Great lakes relay race, Taupo

On Saturday 21st Feb 2009 Wendy took place in the Geat lake relay at Taupo in the Bay of Plenty. Lake Taupo is in the shadow of Mount Ruapehu which was portrayed as Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings films, it is the largest ski field in the North island and also an active volcano.
The 155km relay hosted over 5000 participants and the event has been described as the most social and scenic in NZ. Her works team consisted of eighteen members, either running or walking to complete the eighteen 5.2km to 14.4km legs around Lake Taupo - the largest lake in Australasia.

Since I had done some damage to my leg and back a few weeks before whilst training for the event, and not yet fully recovered, I was acting as team support driving team members to the start of each leg and supplying water/snacks to those that had just finished.
Because of the length of the run we had to start at 2am Saturday morning which meant not a lot of sleep the night before.Sadly due to the lack of light the first few runners wouldn't be immortalised here on this blog. As the sun started to rise Matt seen here was on leg 6 and Team WHK Sherwin Chan Walshe (Wendy's firm) were in second place. Wendys leg was next so it wasn't going to last!!

Matt had to run 2 legs back to back as I was unable to do my bit, sorry mate.

Here he is running straight thru the changeover having just run a 8km and on the way to do another 5.5km, and all before breakfast.

These Kiwis are mad!!

The change over went well and Wendy was off on her 7km very early morning run.
Matt was rightly knackered so after a little rest we bundled into the car and headed off a couple of km's down the road in order to give Wendy some water as well as support.

Wendy was doing well and putting in a good time so we headed down the road a little way.

As you can see it's a beautiful area, sadly Wendy didn't have time to take in the views

Wendy finished her leg of the run in just under 50 minutes. Here she is with Matt and Mark, the guys that had done some earlier legs.

The car did a fine job as a stand in picnic bench/changing room/recovery area.

Again after a couple of minutes rest we bundled into the car and set off after Helen who had started the next leg.

Here she is a the top of a VERY big hill, time for water then.

Whilst waiting for Helen, Matt made a new friend

After Helen finished her leg (and Matt finished plaing with the goat) we all got back in the car and headed to meet up with the next support car. We made sure the glow stick batton was handed over to the 'day' team and then went back to the accomodation in Taupo to catch some sleep.

A couple of hours later we went back out to cheer the last couple of guys on.

Kahil was doing a sterling job of running his leg and put in a superb time, here he is putting in a final burst of speed.

Karl did the final leg and in the spirit of the event the rest of the team drove to the finish line in order to cross it altogether.

And here is the team a few minutes after crossing the finish line a very respectable 63rd overall with a time of 13hrs 39minutes.