If the sun hadn’t been shining this morning then it would be a good day to have a lie in as you could hear that wind howling around the house and see the mountain covered in snow.
But hey, this is a race walking club and perhaps a localised tornado might disrupt our Sunday race but not a cold breeze. So we had around 22 hardy souls lined up ready for the off in Carrs Rd; there was of course a few beanies and jackets being worn in deference to the conditions.
Attempting my first 5km for a long while today I went off with Ivor on scratch and have to hold my hand up for Idiot of the Week. The reason for this? because I turned at the 3km cone and wondered why I had done such a good time for 3km when I got back to the Start Line. Of course it all became clear when I arrived back at that 3km cone to see others going even further passed it to the correct turn cone. Maybe I will have to start walking in glasses in future. However I did do that short distance I missed, twice, to complete 5km but just differently to everyone else.
Due to my idiocy I lost what was happening in the race and had to pick it up after I finished. By the time I had got myself ready with video, pencil & paper all the 5km people had finished. I did notice that Arthur is getting larger & larger handicaps as he gets faster. I have no pity on you Arthur, it’s about time you started acting your age and let some of us younger ones beat you occasionally.
Jeff & Vanessa walked together for the first lap before he got serious and started to pull away, but he didn’t get too far in front and gap between them remained pretty constant as he had to work hard to keep in front of Vanessa for the rest of the race.
Eric being the ‘tail end Charlie’ to start, slowly closed the gap on Peter and I believe it was just before the end of the third lap before he actually passed him.
The rest of the field seemed to be in close contact with each other for most of the race and no doubt having their own personal battles to close up on the one in front.
I was about 100m from the finishing line and the order they went passed me was; Jeff, Vanessa, Joelle, Mike, Serena, Harry, Eric, Phil, Valda, Kathleen, Tanya, Peter Neil, Helen and I originally had Lorraine but Tony made a supreme effort to overtake her just before the line. The last one surprisingly was Dave who said he felt flat all race but we all know how that feels don’t we?
I think in a judged race we would have been disqualified as both feet were off the ground as we had to jump over the white ribbons draped across the road.
We then went off to the warmth of Anne’s home for some hot soup and a great spread. Thanks must go to Anne for having us all with only a couple of days notice as Helen injured herself gardening. So be warned ladies, DO NOT, jump onto the shoulder of your spade or you may end up with a split open leg that requires stitching as well.
Thanks go to our water girl Michelle and our time/lap keepers Sue & Trevor huddling in the wind. I recall that last year Trevor was doing this job with Marion and both got some good natured stick from the rest of us for being inside the SUV with all the windows steamed up.
Congratulations were given by our club captain Mike to the three walking teams for last week’s effort in Wellington and asked to let Eric know if any of you are going to do the Wellington half marathon towards the end of June as maybe arrangements can be made for travelling/accommodation for a group and when filling in your form put the Taranaki Race Walking Club in the Team Event box as the winning team gets a prize.
Eric has also asked any members NOT doing the Open Walks and who has not been grabbed by me already as helpers, could you let us know if you are available to help on the day.
See you all out in de Havilland Drive on June 13.
Bystander
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