Volcanic Challenge

We had no Sunday club run, however a vast number of members pulled on the running shoes and took on the might of the 11km Great Volcanic Mountain Challenge that gave over 300 participants a good heart starter to a very pleasant sunny morning. The organisers Goldseekers Orienteering would be well pleased with the turn out and in particular the number of out of town visitors.

A very hard event for all competitors, however there are some who just take to the hilly terrain and actually enjoy the challenge. Looking through the results there were a number of club members who really did very well; obviously Melissa Watson and we always claim Emily Lamrock as a one of us finishing 1-2 in the female event and Tom Gleeson finishing 2nd in the male contest. Great runs too to Jared Sullivan (9th) Peter Mueller (14th) and Aiden Whiteley (20th) and 2nd age who all clocked in the top 20.

Others to finish in the top 3 of their age group categories were Connor Whiteley (1st) Jack Daintith (2nd) David Craig (3rd) Frehiwot Ward (1st) Judy Tarleton (2nd) Penny Chandler (1st) Basil Baldwin (1st) Jim Flucker (2nd) and Laura Auberson (1st)

News through Facebook with another couple of standout finishes, Brian Penrose (103min) knocked 36 minutes from last year’s torture and Brett Sammut (80min) a big 22 minutes personal best. She supports every event going and almost has Orange as second home, Narromine’s Kate Brien, who lives on Facebook went over the line in 76 minutes (2nd age); she’ll get great support from the Orange crowd in Canberra on April 10 where she is entered for the 50km ultra marathon along with Brett Sammut.

Congratulations to Penny Chandler in particular who has come back from an extensive absence from the sport from a foot injury caused I believe at work. Since Penny returned she has continued to improve gradually and right now appears to be reaching the level she was at prior to her injury, if not going even better. Saturday mornings sees her out with the group at 6.30am doing the long training runs and I am sure that she is turning up in Canberra in a fortnight to tackle the half marathon distance of 21km.

I must also pick out the older brigade in the over 70’s that finished 1-2 in the category. Veteran orienteering champion Basil Baldwin not only was part of organising the event, he ran the course in an incredible 81 minutes and finished 80th over all. Basil has also been laid off with injury for a year and he has returned fully fit, he advised that he would not return to running until his body told him it was time. We haven’t seen much of the wiry Scotsman Jim Flucker of late, however he must have been doing the hard yards around home as he finished the course in a great 100 minutes, many of us much younger than these guys would be very happy with those times.

The final pick of the leading age contenders is one of our younger members Laura Auberson who took out 1st place in the female 16-18 age category. Laura has also been turning up for the Saturday early morning starts courtesy of Mum who has to drive her there and back home, it has been paying dividends and her finishing time of 76 minutes another great achievement.

105 minutes also a great finishing time for one of the Running Festival organisers and terrific club person Graham Fahy. Graham is always there willing to assist the club when necessary and he has been training very hard on the road and Gary’s gym to shed the kilos and improve his fitness level. Looking good and he will be well pleased with last Sunday’s performance.

Numbers have been good on a Wednesday nights at Elephant Park and once again a big gathering of 114 greeted the starter. We really must acknowledge the commitment of both Robyn Cotten who turns up rain, hail or shine and Michael Sharp who collates all the results.

Wednesday’s winner was one of our younger members Noah Ward and in doing so crossed the line just over 14 minutes. Relatively new members to the club the Wards’ turn out in force and good to see large family groups keeping fit.

Each week we have a list of personal best times and again more to report. Another 9s best for Anthony Daintith who just keeps popping up, looks like he will soon be breaking the 12 minute mark. Ella Lamrock knocked a massive 2m22s off her best time and finished the 3km in 18m54s, Josh Nagle is flying, only 1s P.B. but a terrific 10m49s.

Logan Whiteley is only 5 years old and quite recently managed to run out the 3km without walking. Since then he just wants to run and again broke his best time and in doing so also broke the 18 minute mark, finishing in 17m59s. Plenty more to come from the wee chap and he comes from a talented running family so has plenty encouragement.

Alistair (IT) Merrifield has come on board after a number of prods to turn up, the Kiwi import has also made such an improvement in only four Elephant Park runs that it just has to reach a limit. Alistair’s first jaunt was a leisurely 14m dead, in saying leisurely there are a vast number of members that would gladly accept it as a personal best. Over the next three weeks he has reduced his time by half a minute each run and in clocking 11m53s on Wednesday took another 40 seconds from his previous best. I’m very curious to see what next week brings, at this rate of improvement Alistair will be up there with the club’s big guns, workmate Matt Dean (11m18s) will soon be looking over his shoulder.

Too late to go to print but we held our Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Friday night, I trust all members will congratulate the new list of office bearers that were voted in at the meeting. April is the start of our financial year, once again our subscriptions fall due and should be paid as soon as possible. Membership forms must be completed each year and handed in to the club treasurer in a sealed envelope with the correct money please. The annual cost will be advised with details from the AGM.

This Sunday we are back to normal and we will all be looking forward to our 10am start at one of our favourite venues Bulgas Road, without mentioning names (Linda, Liz, Coral, Helen) a reminder to a number of members that the clocks do go back one hour in the early hours. The Bulgas Road runs are over a choice of 3, 5 and 10km and certainly the hardest finish we have with the 1.2km climb back up the hill. For those picking the 10km event for the 1st time, it also has some infamous climbs and descents, but a good hard run.