Choca Wind Wand Walk 2011
Well what a glorious day it was along the Walkway for our opening race of the season, blue skies warm sun and no cold winds. I do however think it was a little too warm for some of the women by the way they were ‘Glowing’ as they finished.
Twenty two adults started and four young boys, the sons of Tania & Serena; let us hope they sustain their interest. We also welcomed a new member Sheryn Hardy who ended up only 21secs outside her estimated time, so well done Sheryn.
Harry brought along our new ‘starters’ tent which is going to be a boon for those officiating and spectators. After welcoming everyone, our club captain Mike, gave a reminder about only walking a maximum of two abreast and keeping to the left, so that we wouldn’t be considered a nuisance to the general public and from what I saw, members obeyed his directive, so well done every one.
Trevor who was having problems with our printout stop watch, co-opted me as another timekeeper and then started the race. Off they went with Eric & Harry in the lead, with the rest of the field trailing in their wake.
It was interesting to note that only seven of the adults went faster than their estimated time, was this due to being their first walk of the season or were they trying to con our handicapper for the next walk? Time will tell.
As I had to stay at the finish line I couldn’t wander along the Walkway to see how the race was developing. I also had to act as the turnaround cone which at times got exciting, maybe I have found my niche in life.
As most seemed to be taking it easy there wasn’t the normal individual battles going on during the race but a few were trying real hard. Trying to take the opportunity of Vanessa’s amble, Serena dropped Marlene to try and catch her and was only 8secs behind at the end but I know who was ‘glowing’ the most at the end. Vanessa, to rub salt in the wound took second place and an Easter egg
Denise & Francis chatted all the way around but Francis didn’t realise that she was being pushed as she ended up 4.5mins faster than her estimate. Talking of .5, Eric being a mechanical man put down his time as 32.50 meaning 32 & a half minutes; however it was regarded as 32m 50s. If he had entered his time correctly he would have been sharing first prize with Kathleen who walked a steady race to be closest to her estimated time by 2secs.
The only battle I could see was between Helen, Dave and Joelle with Helen coming out on top with the final couple of steps, with Joelle only 6secs behind Dave. Tony did his best to catch Mike who wasn’t walking at all well due to a bad back but Mike was still too strong for him.
Lorraine was only 8secs behind Neil and to add insult to injury, she came 4th so missed out on the Easter egg. Ivor was only doing 3km as befitting his Senior status but then again, when you are only a couple of years off 90 why would you want to do 6km? He was one of the seven who walked faster than his estimated time and averaged 8m 38s. Well done mate you are a star.
Young Arthur who is a bit like Peter Pan and who belies his 82 years walked an average of 7m 35s. He’s a bit like a fine wine, he just gets better with age.
The four boys came into view in a pack, nattering away and it was only in the last few metres that Jade suddenly caught the Campbell boys unawares to surge across the line to claim first.
I said at the beginning that Mike advised about only two abreast, a pity some of the other members of the public didn’t abide with this. A group of people with dogs and pushchairs were spread across and blocking the whole Walkway near our finish line which forced Marlene to walk at their pace until she was able to pass them by walking on the grass. No wonder there is persistent bad press on Walkway users.
After the finish, the tent was uplifted and moved over to the picnic table where a lovely spread was laid out and Arthur who was Sue for the day had all the hot water tea/coffee etc for us. Tony had brought buckets of Feijoas for us to have and I sampled a cake made from them a few days later at Vanessa which was superb, so you are going to have to pull out all the stops this Sunday Tanya to beat that.
Whilst we scoffed the food provided, the times and places were worked out and the finish order for the Points Trophy ended up as Kathleen, Vanessa, Neil, Lorraine, Eric, Sheryn and Mike. The boys were Jade, Cody & Jacob.
Bystander
Results
