2005 RACE REPORT

What a turnout!! We were pretty stoked the day before the event that we had more than doubled the competitor numbers from last year and had 290 pre-entries. To then get another 60 on-the-day entries was fantastic. Hopefully this proves that people enjoy this slightly different race and word has spread that this truly is a great challenge.

Apologies for the queues for the registration - the numbers blew us away a bit, even with the extra helpers that we managed to recruit. We’ll plan better for next year - promise!

The weather couldn’t have been better for the race - fine but not too hot and the track conditions were pretty good too (apart from the high tide soft sand), making for some very fast race times.  This meant a lot of records were broken:

• Wayne Hodgetts beat the Vet Men 21km record by just over 2 minutes on the previous record set in 2003 by Geoff Parkin.  Wayne’s time was 2.03.17.
• Aaron Murrihy smashed the Junior Boys 21km record by a whooping 24 minutes to finish in 2:06:21. The standing record was set in 2003 by Lois Crosby.
• Karen Brabant beat the Open Women 21km by around 4 minutes to set a new record of 2:10:12. The record was held by Lara Prince in 2003.
• Lynne Potter finished in 2:23:14 beating the record for 21km Vet Women by 12 minutes.  Christine Charlton set the record in 2003.
• Jonathan Roe beat the Open Men 16km by 11 minutes to finish in 1:17:34.  The old record was set in 2003 by Brendan McGill.
• Vet Women 16km Brenda Williams did a time of 1:46:00 beating the 2003 record held by Ingrid Perols and set in 2003.  Brenda’s time was about 8 minutes clear of the old record.
• Shena McGregor set a new Super Vet Women 16km record and ran a time of 1:40:32 which was 1 second ahead of the new Super Vet Men record set by Gordon Whitelaw.
• Jimmy Huggins who won the 16km event last year set a new Super Vet Men record in the 21km of 2:34:03.
• Susan Swan set a new record of 3:23:14 for the 21km Super Vet Women.

We had a photographer on route on the stream so make sure you have a look at the in-action photos. If you did the 16km race perhaps some of these shots will entice you back for a bigger challenge next year.

Thanks once again to all our sponsors for their generous support.

We value your feedback so if you have any suggestions or comments on the race please email us on lacticturkeys@lacticturkey.co.nz.

Oh yeah.....book next year’s event in your diary for 21 January 2006 - we'll be in touch closer to the date.

Cheers

Shaun and Phil