15th March 2009   

Sunday 15th March was the annual ‘Round the Bays’ fun run & OCIS NZ entered 24 participants to run along side a total of 70,000 runners & walkers.

The run is 8.4km long over a flat course that follows the contours of Auckland ’s Waitemata harbour. It starts in the city on Quay St and finishes on the waterfront at St Heliers Bay. You can either run or walk the course, or in some cases, you can also stagger along (you boys know who I’m talking about).

OCIS also booked a BBQ site for after the run for participants to partake in food and beverages & enjoy the amazing weather.

You could not miss the OCIS team with their bright blue caps bobbing along; it was certainly a sight to behold. Although having 3 ‘Mother Christmas’s’ Hayden Pye , Jake Rowles & Paul Jonassen and 1 ‘French Maid’ Hamish Russell may have had something to do with it as well.

Prizes were awarded as follows:

First person to arrive at the BBQ area – Natasha Knox

13th person to arrive at the BBQ area – Emma Gannaway

Last person to (stagger) I mean arrive at the BBQ area – Hamish Russell

 

We also had booby prizes for the most interesting stories told and they were as follows:

Dylan Collings for running into a tree (still trying to work that one out).

Anastasia Dearing for being a bully, first she stood on a man’s jandal (thong) because he got in her way, then she wanted to pop some poor kids balloon because it was in her face (Sandy & Sheryl managed to restrain her)

Jodie Geduld for having to escort the staggering last person to the correct BBQ site

Hayden Pye for ending up with 6 bibs and got them all scanned at the end of the race

The ultimate booby prize does go to Petar Latinovic. He started the race however half way through he left to go on a Mountain Bike ride, upon returning to the office we discovered that he ‘came a cropper’ and ended up with a broken sternum.

All in all a great day was had by all (except by Petar) & there was general consensus of making it an annual event. There was even talk of entering the 20km Auckland Harbour Bridge half marathon.