GREAT NOSH - Flippers, snorkels and wet suits

Well to quote a song title “wet, wet,wet!” In all the many years of Uringa manning the water stop under the Roseville bridge this was amongst the poorest conditions that we have ever endured.I guess that the positive to come from this was that the poor weather put off a lot of people and so our time exposed to the elements was a lot less than usual.

Normally we set up on a flat section of road where more often than not it is coolish but very pleasant. A very quick meeting was held and we moved 100 metres up the road to be directly under the Roseville Bridge. This 4 lane structure would provide us with shelter from the rain. How wrong we were! When the wind kicked in, it blew the rain horizontally straight up the road drenching all before it.

Now whilst we were getting wet spare a thought for the sodden runners. The 6 Km mark was just down the road from our station and they had almost 10km more to go. Catherine Murphy came through early in the piece - 4th placed in the women. Catherine commented later that the run was the hardest thing she has ever done and at one stage was rescued from waist deep water at one of the creek crossings. Catherine finished 7th in the overall and 4th in her age class. Also competing was the father son combination of Ian and Lawrence Jones. Lawrence finished 2nd in the 18 years division and Ian came in in 25th place in his age class and 99th overall. He managed a 55 second winning margin over Lawrence. Anthony Nolan had a very good run in the conditions to finish 9th in his age class and 43rd overall. Hard to believe that the winner averaged 4min 18secs per km.

Well as was mentioned once the sweep came through we were packed and gone in record time scattered to all parts of Sydney some did not leave the house again that day whilst they thawed out. Thank you to : Margaret, Ingrid and her mates, Jane, Penny, Maggie, Helen and Gayle for your stoic support on the day.