Bays of Glory: From lazy runner to speed freak
Saturday, 7 February 2026
Melissa Moon, Anne Hare, Filbert Bayi. And me.
For runners of a certain age the names are legendary. Bayi was, of course, the guy who beat John Walker in the famous 1500m race at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch; Hare, an Olympic and Commonwealth Games competitor, still holds the New Zealand record for the 2000m; and Moon is a two-time world mountain running and national long distance champion.
Me? Well I have now “run” with two of the above, and run into the third, in an inexplicable moment during a camping holiday in Tanzania. What a ride.
I met Bayi, these days secretary general of Tanzania's National Olympic Committee, in a remote petrol station-cum-cafe on the outskirts of Arusha in the middle of nowhere. Our bus had pulled in to get gas, he was heading into the cafe with a couple of others, one of whom called out to him. I knew immediately it was the man himself. None of the others with me (Australians, Brits) had any clue, had never heard of him. He was generous in his praise of Walker and asked that I give him his best wishes. We took a snap. He asked if I was a marathoner. Ha, no, just a lightweight 21km at the most, I said.
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Three years on I’m meeting Moon, who has very kindly offered to get me match fit for the Round the Bays at Oriental Bay for our first “tempo” run, to Evans Bay. These, she explains, are shorter distances at a “comfortably hard” three-quarter pace that push your endurance, up your lactate threshold, and (hopefully) improve pacing efficiency.
I’m hoping for a 5.7 minute pace per kilometre which is what I usually run, but surprise myself ‒ and almost make myself vomit ‒ with an average 5.3 minute pace over the 5km thanks to a northerly wind. Moon reminds me that it is a faster pace than I’m likely to run, but it’s conditioning my body, and brain, into at least thinking I can run a bit faster than usual.
As we round a bend on our “warm down” there’s a wave from across the road. It’s Hare, in a Free Palestine t-shirt. She joins us for a couple of kilometres, during which Moon has her on about upping the tempo, before she turns and sprints off. Like Moon, Hare is all encouraging. Go you, she says.
So there you have it, Moon, Hare, Filbert and me. How cool is that?
Up tempo, down wind
But back to reality. There’s just over a week to go until the race. Moon and I do another tempo run, this time just 3km, but again with the wind behind us so I’m not battling into the unseasonal southerly.
Relax into the pace, deep breathing ‒ in through your nose, out through your mouth ‒shake your arms out. All the things that are going to see me beat the boss, who it has to be said, appears to be training by doing nothing apart from drinking mimosas. Fine by me.
I hear from a mate, whose boss is police boss Richard Chambers. He’s challenged her to do the Bays as well, and is running in the very appropriate bib number 111, along with a bunch of copper colleagues.
And I hear from Moon. She emails to tee up a time for our last session before D-day: “Just want to say what a great session this morning, for 2km you were on a 5 mins 27 pace, which is amazing for only 4 interval sessions … I am really impressed with the way you have handled this tough new addition (intervals) to your training.”
Now I’m worried I’m going to disappoint her. I feel sick again. She reassures me that’s natural ‒ she was the same for almost every one of her training sessions ‒ and points out that a good and achievable goal is just to better last year’s time.
Other handy tips include not looking too far ahead (depressing if you’re only a kilometre in), using the wind and the slight inclines to give you a speed boost, slow down if you need to, but don’t come to a complete stop, and make sure you double tie your shoelaces.
Nutrition-wise the secret sauce appears to be spuds, which contain “good” carbs, potassium (more than bananas) and impressive quantities of other vitamins and minerals.
Given I’m a cynical journalist and Moon has a potato (the Moonlight) named after her, I’m sceptical. But no, she isn’t getting paid for the recommendation. A baked one the night before, or even a cold one the morning of is a pre-race prerequisite for her.
And for many distance runners. Says Runners World: “Potatoes rank high on the glycemic index ‒ higher than pasta ‒ which means their carbs get into the bloodstream fast. So quickly, in fact, that some ultramarathoners and Ironman athletes reach for boiled, skinless white potatoes during long endurance events.”
I’m not a natural competitor, I’m an average, lazy runner who would rather slow down than push myself, so while the last few weeks have been a bit of a trial by fire they’ve also been a huge motivation to keep on keeping on. As someone else once said, let’s do this!
Southern Cross Round the Bays is an 8.4km fun run coming to Wellington (February 15), Christchurch (February 22) and Auckland (March 8). To register, visit roundthebays.co.nz