Saturday 26 February 1983 - Cooks Gardens
I received an invitation from Russell Sears, who was organising the Cooks Gardens athletic meeting in Wanganui, to compete in a mile. I jumped at the chance because the field would be a strong one and there was a chance that I could achieve one of my lifetime ambitions, to break the four minute mile.
A strong field had been assembled which included John Walker, Tony Rogers and Mike Molloy. There were a few strong runners from the West Coast North Island centre at the time but I can't remember who was in the race and whether they were used as pacemakers. All I remember was the times.
Cooks Gardens in those days was a short track of around 365 metres. For the mile you started in the back straight and once past the finish line for the first time you still had four laps to run. The callers of the lap times moved every lap so you would get the call in a different place. The first lap call was 58 seconds so everything was on schedule. The effort then increased a little for the second lap (as you need to do in a mile just to maintain the pace) and the second call was 1:58. Still good. But it's the third lap that's the difficult one. It's the third lap when you need to keep up the concentration and increase the effort even more just to stay with it. And it was the third lap where it slipped. The call was 3:01 and I thought "Shit, I'm really going to have to dig in here". The trouble was I was running Cooks Gardens as if it was a normal 400m track, where usually you have a good 100m run to the line. So I wound up my pace and went for it down the straight, trying to overtake Mike Molloy, but before I knew it I'd crossed the finish line, the straight was so short. I sort of knew I hadn't got there and there was quite a long wait for the official results.
John Walker won in 3:54.65 with Tony Rogers second in 3:57.19. Mike Malloy and I both dipped out with 4:00.24 and 4:00.38 respectively. Still I thought there would always be another day.
A strong field had been assembled which included John Walker, Tony Rogers and Mike Molloy. There were a few strong runners from the West Coast North Island centre at the time but I can't remember who was in the race and whether they were used as pacemakers. All I remember was the times.
Cooks Gardens in those days was a short track of around 365 metres. For the mile you started in the back straight and once past the finish line for the first time you still had four laps to run. The callers of the lap times moved every lap so you would get the call in a different place. The first lap call was 58 seconds so everything was on schedule. The effort then increased a little for the second lap (as you need to do in a mile just to maintain the pace) and the second call was 1:58. Still good. But it's the third lap that's the difficult one. It's the third lap when you need to keep up the concentration and increase the effort even more just to stay with it. And it was the third lap where it slipped. The call was 3:01 and I thought "Shit, I'm really going to have to dig in here". The trouble was I was running Cooks Gardens as if it was a normal 400m track, where usually you have a good 100m run to the line. So I wound up my pace and went for it down the straight, trying to overtake Mike Molloy, but before I knew it I'd crossed the finish line, the straight was so short. I sort of knew I hadn't got there and there was quite a long wait for the official results.
John Walker won in 3:54.65 with Tony Rogers second in 3:57.19. Mike Malloy and I both dipped out with 4:00.24 and 4:00.38 respectively. Still I thought there would always be another day.
Sunday 27 February 1983 - Round the Bays
I wouldn't normally run another race just hours after having run a four minute mile but there was a lot of peer pressure from my workmates at Challenge Computers to be part of the team for the Round the Bays. But not only did they want me to be part of the team, they expected me to win it.
I'm not too certain of my memory but I think in those days the course was a bit longer than it is now, with the start being past the Railway Station on Aotea Quay. The field was enormous, as it still is these days, and it was very difficult to get into a decent position at the start line. I stuck with the rest of my team for the start and had to work my way through the throngs before getting into the lead after Point Jerningham. I was fortunate that none of the really top Wellington runners turned out and I managed to win comfortably in 23:55. Kapiti club mate Rob DeBique took second place in 24:23 and Alan Cox was third in 24:27.
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