Welcome to the blog of Christchurch Avon Athletic Club. This contains the latest news for the club. The Junior blogs can be viewed at the links below ..... CLUB RUNS: Mondays- 4.45 pm from the clubrooms on Greers Rd .... Weds- 5.45pm from the Harewood Tavern clocktower .... Saturdays- racing or club run ....Sundays- Sign of the Takahe 8.30 am. Blog is written by Mike V .Send photos /stories /comments to miximac@ihug.co.nz .... COMMENTS panel at the end of each post if you want to agree ,disagree or add information ... Club always accepting new runners .

Friday, 17 June 2011

Long overdue round-up of the latest news~ Mike V

May 24th 2011- at the recent Canterbury Awards dinner we were pleased to see these two Christchurch Avon athletes recognised for their outstanding efforts :
Courtney Ruske - Walker of the Year
Margot Gibson - Secondary School Non Stadia Athlete of the Year


Well, no-one has taken up the challenge to do these updates so here's a rough summary of the season's news so far .Dave Holland is well established in Brisbane and is exploring all the tracks in the hills near his new home . His repaired knee is holding up . Though he's strictly retired as webmaster , he's going to put up some stuff for us until we sort out how to manage the admin software  . Club rules state that you cannot leave a position without providing a successor ! ( setting up this blog probably qualifies ). I am enjoying writing this blog and it's surprisingly ' feature-rich '  for a free site , so send any articles , photos and news to me for publishing.
    Anyway, the weather has been oddly warm for  May .  Lionel Fox (on May 7)

was the only exception , with steadily worsening cold drizzle out at Woodend . But first, let's go right back to late January .



Rovers 10 km (Jan 29 th 2011 ) . Somehow I missed a couple of our esteemed members' efforts here . Rodger and Sue Johnson ran .Rodger was 14 th MM in 42.58 , while Sue got 55.35 for 11 th MW place.

New Zealand Track and Field champs Dunedin 25 March 2011-
Dave Catherwood (now resident in Dunedin) did an 800m in 2.00.26 and the 1500 m in 4.09 .21
Tom Martin -400m in 50.34 (2nd place)
Matt Dryden - 3000m M16 in 10.06 for 7th place. Also 2000m Steeple in 7 mins 11 for 6 th place.
Lydia Marshall - 3000 m W16 in 10 min 43 , for 5th place.
Margot Gibson - 1500 m W16  in 4 min 52 and 4min 45 (final) for 5th place.
Lydia Marshall - 1500 m W16 in 4 min 49 and 4 min 46  (final ) for 7th place.
Courteney Ruske - 3000 m walk W16 in 15 mins 17 for FIRST place . Also , the10,000m walk in 58.59 for 2nd place.
Laura Smith -W16 800m in 2 mins 14 for 5th place.


The Link Relay (March 26 th 2011) - This was held out at Halswell quarry in very warm conditions with a light breeze from the North . Teams of four had to provide an estimate of total time to run 4 km each . Each runner did 2 laps of a scenic loop around the western side of the reserve . Maze-like grassed trails broke out into lake front tracks, leading to sloping paddocks and a couple of ditch hops . Andrew Stark of the Vets Assn. had the handicap system beautifully managed on dedicated yellow team cards. We had one or two kids teams as well as two Senior teams . The hot weather affected several runners and I scored a rare victory over Iain and Jane, who both found conditions stifling  . John Ingles put in a solid 2 laps - possibly his best run for quite a while . John Gamblin was our quickest with a storming 15.00 mins. Results are available , but no individual times were recorded - a shame because there were alot of teams and it's nice to compare . Here though are the times we did :
John Gamblin -15.00
Mike Van der Colk -16.54
John Ingles -17.18
Jane Pairman - 17.29
Iain Chinnery -17.42
Chris Florkowski- 19.36
Rob Archibald -20.22
Sue Johnson - 22.22
All the profits from this event went to Red Cross Earthquake assistance.

Hagley Relays April 16 th .

