Auckland Marathon 2013: Race Day and Review

So thanks to jetlag, I fell asleep at about 9pm the night before and woke up at 3:30am so I can get to the ferry at 5am. I booked the hotel a few blocks up from the ferry and also walked the route the day before to see how long it would take.

Of course that morning, I was running a few minutes late so I did a quick jog down. Because I over-dressed for Dublin, I wore less for Auckland. I was only in shorts as I didn’t want to carry anything.

I had checked out that morning and left my stuff with the front desk. The front desk told me that I would be able to use the shower at the gym post marathon. This was pretty convenient.

During the wee hours of the morning, runners and spectators streamed towards the ferry. This was only for half and full marathoners and spectators. The 5k, 10k and other races start near the ferry terminal.

A few pictures of the ferry. There were ferries leaving every 10-15 minutes for Davenport.

We were let out at the ferry terminal at Davenport. Many runners took refuge here as it was still a bit chilly. The race would start about 30 minutes after the sunrise.

The view of Auckland from Davenport just around 5:30am.

It was a short walk to the bag check areas. The bright yellow trucks would move the items to the finish, which was at Victoria Park.

I managed to get another shot of Auckland right before sunrise and some awesome sunrise pictures.

Below were just some pictures of runners walking/jogging towards the start line.

More great sunrise pictures over the Pacific.

I went towards the back of the start, right in front of the walkers. This was also behind the 5 hour marathoners. I wanted to finish right around 5 hours to save my legs for my double marathon in two weeks.

Here was a shot of the sunrise with runners in the foreground.

Below was a series of pictures of us running over the bridge. It was a normal suspension bridge so figure about 100-150 feet in elevation. On the bridge, there was a great view of Auckland. This was around the time where the elite half marathoners were racing up towards us. They generally kept to the right of the road while we kept to the left. There was a vehicle moving us to the left to make room for the elite half marathoners.

Below was a view of the bridge.

The rest of the course took place in downtown Auckland. We ran along the coastal road out towards the Kelly Tarlton’s Sea Life Aquarium and Mission Bay. The road in between Auckland and Mission Bay had very few spectators so it was very quiet. Running through the lively Mission Bay helped but the two or three mile stretch in between was hard to run without others cheering me on.

After about the 15 mile point, it had started to drizzle on and off so I had to put away my phone. I really had to focus on running at this point as it was getting difficult to keep running. It was a bit wet at the finish, but I finished! The unofficial time was about 4:46, so exactly the same as Dublin. I was off by about 20 seconds or so, which was pretty crazy.

When I was running through the finish line, there was a short 100m or so kids run that was taking place in parallel to the marathon. It was pretty cute seeing tiny kids racing up towards the finish line.

The post marathon massages were offered by various charities and marathon sponsors. You don’t need to donate anything to get a massage from the charity groups but either way I felt bad. I got a massage from the ASB tent. I don’t feel bad about getting a free massage from a bank. It wasn’t as if I could be a customer anyway.