Better Late
Than Never
Firstly, my
apologies for not having already reported on this event. I was to write
something up last week but a rather nasty bug knocked the stuffing out of me and
then, oh well, enough excuses. The writing has now taken far longer than the
swim itself.
Easter weekend
saw Joe Average chilling out, eating hot cross buns and scoffing chocolate eggs
like there’s no tomorrow. But club members Dave D, Liz, Dawn and Giles are no
Joe Average, they are Joe Mighty. On Saturday 19th April the
Auckland Central Masters introduced their inaugural 10 km marathon swim. Yes,
there was a zero after that one and it was indeed 10 km but only if the
swimmers swum in a nice straight line (good luck with that).
Numbers were
limited and each swimmer was required to have their own kayak support to help
with safety, navigation and feeding. The swim started at Glendowie boating
club, took the swimmers around to St Heliers, past Kohimarama, turned them
around in a U-turn at Tamaki Yacht Club and finished back at St Heliers beach.
While the
weather wasn’t bad it wasn’t perfect either with some rough stuff particularly
around St Heliers and Kohimarama. However, the most fun part (hmmm) was that
the first 6.5 km was swum against an incoming spring tide. Couple that with the
waves along the waterfront and you are left with very tired swimmers at the
turnaround point at Tamaki Yacht Club.
62 Hardy
swimmers entered the water at Glendowie and, remarkably, all 62 completed the
swim. Amazing; not a single swimmer pulled out. Of our own clubbies, all four
exited the water within a few minutes of each other. Dawn also won the cup for
being first woman home – awesome effort.
Each of our
swimmers took part in this event not as a race but as a personal
challenge. Were they up to it? There is
no longer any doubt. Would they do it again? You will have to ask them that.
Last Triathlon
Of The Season
Last Sunday saw
quite a number of our club members take part in the last major triathlon event
of the season. I couldn't be there but as you know, I have spies and roving reporters
all over the place. It's wonderful that so many club members are willing and
able to contribute material to the blog so we can all keep up to date with the
going's on. A big thanks here to Denise for putting the results together and
Mike H for writing up an entertaining report. Well done to all our athletes who
have done so well in their triathlons throughout the season. Read on for Mike’s
report of the last race and results.
Well it was a
day that belied the fact that it is the end of April as we could not have asked
for better conditions for the Panasonic Peoples Triathlon at Mission bay on
Sunday 27 April. The start was early at 7:00 am for the standard triathlon and
the sun rose across a sea that had less wrinkles than I had at 20 years old.
The water made you catch your breath like an unsuspecting maiden but once going
it was smooth sailing. Chrissie commented that it was impossible to see the
turn buoy as she was looking directly into the rising sun so you needed only to
follow the rest of the lemmings. Chrissie and Denise were doing the swim leg of
the standard as part of a team and brave Nicole Youman (one piece) was doing
the whole race solo.
The sprint tri
started 35 minutes later and the sun had risen a little to allow for an unobscured
view of the buoy, temporarily that is. The pack launched themselves into the
ocean with high expectations only to realise that at a distance of 500 meters
every kid and zimmer-framed jockey went out at a sprint which resulted in the
start emulating a fish boil up in a mixer. Well, you will no doubt be aware of
my aversion to being pummelled like a pilchard in a pot, so it resulted in my
normal panic attack and moving to the side and waiting until the mass had gone
past before I continued. I was to discover later that Adam Munday suffers the
same affliction so we will jointly have to find a solution. Well the swim
seemed to end before it started and it was a hurried run up the beach to the
transition. I must say that I would like to meet the idiot, with the wicked
sense of humour, who decided that we would have to run up and down the steps to
get over the wall while trying to extricate oneself from a wetsuit. It was
something akin to two teenagers trying to get their shirts off on the back seat
of a Nissan micra.
The bike leg
held oodles of promise as it was a flat course, no wind and drafting was
allowed. Everybody was taking off like greyhounds after a rabbit trying to get
into a group. What I soon realised was that my swimming ability was far
superior to my cycling ability so I was out of the water before the serious
cyclists. I was very intent on hooking on to one of these groups but very
quickly learned that I had only started cycling again in January this year and
got blown off the back of each group that came past averaging 40 kms per hour.
The second issue with the cycle was that the earlier try-a-tri groups and
relays were on the road weaving around at perilously slow speeds like drunken
scholars on Queen St on a Saturday night. The cycle leg was like an Easter egg
scramble in South Auckland with the adults bowling over the youngsters. Jeannie
completed an excellent ride for her relay team completing a 40 km ride in 1:10.
Well done that lady.
The run leg was
out and back along Tamaki drive which was flat and hot. The pace was crazy,
anybody would have thought the local school had received inside information
that the legal highs were being made illegal and they were running to get the
last stock. The positive was that we, as team mates, were all able to see and greet
each other along the route. The end result was a successful day out for all as
everybody finished. A special mention for Nicole Youman for a podium finish in
her standard tri. That concludes the season and we will see how the winter
training progresses.
Here are the
results in all their glory:
Sprint Tri
Results:
50 - 59 - Mike
Harrison 1.10.28 11th Place
50 - 59 - Adam
Munday 1.25.19 25th Place
40 - 49 -
Murray Taylor 1.08.49 20th Place
Standard Tri
Results:
20 - 29 -
Nicole Youman 2.41.29 3rd Place
20 - 29 - Alex
Viljoen 1.20.06 20th Place
Women's Team
2nd Place
Swim - Chrissy
Penney 35.21
Bike - Jeanie Smith 1.09.28
Run - Rochelle Williams White 56.50
Mixed Team 7th Place
Swim - Denise Munday 34.49
Bike - John Alder 1.16.43
Run - Neil Williams White 53.24
