In one word – Freaking Awesome. I love this event & look forward to smashing myself against the hills again next year.

Lusi (Cyclone) managed to postpone the event, but not dampen the high spirits of teh organisers or the runners. I met a lovely couple at the start line telling me (with smiles, always smiles at the start) this was their first half marathon! So cool.

The team Rob has assembled himself with to create the Sketches Coatesville Classic really makes this event beautiful, if you can ignore the slight undulating course… Own the hills, don’t let the hills own you!

Wonderful views, and as the start was 730am, managed to see mist on the fields and clear sights while the temp was still nice and low. Simply perfect weather for a run around the Coatesville area, great part of Auckland.

Sad, but possibly the last event this trusty gorilla suit will see… I think the suit has just had enough after exceptional number of races and a few years of heavy wear.

Man, I’m so hot.

Cheers to Medibank for their assistance in getting our shooting team on track for Bangkok World Cup, enruote to 2016 Rio Paralympics.

Big thanks to Rob for putting this together 🙂

http://www.medibankhealth.co.nz/about-us/news/45-target-shooters-set-sites-on-bangkok

Great team!

Thanks to Neelam (target shooting buddy) she helped arrange this awesome day on the Auckland Harbour. On the SeaSprite we headed out to Waiheke & fished around there for several hours (glad I took sunscreen) and sandwhichs thanks to Steve.

Everyone seemed to land a number of fish, even if many were undersize so had to go back. One of the team even managed to angel a shark!! We saw it breach a couple fo times before it finially snapped his line. Not sure if that was a good thing or not!

Huge thanks to Neelam again for organising us & to Reels on Wheels team for having us out on the water, and safely taking us back again.

Huge fish!!!

‘Twas a lovely morning, even with Cyclone Lusi enroute cancelling other events, out at CastAways the weather was near perfect.

Jason & Tracey looked amazing, as did the wedding party.

I spent hours getting all my words in the right order, as I’ve known both of them since high school. I was more worried about performing this wedding than the fear of officiating over my first!!

Beautiful place, great vistas, amazing couple. Big thanks to Ernie (the best man) as he did a wonderful job behind the scenes and loved his speech.

Jason/Tracey Wedding, me with Ernie

Well, after so many races I thought it would be good to pull the old gorilla suit out and take it for a spin. A little 16.4km blast (I go from finish to start, then tur around for the race itself back to my car at the finish line). Managed a pretty good pace of 28mins for the 8.4km course, thankfully I had a nice tail wind 🙂 So even after spending 3 weeks in the UK, I was only 4mins slower than my original gorilla RtBs in 2007!
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/9807761/Thousands-take-to-their-heels-in-Round-the-Bays