New Zealand Weekly Update #19

Last updated on März 12, 2023

27th of February until 5th of March 2023

Approximate reading time: 10 minutes

Lets get it started

Good Morning Wanaka. Good Morning New Zealand. Good Morning sore muscles 🙂
Shitty weather outside, coffee inside. And a smile in my face. I am relaxed and proud. Robin and me ran the Motatapu Offroad Marathon yesterday – and we finished! Great day, great time, great run. Read more about this marathon in a section below.

Sometimes, emotions are too high to make any decisions. And if you make a decision with a lot of emotions, it might be not the best one. I was sad. My feelings were hurt. I was ignored and rejected. This is painful, especially when you don’t understand why. And I decided to write a huge blog, to judge and to fight back. And in the end, I was not better, I did not better.
I have no rights to blame or judge people, eventhough they hurt my feelings and try to make me feel bad. People have their reasons, their story, their experiences. And sometimes, we don’t know about all that stuff and we are not able to understand the behaviour of these people. But we must not behave in the same way, as this is disrespectful and unfair.
What we can do is to stay honest. Try our best. Don’t let the emotions control our decisions. Treat people the right way, the way we want to be treated. Be gentle. Respectful.
As I was disrepectful and judging as well (especially in my blog), I decided to change some sections in the last weekly updates, as this blog is not about judging people or try to diagnose them.
It is a about updates from New Zealand. Good news. Good stories. Thoughts and some motivational words. So lets go with it 🙂

This week in Wanaka was very relaxed. I had some canyoning trips at the beginning of the week and some days off, just before the marathon. I took the time to rest, to relax and to sleep a little bit more. And I’ve met some new people (which is quite easy in Wanaka) while being at Woody’s (a bar in Wanaka where you can join a pool competition every thursday). And after some talks I became aware of that I am not the only person who had some trouble with people around me who changed their behaviour. Who changed their way of treating us. Who changed, who made us feel wrong. Who made us feel uncomfortable. And I realised that there is only one way out. Keep moving. Keep trying. Being yourself. Don’t let those situations push you down. Don’t allow those situations to give up. Keep being adventourus. Full of ideas. Full of new experiences. And be aware of that life is good, surprising and full of happy moments. Full of good people around us. About surprising moments. And about some deep talks in the sun by the river…

The Sound of Music

I went out for a last training run on Thursday before the marathon. And as always, with music. Running without music would be not possible. Music is emotions.
Motivation.
People.
Memories.
Energy.
Power.
While running, I always thought I would be alone by myself. Alone with my thoughts and my mind. But it is way different.
While running, situations show up in my mind. People show up. Memories show up. When I started running, most of these situations and memories have been negative. Sad moments, full of struggle and suffering. And they took away a lot of energy from me while running.
But now it is different, especially when I listen to favorite songs and motivational speeches.

While listen to music now, I don’t feel alone anymore. Sometimes it feels like that all those people I think about are pushing me forward. Running next to me, in front of me, behind me. And it always depends on the songs I listen to,

When I listen to „Dragon Rider“ from Two Steps form Hell, I think about all those good memories with my best friend and our obstacle course racings. I think about his motivational words, his power and energy. His „Never Give Up“ mentality and how he was able to run an obstacle course racing with a broken hand – this is motivation and energy! And I think about how he would give me a pat on the butt saying „Komm Fetter, weiter gehts“ (let’s go fat boy, keep going). Honestly Bro, I love you!

When I listen to „Steh auf“ from Till Lindemann, I think about the time when I struggled and suffered a lot. WhenI felt weakness and no power at all. When I was so close to give up, to throw the towel. To end it. Because the struggle was too much. My mind was too much. Everything was too much eventough I was okay.
But yet I kept going.
I kept trying.
Not giving in.
Not giving up.
And I think about my first girlfriend, as she is a a big fan of Rammstein and Till Lindemann. I think about happy situations amd moments we’ve had. Thinking about her sitting in her little library full of books with a little cozy armchair in the middle of the room.
And I feel energy and motivation. And gratitude about the time we spent together.

