New start time for Wednesdays and a Trip Back in Time
Next week hails the beginning of winter and with it a further reminder to all members that the Wednesday Elephant Park events will start at the new time of 4.45pm prompt with announcements starting at 4.35pm; please register prior to the announcements.
Before getting down to the details of the events from last week take time out to log into the Runners Club website (www.orangerunners.com.au) and have a look at the very interesting report entered by Mike Sharp, find it under recent posts and headed ‘Trip back in time’. It lists the results in order of best times from the Berrilee Road 8.1km compared to the same event run in May 1980. There were some excellent runners back then and note the three fastest times all came from 1980, namely Michael Bullen 27m42s, Gary Williams 28m43s and Gary Taylor 29m50s.
Gary Taylor, 21 years later still goes round with the club and is our top rated number of starts with 1,233 to date. Just coincidence that he comes up in the above report as he took out the handicap event on Wednesday at Elephant Park, unusual for a backmarker and in a time of 14m14s.
On to Sunday’s run at Gosling Creek and good conditions saw 83 members cross the finish line. A surname that is coming up often took out the handicap honours with Matthew Ward the winner, running the 9.6km out in 48m05s.
Certificates were presented to Glenn Oborn who completed his 300th run and David Craig his 100th. Glenn’s certificate was a bit rusty as he hasn’t been seen on too many occasions in the past few months; however back into it and admitted to struggling around the 4.6km in a much slower than usual 28m41s. It was good to see Glenn turn up again on Wednesday. David has just returned from a month in Europe but still managed to go the full 9.6km in a good time of 44m49s and will no doubt improve on that shortly.
Again taking on the long run was Melissa Fogarty who has recently stepped up her distances significantly; her time for the 9.6km was just a tick over 56 minutes, a good run. Melissa has indicated that she wants to improve her fitness with the intention of taking on a triathlon event at the end of the year.
Tiffany Baker is a relatively new member and good to see someone running along with a smile on their face. Obviously enjoying her running she is currently handling the mid distances well and covered the 4.6km in 28m19s, more improvement to come and good to see her bringing hubbie along last Sunday.
Also a reminder that the ladies will be hitting Sydney for their annual trip away; Blackwood’s Running Festival is held in September and numbers are required so that accommodation, meals and travel arrangements can be made. If interested in talking, shopping, more talking and of course possibly (not compulsory) participating in the event, please advise either Pam Fullgrabe or Karyn Snare as soon as possible.
News from Canberra and a group of four making the trip to the Canberra Half Marathon. Youngster Jack Daintith finished a terrific 2nd in the 1.6km under 12 event in a fast 7m07s (4m27s per km), he’s going very well right now. Anthony Daintith ran the 5km in 21m30s and the next morning ran the Half Marathon in a magical 1hr35m. Jack joined his uncle in the relay and did half the distance (10.5km) in 50m25s, not bad for an 11 year old; he also ran a personal best on Wednesday finishing in 11m28s.
Also doing the half and no surprise at all to see well travelled Brett Sammut there and finishing in just under the 2 hours, where to next Brett? Like a duck to water Daryl Roweth took up running with the club in the last year and his improvement has been astonishing; Daryl almost improved by 7 minutes on his previous best over the distance and covered the 21.1km in a very creditable 99m40s. He also had a personal best on Wednesday finishing in 11m59s.
Mitch Williamson made the long trip to Cobar and finished a terrific 2nd in the Cobar Mile run on sand around the local trotting track. The winner was the Australian 1500m champion I think named Brad Cooper so a fantastic effort by Mitch in a time of 4m54s. Mitch has run 4m20s in Cobar on a running track so the sand definitely had a major effect on the finishing times.
So to Wednesday, dry and sunny but certainly on the chilly side, however we still had a very encouraging field of 90 finishing the 3km event; aforementioned Gary Taylor was the winner.
Many personal best times were again run and too many to list, however great to see many youngsters improving weekly with area and state school championships looming.
I have picked out Sophie Gordon for mention this week, another improver who has rapidly managed to get her time under the 5 minute per km barrier finishing in a good time of 14m50s. Sophie was also handicapped with the amount of gear she was wearing to ward off the cold windy conditions; she was nestled under a very cosy looking beanie and having once lived in Darwin would certainly have needed it.
Susan Henderson and Kim Roweth, as many do walked the track and finished in 24m33s, plenty of time to discuss what was to made for dinner and whatever came to mind, I don’t expect the State of Origin would be a topic. For anyone interested in joining the club we cater for runners’ right down to walkers, come along and improve your fitness levels.
That’s the last of the reports from Judy Tarleton and I, we now hand over for the next three months to the capable hands of Jane Fairgrieve and Tom Gleeson; If you have any news to report please pass it on.
GOSLING CREEK RESULTS:
4.6km female 1st Laura Auberson 20.44 2nd Estelle Dean 21.25 3rd Frehiwot Ward 23.58
4.6km male 1st Kyle Ostini 18.38 2nd Matt Dean 18.46 3rd Frank Ostini 19.05
9.6km female 1st Amber Rich 42.33 2nd Karen Neal 43.17 3rd Carrie Williamson 46.39
9.6km male 1st Tom Gleeson 35.12 2nd Mitch Williamson 36.45 3rd Neil Williams 38.08
Handicap winner Matthew Ward