Megan Banks: How to convert 10km into an acher needing ice pack

Megan Banks.

Congratulations, Hawke's Bay, give yourself a pat on your back (if your sore shoulders will let you reach around that far), you put on an outstanding weekend for the 4300 participants in the Air NZ Hawke's Bay Marathon.

I've always admired runners. Their ability to put themselves through physical pain to get somewhere when they could've hopped in the car always astounds me.

I'm the first to admit I've never been able to run. Even at the age of 7 I was always last in the cross-country, and would use any excuse every year to avoid participating.

So when I read an article about the marathon back in January, around the time of all those silly New Year resolutions, I stupidly got it in my head that I should aim towards the Cigna 10k event.

The statistics were in and the average participant in this particular race was a 46-year-old female. I was almost a perfect fit.

The trouble was I'd been having trouble fitting into most of my clothes recently, so I was anything but the perfect fit and thought it a great opportunity to shed the kilos, get fit and have fun.

Now one of the things they don't tell you about running when you're not a runner is that a) it's hard, b) your joints and ligaments will hurt and you will most likely injure yourself, and 3) there's a high chance as a 45-year-old female taking part that you won't actually lose any weight. How is that possible?

Potentially it was the wine and cheese I was consuming far too regularly due to the fact that, now a runner, I naively assumed I could eat what I wanted, or it could've been the fact my average speed per km was the same walking or running ... hmmm.

Whatever it was, I did learn one thing about myself - if I have to run to get wine, I will.

And run down the long Sileni driveway to the finish I did! A leisurely jaunt through the Gimblett Gravels grapevines, a medal to prove you did it and a glass of wine at the finish line made for a perfect Saturday morning.

Now where's my ice pack?

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