Good Packing is Good Harrierism

This comment made in 1933 is as relevant today as it was then.  There is no such thing as a harrier club which does not have proper pack runs.  In the early days paper chases were common.  Trail layers would set off first and then would be chased by the rest of the harriers who ran in packs.  Each pack had to co-operatively work together, packing to each other's mutual benefit.  A typical paper chase would traverse road, farmland, fences, ditches, swamps and hidden bush tracks, and often blackberries, gorse and "bush lawyers".  On one occasion the trail layers got so far ahead they were able to cram the trail bag with large mushrooms on their way home!  Paper chases gradually became fewer and fewer in the 1950s, a large part of the reason for Calliope being the hugely increasing density of population on Auckland's North Shore.

In the 1930s a regular feature of the Club runs was the handicap run-in after the packing exercise.  The harriers would cover their five to seven mile courses which were usually a mix of road and country.  All would then participate in a handicap run-in. These ranged in distance from 75 yards to 880 yards, with 220 yard and 440 yard distances being very popular.  From 1940 on the run-ins became over the conventional distances that we know today.

There was probably no marathon in the world other than Calliope Harriers' Reidbuilt marathon where the major prize at stake each year was a brand new house.  This was the prize promised by Calliope patron and sponsor Mr E Reid of Reidbuilt Homes.  The only small catch was that the house would only be built for any runner who went under two hours!  Jeff Julian won the first marathon in 2h 21m 28s, a time never bettered subsequently and an excellent time for the circuitous course.  No new house though for Jeff.  In the mid-sixties Auckland's marathon runners only had two opportunities each year to compete over the distance, both occasions being in summer.  Calliope felt a winter marathon would be welcomed, and so the Calliope winter marathon first run in 1965 came into being.  The number of finishers in the Reidbuilt averaged in the forties from 1965 to 1974 (remember in those days marathons were run only by serious runners) but then started to climb.  In 1977 94 finished and 137 in 1978.  This dramatic increase in numbers made the circuit difficult to manage due to lap scoring and traffic problems and footpath congestion.  Laurie Bassett, never one to take a step backwards, became the first Calliope harrier to finish a marathon with a broken thumb, sustained in an altercation with spectators at the 5k mark during the 1978 Reidbuilt.  In 1979 the event was shifted to a course based on Whenuapai airbase and Herald Island.  From 1975 to 1981 the race was the Auckland marathon championship and it created a high profile for Calliope, enhancing its deserved reputation as a Club that was a competent organizer and manager of major events. 

A 24-hour relay race was instigated  by Takapuna Harrier Club in 1962 with the Calliope team winning comfortably.  Five runners made up each team and Calliope's Laurie Vincent started for the Club by running non-stop for two and three quarter hours.  Later in the race shorter runs proved necessary to keep Takapuna at bay.  In 1981 Calliope resurrected the event. Thirteen teams lined up and in what proved to be the most titanic struggle ever witnessed on the North Shore, Calliope A won the 24-hour race by only 27 seconds from a gallant Pakuranga.  The two teams started with two-lap segments (7.2 miles) per man but by the finish they were down to frantic 200 meter repetitions.  Mention has to be made of Calliope E team.  Consisting solely of sprinters they had dropped with fatigue by daybreak.  A timekeeper heroically filled in by running a lap for them but found them still sound asleep at 5.30 am.  He let sleeping jogs lie.  Another relay was held in 1983 but this time Takapuna had a comfortable win.  In conjunction, Gary Regtein was attempting to regain the 24 hour road running record a Frenchman had taken off him.  He had to withdraw after covering 155.6k in 14 hours.  He was not on pace and it did not help that he had had bottles thrown at him.

In 1988 the Birkenhead City Centennial fun run in which there were 600 participants was organised by Calliope Harrier Club.  The culmination of the club's successful record as an organiser of large-scale running events was the securing of the right to manage the Hyatt-Kingsgate Half Marathon in 1989.  The result was an outstanding success, and Calliope has continued to organise it to the present day.  Every year a big effort is put in by all Calliope members and supporters.  It is no exaggeration to say that it has been a major success for Calliope, both for forging greater unity within the club and for providing Calliope with financial stability.

Like most clubs, Calliope has had its share of top runners.  Norm Ambler  was the club's first star.  In 1936 a 16-year-old "possessed of a long stride and an easy body action" was an easy winner of the Auckland junior cross-country championship at Avondale.  That was the first of Norm Ambler's many Auckland titles.  Ambler, a naval rating, had his racing career interrupted in many of the war years.  In 1945 he won the Great Eastern Road Race by 440 yards.  In the same year he won the Auckland cross- country championship by a huge margin.  "His performance can be summed up in one word - magnificent."  The six and a quarter miles with 28 obstacles was covered in 33m 21s.  Two weeks later he could finish only second in the New Zealand cross-country championships at Wingatui to the man he had easily beaten all season, W J Potter.  Like most of the other runners of his day, he trained no more than three days a week and over distances about two-thirds the race distances.

Ian Studd's greatest achievement was third place in the 1966 Empire Games held in Jamaica.  In running 3m 58.4s he became only the fifth New Zealander to break the four minute mile barrier.  He also finished tenth in the three miles in 13m 25.8s.  Long before then though his talent was apparent.  Joining Calliope Harrier Club in 1960 as a 16-year-old, he made an immediate impact.  Studd was a full participant in Calliope Harrier Club, but a lot of his best running was on the athletic track, where he took national titles over distances from the half-mile to three miles.

In a brief but brilliant career Jeff McLaren in 1978 and 1979 won virtually every junior men's event he started in.  His culminating effort was winning the 1979 national junior road championship title.  Like a number of other Calliope harriers, his full potential was never realised.  In his first race as a veteran, Robert Joy was placed 25th in the colts race at the 1984 Massey cross-country.  Joy in reality had made easy work of the veterans' cross-country, finishing well ahead of ace runner Dave Sirl and the rest of the large field.  Of small stature, he was mistaken for a colt.  Until 1980, when he moved to Auckland, Joy hadn't once missed making the Wellington provincial team national cross-country championships in ten years.  He also held many road race lap records.  In Calliope colours he continued where he had left off.  Described as a feared competitor in any veteran race, he capped off 1985 by winning first the Auckland veteran road championship and then the New Zealand veteran road race championship.

Tenacious and relentless.  Words that well describe Roger Weatherley, a top runner both on the road and over country.  His peak years were between the mid-60s and late 70s.  By 1974 Weatherley had represented Auckland ten years in a row at harriers.  He won the Calliope Reidbuilt Marathon twice, first in 1973 when he recorded his best time of 2h 23m 25s and then in 1975 when it was for the Auckland title.  Weatherley was plagued with injuries over the years.  But for an unfortunate injury in 1974, he may have made the Commonwealth Games marathon field.  As a final challenge, in 1994, Weatherley decided at age 50 to try to win the Calliope veteran 40+ cross-country title.  After a great tussle the winner was:  Roger Weatherley.