True to recent tradition our Hagley trial on April 9th featured superb mid autumn weather, but the relay itself was misty , gloomy and wet . But it wasn't cold . The wetness is a nuisance  because everyone slowly gets soaked through just standing around, and all the team paperwork gets soggy and hard to write on . As usual , the course was just that little bit longer than the trial , so most people's times were slower . The top men were at least a minute off the old course record. The slippery ground would have added a few seconds too if you weren't wearing spikes .
The club is presently in the odd position of having no Senior male or female runners registered* . But we managed to put in a good showing with a team of U20 Men entered in the Senior race , and a strong Junior Womens team.The guys got 4th and the Junior Women would have got 4th in the Senior grade( and probably should have run as seniors).
   We also fielded a Vet Womens team with Jane and Robyn getting two of the quicker times of the day . Our Vet Mens side was a bit depleted with about six unavailable (incl. John Gam, Ants Rogal ,Rich Seigne , Vic  and Starkey ) .Despite this, they placed 3rd in the  grade . Our new signing , Anton Van T , led them out without any sign of nerves . The VM 2 team ( all 50 yr olds except Norts ) finished a creditable 7th . The Master Womens team was 6 th from 11 teams.
Good to see our U20 women tackling the full 4 km . Margot ran a strong 15.00 mins (4 th fastest overall and best W19).Young Dan Coats and Nick M  were our fastest runners in 14.01 each . Andrew R/J and Jane P were our fastest vets. Iain was second best M60 of the day .
*Sarah Coghlan is listed as being a CHCH Avon runner in the Mountain Champs results. Perrin has since registered too.

NZ Mountain Running Champs (held on Wellington hills 16 April 2011  )  . The fields were fairly small but the courses were no less tough .Sarah Coghlan was 3rd in the Senior Womens ,  from six runners .  Anthony Rogal is a regular entrant in this and got a close second in the V50 grade to specialist Paul Forster . Well done in this national event .

Ashburton 10 miler ( April 23rd 2011) - once again the mild spring supplied a warm day for this .A slightly new course was guaranteed accurate and well marshalled . Entries were a bit down . I ran the first 5 miles with Iain and Rodger nearby .But the heat affected both of them : Rodger  stopped completely and Iain fell off the pace . I was tempted to feel sorry for myself and pull out too, but the prospect of 'beating' them kept me going . I didnt realise that they had decided to keep going too . This was my downfall because Rodger quietly worked his way back up to me and unleashed an ambush in the finishing lane . And no-one warned me ! (so much for club spirit ) .Oh well, we came in ahead of Iain and also Anton Van T and Jacob Reese/Jones ( who was 3rd U20).
Before all this Jacob's Dad was carving out a 59.47 for the top M40 time . Greg Bramwell added to his comeback with a strong 65.55 . Greg is having a good year - could it be in preparation for his pending new age group in March ?
Sue Davis made her long- awaited return with a solid 1.30.46 for 3rd place in her grade .Sue Johnson was just behind in 1.32.37 and very happy as it was an improvement on previous runs .
The unseasonal heat made times slow . I had a stonker headache after a couple of hours and the effects lingered for several days .
The prizegiving was held on the lawn which was perfect in the conditions . CHA runners took four grade prizes . As usual there was a generous array of spot prizes . Iain won a very fine  running top worth (it was said ) $80 . It was made of that hi-tech wicking material and had a curious metal aperture near one shoulder . This later turned out to be a dedicated conduit for an MP3 lead . Can't imagine Iain giving that a lot of use though.
John Hinton was seen doing the walk -either the 5 mile or 10 mile . Good to see Paul and Rachel Clark who have had a difficult time from the earthquakes.Rachel did the 5 mile walk .
Paul guarded the family.

Forest Childrens Relay ( Burwood April 30 th 2011) - John Gamblin once again had this well organised and was supported by lots of club members as officials etc . The day was again unseasonably warm . Everyone was walking around with sunglasses and happy smiles . There were big fields of children and the racing was top notch . One exciting race was in the older boys where Nick Merrett's team was outrun by the Eustace trained younger trio of Sean E , Tannock Blair and Dan Coats . 
  Some slight changes to the race HQ  let the sun be visible for the whole event . Timing mats and  an experimental run-off area were used . Exhausted athletes were directed to plastic seats where valets quickly removed their chips , thrust a bounty bar into their hands and ushered them out . While the event had plenty of volunteers , they all turned up after Vic and I had to set up the whole course by ourselves . And poor Victor was limping from his hip injury . James Rogal is normally one to help - but not this time : where was you James ?

