The Two Person Team Novelty 2008
We did it! We went back to De Havilland drive and the sun shone with virtually no wind. Have we finally broken the hoodoo of this course? Everybody who took part in this event today thoroughly enjoyed it. The objective was to have 2 people in a team to do 8 laps (12.4K) and estimate your start time so that you finished as close as possible to 11:00 a.m. It meant that some people walked 7 laps, some 6 etc. You could estimate at training pace or race pace. The idea was to have a fun event the week out from the National champs so that you could take part today but not have to race.
With the Points Trophy so close this year, there were all sorts of calculations and schemes as to how to win this one. Vanessa even brought Jeff out of retirement to be her partner for this event. Jeff, being the original crafty fox that he is, Vanessa knew she had a good chance of taking the points. During the course of the event there were all sorts of schemes going on, false information about how many laps people had done, whether you were going too fast or slow etc.
The big news of the day was that many of the walkers in the event overtook Eric! I left in my dust today and therefore decided that I must be going too fast! It got to the last lap and many people assumed they were under their times and so the sand bagging started. Well I have preached about not doing this on previous occasions. You win an estimated time event by going at a consistent pace and if you can you race it. This is what works! It’s tried and trusted, can’t fail. Armed with all my previous information I decided I was ahead of schedule, so sandbagged the last lap. The tactics were to allow Vanessa to pass because we would finish before 11:00 and I would take the points. Well, we all came unstuck and me in particular as I allowed Vanessa to pass me. Meanwhile out on the course Rachel with partner Renee didn’t think at all. They just raced and had estimated so well that they came in at 53 seconds past 11 and therefore took line honours. Well done. Vanessa and the fox were second (11:01:15), Alan and Michelle 3rd (11:01:26) – sorry Michelle, I stuffed up.
In the Points trophy, Vanessa is 2 points ahead of Alan with Arthur a further 2 points back. It’s not all over though; Rachel is lurking and with 2 points from the Nationals will pull closer. It will take the Onaero trot and Pukekura to decide the Trophy again this year. In the juniors points trophy, Deanna is now only 1 point ahead of Renee.
A final note – many thanks to Marion for time-keeping today; without your dedication to the job it wouldn’t have worked. There was no way anybody was going to extract the time or anything else from you.
Results
1. Renee and Rachel – 11:00:53
2. Vanessa and Jeff – 11:01:15
3. Michelle and Alan – 11:01:26
4. Anne & Mike – 11:02:01
5. Arthur and Ivor – 11:02:17
6. Denise and Frances – 11:02:44
7. Tony and Eric – 11:02:52
8. Marlene and Dave – 11:04:35
9. Deanna and Tanya – 11:04:44.
