Cross-country
A testing cross-country course at Parkvale confronted the Ruamahanga Ramblers on Saturday, including fences, stream crossings, knee-high grass and steep hills.
And if that was not bad enough there were some "technical" hassles too, like a farm worker driving a tractor through a gate just before race start and replacing a course marker in such a fashion that the arrow on it pointed the wrong way. That left some of the runners heading towards a cowshed
There was also a slight problem with the measuring too, the so-called 2km circuit being 2.9km. Given the challenging terrain the extra distance wasn't popular with many of the participants.
The course included a couple of stream crossings, one of which looked shallow but deepened rapidly on the left side. That's what walker Bill Dolan - in his first outing with the Ramblers - discovered when he sank up to his waist in water.