Sandra’s Safari 7th May 2006
As you drive out along Lincoln Road towards Sandra’s house, it is difficult to not simulate the tarmac rally as you roll over the hills and round the sharp bends. It is certainly amazing countryside. The new ones amongst us are a little apprehensive nervously inquiring as to whether we walk over these hills. No not these ones we reassure them – but we do have Clarke hill! More like Clarke’s folly some would say – how true as it turned out.
An excellent turnout with various new faces and great to see Rachel there. 27 people in all turned out, which is the highest number for some time.
The seniors event was raced over 10K with an open handicap – no madcap handicap system this time. In the men’s race it was very clear from the start that Eric, Dave Wackrow, Tony and Mike were in fine form. Clarke’s hill came and the gap closed between the competitors. We passed Colin at the drinks station – only 6 hundred metres to the turn round he said. We were starting to fly, no more uphill. We passed the first lot of cones and carried on and on and on – whoops – by the time we reached the top of Everett hill we knew we should have turned at the cones. Oh well at least all the men were the same, or so we thought! Mike cheated, he turned at the correct place and that was it – we never saw him again. Mike was first on handicap, Eric second and Dave Wackrow third. Looking at simulated times to handicap; it would have been a fight to the finish between those 3 as each one went well on the day.
Most ladies in the 10K did the correct course (they probably stopped to ask for directions). It was only the back markers who got led astray by the men, which is understandable. Who can resist that handsome lot. In the Senior Women’s event, the result on handicap I don’t believe would have altered if all did the same course. Anne Fraser, Kim Fougere and Marion Dent all did fantastic times, especially when you consider they all did the Rotorua Marathon the previous week. Sandra took out fastest time in a very slick 59’09; obviously the fruits of weeks of training.
The Masters event was very keenly fought over 5K. Arthur again licked his lips at the thought of that hill. Ivor had Sue to keep him company at the start, would this spur him to new heights? Brian was away next followed a minute later by Arthur. By 3.5K, Arthur had passed Brian and had Ivor in his sights. Ivor had other ideas though, the finish this time was downhill and no way was he going to be beaten today! So it proved Ivor stormed home ahead of Arthur who only just held out a very fast finishing Brian. Arthur took fastest time in 36’52.
There are 2 schools of thought on the course, Jeff’s (who would like Clarke’s hill twice) and everybody else’s who believe we could make a very interesting 2, 3 or 4 loop flatter course without that HILL.
All in all the day was a great success, it is a great feeling to be walking out on the country roads; makes a fantastic change for all us townies. Many thanks to Sandra for putting on a great morning tea – far too much food as per normal.
Click here for the results sheet. Handicappers note: You'll find the spreadsheet split into 3 workbooks for the result. The far right hand column is a simulated actual time if we had all done 10k. I would give out the points as per normal in all 3 races. You can see by the simulated time to handicap that in the men's event the 3 top placings would have been Mike, Wacky and Eric - not necessarily in that order, but .. The women's event was not really effected - the ones who did the longer course were trailing at that time. Anne, Kim and Marion were all worthy winners when you look at their times.
