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What atrocious weather for a relay.
Persistent rain, heavy
at times, cold winter temperatures and a chilling southerly wind will make this
event memorable for being one of the worst for road racing conditions.
The nasty weather was predicted by the Met Office not that this would have made any difference to the fact that running around the bays would not have been pleasant or comfortable.
I
would not have liked to run into the southerly on the long section next to the
airport on lap two.
But spare a thought for the officials who had to stand
around until all teams had passed through.
As expected there was plenty of chaos at the first
changeover with some teams being still close to each other and executing tight changeovers. There was the risk of entanglements in a couple of changes.
The first woman’s
Vic University team runner through had nobody ready to take over so would have
lost minutes trying to sort that out.
Given that this is a short relay with short
laps it is critical to leapfrog runners well ahead, especially in bad weather when
traffic can seriously back up on the coastal road.
It was a bit tricky taking photos as well with rain on my spectacles most of the time and the viewfinder continually fogging up. The pictures below taken at the lap 1/2 changeover are thus a bit marginal but hopefully convey some of the drama of a relay.
