Port Macquarie Pacers Running Club

There were three big events where multiple Pacers competed this month. The Sydney Marathon was a windy and difficult day which produced a number of first time marathoners and PBs. Congratulations all. Beach To Brother was run with Hunter taking an outright first which is just amazing for a runner of his age. Coffs Running Festival saw Adam M win the Half Marathon. Numerous minor placings and age group wins were achieved in these as well.

In club events the 5k Spring competition was concluded in a shortened version due to the realigning of our athletics season with the Athletics NSW season. This allowed us to find the winning runners in the 2023/24 season who will be announced at our Annual Awards night coming up very soon. Results for September will carry over into the 2024/25 season Spring competition. The HM/10k Super Series was run with Adam C, Carly, Rob Fish and Kylie J topping the podiums. Well done everyone.

RunHaven is nearly upon us as well as the Annual Awards night and the Hottest 100 Laps so there is lots to look forward to.

Another outstanding month of running in August wrapped up our winter program. The 5k Winter comp saw Kayliana take over 8 minutes off her 5k handicap and Markus over 5 minutes from his. Truly outstanding achievements. Each grade needed over 1 minute or more off to win the grade. The training programs really do work. Thanks, coaches for your efforts to help us all improve.

Other efforts that should be acknowledged are Rob Fish winning the Half marathon at Forster, Carly’s club record in the 10k, Ryan’s great result in the US… I could go on but just have a look at the photos.

The efforts of the Pacer Ladies taking on the City To Surf was my most memorable moment in August. Congratulations to you all.

The biggest memory of July 24 has been the efforts of the legions of Pacers who headed to the Gold Coast Marathon Running Festival. Whether they were jumping onto the Sub 3 hour Blue Wave in the marathon or braving the cold and wet for a family running reunion or just having a wonderful time cruising in the crowd what a fantastic effort from all. Standout performances were the Carrall family get together in the 10k, Rob Fish’s Half club record, Carly and BJ both breaking the old Marathon club record, Neil and Christine winning their Age Groups (8 Age Group Top Ten finishes) …

Back home, Sarah K and Markus both broke their 5k PBs twice; Robbie, Nathan and BJ won their events at The elephant Trail Race and Kyle had a win at The Pacer Pursuit. All this has happened as numerous Pacers have had brilliant results at the School and District Athletics events which have been too numerous to keep track of.

The cool weather and fast approaching GCM have meant many Pacers are hitting peak performance in many different distances and at numerous different events.

• At the club monthly mile Brendon Prince and Hudson McDonald set club PBs
• At the Pacer Super Series event

10km:

• Karina Symonds 48:45 is a 45s PB, last set in Jan 2023
• Haley Branch 49:07 is a 1:50 PB, last set in Sept 2022
• Jess Hammond 53:13 is a 1:15 PB, last set in June 2022

HM:

• Paul Gagliardi 1:17:55 is a 2:01 PB, last set in April 2022, and 7th fastest club HM of all time
• Brendan Prince 1:23:00 is a 21s PB, last set in March 2024.

Parkrun

• Neil Carrall ,broke his new age category record at parkrun by over a minute
•  Josh Sund ran a 30s parkrun PB; our newest member of the #sub17 club, with a 16:59
• Our 5k club record was obliterated with Carly taking over 30s off it, becoming just the 3rd female in Port parkrun history to break 18.

SWR RunFest personal bests

5km Harrison Blackman

10km Corrinne Medlin, Grace Ashton

HM Josh Sund, Kyle Connolly, Fi Bagley, Bec Dwyer, Erinn Smith, Carly Terrett (2 minute club record)

Marathon Jimmy Hamm (2^nd fastest marathon in club history).

So much happened in May in Pacertown. Pacers were spotted competing all over the place. Congratulations to all those who competed with outstanding results from Mel, Vicki and Rob. Our 2nd quarterly 5k championships wrapped up with the top performers all being over a minute faster than their 5k handicap. Special mention to Lee and Meaghan who both continue their amazing improvements. We got to say thankyou to Sue for her many years of service to parkrun as she stood down from the ED role on the same morning that we saw the one off return of our most successful export Ryan (best wishes on his continued success OS).

What an effort by the Pacer crew at NewRun this year. Beginning with Maree’s Age Group win on the first weekend. She was faster than all the competitors in the next younger division and would have been on the podium for the age group under that. What a fantastic achievement. Then on the second weekend Adam Mainey’s outright 2^nd in the marathon, Adam Carroll age group first, with AG podium finishes for Steve, Jodie, Jon and Kylie. Ed, Brendan and Fi also achieved top 10 AG finishes. An amazing number of podiums. Congratulations to all the Pacer competitors at NewRun who wore the colours and did us proud whether making these lists or just enjoying the day.

Pacers were also spotted at New York marathon, Canberra Marathon weekend, Sydney’s Backyard ultra and racing for the best spot at the feeding trough of a cruise liner. Brilliant to see you out there.

An early recount of Pacer happenings this month has to start with the celebration of our Juniors’ achievements in March. Three outright winners at Port RunFest, nine other podium finishes, Little Athletics State medals and PBs, Athletics NSW Youth Championships gold and silver …the list seems endless. Congratulations to all the athletes involved. It is so good that you are a part of our club.

In the senior ranks the thing that stands out has been the results of the Wednesday afternoon group who are either in the early stages of their running activities or returning from long lay offs. Lee and Meaghan especially stand out in my mind. Well done and thanks JB for running this program.

Summer has officially finished and with it our first 5K Summer Championships where we raced against our own handicap times. Our first batch of winners were Grace C, Tim, Lisa, Bernard, Leigh, Lee, Shirley, Meaghan, Grace M and Arlo. Congratulations all. With the Autumn Championship beginning straight away they will need to run even quicker to claim top spot next time. There is hope for the rest of us.

In other outstanding results the Carrolls came back from New Zealand with 4 podium finishes between them, Rob Fish won his age group in Sydney while Adam M and Fi both finished on the podium in big races in the Hunter and Northern Tasmania. Meanwhile the Pacer Juniors were well represented at Regional champs in Little Athletics with Grace M, Mollie, Nate and Hunter being some of the medallists. Tadgh blitzed the 10k to win our monthly longer race sharing the top of the podium with Carly.

The icing on the cake came when 60 plus members turned up on time for our much awaited club photo before parkrun and added to the runners who couldn’t make it that early we had an extremely impressive number of blue shirts in the field.

Pacer January Review

We were in the summer hiatus for scheduled training and club events for much of January with only the new 5k Championships continuing. By the end of January though we have had the restart of Pacer Sunday monthly events with the Pursuit, Strength Training returning at Macquarie Park on Wednesday afternoons and the Athletics NSW season resuming at the Country Championships in Wollongong. The 10k Super Series restarts this coming weekend as well.

In the news Jon travelled all the way to the USA to compete in the Louisiana marathon and smash it in the cold. Well done (9th overall, 1stAge Group and 1st Masters). Gary travelled to Wollongong to pick up a couple of podium places at the Masters while locally Steve Ashton finished 1st in the pursuit. In late news Molly C earned a podium place and a Silver Medal at the NSW Combined Event Championships at the weekend. Congratulations Molly.

In the 5k championships with spectacular PBs run recently Bernard, Lily and Meaghan have made big moves on the leadership board. As it stands the leaders are Fi (Diamond Women), James and Steve (Diamond Men), Lily (Platinum W), Bernard (Platinum M), Leigh (Gold W), Pat (Gold M), Luana (Silver) and Meaghan (Bronze). There is plenty of time for all members to improve their positions in February when the Summer 5k comp will end,

December started with the Kosciusko UTMB with a small group of Pacers making the long trip and taking on the mountain over a variety of distances with 50k being the shortest. Amazing efforts from all. BJ top 10 overall and 1st in Age Grade. Timo also got a podium age grade result. Respect to all.

The rest of the Pacer community could take it easy as our Club competitions were in hibernation but this did not stop numerous runners breaking their Port parkrun PB’s. Special mentions to Ellie and Bernard who set 3 new Port Pb’s over the month and Theo, Patrick, Tim and Zoe who each set 2 new PB’s. Impressive milestones were set for parkrun participation. The tourists were out and about as usual. Thanks to everyone for an inspiring year and the future has never looked brighter.