Odd Ball Event 2007
This was an event with a difference, named the “ODD Ball Event” because of the unusual distances and therefore added a bit of a twist to trying to estimate your time over such distances. A 1.55K circuit meant the Seniors raced 10.85K and the Masters 6.2K. What a hardy bunch of people turned up on such a day! Maybe because when we left town or Inglewood it was fine. By the time we started it was raining quite hard and had turned cold. Many of us got caught out in our estimates, when we warmed up these was quite a head wind and so put in allowance – guess what, we virtually had no wind once we started (my excuse for going too fast anyway).
Nearly all walkers estimated slower times than they actually did. This meant that either the conditions made for fast walking or most of us worked on 11K or so to base our estimate. We ended up with a tie for first place between Dave Wackrow and Brian O’ Shea, who managed to estimate within 6 seconds – both strangely enough were slightly slower than estimate. Brian I think you have a metronome in your head, because he told me his secret afterwards – he knew exactly what he lapped at on this course last year 11’11, so just multiplied by 4 – see how easy it is everyone – be consistent with your laps and remember from the last year! Wacky – well he raced totally differently to this. He just chatted to Natasha for 4 laps (man she’s as soft as Wellington people now – only 6.2K, come on toughen up girl), then took off and tore round for the last 3 laps. Mike Nield has the burn marks on him from the speed that Dave went past him at. So there you go – estimated races – science or pure guess work?
Rachel blew her chance of getting anywhere near estimate by whatever it was she has for breakfast. She took off when the gun went like a woman possessed. Obviously couldn’t stand the wet conditions and wanted to finish as quickly as possible. Rachel was 4 minutes 2 seconds quicker than estimate, in a time of 62’38 – this equates to a 57’44 10K – excellent improvement Rachel!
The Points trophy has really become a fantastic competition this year. It is all change at the top. Dave Wackrow has taken the lead on 30 points; Brian and Alan are on 28 points, with Denis on 26. Attendance at events is very important as the placings show – Wacky, Alan and Denis have 100% attendance – Brian would be in the lead if he had not missed 2 events! Don’t go away folks – this trophy is going down to the wire!
Results:
