There are many ways in which I thought I might screw up my wedding day. Forgetting the rings perhaps? Forgetting my suit? Luckily all things I could possibly forget were arranged for me. The suit, the rings, clean socks and pants were all waiting for me at the venue, all I had to do was to run there, get changed and say I do.
It was Gemma's idea that i run to the start of the wedding. What could go wrong? 4 of us set out for a nice little jog along lake Wanaka and then onto the river Clutha. It was a gloriously warm and sunny day, surrounded by trees, water and hills. I thought about how amazing it would be to live out here. I didn't see the tree root. I went right over, at least managing to avoid landing on my face but catching my hand and knee quite badly.I was a bloody mess as I staggered to my own wedding.
The wedding was awesome though. Gemma forgot to bring the music so that made us even. It was an amazing reception with only a few people. It was a blazing hot day and after the I dos Gemma and I went on a helicopter ride into the mountains. In my speech I mentioned some of the reasons why I married Gemma. Obviously not all of them, no speech or blog is big enough to list all that. I did mention the time when I finally admitted to myself and to her that I needed her. It should not have taken a hospitalisation in New Mexico for that to happen.
This week I took in yet more breathtaking sites of this country. There are trails everywhere. I think the hardest job in the world would be a treadmill salesman in New Zealand. Why on earth would you exercise indoors when there is all this around? In fact I don't think I have seen a gym since I have been here, perhaps they don't exist here. I stayed a night in Te Anau and ran a short section of the Kepler trail. This is famous for the Kepler challenge, a 64k ultra which sells out in minutes each time and now I really want to do it.
From the 10k section I ran I can see why this is a popular trail. I call this Goldilocks trail, not to hard, not to soft but juuuust right. It felt like carpet, there were some short sharp hills that were the perfect attack slant. Even when I stacked it I just rolled onto this carpet and hardly cut myself at all. This was wonderful. When I got to the end of where I was running I let out aa awwww sound of a kid who had an ice cream taken off him. I will definitely sign up to the Kepler challenge one day. Its easy enough to do solo.
Today I ran, well walked mostly thenWanaka skyline with Gemma. This was amazing too but my head was hurting from caffiene withdrawal. I try to not drink coffee for at least a few days before a 24 hour or more race. I probably should be less addicted in the first place. We climbed two mountains, mount alpha and mount roy. Both around 1600 meters and both are the kind of mountains i'll be climbing in the Northburn 100. They were bloody hard to say the least. The tracks are quite good but it is hard climbing 1200m at a time. We didnt take enough water and didn't find a stream until after we had climed both.
The views were amazing though, you could see hundreds of other mountains from the top. Lake Wanaka looked so small. Photos to follow. Anyhoo tomorrow I will be relaxing before the big race. Well first thing in the morning i'll be jumping out of a plane. Then i'll relax.
