The support of family is so important when you are running an ultra distance race

I am very fortunate that my wife, Vera, supports my stupidity and does what she can to help me through my mid-life crisis. Most of that help is centred around nutrition.

Being a Greek goddess, she knows a lot about good food and what it takes to fuel a little old man running across mountains. Her home-made gels have made a massive difference to my ability to train and run for longer and longer periods.

But for my last race – the MCL Triple Peaks Challenge she wanted to do more.

After seeing me off at the start line she then had at least six or seven hours to kill before I would come back again. So she did some exploring of cafes, testing the quality of their coffee. She did some people watching, and some extra filming for my video of the race.

But what she wanted to do was make a difference, to do something that would help me in my quest to finish and not be last.

We have a weird connection going on in that we are often affected by what the other person is feeling. For my previous two races she was quite unwell, and I seemed to struggle a lot in those races for no apparent reason.

This time however, as I climbed back up to the top of Mt Erin and then ran down towards the river, I wasn’t feeling too bad at all. My calves were cramping a bit, but the rest of me felt, well…, relaxed and at ease.

At the time I put it down to my hard-core training and super fitness (cough). But it turns out there may have been a different reason.

My wife’s strategy for helping me run across mountains was to visit a day spa in Havelock North and get totally pampered – FOR THREE HOURS!

She had pedicures, facials, massages, the whole treatment. No wonder I was feeling so good on the run down from Mt Erin!

So, she is proposing that we use this strategy for all of my races in the future – I run, she gets massaged. All to help me perform better.

It could work.

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Do you like games?

Check out my Steemit Ultra Marathon game where you can win 20SBD for fst place, 10SBD for second and 5SBD for third. Get your virtual running shoes on and get ready to run!

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Also don't forget to check out my Dad's blog

Who else can tell you stories about impersonating an officer, stealing a military aircraft to go on a booze run, or steal military aircraft and go on an unsanctioned bombing run - and that's all before he turned 18!

Check out @len.george and find out what other madness he got up to!

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