Scenic Auckland Marathon

It was still dark when I woke up at 3 am on Sunday 29 October. Auckland Marathon starts at 6 am so I had enough time to eat a proper breakfast and somehow get to the start line.

Luckily the organisers provide ferries and buses to the start line located in Devonport from different locations in Auckland, including Downtown Ferry on Queen St (15 rides starting at 4.20 am). You can purchase tickets online from their website or at the Expo.

I couldn't really sleep, but it's totally normal for me before the marathon. I'm always so excited, really try to force myself to rest and sleep but somehow it never works out. Also, I can barely eat and need to really convince my stomach that it can receive some food... well, any way I'm usually so pumped and hyperactive that I leave way earlier than it's necessary. This morning, after checking all my gear three times, I left just after 4 am to catch the first or second ferry to Devonport. I had around 1.5 km walk to the Downtown Ferry Terminal, just enough to wake up and warm up my muscles a bit..

I got there just in time to board the second one. It was a beautiful ride, city still asleep, but with all the lights on getting smaller and smaller as the ferry moved away. On board small crowd of runners, some sleepy and yawning, some excited and walking around, chatting and laughing, making last plans for the race. I just couldn't stop smiling.

We got off at Devonport Terminal, there were no other commuters, just a growing crowd of runners. I had almost 2 hours to spare so took my time to walk around, soak the pre-race atmosphere, check what's where... like that there were exactly 60 toilets in a row on the street leading to the start line and more available in the nearby park. I have also located bag drop places. (Only official event gear bags could be used and had to have the race number bag tag sticker given at the Expo.)

Before I knew it it was time to go to the start line. The corrals were self seeded and the organisers asked runners to assemble in the zone appropriate to their expected finishing time. I was really hoping for something close to 4hrs so I found my place accordingly.

The sky started to turn dark blue from black and excitement was growing, then at 6 am... boom! the gun went off. I always find it magical... the start of the race. Suddenly everyone goes quiet and all you hear is just shoes tapping on the bitumen. Few last good-lucks and in this early sunset we started to make our way through narrow and hilly streets of Devonport towards the Auckland Harbour Bridge. It was a very nice, residential neighbourhood with charming houses and nice green front yards. Just a few spectators, what to say, it was early morning on Sunday.

Aid stations on the marathon course began from 4 km and there were 11 of those providing water, Powerade, and 6 of them also flat Coke. You could also deliver your personal drinks in clearly labelled bottles delivered to Athlete Check-in at the Expo prior to 5:00pm Saturday 28 October (all personal refreshments must be generic and cannot be specific to an individual aid station, as the organisers cannot guarantee that these will be delivered in the correct order. Marathon runners will need to supply 11).

After about 11 km we got onto Northern Motorway leading to the Bridge. We could see it and yes, it looked a little bit intimidating, quite a climb. When we got there at about 14 km mark there was an interesting in-race competition taking place. ASB Blitz The Bridge rewarding the fastest female and male to run from the bottom of the Auckland Harbour Bridge to the top within seven 30-minute blocks. Well, I didn't win, it was quite a challenging climb but I was very happy to conquer it any way. The view from the bridge was spectacular, and we were all tempted to slow down a bit. What an amazing panorama of Auckland.

Then it was just a loooong down hill for about 4 km (I hate downhills they're killing my knees) and finally at 19 km we reached the city. Now we got some cheering from the spectators. Not any big crowds, but all smiling and very supportive. The rest of the course was almost totally flat with some minor waves. We were running along the coast and curvy bays passing nice waterfront suburbs, shops and plenty of cheering locals. The sky was blue, so it was the water on our left, beautiful green hills on the right and the road in front smooth and fast, and then turn around point at 31 km and all that beautiful view again... now green on the left, blue on the right. I think this was my favourite part of the Auckland Marathon... so picturesque!

Soon exhaustion, muscle and joint pains started to get me and very unhappy had to slow down at about 36 km. Never mind pain, I'll never give up! I used all possible mind tricks all remaining stores of energy on those last 6 km and it was totally worth it! The finish line was set up in the middle of the city, in Victoria Park. It was a family picnic, a town fair, a festival and a massive running celebration all in one!

I crossed the line, got my square, yellow medal and a bottle of sports drink. What a great day, what a fantastic marathon!

The event village took over whole Victoria Park. There were massage tents (NZD 15 for 10 min), food trucks, drink (e.g. kombucha on tap) and coffee vans and many stalls from sponsors and supporters like ASB (a jumping castle and a drink station, but only for its customers), Jaybird (had a competition with some awesome prizes), Asics, More FM (with a sausage sizzle), Fitbit, Nature Valley and many, many more... it would be great to be here with my family. It was just a great family picnic atmosphere.

... but I was alone and really, really tired. Quickly located bag collection, got my gear and sloooowly headed up the hill to my accommodation.