Norm Read Memorial Race 2010
“Wait until I get home and tell my husband that I’m perfect”, was Helen Baverstock’s reaction to the news she had won the Norm Read Memorial Trophy for 2010. This is Helen’s first year of walking with the Taranaki Race Walking Club, but she is obviously a seasoned campaigner as she managed to estimate her time to perfection over 10K on the Kaimata street circuit at Brooklands.
At the other end of the scale we have people that have been walking for years that still don’t have a clue about their times. Lorraine Eldershaw at 5 minutes 39 might have an excuse because she is returning from injury, but Rachel, let’s face it at 3 minutes 15 you need to back to drawing board – no it’s not a one off either – 2 years ago it was 2 minutes. Perhaps some coaching from your daughter could help who was only 2 seconds adrift!
Seriously though, aren’t we a clever lot with 7 people within 15 seconds or less, though none of us can match perfect Helen!
Norm won his gold medal 54 years ago at Melbourne. If Norm was watching today, he would have been very proud that 31 walkers lined up at the start – and very satisfying seeing all the Juniors walking today. The Norm Read Memorial Cup is presented to the competitor who is closest to their estimated time over 3, 5 or 10K. This not easy when no watches are allowed and no times are called out to gauge splits.
It isn’t an easy task to estimate the 10K on the Kaimata block. After the hard work of Ivor’s event and the deceiving course of Sandra’s, you hit a fast flat course like this event and you tend to go faster than estimate. Any that did Rotorua the week before also have difficulty in knowing how they have recovered. Most of the marathon people though seemed to have recovered very well, other than Harry who had a foot problem; most of us would have walked with this, but when your foot is about the size of my leg I can see a possible issue!
Tom was second this year after estimating a time only 4 seconds different to his actual; many years this would be good enough to win it, so better luck next time. 3rd was Valda with only 8 seconds difference – Valda seems to be an excellent judge of pace, she also got 2nd in the Wind Wand Walk!
In the Juniors event over 1K, Hannah Gilberd was first with only a 2 second time difference and Nicole Moratti had just 7 seconds for 2nd; 3rd was Alex Spurdle with 16 seconds difference.
Fastest time in the men’s 10K went to Eric Kemsley in a time of 55 minutes 19 seconds. The women’s fastest 10K was Rachel Gilberd in 57m 45s. In the 5K, Arthur Lester did a very fast 36m 42s. In the juniors 1K, Deanna Moratti walked a very good time of 6m 29s.
Good luck to the teams at Ekiden in 2 weeks time, go hard! Hopefully Rachel has a room to herself so that she can properly prepare to perform at her peak!
Oh yes – thank you Marlene and Denise, had a great tussle with you guys today which helped me achieve a PB in the 10K. I won’t see you now until the Odd Ball event on 13th June as I leave for my holiday this week. Have a fantastic few weeks of walking and let’s keep the momentum going with the number of walkers this year. Oh and don’t think the handicap times are going to be easy while I am away, I have enough info to do Helen’s event for the end of the month!
Mike Comments:
Many thanks to Rachel and Alan for hosting us for morning tea.
Brian's comments:
Norm must have had a big smile on his face yesterday when he looked down to see such a large field ready to race for his memorial trophy. This must have been the biggest field of club walkers to turn out for an event for a long time and our Patron Graeme, accompanied by his good wife Rosemary came up from Hawera to be there as well.
Several things stood out for me on this day; first was to see a number of young girls on the start line the youngest being 8yrs old- the future of the club.
Secondly to see all the members who only a week ago walked a marathon, lining up. The only one of them who didn’t walk was Harry due to bad feet but after such a great time in his first marathon, it’s not surprising his feet were protesting. It was also interesting to see how well they all looked and still jumping out of their skins. Two of them Alan & Anne actually did a PB for the 10km.
They all gave it heaps as well with little battles developing during the course of the race. That is with the exception of Vanessa & Jeff who strolled around the course chatting all the way. How can one do this when finishing in 63mins? The only time they really put a short spurt on was to try and prevent Peter lapping them, which they just failed to do.
Talking of Peter he’s getting leaner & meaner and Eric is now having to really push himself in races to stay ahead of him with Rachel & Phil not too far behind Peter. If you add Wackie, Vanessa & Jeff into the mix, we now have seven members who are sub 60mins for 10km now and that would be a very long time since we had that. It makes for interesting watching and can only be good for those fastest walkers having competition each race instead of having an easy ride.
Having a special interest I was fascinated by the battle that developed between Tony, Marlene, Alan & Denise S-J. It started off with Tony & Marlene side by side for half the race and then Tony dropped Marlene by about 10m and that was the spacing between her & Alan & Alan & Denise. Then by the 8th lap, all had closed up on Tony. By the end of the 9th Alan had moved into position behind Tony and then what a finish on the home straight with Marlene, Alan & Denise going flat out but too late to overtake Tony. Marlene got in first just 3secs ahead of Alan who only fended off Denise by 2secs, so you can’t get much closer than that. I checked up later after Alan told me he had done a PB and discovered that Marlene had actually broken the old NZ record for 10km which she broke last August.
The rest of the field seemed to be doing their own thing and Serena looked really smooth with her new upright stance and longer stride. New member Helen after walking in only her fourth club race took out the trophy with an exact time and it is a rare thing for that to happen.
What finally made the day for me, was on arriving at Alan and Rachel’s home, we had the pleasure of seeing Marion already sitting there. She told one member that except for doctor and hospital visits that was her first outing in six months. Some newer members may not know but Marion is a very sick lady but is bearing up remarkably well. I think I can say on behalf of all members Marion, that our thoughts and prayers are with you as you now fight the good fight.
Results and photos (Double Click to see full image):