Tai Tapu 15 km race held on Sunday May 3rd 2011-   Because of damage to the roads around Tai Tapu domain the race was held around Lincoln township . I wasn't able to attend ,so here is a simple list of how our runners did from the results.
Sue Johnson 1.20.54 for 6th VW 50 out of 18.
Lorraine Wilson - 1.28.21.
Rich Seigne and Andy R/J continued their rivalry by running together the whole way and finished a bare 3 seconds apart  for 1st and 2nd VM40 (Andrew 53.04 )
Richie Merrett ran 56.40 for 5th VM40
Greg Bramwell- 58.25 for 9th VM40
Paul Clarke - 58.50 for 4th VM50 (not regd with us but I know he wants to be !)
Anton Van Tongeren-1.03.59 for 16th VM40

Lionel Fox Relays Sat 7 May 2011- This was the only event I can remember where the weather was bad enough to be annoying. I decided to bike out there (Woodend ) because the sky looked fairly clear. But just out of Kaiapoi it started to drizzle and it got heavier as the day went on . The kind Ranger in the kiosk made me a  big cup of tea as I tried to lock my wheels up outside his shop.In return I listened to all the varied work his team do for the forest and promised to tell the race organisers that they need to notify their plans to him (to prevent clashes with heavy machinery !)
  The new course was a big success though , and CHCH Avon fielded alot of runners undeterred by conditions . For officials these sort of days are hellish because all your sheets of paper get soaked . With frozen feet and hands I almost had a case of brain fade when some of the timing chips didnt correspond to our teams.Not a good situation five mins before start time . Standing at the edge of the tent is also risky because accumulated water periodically dumps on anyone standing in the right spot .
   I later sent a message of thanks to all our runners for braving the conditions and performing so well (we held top club position) . There was only one sub-par run - mine . I missed a turn-off . I had the excuse of not being able to check out the new course because of selector's duties. There were some exceptionally good runs : Matt Dryden ran a blinder (only 5 secs off Nick Merrett) .Rich Merrett had a great vets run . Jane Pairman is starting to get close to our best U20 girls' times (Laura ,Lydia ,Elise ) .Victor and Sandie are having a sabbatical this year but are pouring their energy into race organising and marshalling .Thanks you two (and for supervising the points calculations for Club of the Year so ably and impartially . )    


Jane Patterson Cross Country May 14th 2011.
This was held at Rawhiti in balmy warm conditions with hardly any wind .There was a worry that the domain was to be used for an earthquake relief village , but construction hadn't started yet . Pleasant weather makes spectating infinitely more enjoyable . You can walk around the course without being blasted by cold winds or slipping on muddy inclines . The kids races had alot of CHCH Avon runners . It's always inspiring to see the commitment the young ones put in to their running .  The intermediates also went well: Sean Eustace , Matt Dryden and Daniel Coats all had impressive runs . Laura Smith is a name to watch on the sudden improvers list .  The Vet Women (SueJo , Sue D , Robyn and Roanne ) all put in good runs . Robyn seems to be serious this season and was a clear second in her grade .
Margot had a decisive win in her 4 km W19 race , with Lydia ,Elise and Selena taking out the minor placings .
Sean Eustace gets looking stronger each outing and led his  B14 4km race from the start (already faster than Margot ) . Cam Avery, Matt Prest and Jacob R/J were not far behind.
In the M16 6km race Matt D and Dan Coats continued their rivalry, with Daniel winning on this occasion.
The biggest field of the day was, of course ,the combined Mens grade run over 9 kms .The course was one small lap, then four big ones .This was identical to 2010, yet the times this year were about 3 mins slower .Somewhere some extra ground was included , but I can't think of where .Possibly liquefaction effects? Anyway, we had some very good results in the male vets divisions . Ants and JohnGam were best M50s .Rich Seigne was 2nd fastest M45 (2 mins behind R.Bennett tho ') .Iain was fastest M60 .The club also got enough points to maintain it's lead in the Club of the Year competition . I was surprised to be in the best scoring M50 team- along with Ant , John G and Iain .
Has anyone noticed Denis Christmas assuming a spectator role this year ?Too young to retire Sir.


