President’s Report

4 October 2014

Hello members.

Well, here we are into October already! I didn’t do a newsletter for September, with one thing or another, plus our laptop was in “hospital” for 2 weeks , so the month of September got away from me at a great lick.

Firstly, I hope you are all well and ready to crank up the training now that spring is here. It is good to see the back end of the colder days, however saying that anything is possible climate wise for Orange.

No doubt you will all know that Connor Whiteley did a splendid job at the Nationals in Perth. It was a great experience for the young lad and the financial assistance offer to him by ORC was greatly appreciated by his parents.

Congratulations to Brian Sharp who won his age group in City2Surf, what a great achievement. Brian recently turned 70, what an inspiration he is to us all. The ever consistent Mitch Williams also did incredibly well in the Blackmores Sydney run coming 3 overall in the 9km event. Talking of Blackmores the ladies trip was once again a fun time and I believe there was plenty of talking and shopping done besides the running. I know Renai McArdle was absolutely delighted with her time for the half marathon and it is always good to see people achieving their goals after training hard.

Well, the Christmas Party is organised for 29 November 2014 at Nashdale Hall. It will follow the same pattern as last year. There will be a very small nominal fee for attendance and I will let you know all the details shortly. Within the next few weeks we will also be asking for nominations for Runner of Year and Junior Runner of the Year. If you have someone you wish to nominate a form will be made available so you can arrange for your nominee to complete detailing their running achievements for the year.

You will see on calendar for the spring period we have a run at Charles Sturt University and also a “one hour challenge”. Both of these runs were suggested by Mark Chapman and we are grateful to receive any input from members. The one hour challenge will consist of whatever you want – you can run as hard as possible for an hour or you can walk/jog for an hour, the idea will be to see how many laps of Elephant Park you can do in the hour. We are also currently looking at re-introducing a run on Emu Swamp Road, thanks to John and Sue Betts suggestion. Once we have checked out the course and the safety aspect of being on the road, I will let you know our thoughts.

The relay held in September was successful and it was great to see so many old ex-members turn out for the fundraiser for PanCare Foundation. Thank you to all who donated to the cause and our guest, Jordan Cheney was very appreciative of the donations. Jordan was the Vice President when Billy and I joined ORC, 13 years ago. It is very sad to see such a vibrant man now suffering from pancreatic cancer. Thanks also goes to our BBQ team – Sharon Fahy, Sandy Ostini, Bec Fairgrieve and chief cook – Mal Gregor, they did any excellent job feeding the troops. Club member, Kay Davis, instigated the idea of a BBQ for Jordan, so thanks Kay for the suggestion.

I have ORC singlets available for sale – $16 each. Most sizes are available, however childrens’ sizes are very limited – so first in best dressed! Please see me either on a Wednesday or Sunday if you want to purchase a singlet.

The Running Festival committee have hit a bit of a brick wall with not one member of ORC offering assistance to help organise the team challenges. What is going on here, it is not like our club members to shy away from helping out. As you all know, this is a new committee and a lot of them are all new members to ORC, so, please consider helping them – they need your help and at this rate they will be worried they won’t get any assistance from anyone for anything….. surely not! Discuss it amongst yourselves what you can do to assist and let Erin or David Gibson, Renai McArdle, John Betts, Iain McLean or Fiona Mackin know urgently. Remember, volunteers are not limited to ORC members, you may have a friend or relative that would like to help out.

Thank you to Wayne Stewart and Brian Sharp for taking the mats to the Sunday runs for the months of August and September. We will need more help in this area come January 2015. See myself, Bill, or Graham if you are happy to volunteer for a month.

That will do for now until next time, take care and run safely. Remember if you have anything to discuss please contact any committee member.

Regards

Jane Fairgrieve

President