Half Marathon in Auckland

Today I ran my first international half marathon in Auckland!
I’ve always wanted to run a destination race, but never knew where to go. I know a couple in Auckland (who I met on my trip to Central America) and the guy was running the race, so I decided to sign up! He ended up getting hurt and couldn’t do it, but I would have done it regardless.
The race started in a town called Devonport, across the bay from Auckland. It’s a point to point race, where the start and finish line are at different places, so we took a ferry to the start line. The race started at 6:50am, so the skyline was still lit up and gorgeous!

The town of Devonport was super cute – so many people running! I think in total there were 13,000 people. 

The course was gorgeous! We got to run across the Harbour Bridge – usually it’s closed to pedestrians, so this is the only time all year you can cross via foot. As you’re running into the city, you get skyline views for a majority of the run. Definitely made run 13 miles a little easier. 🙂

I hurt my foot the first day in Sydney (make sure to always break in your shoes before you go somewhere!!), so it was a slow run. It was a great way to see the city though, and as you can tell, I didn’t try for a personal record and instead soaked it all in!

The finish was right downtown at a park on the water. I got my medal (which I need to carry around for 8 months haha), and soaked in the sights!

Would definitely recommend a destination race – great way to explore a new area and see sights you wouldn’t otherwise see!