The Christchurch Earthquake

This week has been dominated by the devastating effects of the 6.3 "aftershock" on Tuesday 22nd February. Whilst weaker in energy , it caused many times more deaths and damage by being closer to the surface and  Christchurch  than the September 4th 7.1 Earthquake.

We are very thankful that our daughter , Chrisanne was safely evacuated from her school and promptly returned home. I wish that the same happy outcome could have been the case  for many others who were caught up in the tragedy, but that sadly was too often not the case, and there will be many difficult times ahead for the inhabitants. I have been so impressed though with every ones determination to remedy the immediate situation with the minimum of fuss to get the basics working again.

I have no pictures this week but I do have the website for the red cross if you wish to donate money to the recovery efforts.

www.redcross.org.nz/donate


I will manage to continue my running albeit with some juggling around the emergency events as they unfold.

Kia Kaha
Kia Kaha
Kia Kaha

Aquajogging and undie running

Fortunately easing off running for 5 days and going aqua jogging soon settled my achilles. It was the first time I have tried aqua jogging and I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. This doctor thoroughly recommends it.

Anyway , the past seven day has been pretty good as I have got back into a high mileage week of 118km. Early mornings and dark starts have become features again as the days are getting shorter now.

6.30 am view of the Ashburton River Mouth

Misty run in Port Hills above Christchurch ( Rapaki Track)

There have been two 3-hour hill runs in the Port Hills and then on the Mt Hutt ski road last night (Friday) The latter finished in darkness which was useful track finding with headlamp work. The beauty of running in New Zealand is that often you can feel like you are the last person on the planet as you often encounter no other human. This was a double blessing last night as I forgot my shorts on leaving work which necessitated an undie run for 3 hours.

Ka Kite

Cloud running

The week has seen me run 93 km.  Saturday was an 4hr hill run to the saddle above Woolshed Creek and back. This goes past disused mine workings and the day turned from grey in the lower creek to sublime as I ran up above the clouds.

Emerging through the mist

View towards the Arrowsmith range from "Trig R"

 Finally at the saddle.

Today ( Sunday ) was a 3 h 30 min run on tired legs but fortunately encountered another runner on the Ashburton River Track so that helped me lift my pace. The temperature hit 39 degree Celsius so my 2 litres of fluids were all consumed. Only worry is an Achilles niggle today which oddly goes when I run faster so will have to see what happens there over next few days.

Ka Kite.