FRANK APLIN ONE HOUR RACEWALK

This was another race held in Christchurch. The third in a row for me.

This time I was so pleased that my hubby could come. He has been to all of the One Hour Track walks and is my lap scorer. We also decided to make a trip of it and so I said that he could plan something fun for Sunday after the race.

We headed off for Christchurch on Saturday afternoon and arrived later that night. Found our motel and then headed off to get food. Decided on Robbies (after waiting for ever for service and then the same per meal, I wont be going to another)

Woke up Sunday morning and had some weetbix for breakfast and then we headed off to the track. Kate was starting early as she was going to try and qualify for the commonwealth games and needed to walk 20km in under 1hour 39min. I wanted to be there for the start of her race and also to watch as she has the most amazing graceful style. We were to all start an hour after to her and with us on the track it was to help her pick up the pace towards the end when she would be getting tired.

There were 8 walkers competing in the one hour walk and we lined up for the start. We were told that they would blast the horn 1 min before the hour and then again at the hour mark. We were then to stop and a runner would come and put a disk down so we could then move on and warm down. The gun goes off and we are racing off in a flurry of feet. I had my race plan of sticking to 2min 20 laps but my first lap was 2.13 then 2.17 and then I settled into 2.19 for the first 5km. I slowly caught up to the walker just a head of me and as I passed her she picked up and sat on my heel which helped to keep me on my pace as I had slowed to 2.21. It was about then that I saw Kate pull out. I felt so badly for her as I know how hard she had been pushing but with stomach cramps and dropping pace it was just not worth finishing and she made the right call to drop out.

I passed the water station and new I needed to drink but didnt want to give up my spot to the walker behind me, so I pushed on but I could feel an odd pain high on my right side (mid rib cage) slowly coming on. By the 8km mark I made the call to grab a drink.....Wrong Decision.....the cup was FULL to brim and ended up going up my nose, I threw the cup to my left on to the inside grass and promptly covered the young girl following with water and got a red card for bent knee. GREAT!! then within 100mt the pain hit. I felt like I had been stabbed, I couldn't breath and I couldn't stand up straight. I knew I had to keep going but all I could think to do was slow right down and keep legal. It took me a full lap to regain control of my breathing and slowly righten myself. 2.38 was that lap, then 2.28 then 2.24 as I was nearing the end of the race, I thought..come on get it together and did try to pick up the pace but as soon as I powered on the pain came back. So my only choice was to sit at 2.24 and finish.

I walked 10.187km and it earned me a Silver. I was so pleased to have still managed to walk that distance. The gold distance for my age group was 10.7 km and that will be my goal for next year and also by doing that distance it will automatically gain me the 10km track walk NZ Record for my age group. So that's my long term goal.

Here are the results :-
CANTERBURY RACEWALKERS ASSOCIATION
FRANK APLIN ONE HOUR RACEWALK
Results
1st Rozie Robinson 11.6km Frank Aplin Trophy Gold
2nd Courtney Ruske 10.2km Gold
3rd Nyle Sunderland 10.1km Silver
4th Ben Meikle 9.4km
5th Rowena Meikle 8.4km
6th Jenny Meikle 8.3km
7th Ann Henderson 7.9km Silver

Kate Newitt DNF
Daniel Lord DNF
Phillip Meikle DNF

20 Minute Walk
1st Jonathan Lord 3.3km Henderson Trophy
2nd Sarah Meikle 2.8km
3rd Charlotte Coard 2.6km DQ’d

Our Sunday post race fun day was spent at Hamner Springs Hot Pools. We went and had a yummy lunch then played mini golf (yes shane bet me...by LOTS..) and then we went and soaked in the hot pools for a couple of hours. It was so nice and relaxing that neither of us wanted to leave.