After a few hiccups getting the team together, we headed off with 11 instead of 12 on the Friday morning. The trip started off slowly, only getting from Tawa to Mana before stopping so that Lyndon could buy McDonalds for breakfast. Next stop at the ice cream shop north of Levin where gigantic fruit ice creams were consumed. Someone noticed that one of the flavours available was chilli and lime and much discussion was had about how this might taste. This led to a bet being made between Lyndon, Lachlan, Sean and Martin that whoever lost at the mini-golf on the way home would have to eat one of these chilli lime ice creams.

We arrived in New Plymouth mid afternoon and settled into the motel. The young lads and a couple of the older lads went off to play soccer, resulting in Brian coming back with a hamstring injury and muttering about maybe not being able to run, “but it should be all right”.

Realistically we were down to 10 runners instead of the initial planned team of 12. Fortunately Craig, who was in staying with family in New Plymouth, talked his brother-in-law, Tony Freeman (a keen soccer player), into running one of the legs.

Early morning start, 2.30am. Friday had been very hot and it was still very warm even at that time. Lyndon was first off the blocks and did a very good run, followed by Mark who managed to injure his ankle. Steve was next and in hindsight he shouldn’t have had anything to eat before the race as he left it behind at the end of his run. Sean and then Sheryne ran at dawn and there were no dramas for them. Linda did a personal best on her 5k run. Craig was up next and he ended up doing three legs as Brian had realised he was not ”going to be all right” after all. Steve then did his second leg and managed to keep it all together this time. Martin was the next to streak off and managed under 4 minute k’s, along with Sean, Lachlan and Mark. Meanwhile Miles had been stiffening up after his first run but he was up next and bit the bullet. Sheryne then ran her second leg and had the unfortunate luck to have to run through smoke from a huge burn-off at the side of the road. We then woke up Lyndon for the next leg. He had been asleep in the back of the van since finishing his first run. Next up was our soccer player who did very well considering he wasn’t a “runner”. After consuming some Nurofen for his injury, Mark bravely ran his second leg. The day was pretty hot by now and Lachlan was next up for what he thought was an 11.8k leg. It was the hilliest and one of the longest legs and unfortunately one of those that was longer than specified, ending up at 12.5k. This also happened to Mark, Sean and Martin. Martin ran again, a 4k sprint, followed by Craig who did the honours of the final leg (his third). Craig is now injured (third time not lucky).

While Craig was doing the final leg the rest of us in the van were driving madly round the streets to try and catch up with him. The trouble was that there are quite a few one-way streets in the city and the runners weren’t going the same way as the traffic. We got lost, went round a few blocks and finally ended up at the finish carpark. Then it was a mad dash to catch Craig as we all ran over the finish line together.

Our finishing time was 11 hours, 20 minutes and we came fourth.

The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing and then we headed out to a Mongolian restaurant for a nice dinner.

Next day the trip home was spent playing the rich list, amongst other games, which resulted in a few arguments and heated debate. All in good fun though.

We stopped at Wanganui to play mini-golf. Lachlan lost the bet and reluctantly ate the chilli lime ice cream.

A good time was had by all. It was a well organized event but the atmosphere was not as good as Taupo, probably due to the fact that there were 1400 in the mountain race and there are about 5,000 at Taupo. Also, no one else had water guns.

It was great to see so many kids at Newtown Park to meet Nick and join in with the club day. The weather couldn’t have been better in the end (the seniors didn’t get that luxury in the afternoon as it turned to custard) so we were very lucky.

While our normal clubday format of running events in age bands proved not to have been the ideal way to run the events given the numbers that were there, feedback was positive. Please thank your members for attending and bearing with our flexible timing and order of events. There are also some great photo’s from the morning on Rowan Grieg’s website which your members might also be interested in:

• [Rowan's Pictures]

There’s a fantastic opportunity this Saturday 25 October for your kids to meet Nick Willis at Newtown Park.

The Olympic, Karori, Onslow and Wellington junior athletics clubs have been invited to a mini interclub.

Nick Willis will be there, he will be signing autographs for the kids taking part.

We’d love to have as many Olympic club athletes there as possible. It’s a good chance to see what the interclubs are all about. So come along and wear your t-shirt or singlet with your age flash safety pinned to the front of your top.

Age Flashes and T-shirts For anyone who registered by email or post you can pick up your age flashes and t-shirts on the first Monday club night on 3 November. If you need an age flash for this weekend email jo@kellysports.co.nz and she will bring these along with her.

Downloads & Other Info

• The Club's 2008 Syllabus here (pdf 81k).
  
  
• Junior Track & Field Syllabus here (pdf 89k).
  
  Interclub Cancellation Line 083292305
  Olympic Cancellation Line 083295590
  
  
  
• Athletics Wellington Track & Field Programme here.
  Updated 3 Jan 2009
  
  
  
• Descriptions of the club's Races - including course maps here.
  
  
• Race Course Location Maps.

Tuesday evenings
- Training sessions over the winter season are at the clubrooms at Alex Moore Park. Specific times are as follows:

• 4PM: Primary and Intermediate Children
• 5PM: Secondary School Juniors
• 6PM: Seniors

- Training sessions over the summer season are at the "Newtown Park" track:

• 6PM: Secondary School Juniors, Seniors & Masters

Saturdays over summer
- approximately 1 hour (Medium Pace) all welcome!

• 2PM: From the clubrooms

Sunday mornings
- Long Slow Distance runs from the clubrooms at Alex Moore Park. Specific times are as follows:

• 8AM: Seniors
• 8AM: Juniors