Mitch’s Wednesday Record
It must be said that Orange Runners Club members are committed to both their club and their running, with over 50 members arriving at Elephant Park before 2012 was even nine hours old. While much of the population were sleeping in or having a slow, relaxed start to the New Year, a gathering of keen runners decided to celebrate its arrival by completing one, two or even three laps of the new Elephant Park course, now known as the Endeavour Park run. Despite most runners experiencing a late night and a quiet beverage or two, fast times were recorded as we battled with warm conditions and the odd sore head! Sunday’s well deserving winner was Glenys Rosser who was looking good after completing one lap, looking strong after two and then continued to complete a third lap at an admirable pace. Well done Glenys!
Sunday’s results were as follows: 2.6km male: 1st – Connor Whiteley, 2nd – Jack Daintith, 3rd – Joel Kitto. 2.6km Female: 1st – Kinisha Roweth, 2nd – Samantha Syme, 3rd – Shannon Syme. 5.2km male: 1st – Anthony Daintith, 2nd – Aidan Whiteley, 3rd – David Craig. 5.2km female: 1st – Liz Simpson, 2nd – Amber Rich, 3rd – Lauren Kerwick. 7.8km male: 1st – Daryl Roweth, 2nd – Matthew Ward, 3rd – Jim Rich. 7.8km female: 1st – Karen Neal, 2nd – Krissy Ward, 3rd – Penny Chandler.
With Orange experiencing hot, summer conditions since New Year’s day, everyone was hoping for better conditions than last week’s Wednesday run. With most of us needing flippers rather that running shoes last week due to the torrential rain Orange experienced between 5 and 5.30pm , it seemed as 5 o’clock approached this week that we were once again going to be in trouble. Thunder was heard, gale like winds started blowing and a few drops came from the skies but it would seem the gods were with us as it amounted to nothing and just cooled things down slightly. With the pouring rain of last week and numbers being down slightly on Sunday, today was the first run since Christmas where members were able to show off their new running gear and accessories. You didn’t have to look all that closely to see new shoes, headbands, compression gear, iphones and ipods and some fresh sporty apparel. It was truly a very fashionable and trendy affair! The handicap winner on the day was Estelle Dean who despite claiming to be tired before the gun went off was still able to run a great time. Well done Estelle.
However, the true highlight of this week’s Wednesday run was the dynamite time and third fastest run in club history recorded by Mitch Williamson. Mitch’s long and speedy strides were longer and speedier than usual and he clocked himself the only pb of the day, knocking 14 seconds off his previous personal best. That’s an incredible 2min52seconds per kilometer. The Elephant Park record was set in 2009 by Daniel Bruton who completed the course in 8.34. So with that record firmly in the sights of Mitch, who knows what times we could witness in future weeks!
This Sunday’s run will be at Gosling Creek with a choice of 2.3km, 4.6km or 9.6km. We also wish our club members either competing in the triathlon at the lake or the New Year’s Athletics Carnival in Dubbo the best of luck and look forward to hearing their results.