Christchurch Avon Athletic Club Inc.: April 28 Update

Just got back from Woodend where the Lionel Fox relays were held this afternoon. Christchurch is a miserable place to be in bad weather but today you wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else
. A light Sou'Wester overnight weakened to leave Canterbury bathed in hot sunshine with hardly any wind . I took the tail wind on the bike at 8.30 am to help Vic , Sandie and Denis set up the course at 9.30. The 2.5 km lap seemed longer walking it , and there was plenty of variety - a steep long sandhill , leg- jarring descents, windey turns , a pylon hurdle plus some open track for the speedsters.
Everything was ready by 11.30 am, which gave us some time to sort out the CHCH Avon race packs before the runners began arriving . Once again, lap specific shoe chips were issued and this time the number codes were matched to the teams (last year they weren't which almost gave me an apoplexy). Being well organised with known routines is the key to problem-free events . Having made sure that all the racepacks were in the hands of someone relevant to their contents I did a lap warm-up to check the marking. The ambiguous right hander that cost a few people valuable seconds last year was better marked .A consideration in setting up is not to block off any tracks to casual walkers, MTBs and horses (of which very few were seen ) .
At 12.30 the Mens race took off , followed by the Women at 12.35. There was some very good racing . Of prime importance to us were our SM1 , SW1 , VM1 and VW1 teams . The Senior Women provided the most excitement by leading their relay for a long time, only to be deprived of victory on Lap 4 by UNI . It wasn't a big field but Uni and CHA had fairly strong quartets and the race was always going to be between them (Canty Tri Club finished close too). Margot requested Lap 1 and by half way she was in 2nd place behind Angie Smit .Something must have happened in the forest because when they came out the second time Margot had the lead, running a great time of 19.02 (3rd SW) .Lydia had second lap and I'm not sure who she was pitted against but when she handed on to Laura Smith the lead was over a minute .Laura is only 15 and not training for ' long ' distance , so when she came home she handed Laura Wood a reduced margin of about a minute. Laura is a strong runner but when we saw Uni's Hannah Newbould go after her it was a bit worrying . Hannah is nationally ranked over 5 km and was in top form . Somewhere in the forest Laura was caught . Congratulations to our girls for getting so close to a powerful UNI combination.
Our Sen Mens 1 team had a good result .They weren't our strongest possible line-up and their average age is well under 20 . Perrin had a fast first lap being well up with the top runners , but things had strung out a bit after the second circuit. Dan Coats and Tannock Blair had good laps as well, but Matt Dryden claimed fastest time of them with a 17.09 .The team managed 4 th equal overall .
Our Vet Womens 1 team had a good day .Robyn Perkins , just returned from Paris and London , led them out with an impressive 21.45 .Robyn had run 2 (two ) marathons in the last three weeks (in 3.33 and 3.37 ) lands back in NZ three days ago , assures the selectors she can race and proceeds to post one of the best VW times of the day. Sue Davis and Anne ran useful laps before Jane anchored the team to a 4 th placing. Jane said the rough trails don't suit her light frame and her time reflected that -ie I had a rare victory over her : ) . Sue D beat Anne on time - is Sue improving ? *
In the other teams all our runners put in big efforts . Bruce Webster ran a good opening lap for the VM 1 team which finished 6th. Richie Merrett was " just getting back " to use his words , but ran a good V50 time. Interesting to project how our best VM team would have gone and I cant see that they would have got better than 3rd -such is the strength of Vet Mens running in Canterbury at the moment.

Good to see Emily Wood back running and looking stronger this year. Nick Merrett showed what a natural talent he is posting 17.13 after only 2 weeks back training. Really appreciated Vic and Sandie stepping up for laps to replace 'absentees' - both of them operating on voltaren for various reasons .
Thanks to all 28 of our members who raced .
By 2.30pm everything was cleared for the start of the Junior relay of 4 by 2.5 km laps. The number of people in the Start/Finish area by this time had risen . Over a hundred children , their parents and a fleet of racing bikes made the area very crowded . Good to see I wasn't the only one to bike out .With the sun at it's hottist it was a gala atmosphere . There was even a BBQ going somewhere. Thanks also to John Gamblin ( also on pk's for his injury ) who did alot of the organising. John also designed and had made a new Center trailer .This is bright red and resembles a horse trailer with it's spring loaded back door . A lot of thought had gone into the interior shelving etc to make this a valuable conveyance for our rolling stock.
How was the Selector's Scorecard today? Should Jane have run in the SWomens team ? Ans: She ran exactly as fast as their slowest runner , so, no.
Should Nick Merrett have run in the SMen's team ? Ans : Yes , he ran almost as fast as their fastest runner and a minute better than their slowest BUT last week he didn't, and was just out of a long lay-off , so I couldn't select him without getting bricks thrown at me . Did it matter ? No - his inclusion wouldn't have improved their placing (4th equal ) . .. well strictly speaking they would have got 4th , not 4 th equal .

* there has been growing disquiet about the accuracy of the published results. Sue Davis and Sandie are both sure that they ran different times to what's been published . I even suspect that my time is wrong ; honesty compels me to admit that my time looks about 30 seconds fast (but in the immortal words of Sean Fitzpatrick : "it's a win , I'll take it ")
Seriously though , teams should time themselves and fill in the Team Time cards because these act as a back-up to the electronic timing in the rare event that this fails (which it appears happened ).

