Bays of Glory: Training with a champion
Saturday, 24 January 2026
Years ago I interviewed the legendary Katherine Switzer - the first woman to run the Boston marathon.
At 79 she’s still running – at least 45 minutes a day – and is a regular fixture on the run calendar in Wellington where she lives for part of the year.
Two things she told me have stuck with me. One was that she never took water, energy drinks or gel with her, even on her really long runs. If she felt the need for a drink she’d find a handy tap. When she got home she’d have a large glass of orange juice. Before a race Switzer had coffee. (Yes!)
The other was that she would never run with anything in her ears. The environment, not music, was motivation enough.
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The water issue is controversial. There are those who say humans are the only animals who drink when they’re not thirsty, there’s others who believe you need to drink your body weight in the stuff every day.
Melissa Moon, two time World Mountain Running champion and one-time winner of the women's race up the Empire State Building, all 86 flights of stairs of it, suggests that while hydration is important, the 8.4km leg of Round the Bays doesn’t call for bottle-carrying.
But, because it’s in February – which can be hot (come on Wellington) – plenty of water the day before and some measured sipping of the stuff when you get up on the day of, would be sensible.
Moon also recommended, as I had feared, some speed work. “Some fast sessions to get your legs turning over more, perhaps 3-5km tempo (this would be done at 3/4 effort or some 1km reps along Oriental Parade),” were her exact words.
“There is a measured course starting at the Freyberg Pool,“ she added. ”I would be more than happy to show you the 1km course? Perhaps two to three 1km reps.“
Fear, as they say, is best faced head on. And so, here we are. O’Bay on a cool, drizzly morning.
Moon asks if I warm up before a race. Er, no not really.
We do a practice one. It involves a short, slow jog before running a series of “strides” - gradually accelerating up from a jog, holding a fast but controlled pace for about 15-20 seconds, then slowing back down. Slow sprinting, in other words.
She has some times written on a piece of paper, as in how fast I might want to run at maximum pace. This is the beginning of my interval training.
Generously my new coach (she has offered to join me for a session each week until race day) reckons on just three 1km for starters, at 5:50 pace. She explains we’ll start under the flagpoles by Freyberg Pool, and head east towards the intersection with Carlton Gore Rd. The band rotunda is the 500m point.
Slow, slow, faster
A breath taking (literally)5:42 kilometre-pace later we turn and prepare for the next one. There’s a headwind so it’s slower, 5:49.
Moon asks how I feel. OK, I say, bravely before admitting there’s no way I could talk running at that speed. “You shouldn’t,” she says, “I’ll do the talking.”
There’s encouragement all the way. Usually I close my ears to the “looking goods”, “nearly there”, “you can do it” banter from the sidelines, but Moon’s advice to “concentrate on your breathing” and complimentary “you’re doing really well” is genuinely helpful.
The third rep is the best, at 5:33 pace, fast for me, a sleep-walk for those gazelle-like creatures that do 10km in 35 mins or less.
Still, as the saying goes you’re never too old …
On the jogs in between the sprints we talk about what we think about when we’re running; anything, everything, not a thing, story intros, shopping lists, being followed by the Russians during the 95-day Blue Planet run, the state of Sudan. And why we run. Yes, there’s the physical side and the fitness benefits, but it’s also about mental health, about having your own space and time.
Or, as Japanese author Haruki Murakami puts it so well: “Most runners run not because they want to live longer, but because they want to live life to the fullest … Another feeling that I have had is one of extreme presence. I’m not thinking about my past regrets or scared about my future, the only thing that I am thinking about is living in the present moment.”
Southern Cross Round the Bays is an 8.4km fun run coming to Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch in February and March. To register, visit roundthebays.co.nz