Akaroa Relay Oct 5 2013

________________________________________________________________________
Firstly a message from John Ingles who did a lot of work to make Saturday a success then had to work and miss the whole day :

" As we bask in the afterglow of the success of our two junior teams we need to acknowledge those people that gave up the opportunity to watch these races unfold and stand on the roadside to ensure the safety of all runners in the relay. At least they could watch the finish of the junior relays and see Ch CH Avon's moments of glory.

So many thanks to all those people who gave up their time to marshal at Cooptown and to those athletes that made their way there after they had run to lap to assist as well.

We also need to reflect on all the efforts of the organisers; it is a massive job. Running a lap is the easy part!

Congratulations to all our teams and especially to the junior team placegetters. Next year we're looking for GOLD.

Cheers,

John Ingles "

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Saturday October  5th 2013.

Photo of M 50 team local Gold medal .

National Road Relay in Christchurch always makes Akaroa a special event .Some clubs plan for this months ahead .We just put together what we can as far as adult teams is concerned . The planning for the Junior teams is a lot more focussed and the results correspondingly better . We always manage to get a Bob Perry team on the road as well (Bob completed his 56 th participation in the race -doing Lap 4 in 64 mins )
There were over 1000 runners on the peninsula today - well short of the heady days when 190 teams would assemble here but still a good turnout. .  Wellington Scottish Club sent about 15 teams .  Aorangi sent four . Christchurch Avon had six  :

1- a VM 50 team.
2- a mixed Senior Mens team .
3- two Junior Mens teams.
4- a J /Womens team .
4- a mixed Social six lap team (Bob's )

The weather couldn't have been better .A cool misty morning warmed up into a fine warm windless spring day , all day. Conditions on all laps was optimum. It was almost a bit warm on the last four laps .
Here are some collected highlights of the day for us (in no particular order )  :

• Richard Seigne took advantage of ideal conditions to break the Vet Mens 50 record on lap 3 .He took over 90 seconds off the longstanding mark and briefly  propelled the team into first place in the grade and earned warm praise from Auckland's Gavin Stevens .

Richard Seigne breaking the Lap 3 M50 record 

-The Junior Mens 1 and Junior Womens 1 team both got into the medals at National level . Margot Gibson led her team by example with fastest JW time on Lap 3 (10.1 km in 37.04 ) and the other girls all had top runs to bring them home for the silver medal .They were a distant second to the winners but narrowly defeated a good University lineup . Margot handpicked and organised the team and they can be very proud of their effort . Results show that Margot got second fastest Womens time overall , which augurs well for when she turns senior next year .

-The Junior Men were thought to be capable of anything from first to fourth place . After a close fought race they settled for a bronze medal behind two exceptionally strong North Island teams .They were only 36 seconds off the silver and 2 mins 40 from the gold . Matt Prest broke the JM Lap 1 record , but so did another runner - by a little more . See below for an expanded account of the Junior relay .

- Chris Dryden and Angus Bailey of the JM 2 team had exceptional runs .The team was 2nd fastest locally .

- Robyn Perkins had a phenomenal run on Lap 1 (4th MW in 41.04 ) . Not often do people look forward to getting older but if she can repeat this next year she will take the VW 50 lap record .

- New recruits Kevin Muir and Neil Gilmour had strong runs . Kevin has been wanting to join us all
year and looked fit enough to tackle the tough Lap 2 . He did a respectable 41.21  . Neil is a friend of Gary's and ran Lap 3 for Bob's team in 43.26 mins . Neil will be a valuable addition to our Mens 50 stocks .

- Our VM 50 team won the local grade over NewBrOly. We were nowhere near the good National teams (20 mins off first place ) but considering only two of us had top class runs  (John Gam and Rich Seigne ) it wasn't a bad result .It was thought that N/Canty and NewBroly would field strong teams but they didn't, and the local grade was ours for the taking .

John leads Trevor Ogilvie into Lap 1/2 transition .

