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Run number 47 brought me back home to Rotorua... to a race I had only run once before.

The Copthorne Hotel Rotorua Off Road Half Marathon starts from where so many of my training runs start, the Waipa carpark and starts in an odd way for an off road event... with 2km of sealed road!

I was very fortunate for this event to be sponsored by a long time friend Sean O'Donnell from Davidsons. They were one of the key sponsors and Sean was quick to offer me one of his free entries.

Right from the start this was another of those runs that was never going to break any records. Within a few hundred metres I was not feeling very comfortable and from then on it was just a matter of battling through as fast as I could.

After the 2km of road we turned right along the road beside Waiariki's Forestry Training Unit and into the trail for the first time. A bit of trail I am very familiar with lead us around to 8 Mile Gate Road and then a short run to Yellow Brick Road, a wonderful wee MTB trail that I have to admit to running many times... it is just so wonderful and gives me quick access to many parts of the forest.

Then onto forestry road past the trailer hoist and onto Nursery Road for a nice climb, then the race continues on Forestry Road all the way around to the finish... where... we carried on for a second lap exactly the same.

The first time I did this race the first and second laps were different at the end with the last 2km or so of lap 2 being once again on some lovely MTB trail... not this time and the race was the worse for it.


In the end I stumbled home in 1:52 which was about 7 minutes slower than the previous time, but it was enough on the day to finish and move on.

While I love Trail Running and most of my future running post 52 in 52 will be on trails... I did not find this an enjoyable run, way too much of it is on either road or forestry road.... and with all the hundreds of kilometres of trails in that very forest it is almost a crime!