Ivor’s Oakura Outing
You could see the delight on the faces of the “Mountain Goats” section of the club as they waited for the start of Ivor’s race. Even better this year they decided – a full on Northerly as we go up Messenger Terrace.
The handicapper had come up with some new mad cap scheme of starting people, so that there was less time for the racing gazelles to wait around. The only problem being, the first over the finish line was not necessarily the winner!
The Seniors event was raced over 10km, which meant 4 laps and 4 lots of hills – a real test of fitness. This was a keenly contested race, with newcomer Odette Herbert edging Marlene White by 6 seconds. Odette and Marlene started together and battled the whole way. Marlene would take the lead downhill and Odette would storm past up hill. The position of the start/finish line proved to be the difference. Odette had the advantage of finishing uphill and so held out a fast finishing Marlene. The seasoned campaigner Marion Dent took 3rd place. Fastest times on the day were Eric Kemsley in 54 minutes 41 seconds, with Wayne Loveridge and Shaun Thompson 3rd.
In the Vets event over 5km, Ivor Ellis always proves hard to beat on his home turf. This year though, Arthur Lester had other ideas – is there any significance that Arthur “the original club mountain goat” had set the course to finish at the top of a hill! With 100 metres to go, Ivor looked to have the race in the bag, but no – Arthur came from nowhere, raced up the last hill and won by 5 seconds! Trevor Suthon came a very creditable 3rd after being sick all week. Arthur took out fastest time in 35 minutes 52 seconds, Trevor was second and Ivor third.
Many thanks for a fantastic morning tea put on by Ivor.
A footnote – apparently there is no significance to be taken from the scene at Ivor’s of the Handicapper being in a group hug with the 3 winners of the 10km event (all females!).
