Pitter patter of many feet

Article by Kinisha Roweth

Well our Festival weekend has arrived.  The Orange Runners Club, welcomes all of the out of town runners and their families to Orange and we, as a club, are looking forward to everyone having a great time during the weekend.   Weather conditions look good. We have entrants from 0 to 78, a number of overseas runners, a bag full of elite athletes, a truck load of participants that love to run and many trying to achieve their personal best, be it to finish a distance or achieve a time goal.

Entries for the Hotel Canobolas 5km, Bupa 10km, Athlete’s Foot Half Marathon, John Parsons Hotel Marathon are still being accepted today at the Leisure Centre (just behind the Hospital) Bloomfield between 11.00am and the 2.00pm entry cut off (No entries will be taken on Sunday).

The first race gets under way this afternoon at Gosling Creek 4.00pm.  The under 13’s will line up in the Pete’s Car Wash Junior Dash, Happy the St George Dragon is looking to improve on his time from last year.

Tomorrow races get under way at 6.30am.  Teams will also line up in the Waratah Early Learning Centre School Challenge, John Davis Motors Business Challenge and the Southern Cross Austereo Sports Challenge all covering the distance of 5km.   For those that are really on the edge, The Coco’s Insane Challenge will see a number of runners race in several of the races.

Those runners doing the longer distance events, who wish to have special needs items or drinks put out on the course, need to have them at the information booth by 5.45am Sunday morning.

So if you are not participating come along and be a spectator.  We have a number of Australian Representatives competing.

This year the groups to benefit from our Festival are 2nd Orange Scouts, Rural Fire Service, St Johns Ambulance, Orange Hospital Auxiliary, Spring Terrace Public School and Spring Hill Public School.

A big thank you goes out to all the volunteers without you this Festival would not happen.  In particular the Orange Runners Club members who are actually one big extended family, you give your time, you donate gifts and some of you actually get to stand tall like warriors (after volunteering time and energy) on the start line and do us proud.  Good luck to everyone go out and do your best.

In last weeks club runs, Sunday saw around 30 brave Orange Runners Club members (some would say crazy) turn up on a wet Sunday morning at the Botanic Gardens to complete their weekly weekend ritual. The ground was a little soft and more moisture fell during the event, but those that attended weren’t going to let that deter them from getting that run in. Denise Quinlan (14.34) and Sandi Meade were the only ones to do the one lap 1.6km distance. In the 2 lap, 3.2km run Liz Simpson powered along in 13.49 to finish just ahead of first male James Locke (14.53), Lynda Chapman & Letitia Vidler were second and third respectively, while the 4^th placed Kim Roweth had the honour of being declared the overall winner after handicaps are added in.

As usual, Amber Rich put in another outstanding run (20.45) to win the 4.8k overall, with Kinisha Roweth and Jane Fairgrieve second and third. Jack Daintith was too quick in the males beating home Mr Consistency Craig Penrose and ‘Mr PhyzX’ Julian May, who had warmed all runners up with stretches prior to the run.  Some seasoned runners tackled the 6.4km with Wayne Stewart 34.33 the fastest ahead of Gary Taylor and Bill Fairgrieve, while Joanne Allen (36.08) competed with the guys as the only lady to tackle the longer runs on the day.

Brad Simmons (34.04) was a clear winner over the 8k, 5 laps, as he finished clear of Anthony Daintith and Daryl Roweth, with all runners seeming to enjoy their runs despite the conditions.

Wednesday night saw another wet track and run, with small numbers tackling the conditions at Elephant Park. Mitch Williamson (10.12) cruised around the puddles in recording the fastest 3 laps. Chris Lane ran a 42s Personal Best as he got his time down to 13.08, while Ursula Wilson (12.25) put out another great run as she warmed up for this weeks marathon.

Please Note: that the new club singlets are now in, so those who have ordered and payed can pick theirs up and those that have ordered only, now need to pay to get their singlet. Kay Davis and Jane Fairgrieve are the people to see and I think there are some extra’s for available for anyone who is interested.