Club Cross Country

Saturday 27 June

This annual event was held at Brockville Park comprising of walking twice around a 2km circuit. I had my farewell party the night before and got to bed at 2.45pm. I was feeling a bit jaded.

Colin Dick, Gordon Cameron, Dave Russell and myself went to the lead and walked together for half of the first lap. I had no idea where I was going and there were no marshalls. Colin and I broke ahead and I felt I could have gone ahead but chose to stay as I was not comfortable about leading.

I started to feel the effects of the night before with about 1/2 kilometre to go. Colin took off and I was not able to keep up. My second placing for the 4kms was 28:34 which was 14 seconds behind Colin.

There were 17 walkers but 4 were diaqualified as they took the wrong turn.

Brighton - Green Island Race

Saturday 20 June

For the first time I took part in the Caversham Harrier Club's handicapped walking race from the Brighton Domain to the Green Island landfill. Distance 9.6km. I was given the third largest handicap of 9 minutes with Kerry Killhorn. Gordon Cameron had 18 minutes and Colin Dick had a tough 22 minutes. Both Gordon and Colin are the club's quickest walkers.

Kerry and I got away to a great start quickly passing the 8 minute handicapped walkers. Kerry set a great pace which I had to work hard at keeping up. After 20 minutes he cramped up so I sailed on alone. By the time I got to Waldronville I had passed all the walkers in front but was anxious of Colin and Cameron somewhere in the background. To my surprise and delight I managed to come in first in a time of 1:10:17. This was the third fastest time. Colin's time was 1:05:16 and Gordon's tome was1:07:29.

Back at the clubrooms I was awarded a cup for my efforts.

I had my new walking trainers and got a blister on the sole of my foot. With a handicapped race I found it great having people in front and setting goals to try and pass by a certain place on the course.

Christchurch Half Marathon

I travelled to Christchurch the day before the half marathon walk, arriving around 11.30am. I registered in the afternoon at the Town Hall which was the start and end of the race. The forecast was not promising with snow a possibility.

It rained heavily overnight with sleet and hail. I arrived at the Town Hall at 8.15am to get myself acclimatised. The walkers had to start a half block behind the runners. We all had a chip attached to our shoe laces and this recorded when you reached the official start line and at the end. Just as we were about to start a short hail storm arrived. There were 5300 competitors. It took just over three minutes to reach the start line.

I was happy with my start averaging 7 and 1/2 minute kilometres for the first 5 kilometres. I averaged 8 min kilometres between the 5 and 15 kilometre marks. At the 10 kilometre mark I had to use the portaloo.

My small left toe started to hurt with a blister and this slowed me down a bit. I finished in 2:52:45 a personal best by just under a minute. I was the 40th person home and the 13th male to reach the finish line.

The race was very well organised. I liked the 1 km markings which helped me to calculate my times.

Link: http://res.championchip.co.nz/download.asp?format=HTML&type=E&id=1414&race=21W