ATC in Oxfam Trailwalker 2011
Special Event
Saturday 9 April 2011 to Sunday 10 April 2011 (2 days)
A brilliantly fine Saturday 9 April saw six ATC members embark on the annual 100 km Oxfam Trailwalker event in Taupo (in three separate teams) along with over 260 other teams of four walkers (or runners).
Team ‘Auckland Tramping Club’ Carol Exton,
Hideo Yoshihama, Brent Rose, Jamie McNair
Wearing club livery (and much-coveted high-visibility bright orange hats), the ATC team of Carol Exton, Brent Rose and first timers Hideo Yoshihama and Jamie McNair romped home in 16.40 to maintain a sixth placing overall for the third consecutive year. The delay caused by some decidedly upset stomachs (Carol dramatically expressing her discomfort from one end, and Hideo equally dramatically from the other) was insufficient to prevent us achieving our best Oxfam time to date by a good 25 minutes. A huge thank-you to our Support Crew on the day, Kathy Engelbrecht and Chris McNair, and to Jim Morrow, our unrelenting training task master.
Team ‘The Sequel’: Tony Walton (ATC) with Andy Kenworthy,
Denise Albert and Gordon Miskelly
Oxfam veteran Tony Walton, in his team ‘The Sequel’ successfully completed the event in 20.33 earning an awesome 22nd placing overall. Tony says they were delighted to finish a couple of hours ahead of their anticipated time, walking all the way - no mean feat for what is effectively more than five ‘very long’ ATC day trips hammered out on the trot! And just to show that it takes a little more than a 100-km Trailwalker to slow a dedicated tramper down, Tony used some spare time the following day to climb Mt Tauhara (that’s going up 500m or so)!
Christine Major (ATC), Kathryn Ross, Verena Schiess
(Nicola Charteris not present)
Christine Major and her ‘Sole-a-Powered’ team of four first-timers all completed the Trailwalker in 27.58. Anyone who can start walking at 6.00am, walk all day, then keep walking through the wee hours and troop on to the finish line at 10.00am the following day with 100 gruelling kilometres behind them deserves every accolade! Well done, ladies!
