Ivor's Oakura Outing 2008
Looking back at last year’s report for this event, I see that we had beautiful clear skies – an absolute perfect day. This year we arrived in Oakura to rain, but this didn’t matter, the conditions were absolutely perfect for racing, only one part of the course had a headwind and gentle precipitation to keep us cool. We may not have had sunshine on the course, but as soon as we arrived at Ivor’s we were greeted by his smile and the warmth of the welcome made up for the earlier damp conditions. Thank you for your wonderful hospitality Ivor.
The first handicap event of the season is a difficult one to estimate. You have last year’s times to consider, recent injuries and summer performances. Added to this being 1 week out from Rotorua you can’t allow soft times for the marathon people or else one of them will use that and burgle the race and we can’t allow that when we know how keenly the points trophy is contested.
Due to the conditions it was decided to have a mass start so that no one was waiting around. Many of us prefer the handicap start so that we always have someone to chase, this tends to make us race harder. Many of the walkers weren’t racing today, they were saving themselves for the marathon, and it therefore worked pretty well with everybody starting together.
In the Senior Men’s 10K, there were only 3 starters and with Wayne dropping out after a cruisy 3 laps there were only 2 horses left in the race – one of those was a carthorse! Dennis just eased through the first 5K in about 32’30, I still had him in my sights at that time – trouble is he kicked into gear in the second half and I think I just kicked back! Dennis won in a smart time of 63’21and was first overall on handicap. I was second or last whichever way you look at it!
The Women’s 10K was a much closer race, with only 26 seconds separating the first 3 on handicap. This would have made for an interesting finish if people had started on handicap! Michelle looked very strong as she came up the hill to the finish – there was even a smile on the dial, so maybe she knew she had won? Tanya and Lorraine talked the whole way round the course, but this didn’t seem to hold Tanya back and even out sprinted Lorraine with 10 metres to go – maybe Tanya knew, because this sprint ensured she held out Natasha by 3 seconds on handicap. Fastest time was Natasha in what seemed an easy 63’17.
Now I have checked this result several times because I thought I had made a mistake. Arthur who won on handicap and time for the Master’s 5K race did exactly the same time to the second as he did last year! Arthur is the club’s original member of the “I love hills brigade”; this is a tough course, one which makes you really work. Arthur though managed 36’31 for the 5K! Once again Ivor defies age; he finished in a fantastic time of 42’07 for second on handicap. Brian, the current holder of the points trophy, finished 3rd – if he wants to retain that trophy he had better start chasing Arthur – he has leapt to the top of the points trophy and looks pretty determined this year.
Many thanks Dave Barrett for timekeeping this week, never an easy job in the rain. Good luck to all the marathon people next week, you have all trained very hard so all deserve PBs. All the best – Wayne; Julie; Valda; Vanessa; Natasha; Dave Wackrow; Nick; Denise; Tanya; Anne and Bridget.
One last word. This made my day so I thought I would share it. Sometimes I can be a bit pushy and have probably twisted one or 2 arms to get 4 teams instead of 3 for the Ekiden relay; but this is only because you all enjoy the pain of racing! Well today we had one person pull out because they had the dates mixed up, within 10 minutes I had replaced her – Arthur just said “I don’t want to let the club down”, so count me in. This is commitment; sometimes we forget about others in these busy times. So thank you to everybody who has committed to the Ekiden relay.
Results:
