I'll not recount here the last few kilometres, but I was not alone in finding them hard. The finest moment had to be the run in under the FINISH arch. Here, once again, superb organisation was at work as a bevy of girls recorded our positions.

I hung around to watch the marathon runners come in, and the first two, inevitably Kenyans, the archetypal 'lungs-on-legs', sprinted through as though they had just finished 100 metres! The reality was evident as I began the 4 km walk back to my car at Jerudong. Here were the non-professionals, people like you and I, hot, red-faced, and for the poor marathon runners, with still a long way yet to go. But at the end comes the 'high', and the knowledge that, whatever your time, you TOOK PART.

Congratulations to all that did.

The 5 km runners turned in some excellent times, and several personal bests, notably Paul Harrison who knocked a minute off his previous time and was heard to say "This training thing seems to help!"

Indeed, for many, this was the last training run before the Brunei Marathon on Sunday. We wish Judy Leslie and Tim Davis all the best, since they will be doing the full 42 km!!

As always, many thanks to the timers and to those who turned up to run. We narrowly avoided a tropical downpour; in fact, I can't remember when we were last caught out.

Good Luck to all those joining the Brunei Marathon on Sunday.

We saw the biggest 10km turnout ever since the inaugural PANAS race in March 1993. It seems that the forthcoming Brunei Marathon has inspired some of our runners to 'get the miles in'.

Indeed, if you wish to log miles in your preparation for this event, some of the PANAS regulars are running longer routes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays starting at 5.30 pm from the Beach Shelter.

Thanks everybody for turning up, and thanks to the time-keepers Anna, Hanneke and Jason.

To compare the times of the 10 km and 5 km runners, we multiply the 10 km times by a factor of 0.45. It seems to work. Despite rumours to the contrary, each course was just a few metres short.

11th December 2005: 1st Brunei Marathon

Join us and train for the 1st Brunei Marathon. So far we have several PANAS runners who have signed up. Well done Judy Leslie and Tim from the Garrison who are attempting the 42 km course !! Kim's gone for the 21 km, "because I fancy the challenge of the Shabandar Hills!", and Willie, John and Roy are going for the Old Lags' 18 km. I'm sure Jenny is training for one of the distances as well.

This time of year

The earliest sunsets at this latitude occur in October / November, so be careful when you plan your after-work training. You could end up running in the dark ! Another odd feature of the South China Sea is not just one tide per day (instead of two), but that high tides occur at night in Winter, and during the day in Summer. Take care that the beach you plan to run on is actually going to be there; if it's light enough to see it, that is !!

We hope he is proud that his legacy has seen the biggest ever turn-out for a PANAS monthly race; 44 runners! Especially encouraging is the cosmopolitan mix that running attracts. The results on the right speak for themselves. 

Steve always said that an 'elite runner' was one that could run the 5 km in under 20 minutes. Dave Hadley did that convincingly, however, there's some talent just waiting in the wings in the shape of Alan, Tim and Zamuddin if he dropped back to the 5km.

Many thanks to the sign-layers, the timekeepers, but most of all to the runners. Without you, there would be no monthly race.

See you in October.

26 runners and 12 newcomers including a whole host of Bruneians; welcome to PANAS.

The route was tarmac with corners; not a slow route, but the weather, hot and muggy, was not a recipe for Olympic qualifying times.

My excuse is that in the excitement of setting the course, I forgot to warm up before the race. It's odd; we live in the Tropics and you think you're warm, but if you're going to run hard, or join in the Wednesday sprints, then a good warm up is essential.

Congratulations to Peye who cracked 20 minutes on his first PANAS run. Apologies for not explaining the handicap system to you.

3rd June 2005  The Old Camp Course

in conjunction with the

Highland Games

In the old days, this was the only course we ran, however, in 2005, we have a dozen different and challenging routes. But once a year we return to the old out-and-back from F1. It's kind of depressing to watch Dave Hadley steaming back towards you when you can't even see the turnaround point!

Well done Dave, that was a superb time that pulled quite a few seconds off your personal best!

5th May 2005  The Beach Splash

What might have been a hot, sandy flog along to E10 and back to the Beach Shelter, was relieved by enough rain to consolidate the sandy bits.

Traditionally a slow course, this was not the case today as Eko, Mark, Sonya, Shona, Roy and Rob ran personal best times. We welcomed newcomer Rosie, and returning runner Francis, one of the PANAS founder members. 

J showed us, that according to his wrist-mounted GPS receiver, the course was actually 4,881.45 metres. This would, of course, add about half a minute to most people's times, however, this has yet to be verified by the time-honoured method of measuring it on a map.

PANAS has never actually been geodetically accurate, however, nothing beats the Egyptian Pyramids half-marathon of 1990 that was 1.5 km short !!

4th April 2005  Nearly the Tri ????

The name of this course 'Nearly the Tri', only make sense in temporal, rather than spatial terms. However, since Einstein wasn't running, we'll settle for a solid camp course with a reputation for being a fast one (in contrast to last month).

A good field of 21 runners, and two passengers courtesy of Hadley and Dean, took part in the event, and showed that, indeed, good times were there for the asking. Steve's 18.43 was only 20 seconds off his PB set on 7th June 2002 when he was a young man. Paul, Justin and the other Steve also recorded personally fast times.

Congratulations to Andrew Harris, Rob Harris, Roy Buchan and Shona MacDonald (OK it was her second but nobody remembers it) for taking part in their first PANAS timed run. It wasn't as bad as you thought - or was it!?

The Mad March Mile

Many thanks to the 17 adults and at least 10 children who turned up on Friday for this annual event. Watched by a crowd of bemused amahs and fishermen, the kids set off five minutes before the adults, and, in contrast to last year, a real race developed with some of the kids returning some distinctly adult times. (Watch out Kim; your sons are right behind you).

The teams comprised Fabian and Morgan Phillandreanos, Philip and Enid Holweg, Hans and Intan Dols, and James and Jack Harman.

After the run, the Panaga Club Athletics Section (for that is who we are) held its AGM.

Minutes:

The meeting was attended by the committee and 30 runners and timekeepers that formed a comfortably quorate ratio of 10 to 1, exactly the same ratio as at the recent KBBC AGM, except the other way around! For details click on Minutes.

It was the first race around the 'Jungle Loops'. This was a bit more of a cross-country course than a 'personal best' tarmac run, however, many congratulations to Elisabeth Kirschner on actually getting her PB on her last run in Brunei. We also said farewell to her husband Andreas, and that stalwart Louisiana kid, Jim Booth. Always uncomfortable out of the saddle (and I mean mountain bike), he still took a few scalps on his last race with us.

Many thanks to Anna and Ann for timekeeping, and it was good to see returning runners Peter and Willie. Thanks Uli for taking photos. Welcome to David on his first run with us.

Thanks to the 24 runners who contributed to a great run over a new and interesting course. The results are below:-

See you next month.

Regard Philip Holweg (above). Just 1 km into the race and he's doing well, smiling, and with sufficient energy to wave at the photographer. However, click on the picture to see what a difference another 4km makes!

It's all worth it at the end. Everybody's smiling. No more pain for another month. Jason awards Jim Booth with his last run certificate of achievement (or not). Peter Henneberg (background) ran on the first PANAS 5km race in 1993 in a time of 22:30, so 12 years on, 23:12 on a slow course isn't too shabby. But, of course, look at that sartorial elegance, he must be a hasher. 

Since the 10km race has been introduced, we'll try to combine the 5 and 10 km results into the handicap and fastest runner, so as not to penalise those who opt for both disciplines. At present, I multiply the 10 km run time by 45% to come up with a 5km equivalent time. It seems to work. If you don't think so, please contact me on annajohn47@hotmail.com

The advertised 'BSRC Super 8' was so overgrown and soft-sandish that Jason came up with 'Jason's Clinical Run', an excellent out and back of 5 and 10 km. 

The six-monthly awards were presented and Hazel Harvey received (in absentia) her farewell card. For many years Hazel has been a stalwart of PANAS, and running a consistent middle field, epitomises what the club stands for. It was very pleasant to gather for the bi-annual get-together. Many thanks to Sam for preparing the (healthy) snacks, and to Jason for hosting the event.

Since the 10km race has been introduced, we'll try to combine the 5 and 10 km results into the handicap and fastest runner, so as not to penalise those who opt for both disciplines. At present, I multiply the 10 km run time by 45% to come up with a 5km equivalent time. It seems to work. If you don't think so, please contact me on

annajohn47@hotmail.com

Note that one runner is blurred. Guess who won!

Jason Taylor, Klis Dimitriades and Sam Lubis (above). Paul Gavaghan, Judy Cook, Hazel Harvey and Judy Leslie (left).

If you don't feel like running, we always appreciate volunteers to time the race and set the course.