A marathon effort indeed

Aucklanders are being urged to give up their couch-potato habits and Push Play this month. So reporters Janie Smith and Jocelyn Rein volunteered to go head to head in a 10km run. Will arts reporter Jocelyn show her style on November 2, or will police reporter Janie lay down the law?

By Janie Smith

Just like elephants are the only land mammals that don’t jump, I may be the only land mammal that doesn’t run.

Primary school cross-country runs filled me with dread from an early age and since then my view of the sport has not grown rosier.

So signing up for a quarter marathon isn’t just a challenge, it’s more like a bad joke – and I will be the sweaty, wheezing punch line.

Aside from extreme unfitness, there’s no physical reason why I shouldn’t be able to run 10km of the Auckland Marathon.

After all, hundreds of people older than me will be doing the entire 42km with no trouble on November 2 and I have a brand new pair of running shoes to get me started.

For the month or so I have left to mentally and physically prepare, I’ll be turning to my gym junkie friends for inspiration.

One friend will run the full marathon on the day and another is training for a half marathon in Kerikeri.

Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure all the advice in the world won’t get me out of having to drag my unwilling body around the block every day.

My first task will be coming up with a special running playlist on my MP3 player to keep me motivated and help me ignore my burning lungs and muscles.

Who knows, after five weeks I might even grow to enjoy jogging, once all my body parts stop wobbling in different directions and decide to move in harmony.

A girl can dream.

 

By Jocelyn Rein

So we’ve signed ourselves up for the marathon. Okay, not the whole marathon, but the 10km quarter marathon. Let’s call it "the beginner’s marathon".

The last running race I entered was the intermediate school crosscountry when I was 11.

My forays into running since then have been few and far between and haven’t resulted in much more than a pair of red, itching thighs and the beginnings of shin splints.

And until a year ago, the thought of ever entering another was laughable.

But here I am, one Les Mills membership, about a hundred cycling classes and a few crash diets later, entering for the first time into the mania that is the Auckland Marathon.

Even though I accidentally-on-purpose missed out on registering for the half marathon, or "mara" as the pros say, I feel the 10km option is a solid starting block.

After getting over the initial disappointment that I won’t be allowed to run over the harbour bridge, I’m quite excited.

A friend recently completed a whole marathon. All 42 kilometres of it. How hard can 10km be?

The only thing left to do is start training, something I’ve never tried but which sounds interesting, and a lot more professional than "going for a jog."

Any training hints and tips would be greatly appreciated.

- © Fairfax NZ News