Queens Birthday Day 1 - Night Relay (Muriwai Golf Course)

On the Saturday night we had a fun night relay at the Muriwai Golf Course before the social. It reminded me a bit of last year's Halloween score event on the golf course which was truly hilarious and an awesome event despite the fact that I am literally terrified of the dark (I'm trying to conquer this by making myself do these night events whether I want to or not). The relay format was pretty simple. You were in teams of 2 (I was in a team with my mate Michael who I did TWALK with) and either started on Leg A or Leg B. The first runner in the team would head out and do their leg then hand their map to the other team mate. Then once they'd come in the first runner would head out on the second leg then hand the map to the second runner to do. Make sense?

We were on Leg B first and I made Michael run first. He was racing against his mate Matt which was quite funny. You could see the trail of lights out on the course as you waited around, freezing cold, at the finish. They came in together, much quicker than I expected and I was off before I knew it. Lara (Matt's relay partner) started just ahead of me and she had awesome reflective strips on the back of her tights so if I wasn't totally sure I was going right I could just look up and see where she was!

A couple of Aussie girls started a few seconds behind us so were chasing us the whole way and we formed a little train (we must have all been Leg B starters) which grew in numbers as we went along (picking up other runners who'd started before us). It was actually really fun but we were going incredibly fast and I was pretty knackered by the time I got back to the finish to tag Michael.


Loop A - our second leg
I was hoping the second leg might be a bit longer not 'cause I felt like running for longer but more because I really wanted a bit of a rest before having to run again but Michael finished it in no time. Lara had already set out (turns out Matt forgot the last control so mispunched on the second leg hence coming in a little bit before Michael) so I was on my own and I stumbled on the first control despite one of my mates saying to take it easy 'cause it was a tricky one. I did exactly what he'd done! After that it was pretty simple and basically just a matter of keeping my legs moving as fast as I could! It's such a weird experience running off road in the dark especially on this golf course map...the terrain is really bouncy. I can't really describe it but your foot never lands quite how or where you think it's going to.

Anyway, turns out we were the first New Zealand team (beaten by a couple of Aussie teams...they took it pretty seriously though whereas we were all out to have fun). Awesome!