Club Cross Country Champs May 21 2011-  The weather for this couldn't have been better (in contrast to last year's dismal offering) . Without Dave here I was a bit worried to handle organising it . But by sharing the jobs around amongst five others everything fell in place .As Vic observed , we're all getting so proficient at this after so many years of doing it . Iain collected the Portaloo , Rodger picked up the gear , Vic arranged the fields to be mowed and James and I did the marking out .And we were all too tired to run in the actual event ! (Well Rodger ran , but didn't have a good one). There was a big turnout of runners and spectators .
        It was a mass start at 2.30 pm after a humorous address from President John .Actually the kids went off 2 mins behind the Seniors because there were so many of them and they have the ability to run very fast for short distances which would have clogged up the Senior ranks . The figure of eight course was a spectator's delight (and a marshall's nightmare ) .There were some near collisions on the carpet crossing . Nick had what looked like a comfortable win in the Senior race. Andrew Reese Jones had a decisive gap over Richard Seigne for Vets victory . Jane collected the Vet Womens title with Margot Gibson the Senior ladies winner .
      Matt Dryden was unlucky in the Junior Mens race when he thought there was another lap to run . He let two others go past not realising they were sprinting for the title . The saying that comes to mind is of course "each competitor should familiarise him/herself with the course  etc etc.." The clean-up after the event was easy and a noisy group repaired to the Bish  for chips and lager.

Anglican Block Relay -May 28th  2011.
The sun was low in the sky by late May , but it was an unclouded sky, so we had a great afternoon at Spenser Park for this popular relay. Anglican Club put on a top event .The lay-out was completely different , with a two lap circuit for the Seniors (alot like the old Lionel Fox set up) .It's always useful to see runners go through HQ twice to gauge what their time will be and to see how tired they look  .
As Club Selector it's a bit worrying in winter because people get the flu and pull out of teams , but not one of our four teams collapsed during the week .I had only one reserve (me)
The children's races were all finished by 1pm for a senior start  .

1- Our MM team was almost full strength and Rich Seigne got them away with a 4 th fastest vet run of the day . He was impressive taking off and finishing . James , Craig , JohnGam and Anthony all had good runs and the team were FASTEST on handicap .They were 2nd FASTEST on time by a mere three seconds .Apparently Craig fell over on his lap, but from his description he probably didnt quite lose three seconds by it .

2-Our Senior Womens team were 3rd on handicap and SECOND FASTEST on time .This was a good result because two of the team were veterans (Jane and Robyn) .It was good to see the team spirit shown by the U20 girls, Elise and Lydia . The vets ran only about a minute slower than them. Jane might have got a fright seeing how close Robyn got to her time .Are we seeing a challenge for top MW spot in the club?

3- Our Senior Mens team were 2nd on handicap and 5th fastest on time .They too had a couple of veterans on board and they might have got 3rd fastest if another strong senior had been available .Chris F and Richie M put in solid laps for them though. Richie also provided the spectator event of the day. When he came round the final bend he was at full stretch and cut the corner too sharply .His left foot caught a loop of blue marker tape . His leg went backwards and he went forwards .Half way down he gave a big kick to free himself,  but the tape held on.  One of Newton's laws then applied , but he sprang up with a humorous curse and sprinted in .

4 Our Vet Womens team were sans their two stars (Jane and Robyn ) . Sue Davis was also out of the mix due to an admin boo boo by me (apologies Sue ) .So they finished just out of the money on time and handicap ; but it's been good to see SueJo , Juliet and Roanne all running more strongly each week. Sue Davis actually got a run for Sumner and clocked a very similar time to these three. Of course they couldn't match Anne, who was easily the team's fastest runner.

The Juniors had some good placings earlier in the day and the Club's combined results were sufficient to keep us in the lead for top club .

