RowangLive2: 2020 Brendan Foot Supersite Round the Bays Half Marathon, 10k & 6.5k Wellington Sun 16 Feb

Where is Seamus?

Lindsay missed the podium ceremony because the sound system announcement could not be heard over at the yellow tent.

Results

Dom Post Story
Dom Post Story (mostly about fruit and vegetables) also apparently a half marathon is only 20km - "The run ranged from a 6.5-kilometre fun run/walk, to10km, to a 20km half-marathon."
Half Marathon (Men)
(1) 67.35 Dan Jones
(2) 69.54 Seamus Kane
(3) 71.19 Bert Prendergast

Half Marathon (Women)
(1) 80.01 Sarah Drought
(2) 84.14 Debbie Donald
(3) 84.17 Mel Stevens

10km (Men)
(1) 32.11 Nathan Tse
(2) 32.48 Thomas Strawbridge
(3) 33.15 Ben Twyman

10km (Women)
(1) 39.05 Ayesha Shafi
(2) 40.14 Ava Sutherland
(3) 40.51 Amanda Broughton

6.5km (Men)
(1) 20.06 Isaac Murphy
(2) 20.07 Will Anthony
(3) 20.35 Hiro Tanimoto

6.5km (Women)
(1) 24.50 Lindsay Barwick
(2) 25.17 Poppy Rae
(3) 26.27 Ritchel Parce

They should have been her by now, so where were they Chan? The half marathoners should have been coming into sight based on my calculations for a 68-69 min finish time. But the road was clear right up to the wind wand. Maybe there was a delay with the start or something (there was a lot of Police activity in the Miramar area before the start).

No time to speculate because the lone figure of Dan Jones slowly came into view accompanied by the pace cycle. Then it was Seamus Kane and Bert Prendergast, with Kristian Day tucked in behind Bert. There was a small wave of Scottish singlets behind the leaders and you can see who they are from the photos and the results.

Jonesy smashed the race record with his 67.35 which is impressive on a course which in my view cannot be considered super fast. He is clearly in good shape which augers well for his planned training stint in Kenya followed by a crack at the Hanover Marathon.

And what about Seamus; he pulled off a sub 70 (69.54) which will be a PB. And Mr Prendergast, the other half of the Bert and Ben show may also produced a new personal best with his 71.19. Kristian Day faded though to finish in 4^th place in a time of 72.07. No worries though s there will always be another race.

In the women’s race I saw Sarah Drought come through pulling through a big bunch of runners. She finished 15^th overall which is a great result.

I only picked out Mel Stevens in the crowd from her Scottish top. By this time the road was packed with humanity and I was watching for people in yellow and blue not to mention bananas and strawberries.

By the time the first 10km racers appeared the whole of the seaside lane of Cobham Drive was still packed with tail-enders (and it was a long tail).

So sensibly Nathan Tse used the airport side of the road to avoid getting held up in the crush. He looked like he was going for the doctor with Thomas Strawbridge (last year’s winner) trying to chase him down with Ben Twyman back in 3^rd spot. This is how they finished as well, 1, 2 and 3 with Thomas setting a PB with his 32.48.

I recognised Ayesha Shafi the first woman even though she was not wearing club uniform (and thus easily missed) and how could anyone miss the delightfully smiling Amanda Broughton who ended up 3rd.

I missed the 6.5km but based on the times the difference between Isaac Murphy and Will Anthony (1^st and 2^nd) was only 1 second. Will is used to those exceedingly tight finishes with his several clashes against club mate Toby Gualter, who is now at Eastern Michigan Uni.

Overall it would not surprise me if there were a truck load of PB’s generated in the day’s races, even though the wind (which was rising) would have been annoying in places.

Back at the park the fruit and vegetables gathered and over at the yellow Scottish tent there were plenty of people interested in what the club had to offer. The coup de bribe was Sharon Wray’s apricot bliss balls.

WHAC had a similar promotional set up on the other side of the park (with a massage table as the lure) and honestly I don’t know why all the clubs can’t do a joint effort under the umbrella of Athletics Wellington. After all getting people joined up to a club is good for the whole sport because it means more people for Andrew Wharton to be wary of.