William Chong

Hope you’re all doing well as the inclement spring weather introduces itself!

I put in some pretty good runs this week. The durations start gradually extending and I start building in the distances, as per the training programme.

Did my first night run on Tuesday…

… and there’s not too much that beats being in your own space running towards old Howick under a clear night sky, amber hues cast from various electrical monoliths that one takes in their running strides, those veritable progress markers.

And then there’s the dawn run (Thursday), where you bounce along the Eastern Beach esplanade as if the waves and the sand wake up to your footsteps – “and though the clouds may hide the sun”, on Thursday morning it peeked through just in time to usher in the working day.

Sandwiched between my two weekend runs was a family trip – my dad’s in New Zealand for a couple of weeks and we took the chance to drive all the way to the middle of the Waikato, staying at a vintage family-run chalet called Okoroire Hotel. It’s one of those places off the beaten track and there aren’t big tourist-catching road signs babying you to your destination. I had a lot of fun bonding and laughing with family and spending time among country highlights such as the non-silence of the lambs (at night it’s almost like you’re in NZ horror film Black Sheep), a chic frontier-town Tirau restaurant called The Loose Goose, and the country version of thermal hot springs (read: hole in ground, risk of amoeba meningitis, poorly-lit yet cosily warm pool tucked under Kiwi flora/vegetation).

[Click here to have a look at pictures from the Okoroire trip.]

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Anyways, we were discussing runs.

Big long Saturday run and a relaxing Sunday one. Got the chance to swing by the house of the condemned (rather, the condemned houses along Clovelly Rd that are falling victim to being built near a cliff-face). It is rather sad to see a house with crumbling walls – a subtle reminder that eventually all things will crumble away…

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Make my heart race! Check out my HeartRacer page here, and consider donating to the NZ Heart Foundation for each kilometer I run!

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Week 4: Training Record

2.9.08 – Route – 8:52pm – 32 min – Jog
4.9.08 – Route – 5:42am – 34 min – Jog
6.9.08 – Route – 7:34am – 65 min – Jog/fastwalk
7.9.08 – Route – 4:31pm – 27 min – Jog

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