Round Rarotonga Road Race 1982

The Kapiti team ready for the start. Clarence Marter, Derek Rivers, Bill Raymond (serious as usual), Bryn Kempthorne, me and Des Woods.

The starting lineup.

It had been a pretty good year and with the airfares to Rarotonga paid for as proceeds of winning the teams event the previous year, it was a no-brainer that we should make the trip again. Out of the winning team only Steve Bullock didn't go back again and we were joined, for the running at least, by Des Woods, Clarence Marter and Derek Rivers.

Unusually the flight over went via Fiji. We had the company of a team from Tauranga Ramblers on the flight and although they were staying at the Edgewater and we at the Rarotongan, we ended up socialising a lot during the trip. We even called in at Tauranga on the way back home for a party.

Also entered in the race were a team from New Balance Track Club which consisted of talented runners from around the country including Rex Wilson, Chris Pilone and Max Cullum. A lot of muttering went on about this with those of us in club teams considering them a load of ring-ins. There was also a team from Scottish which included Dave Hatfield.

The race was a different kettle of fish from 1981. There was no hot favourite and there were a few of us, including me, who thought they could win it. I ended up going much faster than the previous year, probably with the confidence of knowing I had done it before and that I had some good preparation behind me.

From the start there was quite a bunch with all the guys mentioned above plus Nick Helms from Tauranga (Nick was a bit of a mess having fallen off his motor bike during the week). It gradually whittled down until there were only Rex Wilson, Chris Pilone and me left. I had got into a mode where I was sort of entranced, seeing only Rex's bottom in front of me. Rex was insidiously increasing the pace. I was tenaciously hanging on. Then with about 10k still to run I had my doubts as to whether I could get to the end at the pace Rex was setting so I eased off. Rex ran away from me and beat me by three minutes in 1:43 and Chris was another minute back.

All the talk of a jack up team amounted to nought when Tauranga took out the teams prize. Their team consisted (I think) of Nick Helms, Duncan Reid, Malcolm Taylor and Roy McGregor who didn't fill any of the top placings but were consistent enough to take the prize. New Balance were second and our Kapiti team finished third with Des finishing 9th, Clarence 10th and Bill 15th.

Even though we didn't win the cup I still got to drink out of it.