RESULTS: http://www.athletics.org.nz/CANTERBURY/article.aspx?ID=3319&Mode=1
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CLUB OF THE YEAR - update from the club statisticians

"The weather on Saturday was stunning and a large number of runners turned out to compete in the Lionel Fox relays.

The Club of the Year competition result was

1^st – Christchurch Avon

2^nd – Sumner

3^rd – University of Canterbury

We had missed out a grade in the result for the Hagley Relays which meant that Sumner got 3^rd place and Christchurch slip to 4^th.

The combined results after two events

1^st – University of Canterbury on 36 points

2^nd equal – Sumner and Christchurch Avon on 34 points.

The next race in the Club of the Year competition is the Jane Paterson cross country on 19^th May – see you there.

Cheers

Sandie and Victor"

ps- during the week Craig discovered a small error in the calculations from the Hagley relays which resulted in CHA being bumped up a few points .It would have been thought that the reliability of these calculations was on a par with statements from the Bank of England or Papal edicts , but no ; and all credit to Craig for taking the time to check.

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A point of interest : We now have four genuine Senior Men registered : Perrin, Nick , Alex and Evans Chileshe . Evans is principally a squash player, but says he is a reasonable runner and will use club runs to keep fit. Now if Dave Catherwood and Paul Robinson came back we'd have a team.
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Readers of the Press might have seen a big article and photo of Courtney Ruske whose walking achievements are getting attention. Here are some stats from her recent races :
- Canterbury Secondary Schools Champs winner in February (set 2000m record of 9min 20).
-South Island Sec Schools Champs (missed record by 1 second )
- U/20 3 km and 10 km NZ Champs titles.
-Unofficial Canterbury 3000m record of 14 min 17 (insufficient officials present )
- Canty U/18 10,000m record (52.42)
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NEXT SATURDAY 12 MAY - CHAV OPEN HANDICAP CROSS COUNTRY - BURNSIDE HIGH SCHOOL

In an open handicap race we estimate a time for you and then start you off at different times with the slower runners starting first and the faster runners starting last. Anyone who can run faster than we estimate has a chance to win the race.

Please bring a plate of something nice to eat for a shared afternoon tea at the end of racing.

Meeting: - 1:45pm at CHAV Clubrooms, Burnside High School, Greers Rd.

Race Distances & Start Times:

Grade 10 and Under - 2km - 2:10pm

Grades 11 to 14 - 3km - 2:30pm

Grades 14 to 17 - 4km - 2:50pm

Grades 18 and above and non-registered club members are welcome, but please email us (Junior Committee) to request a handicap (or you'll have to start with the speedsters off the back mark).

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Having had a chance to talk to Anthony Rogal some more info has been learned about his run at the NZ Mountain Running Champs on Mt Cameron (relying on brother James's reports can give one a oversimplified impression ) .Apparently Anthony didnt get injured as such but simply succumbed to the attrition of the 14 km uphill climb.He hadn't had time to prepare for such a sustained gradient .Letting the 50 year olds run the full distance didnt help.The Women joined the race at the half way point and perhaps the older vets need to begin there too. As it was the incline to half way was slightly easier than part 2 and Ants was well up with the pace to there. But after that he found all sorts of old niggles causing problems so he slowed down .He said he felt terrible but was amazed to completely recover by next day .
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Another of our V50 's ran a hard hill race in Brisbane recently .Dave Holland says that there are good races over there available for sensible entry fees ; well organised and patronised but with very little in the way of spot prizes or performance prizes. Race entries are often limited to under 150 (probably unnecessary as the courses are a sufficient put-off ) .One such he did recently was the Pinnacles 18 km . Here is some of what Dave had to say :

"I finished 9th out of 92. Comfortably first V50 but I was beaten by a 46 year old woman! Mind you, she was Hubertien Wichers, who won the Aussie mountain running championship at age 40. The course was extremely severe and the sort of thing you just can never relax on, because you know there's another evil climb around the corner. It has been a good many years since I have had the correct type of fitness or have been conditioned properly to tackle this sort of race (probably when I lived in Wellington in 90-93), so I was always going to come off second-best. My time of 1:35:01 for 18km might give an indication of the severity. It was only won in 1:24 - that's about 4:40 k's.I like the way the most severe hills were named with little white signs on trees. Names like 'The Mother', 'The Mother's Mother', 'The Bastard' and 'This One's a Bastard Too'!

There is a good series of these races through the winter. Organised by the Trail Running Association of Queensland (TRAQ). They don't have the staggering scenic grandeur of the NZ 'epics' like Motatapu and most are through forests a bit like Hanmer. But they are really refreshing and fun and at only about $25 to enter, you don't feel ripped off. They are very low-key (ie virtually no prizes) but they are organised by and frequented by some good people. Once I can walk again I might think of entering some more. "

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Iain asks that anyone entering the Wellington Half Marathon in June consider filling in the Teams section . It wont cost any extra and will give the Club a chance at the Teams title. Just write 'Christchurch Avon ' . Iain says he knows three of us will be up there , so that only requires one more to form a team.

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Those intending to run the Olympic Rossendale 15 km in early May , please note that the venue given in the 2012 Programme is incorrect. The race will be held at Greenpark NOT Greendale . Apologies to Dave Catherwood who was looking forward to watching the racing around his old family farm .

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Club Captain Rodger Ward is starting a regular Wednesday evening run : 5.45 pm from under the clocktower in the car park of the Harewood Tavern.
It will start Wednesday, April 4 and carry on all year if numbers build .