400 make historic run from Sumner

Press, 21 March 1983, Page 10

400 make historic run from Sumner

By

JOHN DREW

Brilliant afternoon sunshine lit up the carnival scene when more than 400 men and women runners, of all ages, many of them in Victorian period fancy dress, crowded into the central Sumner shopping area on Saturday. They had come from many parts of Canterbury for the hilarious re-enact-ment of an historic race from the Sumner post office to the Lyttelton police station and return, which was first held in 1908. Jim Merritt had been a volunteer fireman and so a vintage fire engine acted as lead vehicle for the run. And M.O.T. officers kept good control as the huge procession of runners, in bright club uniforms and period costumes, formed a broad, dense ribbon of colour in the calm, bright, sunlight for more than a km up the Sumner hill towards the summit of Evans Pass. The event was a triumph of organisation for the Sumner Road Running Club and its captain Bruce Morrison, who had the original idea after his discovery, in the Sumner museum, of the inscribed clock presented to Jim Merritt, a Sumner resident who won the 1908 race. In Saturday’s race, runners had to preserve the authentic traditions of the original event by making their turn-around point at the Lyttelton police station, running in at the front door and out at the back. A delighted Lyttelton crowd looked on as uniformed police were posted at the front and back and inside the police station to check the arrival and departure of the runners. There was added authenticity when the Canterbury veteran, over 50, marathon title holder, Don Cameron, wearing regulation prison garb, and carrying a ball and chain, ran handcuffed to a fellow St Martins club member Tony Lynch, who is a sergeant at the Central police station, and who wore full police uniform and brandished, in menacing fashion, a police baton throughout the run. The event was generously sponsored by Steinlager. There was no entry charge, and, while most entrants seemed set to make it all a

light-hearted outing, there was some tough competition at the fast end of the field. The outstanding Sumner club distance athlete, John Bisset, was the impressive winner by a substantial margin. Dennis O’Keefe ran well to win the veteran (over 40) award. One of the most astonishing feats of the day was that of lan Worters, who holds a best world time for 50 miles in the 45 to 50 age group and who pushed a wheelbarrow with Kate Hart, aged 13, as passenger, for the whole distance. “That was tough,” said Worters, “much tougher than when I pushed the barrow with three times the weight in the City to Surf.” On Saturday, Kate weighed 77 lbs and the all steel barrow 123 lbs. One of the main attractions of the day was the waiters’ race in which runners had to carry a bottle of Steinlager on a tray. There were more than 20 in this section of the race including six women, all in waiters’ and waitresses’ costumes. A distinguished visiting overseas runner was Roger Bourban, who owns a big Hollywood restaurant and who is famous internationally for his feats with bottle and tray in big marathons throughout Europe and the United States. As expected he ran with impressive skill and power to win the waiters’ race. Christine Bourban was the first “waitress” to finish with bottle and tray. Bourban has been on holiday in New Zealand as a house guest of some New Zealand running friends, including the New Zealand international marathon athletes, Rod Dixon and Don Greig. Bourban said that New Zealand had a valuable tourist attraction in the Sumner-Lyttelton run. “It is the most beautiful scenic course I have seen anywhere,” said the agreeable, Swiss-born athlete. “If they knew about this run they would come in hundreds from the United States,” he said. At a slim 6ft 3in tall and much like Rod Dixon in build, Bourban said he would use the Sumner race as a “sharpener” for the waiters’ section in the huge City of London marathon

next month, an event he won last year. He has a best marathon time of 2hrs 36min and plans to reduce this, to what he thinks is his potential, of about 2hrs 20min or better.

All entrants completed the distance of about 15km, but, because of hot conditions in sheltered parts of the course, many of the “waiters” had drunk the contents of their bottles by the time they reached the finish. All the runners seemed glad of the wellmanned water stations at the top of the Evans Pass hill.

Jim Merritt had trained for years before the first race with frequent runs to Lyttelton to see his sweetheart, a London Street resident, whom he eventually married. Their eldest son, Bill, became a famous New Zealand cricket representative, renowned spin bowler and all round Canterbury sportsman. Bill’s youngest brother Ernie, looking jaunty and jolly at over 70, was there to congratulate the finishers at a street-side ceremony outside the Sumner Town Hall.

Bruce Morrison, impressive in a Regency style costume, complete with gold braids, said the turn out of runners was larger than his committee had ever expected and the event would now become an annual Canterbury fixture.