Choca Wind Wand Walk 2008
Last year’s wind wand walk was walked on Easter Sunday and so Easter eggs had been given out. One bright spark on the committee decided that we should have 2 Easters this year and Sue was duly despatched to organise the goodies as prizes. Just to add spice to this event it was decided to have an estimated time event with largest eggs for those nearest to their times.
Weather was perfect for walking, hardly a breath of wind and clear views right up the coast to the Waikato headlands, just a typical day in the Naki – why would you live anywhere else – and Easter eggs as well!
A fantastic turnout of 20 walkers for our first outing of the season; a very good effort considering how many people involved in other activities. Many thanks to Frances and Richard for the time keeping and extra thanks for Richard for being interactive cone of the day – not an easy job as one or 2 members seemed to brush him as they went by, but he had a smile on his face!
The handicapper had originally decided on an estimated time walk, because he was hoping to get a few of the sandbags dropped at the start. Some did drop them, but others obviously picked them up and walked with them all the way – didn’t you, Nick, Valda and co! You haven’t fooled me (mind you that could change if I have to study the times through a glass of red wine, it could distort the view).
Eric, Vanessa and Natasha showed their class the moment the gun went. All 3 have been doing some high mileage lately with Eric first home in the Mountain to Surf and Vanessa and Natasha ready for the Rotorua marathon. Should be an interesting battle between mother and daughter in May! Also well done to Vanessa who took first place in the Dr. Davie walk on Saturday.
This event was all about who could correctly estimate what time they could do and not who could race the fastest. Now, after I won the Norm Read last year I clearly said that to get closest to your estimate, you must put down a time so that you race the event; you can’t hope to get a time by having a stroll. So remembering this philosophy I told Valda we needed to go slowly because she was recovering from Saturday and I was not in training, so we decided on an easy paced 35 minutes plus pace. Valda ended up 4 seconds away from her time after sticking to the plan – I neither raced nor went easy, so ended up 40 second under plan – after desperately trying to slow down. So Alan – listen to your own advice!
Natasha raced the 5K and seemed to retain a steady pace the whole way. Tony and Natasha had put down the same time of 30 minutes 30 seconds. Tony desperately tried to stay with her, but he faded in the last 200 metres. Natasha just stayed steady and came home in 30 minutes 29 seconds to win the main egg of the day – 1 second difference is a very good judge of pace. Valda was walking at Marathon pace and just breezed through her 5K in 35 minutes 6 seconds, just 4 seconds out. She tied for second place with Arthur, who did a very good time of 36 mins 39.
Fastest times were taken out by Eric in 25 minutes 38 and Vanessa in 29 minutes 38.
Results:
