Delayed...RingStinger

Hey Everyone sorry for the delay in posting my HurricaneOne News This Week. The main trouble is that it has been rainy and nasty here the last two days and I have not been able to film with good light.(Not that the light in the other ones is any good) It is so dark that I can barely see myself on the video. I know turn on the inside lights, and I have but they are just horrible and make weird shadows and stuff. I am going to give it one more day... I will have it posted by Wednesday... hopefully... until then I will leave you with a little tale.

RingStinger

RingStinger is an event that is put on by the Takapuna Harriers. This is the running club that I have recently joined. The event consists of two 6k loops (12k) Through mostly muddy ass trails and some road. Some take it serious and others not so. The event was held on June 1st 2008 at 14:30. Leo and I like to do our long runs on Sunday so we figured since it was free entry and a sausage sizzle afterwards...why not do it as part of our long run.

We started with a half hour run first, we tried to time it so that we arrived at the start at the same time the gun was being fired for the start of the "race"... Either our timing was way off or they started the "race" late. I tend to lead toward the latter. We tucked in the back and ran at our won pace. We passed person upon person...when we entered the trails we just followed the person in front of us. BIG mistake as they did the same and it was the wrong way, we got to a dead end and had to turn around. Now we were somewhere in the middle.


As we ran through the trail I didnt see what the big deal was about the muddy conditions. Untile we made a left about 15 minutes into the run and there it was the first of many mud pools. This wasnt your ordinary mud on an ordinary flat trail these were mud pools that seemed to be perfectly placed on the steep inclines of the trail. We used our hands and feet to dig up the mud pool, I was the jackass that wore white and didnt want that to get dirty. We came across four other mud pool inclines along the trail until the mud trails led us onto some dirt and rock trails that ran around the perimeter of Tuff Crater.(Dont worry MikeyPee will go onsite)


As we ran along the crater is dawned on me that we had to do a second lap of the mud pools and I thought to myself o great someone is going down. We continued along passing more people and more people. It got to the point that there started to be rather large gaps in between the people. Its alright we slowly picked them off. we worked our way up and at the end of the first lap we were inside the top 20.


As the second lap started a spectator yelled to us that the first woman was just ahead. Leo really didnt care as we were running a long run and the other woman was going at it fierce. We however eventually caught and passed the first woman, just in time for the mud. The first woman who is now in second latched onto us like a letch on its prey. We didnt try to drop her but made her feel funny. Leo and I talked about runs, workouts and many other things that we could do in the upcoming week. We also made sure to talk about how much further we were going to continue running after we finished the 12k "race". The trails and the crater was a beautiful sight, it led us back onto the road and towards the finishline, but first we had to tackle a big uphill and a steep downhill. We figured surely we would get passed on this last bit. The second woman dropped back and back we got to the top and she had fallen off...so we had thought. On the steep down hill the second woman let her body go and she raced down the hill as an uncontrolled mess. Leo and I moved out of the way, someone who was risking their life over a silly "race" need not get in our way.


I chuckled on the inside as we got to the finishline and saw her take out the first three spectators. She had won the womans "race" but what was the big deal. Anyway Leo and I continued on I ran another 21 minutes while Leo ran even further 28 minutes. We then headed to the Sausage Sizzle grapped us some grub and H2O. We sat and waited for the awards and spot prizes. We heard what the big prize was for finishing in first, a meal for two at some local eatry. No big deal Leo won a raffle and received a nice bottle of white wine. We finished our sausages and water and headed for the exit. We walked back to our flat mud covered and all having a great laugh about the day that was.

I hope that you have enjoyed my tale. I hope to get that news cast up soon, I am real sorry for the delay, but there is nothing I can do about the bloody weather. Enjoy the read...