Busting my Gut and Losing teeth. . .

This weekend I got a wild hair and decided to do the Meridian Energy "Gutbuster". The Gutbuster is an 11.8 Kilometer walk or run, depending on what you signed up for, that starts off in the park behind our house. Some of my girlfriends from swimming had signed up to do it and were encouraging me to participate. I let the thought simmer in my mind until the morning of the race, no pre-registering for this girl, I like to keep my options open. At the VERY last minute (8:20 am, registration was meant to be by 8:30 at the latest) Katie and I headed to the park to sign up - she for the kids 1K race and me for the big walk. It was drizzly as we headed out and I think I secretely harbored hopes that they would cancel but my friends would still be impressed that I was there. Silly me. This is Karori - they walk places rain or shine my friends, there wasn't a thought for canceling!!

Here we are on the back porch with our numbers ready to go. We had time to go home for a few minutes after registering because the race didn't actually start until 9:20 am. We also managed to recruit Meggie to come and cheer for us while daddy stayed home with the sickies.
I hear Katie did well at her race - and she enjoyed it very much. I can't say the same for me on either count. It doesn't make a lot of sense to attempt something of this magnitude without training but that is exactly what I did. I have not been walking for exercise. I have not been stair climbing. I have had very little cardio training of late, just when we do time trials at swimming. This event was KILLER! We took off UP Campbell Street, and when I say up I mean the road was on an upward incline. But, at least it was a road. And a fairly gentle incline. Because after the first kilometer we were climbing a very narrow, muddy pseudo-path up to the top of Wrights Hill. It was steep. It went on and on for an entire kilometer. I was breathing hard and we were only two kilometers into it. And did I mention the mud?

After that steep kilometer the path evened out a wee bit, we were still heading upwards and onwards to the wind turbine though. Let me tell you, they have that turbine in the right place. When I finally got there, huffing and puffing, I thought I was going to be blown right over. It felt good though since I was dripping with sweat. Oops, I mean I was glistening in a very ladylike fashion.

So, after the wind turbine we got to head down. This is the part where I fell. I had so been looking forward to going down. Little did I know how steep and muddy it would be and what a challenge it would be to stay upright. Oh my.

Next we came to the part Fleur called the roller coaster. Picture a roller coaster and you've got the terrain - up, down, around, up, down, around. I found it quite pleasant.

Near the end we had another killer climb and I truly thought I might just sit down and let Fleur send someone for me. The problem is sitting there would have been a challenge - the path was again narrow and muddy and steep and I'd probably have just slid on down to where I started on it. At last we were back to Campbell Street and heading back to the finish at the park. As we approached there were our children yelling and screaming and joining us to cross the finish - here we are (thanks Alison for sending these pics):

All in all I'm really glad I did it, I do have a sense of accomplishment, but I did have to get immediate sustenance in the form of a coffee and I headed straight home and into the bathtub where I would have liked to stay for the rest of the afternoon. I am still sore today.

In other Morrison news, Josie has lost her first tooth!! She came downstairs this morning and just handed it to me. She said it was completely painless and there wasn't even blood. Tonight she will be expecting a visit from the tooth fairy. Here's hoping the tooth fairy has been taking her fish oil. . .