The Wash Up

With torrential rain and big swells causing a nervous few days for organizers in the lead up to the event, the weather cleared, the wind turned off shore and we had glorious conditions for the 3rd Narrathon.

The course was tweaked on the Saturday morning, with competitors running from North Narrabeen as far as Narrabeen Beach before turning and heading north again to the start of the swim. The board leg remained as a circuit in front of the clubhouse and provided some good spectator sport as competitors returned through the break to the beach.

We had a handful of non-starters, and there were 45 individuals and 14 teams lined up at the start. There was an early casualty on the gun, with a broken paddle almost spoiling the morning for one of the teams until Manly Warringah Kayak Club came to the rescue with a spare paddle.

Dave Tudor-Jones of the Narrabeen Masters team was at the front of the pack finishing the ski paddle in a time of 37:15, and followed by individual John Diggin at 39:31. The Narrabeen Masters continued to dominate and while the Mona Vale Madness put in a good run leg, the lead established by the Narrabeen Masters in the ski leg meant that their title was secure.

As it was last year, the run proved the deciding leg in the male individuals with Roger Souter galloping over the sand in a little over 11 minutes. From then on it was up to the others to catch him and while the home favourite, Michael Moran, clawed back some time over the swim and board, Roger crossed the line in first place, and as overall winner, in a time of 1:26:33 with Michael 42 seconds behind and John Diggin coming in third place overall in a time of 1:30:04.

It was pleasing to see the number of individual females taking part double from last year with 10 females all starting and finishing the race. Last year’s winner Rebecca Crawford was due to defend her title but a hamstring injury forced her withdrawal only days before. Fiona Rae finished the ski leg in front but in hot pursuit were Simone Elliott and Ruth Kelly. Ruth put in a fast run to take the lead, but unfortunately was not able to hold this through the swim and Simone came past and stayed in front to be the overall female winner in a time of 1:42:10, with Ruth second on 1:43:18 and Fiona third at 1:44:01.

The full category results will be up on the Narrathon website shortly and in the meantime you can see them at http://www.multisportaustralia.com.au/RaceTecResults/Default.aspx?CId=1&....

We also had an unofficial photographer out on the course who has taken literally hundreds of shots. We are hoping to have these available to view and download from the event website in a few days’ time.

An event of this nature takes a large amount of resources and we thank everybody who made the event possible. Our thanks and appreciation go to Sportingbet Australia who as the main sponsor provided significant financial assistance, and local businesses Cromer Exhaust & Service Centre, Bennett Surfboards, Fitworx, Promaker and Complete Framing North Manly who provided prizes. On the operational side, we thank Long Reef SLSC, North Narrabeen SLSC, and Peter Finch at Pittwater Marine for vital water safety assistance, and finally all the members of Narrabeen Beach SLSC who gave their time to make the event a success.

We look forward to seeing you all next year and we welcome any feedback in the meantime.

--Narrathon 2012