On the Way to... New Zealand
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Auckland Marathon registration and expo
Here we go again... just one week after running Kuching Marathon I signed up for another race... Auckland Marathon. I had to, I made a new year's resolution to run 4 marathons in 2017 and that was the one I wanted to keep. Auckland was going to be my 4th one in the calendar year and 6th since my first marathon 13 months ago.
Why Auckland? Why New Zealand? Oh, I can find lots of interesting explanations outlining beauty and culture of New Zealand, but reality is that I was tired of long haul flights, long lay overs, delays, sitting for hours. I wanted something close to home but still interesting enough to get me excited, and Auckland Marathon is exciting. Starting with an absolutely stunning course to the unusually square finisher's medal.
I've never been to New Zealand before, it's just to close you know, but I thought running a marathon there is going to be the best first impression I could get.
It wasn't, however, easy to decide to go. In 2017 the marathon was taking place on Sunday 29 October, the exact same day as my son's 7th birthday... bad Mommy ;-( Well of course I felt a little bit guilty, so organised him a great, big Taekwondo party a week earlier and figured that in the end happy and healthy Mommy equals happy and healthy family.
Registration
It was as easy as it could be. I had no problems or issues. Just went to their website www.aucklandmarathon.co.nz, put my details in, paid with a credit card and done. There were a few steps in the process that I wasn't sure about, like pre-purchase of transport tickets to get to the start line, but figured I can do it later by logging in to the website again. The best part of the registration was of course choosing the free event cap... hmm... trucker, running or visor? I settled on the trucker. Looked awesome and I knew I'm going to wear it.
Marathon Expo
This time I decided to just fly for a couple of days. I didn't need to acclimatise. Climate and temperatures are similar to those here in Melbourne. I flew on Thursday and got back on Sunday, after the marathon.
The expo was open 8am - 7pm on Friday and 8am - 5pm on Saturday, and held at this beautiful cloud-shaped building at Queens Wharf in Auckland that is actually called The Cloud.
Of course I couldn't wait to get my hands on the goodies but just felt I really need to get my muscles some proper movement first... so I went for a run. I decided to go around Victoria Park that wasn't far from my hotel, and where in just two days I was hoping to cross the marathon finish line. It was chilli, rainy and hilly... just a perfect, refreshing morning workout.
I finally got to the expo in the early afternoon and yes, there was a queue. Not very scary and long, but just enough to slow down, relax, look around, smile and talk to people. Seems like I wasn't the only one excited about the race.
The expo was orderly organised in a shape of an elongated 'U'. You'd start at the athlete check-in, then moved to your merchandise collection, transport wristbands collection and then to explore the stalls that included: ASB, Asics, Jaybird, Fitbit, John West Tuna, Clif Blocks, 2XU and many more.
Goodie bag
After collecting my bib I got a big, yellow drawstring bag to use for clothing drop off at the start line. Inside the bag I've also found 2 nice pieces of kinesio tape, 2 different protein bars, a couple of vouchers, quite nice hip belt with pockets and of course... my trucker cap!
As you can see they were not handing out any race vests or t-shirts, but you could buy some very cool ones from the Asics stall. I got myself just a plain black t-shirt with a small marathon logo for NZD 25.
In general this expo wasn't a very big one and wasn't very crowded either. You could take some cool photos, check the course again on a big map, try some gear and get a few freebies, and chat to stallholders and other runners. Nice.
P.S. You can also get free personalised Pace your Race paceband from Asics. Just register on their website first at www.asics.com/nz/en-nz/paceyourrace and then pick up the wristband at the Expo. I did it (not for the first time) and as usual it was all good until around 24 km when I just couldn't catch up any more with my dream goals.
