No hill repeats for me!

Just one kick-ass hill! I was going to take photos last week, but it rained. Today it is raining again, but I took photos anyway. Now, I live on the flat, by the beach, walk out my door and it is all flat ... but up the road away from the beach we do have hills! So I drive up to Valley Road, park by a retirement village, and do my hill.

So here we go, my hill run in pictures!

Firstly, dropped the girls off at school, then driving to the hills - can you see them in the distance?















Starting off - down Valley Road, this part is just over 2km, the horrible thing is, as soon as I get out of the car I'm straight into a small hill so I'm stuffed as soon as I start! Once again, see those hills in the distance?















Here we are! The Maungatooks ... now trying reading that sign after a few wines, there is a good reason all the locals call it the "Maungatooks"! Can you see that sort of horse shoe group of trees on the right at the top? That's where I'm going!















This is my view for the next 1.8ish km, going up I just concentrate on the road and keeping on going!




















Finally the top! One of the ways I keep going is telling myself that at the end of the London Marathon, this is how I'm going to feel ... so suck it up and just keep going!

Getting to the top is worth it though - look at the views!






























I've got to say, it looks much better on a sunny day when you can see the blue sea, Kapiti Island and if its really clear the South Island as well ... but well, I can't say we've had a lot of sunshine this summer! If you look hard you can see the flat with all the houses in the distance, that's where I live, see how flat it is!

This next photo, you can see Valley Road where I've turned off from to run up the hill, see? one kick-ass hill!
















Of course running down is way more fun! I didn't take any on the way down ... but going down it is definitely easier to enjoy the view ;)

... and just because I had my camera when I got back to my car, look at my number plate - it's one of my favourite things :) Then again, I haven't shot for a couple of years so maybe I should change it to RUNMOM!















... and you know? Watching the Winter Olympics, my favourite event has always been the biathalon, I would LOVE to give that a go one day, but considering I've never skiied, that I've touched snow, oh about once in my life, there isn't a lot of chance. But hey, they should make a Summer Olympic sport biathalon - RUNNING and shooting, would that not be the coolest thing?

So the boring details - 8.5km Hill Run (52:56).