- John Gamblin said he put us into the entire lead of the M50 grade when he finished Lap 1. But a check of the results shows that Tim Cross and Greg Banks were ahead of him . Perhaps John meant at Governor's Bay, because he was ahead of Tim Cross there )

On lap 7 I ran exactly the same time as last year (not designedly ). I ran slightly quicker across the top than 2012 but it took it's toll on the downhill and I lost flow at 8 km .Two other runners underestimated this lap and "collapsed ". One had to be helicoptered out and the other was brought down by car. What exactly "collapsed " means I take to be either exertion- generated unconsciousness or an actual mishap at speed causing a fall and injury . It takes me about 14 minutes to get from the summit road to sea level (450 m) .Good runners are doing this in about 10 minutes .The heat created on the soles of the feet is blistering .The jarring of each landing can cause strains in the foot bones , or send shockwaves into the hips and lower back and even into the back ribs. The heat of the day starts a headache going .The muscles of the front thigh give up trying to absorb the shocks coming in at higher frequency. Then the pressure of competition tells you to maintain the pace .It's no wonder that a couple of runners buckled. Sadly, it affected the strong Auckland Uni M50 team and Gavin Stevens had to run partly up the hill and back down before starting Lap 8 ; all of which meant they finished only a minute ahead of us .

Anthony sets off on Lap 8 for the M50 team ( mike finishing ) .

Richie near the top of Gebbies Pass (Lap 2 )

Rodger tackles the heat and long stretches of Lap 5 (Gary recovering from Lap 4 in background )

Hot sun and tough gradient - Iain half way up the hill ( Lap 6 )

-Iain had a tough assignment .He only started racing a few months ago after a long injury lay-off .He quickly resumed his previous levels of achievement so I had no hesitation in giving him Lap 6 . However Iain hadn't resumed his previous levels of hill training . Running uphill is a specific fitness  . I will add that ALL runners should be running hills by July at the latest to cover the possibility of being assigned laps 2, 6 or 8 . I am unanimous in that (sic) . 

Other runners who had tough aassignments were Chris and Vic (SMB team ). Chris has been overseas alot this year and missing races .But he did say that he doesn't mind downhills ... so he got some ! Vic stopped running while on holiday in Europe and hadn't quite regained fitness in time for Lap 4 .

-What else ? Sandie and Anne ran the opening laps for Bob's team and were fastest W60 s in the 6 lap race . Ian Brownie toed the line for Bob on Lap 5 and looked fit as he waited to go (but could have worn a CHA vest ) .Craig Eustace managed to film the Junior teams right to end of their race before dashing back to run Lap 6 for Bob's team and getting fastest MM time . 

-Two ChCh Avon runners hold national lap records in Akaroa (three now incl. Richard Seigne) . Vic Sykes has held the lap 1 VM50 time for decades and Denis has held the VM50 time for Lap 7 since 2001 .One of the few people capable of dislodging Denis is Don Greig who had a go yesterday recording a great time of 31.06 , but well shy of Denis's 30.23 ps I am told the lap was slightly longer in those days but policing of the 1 meter rule not so rigorous : )

-The SMB team got 4th local place which wasn't bad going since they were a mixed assortment . Annabelle had a good workout on Lap 3 in 41 mins and then did some transition biking in prep for her Hawaii Ironman next week.The very best of luck Annabelle.
Laura also had a valuable run on Lap 5 in preparation for her auckland Half Marathon next month .
John Palmer had a tidy little scoot up Lap 6 beating some more fancied veterans . Apologies to John for not listing him as an M50 -the mistake was made by the organisers.
Thanks to Andrew R/J bringing the team home on Lap 8 in 40 mins .


- The club had to supply 13 marshals to control the pivotal Cooptown transition. I saw Robyn Merrett , Fiona Prest, John Hinton , Richard Seigne , Sandie Gamperle , Chris and Julie Florkowski , Robert Holland and Therese Dryden all doing a great job with the traffic . John Ingles had a h*** of a job getting a team together .ChCh Avon lacks a pool of active supporters to call on for this sort of thing .

If anyone has any stories , reports or photos please send them in so we can all see .
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is Craig's beautifully described account of the Junior teams' day at NRR . 
"

The Junior Women's team of Julia Thwaites, Harriet Bush, Margot Gibson, Elise Sutherland, Natalie Dryden and Anna Reese-Jones recorded our best result placing 2nd in the NZ Junior Women's Race.  This was a fantastic result for the team, but especially satisfying for Margot and Elise in their final junior season after they had been involved in a couple of epic and heart breaking 4th place finishers in their last two attempts.  This race was no less exciting with only 10sec separating 2nd and 3rd places after close to 3 hours of racing.  The Barry Magee led Auckland City team justified their tag as favourites leading from start to finish and gradually extending the lead to 9min by the finish.  Behind them however, a see-saw battle was taking place.

