President’s Report
July 2014
Hello Members
Well, here we are into July and winter has well and truly arrived with some dreadful weather experienced, especially on Sundays. During a recent committee meeting, we decided in the event of inclement rain Graham and I will contact each other at 7.00 a.m. on the Sunday morning and decide whether the run will go ahead or not. If we decide to cancel the run, Michael Sharp will put a posting on the ORC website advising the run has been cancelled and Renai McArdle will put a notice on Facebook. This will be done by 8.00 a.m.; I will also try to get 2GZ to put an announcement across the radio. In relation to Wednesday runs, we will still go to Elephant Park and only if there is lightning/hail or torrential rain will we cancel the run.
I have had contact from Athletics NSW and have arranged with them for any ORC members that want to run at ANSW meets can join by using this link:- https://memberdesq.imgstg.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=registration_0&RegistrationMode=1&OrgID=52. You will find Orange is part of the drop down menu. ANSW have also set up automatic number allocation which means the numbers will automatically be sent out to anyone that registers and should arrive within a week.
You will have all seen at the runs the money tin for Francine Sammut. Unfortunately poor Francine has a dreadful battle on her hands and the recent treatment she is receiving is very powerful and costs a lot of money. Brett has been a member of ORC for about 7 years, he joined to overcome his own personal battle with depression. Through that time Brett has gone from being a runner to a unique ironman and has always given his thanks to ORC for putting him on the right path. Since Francine was first diagnosed with cancer Brett has done many “looney” events (even wearing a pink tutu) to raise money for cancer research and you will all remember earlier this year he did an indoor ironman and raised in excess of $15,000 for the McGrath Foundation. Now it is time for us to help our mate and it would be great if you could put some spare change into the tin at each run. The club has also donated $200 on behalf of the members.
I have more bad news, and many of the old members of the club will remember Jordan Cheney. What a man, I used to call him “Forrest Gump” as every time I use to be out somewhere, Jordan would be running in some direction. When Jordon first joined the club he was very plump (and he wouldn’t mind me saying that) and through the help of Gary Williams lost about 30 kgs and was a born runner. He conquered many marathons, won a lot of prizes and was always helping the runners club out. Jordon has terminal pancreatic cancer and his family are hosting a night at Newstead Bowling Club on Saturday 16 August from 6.30 p.m. to 9.30 p.m. It is a comedy night and tickets cost $20 each with all proceeds going to pancreatic cancer research. Jordon is hoping that some of the old gang from ORC, along with our newer members, will come along and support him in his fundraiser. Details can be obtained from the following link:- http://www.stickytickets.com.au/18109. Why not get a few of your ORC friends together and make a night of it all for a good cause.
On a brighter note, the 2014 Christmas Party will be held at Nashdale Hall on 29 November. It will be similar to last year and we are hoping that we have another good roll up. There will be lucky prizes, a major door prize, lollies for the children, a visit from Santa and of course presentation of all the annual awards. Please put the date in your diary and more details will be forthcoming shortly.
We are going to start and compile yearly the “milestone birthday people”. That means if you have had an important birthday this year, i.e. turning 10,20,30,40,50,60,70 we will be asking you in November to make yourself available for a photo which will be kept on our history records and also sent to the CWD for publication.
Handicapper and timing guru Michael has been on holidays for 2 weeks. John Hannan, Sharon Fahy and myself are attempting the timing. To top things off Sharon and myself have been away as well so poor John has had to cope on his own. It just goes to show that we desperately need more people to learn how to operate the computer. I remember last year asking for people to put their hands up to learn the system and unfortunately not one person responded. Please give this matter your consideration, it’s not too difficult and even if you learn as a “team” with your friend or partner the whole learning process will be easier.
Billy and I have been in Canberra this past week and on Saturday we took part in the Parkrun event. For those of you who do not know, this event takes place every Saturday morning in various cities throughout Australia at 8.00 a.m. and covers a 5 km distance. I know that Michael Sharp does one in Sydney and Daryl Roweth competes in Canberra. It is really easy to enter on-line and Michael has even arranged for your name to be linked to Orange Runners Club. So, the next time you are travelling anywhere, check out to see if there is a Parkrun event. One word of advice, make sure you get the location of the starting point right, unlike two people who will remain anonymous and ended up having to run out of their comfort zone to get to the starting line.
Congratulations to all who competed at the Gold Coast. It is a great time away and Billy and I missed not going up this year. Congratulations to Mitch Williamson who come 10th in the 10 km event, amazing results. Leanne Corcoran is now a “marathoner” and completed the 42 kms in the amazing time of 3hrs 24mins. Also running the marathon was Daryl Roweth, Mitch Essex, and Brett Sammut. Pam Fullgrabe and Lynda Chapman completed the 21kms. A number of members also completed the 10km and 5 km events with Wayne Stewart doing an amazing time of 47:48 – 6/41 in his age group!
August sees the infamous City2Surf followed by the Mudgee Running Festival weekend. ORC is a strong supporter of the Mudgee event and we hope to have a good turn out again this year. Normally, we all dine together on the Saturday night and Robyn Cotten has booked for 40 at the Oriental Hotel. If you plan to join the gang for the Saturday evening please give me your name.
Thank you to Jim Rich for handling the mats in the month of June and now Julie and Mark Chapman having kindly offered to do the job for July. Once again we are looking for volunteers to do the mats on a Sunday for the latter part of the year.
That is all for now. Please contact any members of the committee if you have any matters you wish to discuss.
Happy running
Jane Fairgrieve – President