Tigy’s Blog

Today our big girl turns 5, wow I can’t believe its 5 years already!

She’s off to school tomorrow, a whole new phase in her life. We’re immensely proud of all she’s achieved so far and are really excited about what the future holds. As a parent it’s a strange feeling this, a mix of excitement and pride at their growth, but also sadness that the time we’ve had so far as been so fleeting.

I guess the moral of the story is always make the most of now!

Dear World, I bequeath to you today one little girl in a crispy blue dress with two blue eyes, happy laugh that ripples all day long and a flash of blonde hair that bounces in the sunlight when she runs. I trust you’ll treat her well. She’s slipping out of the backyard of my heart this morning and skipping off down the street to her first day of school. Never again will she be completely mine. Prim and proper, she’ll wave a young independent hand this morning and say “bye”, and walk with little lady steps to school. She’ll learn to stand in lines and wait by the alphabet for her name to be called. She’ll learn to tune her ears for sounds of school bells and deadlines, and she’ll learn to giggle, and gossip, and look at the ceiling in a disinterested way. She’ll learn to be jealous. She’ll learn how not to cry. No longer will she have time to sit a hot summer day and watch an ant scurry across a crack in the sidewalk. Nor will she have time to pop out of bed with the dawn to kiss daisies in the morning dew. No… Now, she’ll worry about important things like grades and which dress to wear and whose best friend is whose. She’ll forget her blocks and dolls, and now she’ll find new heroes. For five full years now, I’ve been her sage and Santa Claus, playmate, Father and friend. Now she’ll learn to share her worship with her teachers. No longer will I be the smartest, greatest man in the whole world. When that school bell rings for the first time, she’ll learn what it means to be a member of the group, with all its privileges and its disadvantages. She’ll learn in time that proper ladies do not laugh out loud or kiss dogs or keep frogs in pickle jars, or even watch ants scurry across cracks in the summer sidewalk. Tomorrow, she’ll learn for the first time that all who smile at her are not her friends, and I’ll stand out the front and watch her start out on the long lonely journey to becoming a woman. So world, I bequeath to you today, one little girl in a crispy blue dress with two blue eyes and a happy laugh that ripples all day long, and a flash of blonde hair that bounces in the sunlight when she runs. I trust you will treat her well.

Race 4 of the Run Auckland series was on Sunday way out in Milford. I didn’t think I’d be able able to make it to this one, but after the boys weekend got canceled I thought I’d give it a crack.

I’m glad I did.  Was carrying a bit of an injury with sore calves from last weeks race, and had only managed a couple of runs during the week, but still managed a personal best time on what was a pretty tough course.

The ‘official’ distance of the run was 10km but I measured it more like 9.4km, which is actually quite a difference.  I think there may have been some last minute change to the course as we took a nice scenic detour at the turn around point.

I started the run a bit faster than normal, my plan was to get near to the front and try to stay with some of the better runners.  I ended up in a bit of a competition with a small group.  A couple of girls who would pull away on me on the hills but I would catch on the down side, and a couple of guys who stuck pretty close to me (or vice versa),  I think we kept pushing each other on.

I’d been reading a bit about the Lydiard method, keeping my effort level steady, not burning out on the hills, keeping my cardio under control and letting my muscles stay relaxed and do the work they’ve trained for.  Anyways what really blew me away was how by just sticking to the plan I was able to chase down all the guys who pulled away from me.  I just kept on “plodding” along and with about 200m to go I saw the last one of the guys I ran with at the start, a final push and I managed to pass he just before the line.

This was the first time I really applied any strategy to my running and to have it pay off was great.  I finished a shade under 43 minutes, which worked out to be about 4:30/km, which is about 0:20 faster than my best training runs.  Doesn’t sound like much, but I know how hard I worked to get from 5:20/km down to 5:00/km.  Still a long way off what the pro’s do, but a great achievement for little old me.

I think I’ll need a couple of days to recover, calves are telling me to rest.  Just 3 more weeks until the next big race though so can’t rest too long.

Xterra 2008 Race1 Team Tiger Yamasaki, Coyote Colquhoun, Panther Hamilton, Mountain Goat Maloney, Bobcat Boyce, Big & Little Horn Clark

Did my very first off road race in the weekend, a mild 16km jaunt out in riverhead, northwest of Auckland.

I’ve done a couple of 10k races on road, but never anything this long, or off road! I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. It was tough, pretty much the first 30-40 minutes were uphill, with one real leg killer at the 7k mark. The rest of the team from work opted to downgrade to the short course, just 6.5k, but me being me wanted the challenge.

Gave my ankle a roll at the top of the big hill, but it came right after a few more km. It was awesome running through the bush on the flat and downhill, at least the bits that weren’t wet clay lined mud slides! There is nothing like being in a row of guys, running through the bush, all wordlessly pushing each other along… Highly recommend the experience!

Managed to knock off the course in 1:21:12, which for me was a great time. I have to admit that by the end I didn’t have much left in my legs and was pretty pleased to finish in one piece. Big ups to Macs’ who provided beers at the finish line, great idea!

Thinking if I can polish off 16km in that time I might be up to a half marathon before years end. We’ll have to wait and see on that though.

Next ones in a months time, can’t wait to see what the course is like!

On a final note I saw the most awesome mushrooms/toadstools in the forest. I mean these were exactly like the ones in the story books, you know the bright red with white spots. Had there been a few fireflys around I would have sworn there were fairies there too!