Round Rarotonga Road Race Report + 12wk Training plan

Mixing a tropical holiday with a beautiful round island sunrise run is the perfect break away. Be sure to check out my 12 week training plan to get you race ready.

"Why don't we celebrate our 40th birthdays with a boy’s trip to Rarotonga and look at doing the running race?" Vaughn mentioned this half way through our Sunday run.  I was sold.  After checking with our better half's we began to plan a boy’s trip for the 31km flat Round Rarotonga Road race. 2015 was the 38th running of the event. The race raises funds for the Rarotongan junior athletes travelling to NZ to compete. Talk about a great idea- a road race, white sandy beaches and turquoise lagoons, a bunch of good mates, and we support the athletic dreams of the Rarotongan youth. 

Adam (Everfit athlete and training buddy) and I got down to planning our training regime. Three to four runs a week.  The long slow run building up 30km three weeks out from the event. We included an EASY run with some technique drills. A fun group run with the boys running group on the Mount, and the all important rep run - with 1km reps on the road at paces honing in on 3-6% faster than what we felt we could hold for race day. I also put in one to two swims a week. Swimming is very beneficial to keep the body supple and to work in the aerobic zone without the shock associated with running. I made sure one of the swims was very cruisey with a real restorative focus - it's my "hydro yoga" session. 

Our three key runs from six weeks out were a combination of the long slow flat run  (building up from two to two and a half hours) with a 5km controlled tempo effort at our goal race pace towards the end of the run. For my own pacing I worked out a pace that was between the pace that I had held at my most recent Marathon (Queenstown - 4min 12sec/k pace) and Half marathon (Hamilton - 3min 50sec/k pace). I settled on around the 4min 05sec/k pace.

Having the Rarotonga Road race goal helped immensely with motivation when faced with Thursday early starts to fit in the long run before work. Getting the long run done on the Thursday helped maintain family balance on the weekends where I only had one or two shorter runs to fit in around family life. 

Due to the heat that we would face in Raro we always tried to overdress for our training runs to encourage sweating. We also completed at least one indoor bike a week with efforts (multiple 30sec power or 2min VO2 max) as this really got our systems used to dealing with increasing body temperatures. An added benefit working at these intensities on a bike is less chance of injury than if completed during running sessions. 

Our training with plenty of variety plus the group sessions tracked well, and the day to fly out arrived. Vaughn organised a fantastic 5 bedroom house with views over the white sandy beach flanked by the postcard palm trees and turquoise lagoon. It was situated just beside the Anchorage restaurant only 7km from the race start and a 500m amble to the Edgewater resort where the prize giving dinner was held. 

The race started at 5:30am on Saturday. The boys got up at 2:30am to have an early breakfast and get some ENDURObeet into us for the all important endurance boost. We were all a little excited to head back to bed so stayed up to watch Rugby World Cup pool matches, and discuss race tactics - "stick to our planned paces from the start and finish happy".  The 38th edition of the Round Rarotonga Road race started in darkness and I established a 4min 05min/km pace and found myself at the front of the race. An open backed truck was 200m off the front with a Cook Island drumming team smashing out inspirational beats every few minutes. It was very surreal to be running watching the beautiful sunrise ahead, gorgeous beach settings to the right, and having water handed to us by lovely smiling Rarotongan girl guides at the water stations. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face for the first 20km. 

I was running with Shane Thrower and Tony Broadhead. At the 21km mark I decided to throw in a couple of 3min 50sec kilometres to see if I could break up our comfortable little group. Shane dropped off but Tony then took over and carried on; wiping the smile off my face. I couldn't hang on. I then aimed to hold the best form I could as my pace drifted off and the discomfort rose. I embraced the "suffering" and focused on gratitude for the experience.  I finished with a smile back on my face and received a beautiful flax woven basket of local fruit and a coconut drink. The race organisers then lay on a table of sandwiches and fruit as we all talked about the race. As a group we all achieved our pacing goals Matt placed 7th with a 4min 29sec ave km pace, Adam and Vaughn with 14th equal holding 4min 50sec and I had managed to hold 4min 04sec min/km to place 2nd. I would recommend running in the centre of the road away from the gravel and pot holes at the edges. Don't worry about the dogs and chicken’s, they tend to get out of the way.

We spend the rest of the morning at the Punanga Nui markets (held on Saturdays from 8-12pm) buying gifts for our amazing wife’s, and that night enjoyed a few quite beers at Trader Jacks while watching humpback whales frolic 200m away just out from the reef. A very surreal experience to cap off an incredible boys trip.  I would highly recommend taking some time to organise a trip here around the race. There is a 10km option plus other races during the week. The prize giving was held on Sunday evening at the Edgewater resort with traditional Rarotongan dancing and music plus a delicious buffet spread (I would recommend the Rukau - who knew that spinach and coconut cream could taste so good!). Thanks to all the race sponsors and organisers for a great experience. We are already looking to return with our families in the future for this very special road race.

*Check out a 12 wk plan that I used to get race sharp for race*

https://everfit.co.nz/Store/everfit-round-raratonga-road-race-12wk-plan

Getting some hydration in on one of the awesome aid stations