Great run at Clergate School

We were back at Clergate School on Sunday for out Mother’s Day run and while a few mothers stayed at home for brekkie in bed we had a good turnout of 66 taking on the undulations; those who ran out the 10km distance also came across a hole the a bus would have been lost in. Thank you to both Gary Williams and Graham Fahy who marked out the course for us, Gary was out there nice and early before golfing in the Wentworth championships, he will be able to attend the run next week unfortunately.

A few members have recently reached milestone with Brad Simmons having his 200th run, Graham Fahy and James Hennessy 300 and Tom Gleeson 500; Tom may have 500 runs with the club but I would imagine over 20,000 runs on his own, he’s out there every day.

Richard Eggleston had his first run with us and took on the 10km challenge finishing in a very creditable 57m37s; he appears determined to get fit and that’s a good start on a challenging course, he will face another hard one when he takes on Berrilee Road Sunday next.

Sunday’s winner and no real surprise to see her up there after some rousing runs of late was pint sized Isabelle Clarke-Randazzo who is improving out of sight. The youngsters nowadays don’t seem to tire and Isabelle tore over the 3km in a very impressive 17m06s. The 3km placegetters at the weekend were all younger club members apart from Gary Taylor who took on the short course for a change. He was later found to be dining out at a Mother’s Day function so must have had reason to get home quick for a shower and change of clothes.

Stepping up in distance recently is Melissa Fogarty who has always been seen doing the shorter trips. A hard run to take on but Melissa trudged around the 10km in just over the hour mark. Over a well earned drink of water Melissa advised that she has decided to step up her fitness levels and wants to take on the challenge of a triathlon in the forthcoming spring or summer. She could be another contender for a half marathon by the looks of things?

Unfortunately a bit of club etiquette coming out of our Clergate run; a number of empty plastic cups were left strewn over the place; please ensure that we do not a repeat occurrence, thank you.

From the sunshine of the weekend the Elephant Park run on Wednesday was greeted by 52 finishers on a night suited to sitting by the fireside, looks like winter is upon us? I expected to see 20 people maximum so a big turnout. Last checked at 4pm the temperature was -1 degree with the wind chill factor, at 5pm it certainly wasn’t any warmer! A mass start and the rain did come on as expected.

Anyway, there are a number of members that will run in all conditions with the handicap winner being IT Alistair Merrifield who certainly had an excuse to run fast after turning up in shorts and t shirt. It’s been a while in coming but coming originally from NZ he would be used to Wednesday’s temperatures. Another personal best of 17 seconds for Mr IT and a time of 11m13s, quite amazing as he ran 14 minutes only a couple of months ago, foxing with the handicapper I would say.

Surprisingly we had more personal best runs over the slightly shorter course:
Dan Benton ran 11 seconds faster in a time of 10m52s. Dan has just recovered from his unfortunate attempt at the Port Macquarie Ironman, he had to pull out after 3km of the swim leg due to sickness. After months of intense training for the 3.8km swim, 180km cycle and 42.2km run it is such a pity not to be able to compete.
Bradyn Nicole had a 33 second P.B. in 15m56s
Cassie Bland improved by 2 seconds in 13m07s
Kyle Ostini a great run of 10m36s and a P.B. of 3 seconds
Josh Nagle also flying and a 6 second P.B. in 10m41s
A massive best run for Ethan Crisp who finished in 14m21s, an improvement of 1m17s, that is not easy when running those sorts of times, well done.

As expected, the crowd didn’t hang around for long at the finish, it was dark and just a horrible night. Well done to all who turned anyway, in particular the hoard of youngsters who completed a torrid 3km.

With the Mudgee running festival looming mid August, president Frank has set Kay Davis the challenge of doing her first half marathon, could be on the cards with Kay going so well at the moment. Although still a bit ahead of time, please consider a family outing to Mudgee on 20/21 August, there are choices of 5km, 10km, half and full marathon to choose from. We normally have in excess of 60 go over and a great way of club bonding in a very relaxed atmosphere.

This Sunday our run is at Berrilee Road with a 10am start. The Berrilee Road turnoff is located on Cadia Road approximately 3km past the turnoff from Forest Road near Gosling Creek.

Peter Mueller is making the long trip to the south coast and participating in the Great Ocean Road Marathon, an extended 45km event from Lorne to Apollo Bay. The forecast for Sunday is 9-15 degrees in the area with a wind into the runner’s faces, have a great run Peter and good luck.

Only three names mentioned that are going to Sydney to compete in Sunday’s Half Marathon, good luck to Judy Tarleton, Lynda Chapman and Ian Crafter. Lynda is also going to the Gold Coast in early July and has yet to nominate if she will compete in the half or face the training in Orange’s cold and go for her second full marathon?

Finally to Joel Kitto and we all wish him the best for a quick recovery. Joel had a bicycle accident and last Monday went through a 7 hour operation in Sydney, returning home on Friday to start a long recovery phase. Best wishes to Joel from all club members.

RESULTS:
3km Female 1st Alice Bowmer 16.40 2nd Kinisha Roweth 16.51 3rd Isabelle Clarke-Randazzo 17.06
3km male 1st Craig Randazzo 2nd Gary Taylor 17.43 3rd Bryce Ostini 20.30
5km female 1st Frehiwot Ward 22.59 2nd Katelyn Strike 24.10 3rd Kimmie Jarvis 28.52
5km male 1st Connor Whiteley 22.37 2nd Jim Rich 23.46 3rd Tony Fitzpatrick 23.48
10km female 1st Karen Neal 45.19 2nd Jane Fairgrieve 54.53 3rd Kay Davis 56.38
10km male 1st Brett Rosser 40.37 2nd Brad Simmons 40.55 3rd Tom Gleeson 41.28