Norm Read Memorial 2007
I can’t believe that another year has gone by; it only seems a few months ago that I was writing about this event!
The Norm Read Memorial event is one of the most significant events on the Taranaki Race Walking Club’s Calendar each year; even though it is now 51 years ago that Norm won gold at the Olympic Games. I am sure he would be very happy with the current strength of the club as 27 members lined up for the start. The Norm Read Memorial Cup is presented to the competitor who is closest to their estimated time over 5 or 10K. What makes it hard is you are not allowed to wear a watch, which means you really need to know your pace.
What makes it so hard on this Kaimata circuit to estimate your time is the fact that our 2 previous events (Inglewood and Oakura) have been on a hilly course and in those you start on handicap time. With this course there is a slight rise, but it is a relatively flat fast course and a lot of people estimate slower times than they actually achieve. Where others go wrong is that they decide they will use it as a training walk and so estimate accordingly – wrong! As soon as the gun goes, you go! The only way to estimate accurately is to put a time down that is at race pace.
Now what did I do? Normally as handicapper I can get most other people’s times reasonably accurately, but my own – rubbish! This year I decided I was going to race, but was feeling a bit tired after yesterday’s 2 hours, so decided to go for a time of just over 66 minutes. For 9K I went as fast as I was able to go – which is in keeping with the tactics I described above; ah but you need a bit more than that to burgle an event! As I went through the 9th lap I knew that Jeff was chasing hard and that Denis was going to catch me shortly after 9K. Jeff is very consistent with his times and so I wanted to gauge my pace off him. Jeff completed his 10K and I was a few metres into my last lap, this meant I had done 9K in about 59 minutes. I still carried on racing for another 100 metres until Denis passed, but then eased back; I wanted roughly a 7 minute last K to have a chance. This all worked to perfection and I finished the event only 4 seconds away from my estimated time. The question is – did I burgle or did I lose a few more precious hairs from my head with all this calculating! No – I was probably lucky, but I am very proud to be this year’s winner of the Norm Read Memorial Cup!
Well done to Kathleen Adamski who was only 8 seconds away from estimate and Jeff Wells who was third, only 12 seconds from estimate. Well done to everybody, there were some very close estimates, which just shows that without a watch, people can be pretty accurate with their pace.
The after event do was at Alan’s place. The cup was presented on behalf of Megan Read by Grahame Harvie (the Club’s patron).
Fastest time in the 10K went to Eric Kemsley in a time of 56 minutes 5 seconds. In the 5K, Ivor Ellis blitzed everybody in a time of 38 minutes 44 seconds.
Results:
