Spirited Turn Out For Tangimoana Half Marathon

CPL Matthew Pitts

The start of the Tangimoana Half Marathon. OH-07-0689-04-tn.jpg.

Ohakea’s annual Tangimoana Half Marathon - one of the major events in the Physical Education and Recreation Training (PE&RT) calendar – attracted 33 individuals, 12 teams of 2, 8 teams of 4, 4 walkers, 10 officials, 6 PTIs and 2 dogs.

Due to the weather looking grey and bleak, the organisers were expecting participants to follow the All Blacks lead and bottle it when it came to the crunch. However, the PE&RT section were delighted with the spirited turn out, highlighting Base personnel’s increasing support for our events. It helps when the bosses; WGCDRs Mardon, McPherson, Sowden and Webb collectively known as The Four Kings were out battling the elements with the rest of The Base. The biggest pat on the back for effort goes to the Admin girls and SGT Danny Passi for getting everyone in their section involved.

Members of the Avionics’ Young Skins team. OH-07-0695-04-tn.jpg.

The event ran smoothly, with the only heart-stopping moment being when CAPT Scott McIntyre developed what appeared to be ‘officer with a map syndrome’, losing his bearings and starting to head back to the start line. It turned out that his cap was blown off by the Huey fly past. It must have been an expensive cap as it was the quickest he had moved all day. The fastest mover of the day was FGOFF Scott Griffin, who moved faster than a Jonny Wilkinson torpedo kick once he realised LAC Joy Hargreaves was on hand to rub all the knots and tight muscles back to normal at the finish line. Special mention goes to FLTLT Lee Bradford who proved all his critics wrong by making it back ahead of schedule, allowing the PE&RT section to breathe a sigh of relief.

The indomitable SQNLDR Kelvin Read on his way to taking line honours. OH-07-0695-44-tn.jpg.

Particularly impressive (or alarming) was the number of runners who had not trained but were still keen to give it a go. At the back of every participant’s mind was the cause that they were running for. The event raised over $600 for the Make- A-Wish Foundation. Faye Pedley, the Manawatu Make-A-Wish representative, was on hand at the awards presentation to accept the cheque from AC Dave Matthews and listen to the day’s war stories.

Prizes were awarded to all placegetters as well as three major spot prizes.