"Julia got the team off to a good start.  It is easy to get caught up in the excitement and start too fast and with a hill to manage for the first half of the lap, that can be fatal.  Julia judged her pace well and brought her team home in 3rd place, crucially 23sec ahead of ex-CHAV runner Laura Smith of University.  Harriet (a junior for 5 more years) was given the challenge of negotiating Gebbies Pass the toughest hill in the 6 lap race.  By the end of the lap Harriet was still in 3rd place, but had extended the lead over University to a minute and taken the best part of 2 minutes out of Nelson to be a mere 8sec behind at the change.  It didn't take Margot long to move the team up into 2nd spot and by running the fastest junior women time and second fastest women's time of the day on the long 10km lap she built a nice buffer over the chasing teams.  However, the race and the excitement wasn't over.  An equally outstanding performance from University's Pippa Trevella on the next lap saw them surge back up into second place with Elise valiantly fighting to limit the damage.  Natalie took over next and set about reeling the University team back in again.  Natalie not only closed down the gap that had nearly been up to a minute, but she handed Anna a slender 4sec head start.  Anna ran a very smart tactical lap sitting on the older University runner until surging ahead up the final incline to hold second place in the NZ Champs race and win the local team grade.

"We had two Junior Men's teams entered with the A team considered a dark horse and possible medal contender.  Matt Prest and Chris Dryden got both teams off to a superb start on the first lap.  Matt managed to break the lap record, but being the second fastest on the day won't get to see his name in the record books this year.  Chris also had a very strong finish to bring the B team into the first change in 6th place.  Jacob Reese-Jones took the baton next for the A team and the challenge of Gebbies Pass.  Jacob still has 3 more seasons as a junior and more than held his own against older competitors including Nelson's NZ Junior Mountain Running representative.  The Nelson runner managed to slip past Jacob up Gebbies Pass, but the team was still very well placed in 3rd at the end of the second lap.  Matt Dryden then took on the long straight, flat 10km lap where pace judgement is crucial to get the fastest run you can.  Matt did just that and it took a lap record breaking run from the Auckland City runner to push the CHAV team back into 4th spot.  Cameron Avery was in danger of slipping further back on lap 4 after being caught by Hamilton.  Once again showing a sensible head and good pace judgement, Cameron kicked on over the final third of his lap 9.4km to reopen the 20sec gap he had at the start of the lap.  With two laps to go CHAV were able to call on their depth when other teams had played their best cards.  Sean Eustace was next to take the baton 1min out of the medal positions and 2min away from 2nd place.  With nothing much to lose he went straight onto the attack running the fastest junior lap 5 of the day taking 1.5min on the two teams ahead.  By the end of the lap he had moved the team back into 3rd place 30sec ahead of Nelson and only 45sec behind Auckland City.  In a do or die effort Tannock Blair also went straight onto the attack chasing a very worried looking Auckland City team.  Tannock very quickly made sure that 3rd place was safe and had Auckland checking their watches every few hundred metres to see how quickly the gap was closing.  In the end Tannock ran out of road and out of legs with the team having to settle for what was still an outstanding 3rd place.

"The defending champions and victorious Wellington Harriers team set a new junior course record in winning the race about 2.5min ahead of the CHAV A team.

"Meanwhile the Junior Mens B team were having their own battles striving for a top 10 finish.  The young team of Chris Dryden, Rainer Pye, Daniel Coats, Latham Fairhall, Angus Bailey and Joey Dwyer fought gallantly the whole way with Chris' opening lap and Angus' 4th fastest time on lap 5 being the main highlights.  In the end they had to settle for 12th place in the NZ race, but were the 2nd placed local team to finish behind our own A team giving CHAV a clean sweep of the local junior races. " 

 Here's a movie from video of the Junior Men's  Akaroa A relay team . Also brief views of Chris Dryden , Julia Thwaites and Dan Coats from the other teams.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6z741ZXGLE&feature=c4-overview&list=UUDPYxV-duzFCXHBI6UUnXow

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 a mention of Grace Barnett who was a long time club supporter and competitor.

Grace had health challenges in the last couple of years and died recently .Our sympathies go out to Alan .