Nineteen walkers turned up to celebrate Mother's day in the only logical way - by pounding the pavements for between 5 and 10km!!
The weather forecasters had been promising awful conditions - well they got it wrong for the couple of hours that we needed. There was no rain and whilst it was cool to start it soon warmed up. Indeed there was some stripping of polyprops to the amusement of some of those on the sidelines!
Some regulars were missing - recovering from their Rotorua excursions and in one instance unconfirmed alcohol poisoning. However this was made up for with the return of an old member from years gone by - welcome back Peter Fox - we hope you'll enjoy your second time around. While Peter only did 5 kms it was in a pretty snappy 31mins 16secs!
A bit of complaining about the handicaps was responded to with the very supportive comment "harden up"!!! The new handicapping duo of Eric and Dave seems to be getting hold of the job well - as with the previous handicapper they open to wine bribes.
The walking was pretty competitive in both the 5 and 10 km categories. Tony Burrell headed off a great pace and held off a fast finishing Rachel Gilberd (her time for the last 2kms would have made very interesting reading!!!). Mike Nield was third home. In the Vets section Brian O'Shea was out for his first event of the season and pulled out a great effort to win the vets and pick up the 7 points on offer for the Points Trophy. Denise Clark was second and Sue Park was third home.
Many thanks to Sandra and Theresa for the wonderful morning tea.
Next up is the Eikeden Relay (24 May) followed by Helen's Special (31 May - note the later 10:00am start).
"Sweater, n.: garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly."
Ambrose Bierce
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