The club house where the events start and finish.

Inside at registration.

Runners huddled around the course maps.

More runners studying the different routes.

Course maps for the 3km, 5km, 10km and 15km events.

A chilly start, but glad the rain held off.

Not long before the start.

And off we went, rather unexpectedly.

The well known first couple of kms, same as the Super 7s route.

Passing under the Manawatu Bridge.

Me at full speed coming down Fitzherbert Street.

Crossing the Manawatu Bridge on our way to Massey Uni.

Sticking to the walkway, the course passes through a couple of tunnels under the roads.

Gerry making his way up the second hill on Massey campus. A few people had to backtrack after going straight ahead instead of turning right.

Striders on the out-and-back section next to the sports ground on Massey campus.

Lovely to see so many Striders. Time for me to start remembering fellow club members’ names, me thinks!

More Striders.

Gerry at the turn of the first out-and-back section.

June having fun en route!

Al and Cath.

The out-and-back section at the Massey agricultural research farm, opposite Massey Campus.

Still going strong.

Gerry approaching the Manawatu Bridge. Less than 2kms to go.

Speeding across the bridge towards the finish.

About 1km to go.

Margaret doing great in the walkers event.

Bananana! I hope the banana handouts at the end of events never stop.

Warm coffee, tea, hot chocolate and biscuits in the clubhouse. What a way to end a wonderful event.

Al and Cath approaching the finish.

It’s that time of the year again; freezing nights, frosty mornings and the garlic shoots just starting to poke their heads out of the ground in your vege patch.

It is also time for the Manawatu Striders Winter Series. I will never forget our previous running of these events in 2011 when the windscreen of the car was so frozen, that it took several buckets of water to clear a patch. As soon as the water hit the windscreen, it would just freeze again. That was on the 10km event earlier in July. The 15km was a fair bit warmer at about the same time of the month than this time around, if my memory serves me well. Winter arrived late this year and to top it off, it has been unseasonably warm. Grass was growing in full force, my asparagus still hasn’t died down to recuperate for next years season and our olive grove is full of new growth.

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