Southland Relays and Orca Womens Challenge Results !

Well I didn't get back on-line to post about how the relay went as planned - unfortunately Courtney has come down with a rather severe case of Tonsilitis and has been rather unwell with high temps, headaches, dizziness and a very sore throat and neck... Two trips to the A&E medical centre later and there has been little improvement, but at least right now she is asleep and her temperature has come down a bit... Poor sausage - fortunately she doesn't get sick very often - but when she does she goes the whole hog !

Saturday 21/04/07:

Well I have to say that my first experience of club running and relay running went very well indeed! I was very nervous, but everyone was so friendly and by the time I was given a club shirt to put on, etc, I didn't have a whole lot of time to think about it! I went for a warm-up jog with one of the other girls from the Masters team - we did about 2km of the course. It was all on grass thru a reserve and footy fields, including a couple of low fences to jump over, two bridges to cross, a couple of banks to get up and down, etc, etc.... In other words, for a road-runner like me, it was pretty close to cross-country!! Long grass, uneven terrain - the works!

And I have to say, when we were jogging around it, it seemed like a bloody long way! There were three runners to a team and Pakuranga had I think 2 or 3 Senior Womens teams entered and one Masters Womens, as well as Mens and Juniors (very cute!) I was the second runner for my team and as the Womens events were first, we all got rounded up together in a holding pen at the start/finish area, ready for a 12pm start. Seniors and Masters ran at the same time, so there were about 15 teams on the course at once. Thankfully I had people there telling me where to stand, who to look for, etc! A Pakuranga Senior runner came in first, and the second runner was off. She was followed by 3 runners from other clubs, then came Christine, my team mate. It was just a hand tag to get you on your way, provided it was done between two cones... When I took off there was a large gap between me and the couple of girls in front. I didn't even consider trying to catch them, just concentrated a keeping a good quick pace, but one that I was hopefully going to be able to maintain! Ewen - you'll be pleased to hear your last pieces of advice were ringing in my ears! Thanks again. With no watch allowed, I had no idea of pace or time or distance and being such a twisty, turny course - marked out by cones - it was hard to tell how far you still had to go! Soon I could see the final turn tho and heard the cheering and gave it my all to surge over and tag Ingrid, our third and final runner. I had been overtaken by one other runner, but knew I had given it my all.

It was really exciting watching and cheering for the club! A Pakuranga Seniors team came in first! And my team was the first Masters team home and fifth overall! Ingrid had managed to pick up one place. This was how our times worked out:

Christine - 11.40mins, Vicky - 12.13mins, Ingrid - 12.45mins. Overall - 36.38mins.

Christine was the team captain, shes a fantastic runner (she's quite a bit older than me!) and a strong club member and she was rapt with our effort. Evidently we were to be awarded a prize at the prizegiving much later in the day, but I couldn't stick around for it. Oh and when I came across the line after tagging Ingrid, I was told I had won a lucky prize - a bottle of good ol Aussie Jackman Ridge Shiraz! Yay!

I did take a photo of my club shirt and relay number, but will download it tomorrow... I've been talked into joining up and just participating as often as I can. Its certainly a very social and supportive club and I met lots of nice people, so why not!

Sunday 22/04/07:

Plan had been for Todd and Courtney to drop me at my event this morning, meet me somewhere near the finish after Todd had dropped his other daughter to golf coaching, drop me home, then they'd head out for the day... With Courtney unwell, it was all a bit up in the air, but in the end she was not too bad at the time, so came along for the ride. They dropped me in New Market at 8am and I walked 5mins down to the start line. With over 2500 entries, the Orca Womens Challenge 8km is the largest all female event in NZ. Until this year, Nike has been the sponsor, but the course was the same. Like yesterday the weather conditions were near perfect - mild temps, sunny, light to no wind...

I went for a 10min jog and did some stretching before taking my place a couple of rows back from the front. The race was started at 8.30am by primeminister Helen Clark. I was undecided until that hooter went off, whether I would go all out, or just run it more conservatively and not push it. My legs were a little heavy from running on the grass on Sat. My mindset was cruisey and casual... not a twinge of nervousness was felt! But as soon as that hooter went off I was thinking about my times from previous years and decided to give it my best effort! There was probably really no chance of me doing otherwise - I just get caught up in the moment and that competitiveness takes hold!

Its a mainly flat course with one long down hill section and only a couple of undulations after that. After the first 2kms and at the bottom of the hill you turn right and hit the waterfront - anyone thats been to Auckland will know the section of Tamaki Drive from the city to Mission Bay. You follow the water all the way round and its very scenic. The last two years I have ran this, I have not been at my fittest due to injury and have ran as hard as I could, but felt like I was gritting my teeth and barely hanging on from that point onwards! This year was so different - I took off pretty fast, ran the down hill section pretty hard and still felt great on my way round the waterfront. I was working hard yes, but instead of being passed or struggling to keep up with the runner in front of me like in other years, I was running many others down and just kept increasing my speed. Ignored the water station completely, just kept getting faster over the last km or so and sprinted the last 200m and finish shute as best I could!

The first person I saw when I crossed the line was Rachel, my physio - whom I fortunately haven't had to see in a while! She was helping out with the removing of timing chips, etc, and we had a quick chat. I had stopped my watch on the line and seen the timing board over head. I have since confirmed the results on the website... (www.hotrun.co.nz)

1947 - Vicky Montgomerie - 31.34mins

11th overall (of 2540 finishers)

3rd in category (35-39yrs)

Obviously I am totally rapt with my time and place and a 8km PB by 1.48mins! But more than that I am just so happy with how I ran the race - the fact that I was so much stronger over the waterfront section than in other years and was actually over taking others right until the end, without being overtaken myself. I have not experienced this before. These are my times from the previous three years in this event on the exact same course:

2004 - 33.22, 2005 - 34.07, 2006 - 35.15. Its nice to pull one back and do better than ever!

While milling around being handed bananas and bottles of water I spotted Tracey Clissold who is a bit of a hero of mine, races in my age group but as an elite and wins many events, including half marathons and marathons. I thought what the hell, I went up and said hi and asked her how she got on. She told me she came in third, that two "youngies" had ran away from her after the down hill. She was also talking to others and said that she is running Gold Coast this year rather than Rotorua and hoping to do well there, despite an achilles injury that currently has her running in pain! She even asked how I got on and said it was nice to meet me! What a nice lady!

I didn't stick around for the prizegiving as it was not until after 11am and I really needed to be around for Courts, plus had so many other things to get done today. I finished my water, got a (free!) cup of coffee to have with my banana and walked for about 15mins around the waterfront towards St Heliers, where I had arranged to meet Todd away from the crowds. I had a while to wait for them, so took my shoes and socks off and stood on the steps with the cold sea water up to my knees for about 10mins! My left inner shin area was really quite sore once I cooled down and the cold water felt great after the initial shock!

I had just exited the water and was waiting on the footpath again when they arrived to pick me up. Unfortunately Courtney had gone downhill rapidly in that time...

So despite two short races this week and two rest days, I have still managed to clock up 52.5kms, two more than last week. Pretty happy with how the running week has gone, I have to say. Have several sore spots on my lower legs right now so probably won't be racing the Pakuranga 5km tomorrow night, and definately won't be going out in the morning. Looks like I will be having the day off work too, with Courtney sick. Plenty round here to keep my busy tho, as much as I hate it when she is sick - I could really do with a day off myself!

Thanks again to everyone for the advice, encouragement, etc. Heres a photo from the start of todays event - there will be more to come. I was about 3-4 rows back and near the left hand side - can't see myself!