Kerre Woodham: Team work just the cure after a night on the town

When the alarm went off last Saturday, I was not a happy little jogger. The night before a friend and I had gone along to the Dancing with the Stars fundraiser for Plunket, and a jolly good time was had by all until the wee small hours.

I don't get out much - usually when I'm at functions, I'm the hired help - so I got a wee bit over-excited and my dodgy mate and I didn't slink back to the 'burbs until well after 1am. And I had four glasses of red wine. Taking up drinking again the same year I decide to run a marathon is an inconvenient concurrence, but there we go.

At least when I talk booze these days, it's in glass quantity not bottle. Still, it's a lot more than I usually drink, so when I woke at 6am, I was not in the mood to run 21km around Auckland's sparkling waterfront.

If I'd had the numbers of my fellow runners, I'd have phoned them and told them I wouldn't be there. But I didn't, and besides, I had made arrangements to pick up one of the girls, so cursing and moaning, we made our way to the Maritime Museum. I suggested that it might be dangerous to run such a long way with so little sleep but Bruce, our guru from the Titirangi runners who's taken we newbies under his wing, wasn't having that.

Off we trotted, with me wishing that I could do like horses do and fall asleep on my hooves.

And, yes, it was beautiful and, yes, it was lovely to see so many people out enjoying the morning and as I limped home, one of the girls pointed out I'd run a half marathon without wanting to be there.

Which gives me hope for the big race. And I guess that's the benefit of running with a team. If it had been up to me, I'd have still been in bed. So I drove home to find the Irishman had run me a bath, prepared my smoked salmon and bagels and squeezed the orange juice.

Despite the fact he'd had to leave a key out for me the night before. And despite the fact I'd woken him as I'd stumbled around that morning trying to find my shoes. If I survive this race, I may have to marry him.

* Kerre Woodham is sponsored by Regal Salmon