When I listen to „You’ll never walk alone“ from Dropkick Murphys, I think about hiking the Camino Frances together with Ivan, a spanish guy I’ve met in Spain. And about our days at the camino, our deep talks and our reasons to walk the camino, our struggles, our pain and our strength to keep going.
I think about driving to the polish ukrainian border to pick up refugees and supporing them escaping from the war. I think about all of these wonderful people I’ve met while we tried to support all of those refugees and I think about all of those emotions which showed up. About how grateful those people have been, even for a blanket and some food.

There are so many songs I listen to that fill me up with energy, with good memories, with good situations I’ve had in my life with so many people. And all those songs, all those memories are motivating me. Pushing me forward. Supporting me to not give up. To focus on the goal. To keep running. To make me feel that I am not alone. To stop complaining and keep moving forward.
Forward.
Forward!
And sometimes, I also listen so some motivational speeches I’ve found. I listen to them when I struggle, when the legs are sore, when my mind is telling me to give up. To stop. When I fight the devil on my shoulder and he is talking to me, telling me to stop. To take a break. To give up. And I try to fight him and to make him shut up. Second by second. Step by step.
And I want to share those speeches with you as they are powerful, mindful and full of energy. And they make me realise that complaining is not the option.
Giving up is not the option.
Enjoy and feel the energy!
Dare yourself to be better.
Dare yourself to be unique!
Dare yourself to not complain anymore!

Run Boy Run!

Saturday, 4th of March. Time for a new challenge. Time for a run. Time for marathon. And this time not a normal one. Offroad-marathon. 42.2km and an elevation of 1000 meters. Along the Motatapu Track from Glendhu Bay to Arrowtown.
We got a ride from Wanaka to Glendhu Bay by bus. 9 busses full of athletes. And at Glendhu Bay, the busses stopped. And we have been informed that there has been an accident at the track with a biker. Helicopter. Police. Ambulance. And our start was delayed. Almost 75 minutes. And we still don’t know what happend, but in the end we were able to run. So the busses drove us to the start, we jumped out of the bus and started running.
Along the beautiful track, up and down, partly steep, just gravel track, sometimes passing by the runners, sometimes got passed by by a lot of runners. And Robin and me tried to run together from the beginning on. I listend to music, enjoyed the track and tried to focus on the current kilometer and then on the next one and on the next one.
After 11km, my legs felt sore, every step was a challenge, I tried to focus on the music and on the goal. Finish this one! Sometimes we had to cross some rivers, sometimes hallow, sometimes the water was deep enough to get our legs and knees wet. And we kept running. With a little wind, some clouds and a little sun – perfect conditions for a run.
After 26km and the 3rd aid station, Robin and me seperated as our pace was different now and my body felt much better. I started to enjoy the run again. I started to get back my focus. And I paced up. The last aid station was ahead, but unfortunetelly nothing was prepared. No drinks. No food. Volunteers were sitting in their chairs with their hands on their mobile phone… . So we had to prepare the drinks by our own. And the last kilometers, we had to cross more than 10 rivers to follow the track, wet feet, cool feet, cool down.
And out of the sudden, the finish line showed up. People on the left and on the right, clapping and cheering. And I started to pace up and run to the finish line, trying to pass by a female runner. And she speeded up as well – and she won 🙂

The time for this offroad marathon: 4.40h. 42.2km. 1000hm. Position 79 out of 485 in total.
And it felt great. It felt unique. My mind was full of happieness (and it still is). Full of motivation. Full of energy. Grateful about the decision to join this marathon. And I want more. Running is painful, running is a mindgame. Running is a challenge. But if you finish, it is worth it every single second of struggle, of doubt and of pain. Because you feel victory.

What else to say?

Socialising. Running. Being outdoors. Talking to people. And time. These are my options to get over difficult times. To get over bad moments. To get over self-doubt. And of course being patient with myself. Kind.
Whenever you have good moments, full of happieness and luck, keep them as best as possible. Enjoy them. And be grateful for every single second.
And if you have bad moments, full of pain, self-doubt, struggle and bad emotions then just keep in mind – they won’t last forever either. They won’t last forever! Don’t give up. Don’t give in. In the end, all the bad moments and situations will lead to a good, memorable and important experience. Keep that in mind.

See you next week.

Your DingyInternational
Felix