Sydney Summer Series

The Summer Series might be over, BUT, welcome to the Autumn Evenings!

Last Wednesday opened our account in spectacular fashion at Lavender Bay, where 101 competitors fronted for Rod Eckles great course in this beautiful location. Sydney turned on a treat, with a beautiful afternoon giving way to the bright city lights of a Sydney evening. The early runners enjoyed another daylight outing (courtesy of the later daylight saving change), but we got a fair smattering of LED addicts - dusting off the 'on' button as they charged the steps and alleys of MacMahons Point after dark. We even had a group of late starters who went out without torches - but made a fair fist of night pot proceedings.

Looking at the course, Rod deployed the tough 'multi-step' technique, sending us up and down (and then back up again) several sets of stairs in the dash for cash. Checkpoints 20 and 16 come to mind, and #15 in the east (sixteen was particularly cruel, reducing this old goat to unfamiliar depths of heavy breathing!). These beauties all had the thighs burning although the panoramas from each were worth the effort. The course had a great spread with most runners enjoying both sides of the area and it's spectacular views and pot sites. Classic locations were #18, #30 and #11 on the east and #9 and #30 on the west. My guess for lonely pot probably goes to # 7, although six was out of the 'round the edge' loop, and could have been a bit lonesome.

Great runs from Richard Green with 560 points and Peter Annetts with 520. Peter ran them all except 6,7 and 10 for 49.5". There were many who dropped these three, myself included. Wendy Stevenson and Gill Fowler were on fire for 460 points, a shade in front of elderly dude, Warwick Selby on 450. There were plenty of other good high 400 scores (Matt Dowle for instance with 490). Speaking of scoring, we hope to have the Autumn Evening scores up on the Garingal website (not this one) - probably early in the week following the event. Go to www.garingal.com.au

Round two sees us move west to Kissing Point where course setter emeritus Ian Cameron is at the controls. Ian will no doubt set a beauty at this great riverside location, with plenty of interesting bayside and park running. Remember, it will all be night navigation for the rest of the series, so don't forget the headlamp - and don't forget to come! The SSS may be over, but this is just the same fun with the added night running element. For those that haven't tried it, we attach a reflector to the pots so they can be easily spotted in the torch/lamp beam. As I say, fun, fun fun. Join us!