ACHILLES FRIENDLY CITY MARATHON JANUARY 2005.

NASHUA...FRIENDLY CITY...ACHILLES....MARATHON, TEN KAY, MILE DASH AND WHEELCHAIR EVENT.
29th January 2005


My duties for this event were firstly to scrounge some prizes for the Lucky Draw after the event. And secondly I had Parking and Marshaling duties to perform.
I was reasonably successful in obtaining a whole boot load of prizes from a variety of people and organisations. Thanks to everyone who donated.
This race starts at Grey School and works its way up to Kragga Kamma road, Butterfiled, Lake farm turn off, back down Kragga Kamma then into Luneville in Lorraine, across Circular drive, up Moffet and back along Westview to end back at Grey.

Ron, Tim and Brian agreed to assist me with the parking duties and we were at the field at Grey from 04.00am. The start and finish people had placed the “danger tape” to indicate the parking areas and so all we had to do was to try to fit as many cars onto the top field as possible. Allan Taylor in true Allan fashion was there to assist me on the field and we managed to fit the majority of cars onto the field. I heard afterwards that someone had parked on the cricket pitch, which had been cordoned off. In future it would probably be advisable to try to arrange two of the fields as the one we used filled up very quickly.

After the parking area was filled my next duty was to marshal the corner of Mill Park road and College Drive. This is a fairly busy intersection and I was grateful to have Tim and Ron to assist me. The race started at 05.00 am and then the 10kay started at 07.00am. It was not long after the 10kay runners had passed us that that we saw the first of the marathon runners heading towards us. Ron & I marshaled this intersection until the last of the marathon runners had past, then there was the Mile dash and finally the Wheelchair race. So we saw every person who took part in the race come past our position. The conditions were good, perhaps a bit hot towards the end but with an Easterly breeze the runners did not seem to be overheating.

The Mill Park Running Group (MPRG) did very well with a fair representation. Times are approximate. Rob lead with a 3H.42, then there was Andy with 3H.48 and Earl hot on his tail with a 3H.52. Gordon showed that a newcomer to running and the group, could also finish under 4 hours in his first marathon with a very respectable 3H.58. Kobus won his category and took home prize money with a 3H.58. Stuart was about 7 minutes behind Gordon with a 4H.05 finish. Susan was just behind him in 4H.08. Then came Gerald in 4H.11, Nicci with 4H.13 and Robyn in 4H.18. Everyone has now qualified for Two Oceans and so we should have a full team in Cape Town this year.

The Helpers run took place the following morning (Sunday 30th at 05.00am). Tim and I had agreed to run together and we were fortunate enough to have Roger Trader join us. As we progressed it seemed that a 6min a kay pace was going to be the order of the day. And at 10kays the time was exactly one hour. There after Roger kept an accurate log of the pace and would call out to the group if we seemed to be missing a beat.
We were very fortunate to have a group of dedicated Achilleans, Crusaders and PEB Print members to do the seconding for us. They made sure that even us back markers had cold water and coke throughout the morning.

As we approached the Shell garage in Kragga Kamma road we saw first Justin and then Bruce emerging from a pit stop. They had to catch up to the rest of their group and off they dashed. Roger had time to explain to us that he was in our fine company due to firstly an eye operation, then a broken foot and injured knee. We felt honoured! We trundled on at our same pace and it did not seem long before we saw another bunch of runners ahead of us, but at this stage had no idea who they were. When we got to the top of Butterfield road we saw that it was Geoff, Steve, Lindsay and Ian. They were not running the race as they had parked at the Shell garage and run from there. Lindsay reminded me that it was about here that we had passed him last year. That was his Toilet Seat Year. We knew that we had Peter, Peter, Gary and Bradley behind us and that if we slacked off at all they would reel us in. With this in mind we spent little time chatting to our fellow club members and pressed on back along Kragga Kamma and into the Easterly. The first section along Kragga Kamma is a stretch of about three to four kays of uphill. But we had learned that Liz had gone out a bit too fast and we were hunting her down with Tim leading the chase and so despite the headwind and the uphill we managed to hold our pace. I think that Liz also knew that we were coming and even though she was on her own, was determined to hold her lead for as long as possible.
Eventually we caught up with her at Nashua house. At this stage Tim was feeling strong, Roger was feeling compassion and I was feeling miserable so with determination and looking down at my feet I pressed on to try to get Willow road behind me. The wonderful thing of running with your mates is that they are able to talk you through a bad section and it was not long before we were working up the last hill of Moffet and passed the four kays to go marker.

Willet Street is also quite deceiving as it is undulating and seems much shorter that it actually is. This is about a two kay section. Eventually was got to Westview drive and with two kays to go and Roger & Tim keeping accurate times per kay we were determined to reach our goal of 4H12 which is the 6 min a kay pace. Tim pushed on hard and eventually we arrived on the field in 4H11 which was my best marathon time in years.

Roger brought Liz in a minute behind Tim and myself and it was her PB for the course having also finished with us in 4H20 last year. Then came Bradley and Peter and finally the other Peter with brother Gary a little behind. But ...Wait... Peter being the man he is waited for Gary and the two of them finished together.

Lindsay, who had driven from the Shell garage in Kragga Kamma, rushed off to his car and put his jacket and tie on to formally present the toilet seat to the Brothers.
Bruce, in true Bruce fashion had the trailer with cold beers and drinks waiting for us at the finish so we were able to share a few war stories before walking home.

Finally; well done to all the organisers and workers for both the marathon and the helpers run. Personally I think that both went down well and many people had a good mornings excersize and plenty fun.

Peter Giddy
30 January 2005.