Helen's Special 2008
A new course along Carr’s road at Urenui made for some interesting racing today. Everybody had always enjoyed the old course along Pukearuhe road, but there could be a large amount of traffic. This course though is equally as good and only one car on the road made it remarkably safe. Well done Helen, you picked a good course one to be used for many years I am sure. A course like this of 1.25k up and back (2.5K circuit) is ideal for an open handicap start; it would not have the same interest in a mass start.
Now Urenui is always said to have a micro climate – does that mean wet? The conditions before the start and during the first 10 minutes were not good. Heavy rain and cold; but by the time most of us started, the weather cleared and eventually it warmed up. Most people complained that their legs were like lead in the first 2.5K; I think we all paid the price of not warming up properly. The course itself seemed to have a rise both ways of about 4 or 500 metres. Fairly gentle, but you could feel it and I am sure was even bigger on that last lap!
Once again there was some excellent racing in the 10K. Michelle set the early pace and was determined to try to get to that finish line before anybody else. Nick seemed to kick into gear right from the start and started to pull most people in. Julie after a sluggish start got a new head of steam once Nick caught her; she didn’t let him get too far ahead and towards the end looked as though she might pass him. They both passed Michelle with about 1km to go and that looked like the winning combination. I tried as hard as I could but knew I just didn’t have enough of a kick to completely close the gap on them. I thought I was heading for third place at the last turn, but looked back and there was Rachel closing very fast behind me. Sure enough, once again Rachel caught everybody to cross the line in first position. She also took out top honours in the points trophy to move to 4th place on the ladder. Now I can assure you that calling me “Big Al” and “Young Al” do not guarantee good handicap times, but you just never know! In the men’s race Nick was 1st, Alan second and a very fast finishing Glenn was third, also taking the fastest time of 48m 43s. Julie Griffin was 2nd woman home followed by Michelle Nicholson. Rachel did fastest time of 55m 30s.
In the Master’s event, Ivor decided to handicap himself even more, by doing an extra 200 metres! My handicap plus his own meant that Arthur made a no contest of it. Mind you, Arthur did a very smart 36m 13s. We are though still awaiting the tests from the “B” sample. Arthur has now taken a lead of 7 from Valda in the points trophy; he will be difficult to catch at this rate! I did some rough calculations, if Ivor had not taken his detour, then there would have been about 5 seconds between Ivor and Arthur at the line.
The juniors raced over 2.5km today. Deanna did an excellent time for her age; she completed the course in 22m 59s. Genevieve is on the improve and managed a very good time of 18m 37s, which is more than a minute quicker than 3 weeks ago.
Tanya and Wayne did an excellent job of time keeping, never easy when the result sheet and everything else is soaking wet.
The morning tea at Helen and Doug’s is always well worth the trip out there. On such a cold, damp day the soup goes down even better. Many thank for your hospitality once again.
Results:
