Manawatu Striders : Newsletter

Current news from events and activities

Super Sevens 2010

FIRST NIGHT OF SUPER SEVENS A BIG SUCCESS!

What a great turnout to the first of the Super Seven Series - 1095 participants turned up to experience our new course and new start venue. . The weather did threaten to put a dampener on things, but even though things were a little cool, in the end the rain stayed away. Everything seemed to run really smoothly and the feedback has been really positive. If you have any feedback to offer, please email me (Trish Castle) at info@manawatustriders.org.nz.

There was a very enthusiastic response to our advance entry “Vautier Pharmacy Race Number” system, with over 100 people paying $20 and receiving a race number to use for the series. If you didn’t come prepared for this and would like to take advantage of this “advance entry” system we will be offering them again next week. This time they will be available for $18, which is just payment in advance for the remaining 6 weeks – no monetary advantage to you but you do receive a race number to keep, and it saves you having to queue and you get a souvenir race number to use each week and keep.

Certificates were available last night for you to fill out at the venue, but if you didn’t manage to get one of these, or would like one in colour then you can download one from here. Download your certificate

We will be posting some photos on the website soon –– so check them out (you may spot yourself J). If you have any photos or stories about your experience of the event, we would love to hear from you at the email address given above.

Many thanks to everyone who put in all that hard work to run the event, and to all our sponsors and supporters. Looking forward to a continued good turnout for the rest of the series!

Manawatu Striders Curves to Curves Feilding to Palmerston North Fun Run/Walk
Sunday 17th May 2009

Sunday 17th May 2009 dawned full of hope for a settled, pleasant day and a good turnout for the above event. By 7.30 a.m, as participants gathered to catch the bus from Curves Hokowhitu to Curves Feilding, the heavens had opened and the wind had whipped up - but there was still no question of cancellation. Two bus loads of eager walkers who cared not a bit about the weather headed off to join their fellow participants who were gathering at Curves Feilding awaiting the start at 8.30 a.m. Less than favourable conditions didn’t deter the next group of participants who headed off from Curves Hokowhitu at 8.30 a.m. for the runners start from Feilding at 9.30am and the runners and walkers start from Bunnythorpe, also at 9.30 a.m. In total some 330 souls braved the slightly inclement weather to make the journey on foot from either Feilding or Bunnythorpe – well not all were on foot. We were thrilled to have Philip Twigge take part in the event in his wheelchair – what a great effort. The rain didn’t seem to cause any problems other than getting into the timing clock for the walkers meaning that we had to turn that clock off. All walkers needed to add an hour to their time as recorded on the runners clock. While there was no official time keeping the following times were recorded.

Bunnythorpe Runners
Men; 1st Arved Schwendel     50m
           2nd Damien Lardner      56m 40s
           3rd Sam Regan            56m 58s

Women:   1st   Thea Sweeney     57m 40s
                    2nd  Natalie Turner    60m
                    3rd= Karen Heald    1hr 02m 51s
                                Carrie Martin

Bunnythorpe Walkers
Men 1st Ian Bright No time recorded
2nd Dave No time recorded

Women 1st Unknown (if you think this might be you then I would love to hear from you)

Feilding Runners
Men 1st Gavin Spiers 1hr 17m

Women 1st Maria Bentley 1hr 21m

Feilding Walkers
Men 1st Peter Zwart 2hrs 11m

Women 1st Sharon Wright 2hrs 37 m
Claudia Kinloch (6 years old) ran from Bunnythorpe in a time of 1hr 53 mins. Hiwinui School relay team did the run from Feilding to Palmerston North in a time of 2hrs 1min. Congratulations guys for all your training and effort.

Leg 1 and 5       James Galpin
Leg 2 and 5       Christopher Dalley
Leg 3                Nicole Cutler, Alannah and Kelsie Wright
Leg 4 and 5       John Gummer and Braedon Williams
Leg 5                Sean Pirie and Daniel Mason

Well done to everyone!

Photographs
Don’t forget that we had a photographer on the course – photos are available on their website www.nesport.co.nz

Prizewinners
Many people were lucky to take away a spot prize, and there was one lucky winner who bagged the kayak. Congratulations to Carl Hesseltine who sailed away in the “Feelfree Nomad” kayak and paddle, generously provided by our sponsor Curves.

Acknowledgements
Many thanks to our sponsor Curves for helping us bring you this great event. Thanks also to all those volunteers who put in such a lot of time to help out organising the event and helping out on the day. We would also like to acknowledge Sport Manawatu, the Palmerston North City Council and the Manawatu District Council for their support.

Curves pics

MAKAHIKA 2008
Sunday 25th June dawned perfectly for a challenging off-road run through the Kohitere Forest, starting from and finishing at the Makahika Outdoor Pursuits Centre, just outside Levin.
Entries had increased markedly from last year at 75, to around 140 this year over the 5 km run, the 10km run/walk, and the 17km run/walk, and Manawatu Striders were represented by three participants that I know of.
The trail is mainly shingle forestry tracks with some clay firebreaks. The uphill climb is hard going to the point where you really do wonder if you will have enough breath to get to the top, if your legs will manage to keep going, and even if there is a top. Amazingly, even the most tired participant would agree that the climb is absolutely worth the challenge as the views at the top are spectacular. On a clear day as Sunday was, you can see west over Horowhenua, south to Kapiti and the South Island, up to Manawatu, Taranaki and east over the Tararua Mountain range – a tremendous Wow for sure.
What goes up must come down, and the downhill part of the run is just great and a welcome change from all the uphill work.
Results for the few but enthusiastic Striders participants were very rewarding and certainly reflected the fitness and outstanding effort we all put in.
17KM Run:
Malcolm Davies: 1hr 42min 03 sec
Brad Johnson: 1hr 42min 03 sec
Shirley Fotheringham - 1hr 44min 24 sec

Mountain to Surf Marathon
Saturday March 1 was the date for the New Plymouth marathon of 2008. It was a stiflingly hot day as we drove up to New Plymouth on Friday afternoon but we knew that the weather forecast wasn’t the best – our daughter confirmed that in a text that night – 200mls of rain expected especially on the mountain (the starting point for the race) and also gale-force northerlies. Well, not much that you can do about the weather except pray!
I had an ominous start when I went to pick up my race pack – a little later than intended because we drove around the course first – might as well know what you are in for! By the time that we showed up at the Devon Hotel most of the packs had been picked up – including mine! So they gave me a new number but I missed out on all those free pamphlets as well as the other more interesting freebies. Interestingly enough I found out who had my race number at the starting line - another Palmerstonian that I was talking to and telling the saga – haven’t got to the bottom of how that happened yet!
Anyway, on to Saturday morning and the predicted rain hadn’t arrived and it was also quite warm with a bit of a breeze. So it was down to the (free) bus to get to the start. Here’s a hint for anyone else doing this run in the future- if you get on the first bus you don’t have to stand in a queue for the Portaloos – mind you, I did notice quite a few guys (mostly) ducking into the bush up the road so it’s not such an issue as it is in Auckland.
We set off from the mountain gates and made our way down a nice slope for the first few kms. I was a little alarmed when I looked at my watch at the 1 & 2km marks but the third one told a different story so I was very suspicious of the exact location of those first two and this was backed up by other runners. The first 16 kms meanders through country roads and is very pleasant. We had good cloud cover so although it was reasonably humid, it wasn’t too hot. We then crossed State Highway 3 (with lots of big trucks being held up) and made our way to Inglewood where the relay changeover took place which meant that a number of runners suddenly charged past as they headed for their finish line – most demoralising as us marathoners steeled ourselves for the second half. This was one of the few places that the signposting of kms was disappointing – we didn’t know where halfway was – I assumed that it was at the relay changeover but locals assured Stuart that it was a little further down the road. Michelle Lei had a double calamity here – she missed a turn and went 100 metres the wrong way and consequently missed breaking 2 hours for the half marathon – rather disappointing.
Now it was on to the second half (which feels like three-quarters, of course) and this is where the weather started to change. The first drops of rain were quite welcome – fortunately it didn’t get to a downpour but the wind got stronger and stronger. Of course, it turned out that we were running into a head wind for a large part of the last half but then it was the same for everyone. The “Lepperton lumps” that I had been told about weren’t too bad compared to Summerhill except that we don’t usually run Summerhill after 30kms. We were also being passed by the new relay runners – at least we didn’t feel so bad when we realised that they were not marathoners who had suddenly found a renewed source of energy! Then we headed for Waitara, were escorted across the second major highway and battled through to the end. There was a lovely sign saying “500 metres to go’ but everyone agreed that they had never run such a hard 500 metres! In good weather it would have been lovely to be running through the park towards the sea – it kind of lost its charm when there was a howling wind coming off the sea with good lashings of water as well!
All in all a run worth repeating – so start thinking about it for next year. It is supposed to be a fast marathon – it was my fastest but I made up the time in the second half rather than the first with the majority of the downhill. For anyone else who suffers from cramp I am still recommending the Phiten patches – it may be coincidence, of course.
There were some good Palmerston North results:
Tim Carroll was fourth overall and third Open Men, Ant Gear was second in Mens 60, Wilma Minnee was first in Womens 45 (3.15 for her first marathon!) with Pat Stichbury second in the same age group, Marian Hilder was second in Womens 55, Debbie Robinson was part of a relay team that was fourth in the Mixed section and Michelle and Andrus Lei teamed (for the first time, apparently) to win the Mixed walk section. I’d also like to thank Chris Puts for the marvellous support that she gave in the first half – it was much appreciated. I’ll apologise for the lack of photos – apparently my husband was too busy worrying about whether I needed any fluid supplementation to take any photos – maybe next year!