Christchurch Marathon ,Half Marathon , 10 km etc -June 5th  2011- a miracle that this event was held at all and to see it go so well is another tribute of the Organising team .Christchurch city responded to the event with a large field of entrants . As Chris Cox implied at the function the race was a chance for the city to say we will carry on as normally as we can .A day later  there was a 5.5 aftershock centered nearby and bang on start time ! I'm sure we would have all taken it in stride had it struck on the day .
The new course was perfect .Flat as a plate and scenic .Perhaps a bit exposed to the SWester which sprang up ; but roadside trees helped to break this up . The event will probably be held out at Lincoln for two or three years yet, while the city is rebuilt.
  The start was delayed by 15 minutes due to traffic problems, but once the gun went off the runners moved smoothly down the worryingly narrow road . It helped to have been standing for thirty minutes in the right spot beforehand in my case ( took me only six seconds to cross the start pad ) .It took Nick Merrett about 2 kms to catch me ! Nick was the balloon bearer for the 1 hour 30 group. His Dad was doing the same job for the 1hr 40 group.
    Interest value in the marathon came from Phil Costley hoping to give the V40 record a nudge ; and from Lisa Hunter Galvan choosing the event to restart her career after a two year holiday .The strong winds spoiled Phil's plans , but Hunter /Galvan had a great run, won the race, and bettered her previous NZ PB . She was also immediately preceded and followed, by our two stars Rich Seigne and Andy R/J.They both ran PBs too and were placed in the Vet Mens categories . They later featured on a TV3 item where it said Andrew got "chicked ". Much email bantering after that .  We had no others in the marathon.
    We also had success in the Half with Iain getting 2nd fastest M60 (1.35.05) and Rodger was 3rd M50-59(1.31.43) . Greg Bramwell ran a tidy 1.26.14 with daughter Bella only 3 mins behind him. Craig Eustace surprised himself (but no-one else) with a 1.25.50 . Anton must be doing more running than biking with his improved 1.32.06. Young Cameron Avery (14 ?) was 3 seconds ahead of Anton ! But  Perrin was our fastest in 1.21.19.
Matt Dryden predicted he might win the 5.5 km Marafun and he did .It was worth standing in that cold head wind for 8 minutes to win the $200 watch .Sean Eustace took out second place. The watch needed attention from a jeweller, we later learned.
  Sue Davis would have been happy to dip under 2 hours in the Half  (1.57.44) -just ahead of Rob Archibald in 2.00.05 .What happened to me?I had the flu and it completely floored me at 16 km .Had to walk the final 5 km with chattering teeth and frozen hands .And Robyn gave me a 'Gamblin whack ' as she went past (on the way to a respectable 1.38.48 )

A few other results were :
Sue Johnson (10 km ) in good time of 52.43
Matt Prest (10 km ) 37 mins !
Jacob R/J (10 km ) 39 mins !
Lorraine Wilson (10 km ) 57.27
Gary Prest  (10km ) 49.10
Rich Seigne -marathon -2.45.01 (real time and 2nd vet ,9th overall)
Andrew Reese -Jones - marathon -2.45.53 (real time and 3rd vet ,11 th overall)
Hamish Ward -Half M - 1.31.42 (pacing his father ?)

Holloway Memorial Races June 11 2011- Overcast and cool for this event .But the predicted rain held off all day .The ground was wet and spongy but quite runnable . There was plenty of mud and cow pats to splash through if you wanted . The program was condensed into six races .I biked out from town to manage the finishing sheets for our runners .But there was a kids Mum doing the job admirably in the cold breeze, despite gloveless fingers .
 The terrain for these races is quite testing .There are tough little climbs , fast downhills , ploughed ground, off- cambers and long open stretches .
It was good to see Evie Teeling and Emily Wood running again in the W 17/18/19 race. Lydia Marshall was a close third in this event. 
  Matt Dryden ,Sean Eustace and Angus Bailey had top runs .  Jane Pairman got a second in the VW45 grade. Robyn ,Juliet ,Roanne , Anne and the Sue twins also raced .A great commitment from this section probably assisted us in holding our lead in Club of the Year.
Perrin was our fastest and only Senior in 43 mins over the 12 km distance .But the two marathon vets (Rich and Andy ) made a six day recovery to beat him with 42 mins each .Andrew managed to get a few seconds over Rich this time. Anthony ,James ,Craig, Chris ,Rodger and I also raced .12km is a long way to run over that sort of ground .But we weren't cold by the end of it !
It was good to chat to a happy  Zach Butler who popped up from Dunedin to have a look .Zach says he's engaged the services of a competent* coach down there and is feeling stronger than ever-courtesy of the Otago hills.
*one Mr D.Catherwood .




Updates from now on should be more regular, so keep checking .





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