her...if you want to do the 3k track pace go for it!! to which she replied - "I intend to and will catch my mate" and away she went. My stratigy for doing that was this......she was not going to slow down so by going faster she was getting more warnigns and risked being DQ'd.

She put a large gap between us and by the 9km mark my body was screaming. My hips hurt, my knee was swelling and it felt like I had broken toes. With the knowledge that the young one had the bronze, I was going to pull out at the 10km mark. The wind was picking up making walking very hard and I was struggling to keep my form. As I came under cover for the 10km lap, I looked at the DQ board and saw that she had been pulled off the track - DQ'd. But that I had 2 marks on the board too. So to win the bronze I had to keep going for another 10km and not get 1 more mark on the board. After a stern talking to my self, I continued on and battled the wind, the judges, my body and my mind. The last lap took forever to get round, with every inch of my body complaining. I crossed the finish in 2 hours 10mins ( not the 2 hours and 3 mins we had planned) but I had finished and had no more marks giving me the Bronze Medal. Both of the top women walkers didnt post great times and everyone was saying how hard the surface was to walk on...so it wasnt just me.

It was then a huge panic to get back to the motel, then to the track for medal presentaion. Which ran late and we had to hurry it up as we had booked a taxi to the airport at 1.15pm as both of us had planes to catch at 2pm. We made it to the airport with 2 mins to spare.

I had the most amazing time away. I was thrilled that the walking groups all knew who I was and had been following my progress too. They are a great bunch of competitors all offer advise freely and all so friendly and helpfull.

Here is the 20km Open Women recieving their medals. Rachel, Michelle and Me.