I have to say, when I turned up to South Hagley Park on Sunday morning I didn't have high hopes many people would turn up to the event. It was blowing, pelting down and freezing. An entrant text me asking if it was all on to which I replied with "we're here, but you're welcome to stay in bed". It was a rubbish start to the day weather wise.

The way I saw it was fellas had entered this race, paid money and well, runners are a hardy bunch, someone was bound to show - even one person - we'd have ourselves a run. And someone did! It was actually the dude who text me, and when he arrived lo and behold it stopped raining! As more people turned up the weather got better and the sun even came out. It was meant to be. 

Bang on 9am we fire the start gun (me saying 'start') and 20 fine Canterbury gentlemen took off on a 10.5km journey of urban foresty park goodness. Three loops around South Hagley Park sounds like a walk in the um, park but I can assure you, when you've got 19 other guys vying for that coveted 1st place spot and all that frickin sweet glory, things change man. The good news is everybody finished. Even better news is, there were some very healthy looking times! Mike Dent took out the 1st place honours with a speedy 44:24, quite a distance out from 2nd (Chris Vanderkolk) and 3rd Paul Cox who had a sprint finish 3 minutes back. For all the race results check them out at The Quarter Pounder results page. Well done to all.

Post race, Rachel from Bodyworks Massage and Doctor Rob Williams from Menz Medical were kept busy with leg rub downs and check ups of the blood pressure and blood sugar level variety. It was great to see so many of the entrants take advantage of the check ups, and I'm pretty sure no tests came back too dodgy.

All in all it was a great day. The weather came right, the runners turned up and had a great trot, sponsors were happy (thank you heaps Icebreaker for your awesome support!) and bloody hell, I think I'll put it on again - but quarterly. Thank you to all who helped out - Jon Coursey, Gretchen McKinley and Bevan Triebels Hadler, I couldn't have done it without yous.

Remember to pace yourself! Complete Performance give you some tips on what to consider when it comes to the all important pacing. Don't blow out too early, but don't hold back too much - so much to think about.

I managed to get round The Quarter Pounder course in South Hagley Park on the weekend on my trusty steed with Go Pro cam (thanks Simon Waterhouse) fixed to my helmet to film the course video. 

So here you go, I'm not sure if it's as necessary as filming the tracks in Bottle Lake Forest as scooting round the perimeter of South Hagley is pretty straight forward. But here it is, and it just shows you potential hazards like the three driveways down Riccarton Ave you will need to be wary of crossing. Apologies for the slightly odd picture, I used the image stabiliser on youtube again and they've changed it a bit, but it does the job.

Spread the word people! Will post first training tip tomorrow.

Alright, we're all go people, The Quarter Pounder is happening! 

Got the big green light from the CCC, South Hagley Park is ours for the morning on the 18th November, insurance is sorted and we've even got our first entry! Christchurch is notorious for last minute ticket buying/registrations so this has blown my freakin mind! But in a good way. 

As I've mentioned in a previous post, Complete Performance are getting behind this event with juicy training tips as well as a few spot prizes for extra good measure, AND I just got the call from Chris at Icebreaker that they're keen to get some of The Quarter Pounder action. This is awesome news, because they'll no doubt be hooking us up with some sweet free stuff to give away and just between you and me I'm pretty sure some of it will be in the way of their merino boxers. That's right, this is a men's event so what could be better than some snug gruds up for grabs!

I'll be filming a quick video of the course for those of you visual based learners, but I'm pretty sure you won't have any problems finding your way around South Hagley Park. As long as you start facing the right direction I have total faith you'll be fine.