When I stopped teaching physical education I did a survey with my students. I asked them what activities they enjoyed most, what they least liked and finally what gave them on reflection the greatest satisfaction.
Surprisingly there was a high correlation between the least-liked activities that they found demanding and satisfaction from their achievements. These included challenges such as the swimming survival test, the timed "block run" and the cross country.
Cross country is a demanding activity. Unlike many sports there are no timeouts, there is no half-time break and no place to hide on the course or behind teammates. It may not build character but it can and does highlight qualities including perseverance and determination.
Many of these qualities were in evidence last Friday at the Whanganui Collegiate School annual Inter-House Cross Country.
The junior races were held late morning in persistent rain.
The intermediates and seniors had sunshine but had to struggle through the muddy sections churned up by the younger athletes.
All grades ran two laps of the 1500-metre circuit, and as well as running for the individual and team championships all ran for graded standards, winning points for their house.
The 2022 conditions challenged students who had not prepared well. Encouragingly, despite the conditions, most leading runners who head to New Zealand Schools in Nelson next weekend improved on their 2021 performances set in more favourable conditions.
Results largely went with the form book. Daniel Sinclair (featured last week) won the senior championship, stopping the clock at 9 minutes 3 seconds, bettering his 2021 performance by 13 seconds, but was five seconds shy of George Lambert's 2021 best time set in better conditions.
Sinclair should be encouraged by his result, as a year ago he went on to finish eighth nationally a fortnight later.
Cross country captain Elliot Jones was second in 9.31 while the promising Toby Caro won the intermediate race earlier in the programme in an almost identical time (9.33).
Race walker Lucas Martin improved by 20 seconds from last year to finish third with triathlete and 1st XV forward Hunter Gibson fourth.
Thomas Fitzgerald was runner-up to Caro - although he was a minute behind he runs in the under-16s grade in Nelson whereas Caro runs Senior.
The Junior boys' event was won by Matthew Sinclair in 10.27, ranking him ninth across all three grades.
Amy McHardy was a convincing winner in the Senior Girls, stopping the clock at 10:34 to come first by a big margin. With the in-form Louise Brabyn sick, McHardy was able to run from the front.
McHardy, who was second at last year's New Zealand Schools Junior Girls grade while competing for Wellington Girls' College, will be encouraged that her time bettered Brabyn's 2021 result.
Both will hopefully be at the heart of a strong Whanganui Collegiate combination in Nelson. Pascale Bowie ran well for second in the seniors and will have a major team role in Nelson.
Harriet Douglas will join the team in Nelson encouraged by her win in the Intermediate grade ahead of Rosa Meyer, who has improved with every outing and was second in the Intermediate grade.
The best race of the day was in the Junior Girls in the heaviest rain.
Year 10 Greta Darke was closely followed by Year 9 Hannah Byam for the whole three-kilometre journey, only breaking the shackles in the run for home to win by just one second (11.16 and 11.17).
They ranked 23rd and 24th respectively across all grades, both boys and girls. Zoe Broadhead was third across the line (12.56).
Grey retained the team title from Harvey. The standard section was especially close, with Grey winning by a solitary point (235- 234)
