Race Date: Sunday March 17th 2024

Race Report by John Egginton

What better way to finish a 3-week holiday down under than to run a 15km race? Well, that’s what myself and Hannah Murton thought anyway!

Fresh off our international racing debut in Valencia we found out that there was an event we could attend at the end of our time visiting Australia and New Zealand, so thought it would be a great opportunity to claim a medal from one of the furthest away destinations possible to us. The event located at Albany Lakes Civic Park, which was just north of Auckland, was the final of a 4-race series held in the North Shore area of New Zealand. They have a 5km loop course which enables entries of 5km up to 15km, and as we are both in training for London marathon and Thames Path 100 mile respectively, we thought the longest distance would be the one to enter to try and get as much mileage in as possible!

It was an early start to the day with the race starting at 8am, so a 7am taxi was prebooked the night before. Little did we know until we saw the meter quickly counting away that this was going to cost approx. $66 (around £33) for a 15-minute journey and be twice the cost of an Uber! But hey ho, we live and learn. Also, I had picked up yet another pre-race illness (just like at Valencia) and not had a great amount of sleep, so I’d managed to put myself on the back foot to start with once again!

The event had a fun and friendly feel to it, but not many club runners about so we very much stood out in the green and gold Striders vests! We had a quick warmup around some of the course before taking our positions in the starting pen. All distances set off at the same time so it was important not to get carried away with people only running the 5 or 10km! After reviewing some previous results, I knew I had a chance of finishing in a relatively high position so positioned myself close to the start line to give myself a good chance. However, after the first of 3 laps it became apparent that my fitness wasn’t quite where I’d hoped, and the competition was a little too strong on the day that my dreams of a podium finish would be dashed as 3rd place pulled further and further away from me. As the 2nd lap progressed, I was caught by another 2 runners therefore pushing me back into 6th position which I was then able to hold until the end of the race despite my pace gradually slowing as the distance increased.

Despite my podium target being out of the window I was still keen to record a good time and finish in under an hour. So, as I approached the final 500m a quick check of the watch showed that this was still achievable which spurred me on to up the pace and get a decent sprint finish on down the finish straight and over the line! So, with a 6th place finish (2nd in age category) for myself, and a 12th place female finish position (3rd in age category) for Hannah it was a good morning’s work for the both of us!

It was a great event with good organisation and would recommend to anyone who may be travelling in that area when they’re hosting any races. However, we definitely didn’t think it was the “flat and fast course” as described!

The race was won by Ben Parker in a very impressive 51:44! The first female was Rachel O’Brien narrowly missing out on sub 60 with a time of 1:00:50.

Funnily enough we were the only Striders present at this race.

John and Hannah were among 146 finishers at the Run Albany 15k, no club information was provided in the results.

Striders Results