Editorial: Big shout out to event marshalls

Linda Hall.

Good on you Tremains, you've done it again! Another well organised triathlon was held yesterday with hundreds of people taking part.

The event is organised in partnership with Triathlon Hawke's Bay and Sport Hawke's Bay and I think a huge shout out needs to go to all the fantastic marshalls who gave up their Sunday to make sure people like me stayed on the right track.

They were outstanding at the Westshore venue and all along the race leg.

As per usual I left things to the last minute and was looking up the cycling map at 9am Sunday morning.

You can imagine what Mr Neat had to say about that.

So I was a little bit apprehensive about going off track. I don't have the best sense of direction and following maps is not one of my strong points,

So I tried to memorise the street names and hoped for the best. People at the event assured me the marshals would be on hand to make sure no wrong turns where taken.

While I waited for my teammate Anendra Singh to finish his run, (he of course had to wait until our first team member Rebecca Chatham had completed the swim) I watched the high school teams cheering on their fit young runners and speedy cyclist. No pain for these youngsters, as they sprinted over the line and raced around the cycle course, their joints are young, healthy and subtle.

They were amazing. Great to see so many of them participating. We always hear about the bad things our youth do but not enough about the good. I reckon Hawke's Bay has more good than bad given the amount of young people involved in the triathlon.

There were of course people of all ages competing. Someone told me that the district health board had 32 teams, that is amazing. Leading by example I guess.

The weather was perfect, not too hot and thank goodness it wasn't windy because this year I was doing the 20km cycle leg.

I've done all three now and have decided that although the cycling takes the longest, it's the one I have enjoyed the most.

I passed about three people but was passed by probably 60. Some of them were flying and I felt like I was getting nowhere with my legs pumping up and down as fast as I could go. People on mountain bikes passed me.

The marshalls stopped traffic, pointed directions and yelled encouragement all along the route.

Drivers were courteous although I had one dicey moment when a huge truck went past me rather close.

It was pretty cool at the finish line when people clapped and cheered. Great fun. I think our team did really well.

Changing the subject entirely now. I couldn't believe what I was looking at on Facebook yesterday.

There was a picture of some idiot picketing outside police national headquarters with a sign saying: "Only four shot. Not enough". He was referring to the incident in the Bay of Plenty last week when a man shot four police officers.

Can you believe it? As the person who posted it said: "And yet, me thinks he would be squealing for police to help if his family were in trouble. Lucky he is in NZ and dealing with a great police force here as not too sure he would get away with this elsewhere! We do have some losers around."

So true. We do have some losers, but I'd think the good people in the country far outweigh the bad.

Perhaps he needs to spend a couple of days with the boys in blue to see just exactly what they do. -Linda Hall is assistant editor at Hawke's Bay Today.