With The Quarter Pounder done and dusted, it's full steam ahead with the next Quickie Events. Yes that's right, plural - I'm going to be working on three at once, so I can line them up in the new year. This is probably how most event companies do it, and I've been a little slow catching on, but hey I'm still new at this. Right now I'm plotting a course for A Quickie in the Hills - a duathlon up the Port Hills. As always it's proving a bit tricky initially, as I want to stay off any roads but there are quite a few crossings, as well as some sections of single track are slightly dangerous, so I need to work out where the runs take place and where the biking happens. I need to think of keeping the course awesome and enjoyable whilst trying to minimise risk of any spills. Of course up there, potential bails come with the territory - that's what makes it freakin sweet! I shot this time lapse on the Port Hills with me mate Simon Waterhouse, who gave me a lesson to try achieve the best results. I think it came out alright. Be nice to complete a Quickie Event with the sun setting like this ay, imagine the photos we'd get as you cross the finish line! H
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I have to say, when I turned up to South Hagley Park on Sunday morning I didn't have high hopes many people would turn up to the event. It was blowing, pelting down and freezing. An entrant text me asking if it was all on to which I replied with "we're here, but you're welcome to stay in bed". It was a rubbish start to the day weather wise. The way I saw it was fellas had entered this race, paid money and well, runners are a hardy bunch, someone was bound to show - even one person - we'd have ourselves a run. And someone did! It was actually the dude who text me, and when he arrived lo and behold it stopped raining! As more people turned up the weather got better and the sun even came out. It was meant to be. Bang on 9am we fire the start gun (me saying 'start') and 20 fine Canterbury gentlemen took off on a 10.5km journey of urban foresty park goodness. Three loops around South Hagley Park sounds like a walk in the um, park but I can assure you, when you've got 19 other guys vying for that coveted 1st place spot and all that frickin sweet glory, things change man. The good news is everybody finished. Even better news is, there were some very healthy looking times! Mike Dent took out the 1st place honours with a speedy 44:24, quite a distance out from 2nd (Chris Vanderkolk) and 3rd Paul Cox who had a sprint finish 3 minutes back. For all the race results check them out at The Quarter Pounder results page. Well done to all. Post race, Rachel from Bodyworks Massage and Doctor Rob Williams from Menz Medical were kept busy with leg rub downs and check ups of the blood pressure and blood sugar level variety. It was great to see so many of the entrants take advantage of the check ups, and I'm pretty sure no tests came back too dodgy. All in all it was a great day. The weather came right, the runners turned up and had a great trot, sponsors were happy (thank you heaps Icebreaker for your awesome support!) and bloody hell, I think I'll put it on again - but quarterly. Thank you to all who helped out - Jon Coursey, Gretchen McKinley and Bevan Triebels Hadler, I couldn't have done it without yous. Remember to pace yourself! Complete Performance give you some tips on what to consider when it comes to the all important pacing. Don't blow out too early, but don't hold back too much - so much to think about. I managed to get round The Quarter Pounder course in South Hagley Park on the weekend on my trusty steed with Go Pro cam (thanks Simon Waterhouse) fixed to my helmet to film the course video.
So here you go, I'm not sure if it's as necessary as filming the tracks in Bottle Lake Forest as scooting round the perimeter of South Hagley is pretty straight forward. But here it is, and it just shows you potential hazards like the three driveways down Riccarton Ave you will need to be wary of crossing. Apologies for the slightly odd picture, I used the image stabiliser on youtube again and they've changed it a bit, but it does the job. Spread the word people! Will post first training tip tomorrow. Alright, we're all go people, The Quarter Pounder is happening! Got the big green light from the CCC, South Hagley Park is ours for the morning on the 18th November, insurance is sorted and we've even got our first entry! Christchurch is notorious for last minute ticket buying/registrations so this has blown my freakin mind! But in a good way. As I've mentioned in a previous post, Complete Performance are getting behind this event with juicy training tips as well as a few spot prizes for extra good measure, AND I just got the call from Chris at Icebreaker that they're keen to get some of The Quarter Pounder action. This is awesome news, because they'll no doubt be hooking us up with some sweet free stuff to give away and just between you and me I'm pretty sure some of it will be in the way of their merino boxers. That's right, this is a men's event so what could be better than some snug gruds up for grabs! I'll be filming a quick video of the course for those of you visual based learners, but I'm pretty sure you won't have any problems finding your way around South Hagley Park. As long as you start facing the right direction I have total faith you'll be fine. Yesterday morning myself and a few of me mates shunned losing a daylight saving's hour and ventured down to Hagley Park to shoot the poster Image for The Quarter Pounder event. It was a lot of fun, and I take my hat off to the guys for getting into the spirit of the thing, and making hilarious fools of themselves in public. The image to the left isn't the poster image, it's one of many I snapped. Action shots are more difficult than I thought! All the applications are in now, along with the public liability proposal, site plan, etc etc so now I wait. And you can start thinking of how many mates you could wrangle for the event on the 11th November. It'll be a 1/4 marathon - 10.5km so totally doable for someone who hasn't had a lot of exercise for a while. Get a group together maybe and start going for an easy job once or twice a week! So now the dust, nay pollen has settled from the weekend, I've begun thinking of where the next Quickie Event could be held. It needs to be somewhere where I don't have to worry about road closures or traffic management plans because when you have to deal with one of those, you're looking at shelling out some serious cash. Cash I don't have! Unless I raise entry fees, and I really don't want to do that. My first location to check out was Halswell Quarry, but I don't think it's going to be big enough. I don't really want to introduce laps into a Quickie Event, but eh, you never know, maybe in the future. For now though I want somewhere awesome, in a nice location, with some exploration for people who enter. Bottle Lake worked well because many entrants either hadn't been there at all or hadn't been there in a long time, so it was a bit of a trip down memory track, so to speak. On Saturday I'm going for a ride with a couple of mates up the Port Hills to check out some tracks up there. I'll be keeping an eye out for routes that will be challenging but not so technical your recreational rider will be put off. And of course we'll need a good running track, so will find one of those too. Might be a different set up to Quickie in the Forest, but I assure you, it'll be great! First across the line Craig Peters from team The B Town Boys So the inaugural Quickie Event - The Icebreaker Quickie in the Forest - has been and gone and I couldn't be happier - with the turn out, the results, the weather, the sponsors, the volunteers, the general good vibes on the day, it was awesome. Congratulations to all winners of each category, you can see official results on our racesplitter page, it's really cool. I knew it was going to be a lot of work to organise, but it was totally worth it and I can't wait to do another one. I'll be using facebook quite a bit now to post photos etc and for easy communication to be sure to like Quickie Events and for photos of race day, there's an album I'm adding to over the weekend. A big thanks to me mate Logan McMillan for snapping away, he was actually in a team with his brother Brad, but got so into taking photos after doing the 6km he didn't bother finishing with the 3km! That's commitment to the art for you. And one more time, I'd like to offer a HUGE thank you to all the sponsors who came onboard for this event, your support was very much appreciated, as was all the help from my friends and family who volunteered on the day. Right, onwards! |
AuthorHello Morgan Williams here, thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoy the site, and the events appeal. Any questions just sing out! Archives
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