I left just after 6am on a crisp Auckland morning, great visibility but quite cool for early May. I was not feeling flash as I started, I ran quite laboriously and as easy as the course was I had to backtrack about 4 times in the first few ks as I missed turns and got confused crossing the flooded rugby pitches in the dark at Auckland Domain. Then at the top of Mt Eden with the summit closed I got taken a bit by surprise. Feeling "guilty, I added some distance to make up for the missed summit loop. I took the opportunity to get some great sunrise shots at the top. At that point I thought I would drop out and take it easy to run around the area but refocused and decided I would finish what I started to do this morning. Later on I had to stop at the bathroom at One Tree Hill and then I continued on to the end of the coast to coast in Onehunga without too many issues. On the way back I told myself I wanted to run more purposefully and put a bit more intensity and ran all the uphills and downhills. Coming down from One Tree Hill a cyclist shouted at me because I was overtaking walkers on the left and had to run on the middle of the road, that further woke me up and from there I picked up the pace, thank you angry cyclist. I finished very strongly and happy to have that beautiful route completed in under 3h30.
I ran alone for the entire distance, I carry all my food and did not replenish water, it was cool enough and I had enough with 1.5L.