Author: Port Pacers

It’s been another busy month, with the main event being the SWR Running Festival, which saw over 55 members competing! A big shout-out to our first time marathoners – Eb, Brent, Michelle and Haley – welcome to the marathon club, and to Mel and Sophie doing their first half. I hope it was everything you were expecting and more. There’s been so many PBs and special achievements this month. We’re all running so well, and with GC just around the corner, and taper started or starting, we wish the best of luck to those that have set goals for the GC event.

As usual we had our array of competitions (though the Pursuit was cancelled due to the clash with other events). The dual format mile saw Dan B join the podium with his evening run while new members Christine and Jodie from the Tri Club also figured in the top 3. Jack had his first win and joined Eb at the top of the podium this month. Many parkrun PBs were achieved with Mark breaking his best twice during the month and Neal’s PB taking him to a win in the parkrun Age Grade Championship where he joined Leah for the Carroll family to top the A Grade podium. Emma and Molly were mini pacers who improved their PBs also.

Pacer parkrun tourists were out and about at Armidale, Forster, Grafton, Maitland, South West Rocks, Taree and Wauchope. In an amazing feat of tourism James managed to appear in 4 different tourist parkruns even bringing home first place at Wauchope last week. Congratulations Jimmy.

Among the celebrations we had Lizzie’s and Nick’s 50^th as well as Lyndsey, Mark and Pat’s 200^th parkrun milestones. Gary came away from Brisbane with an age group win and a sub 90 minute time in the half marathon. A good time was had by all celebrating no one making a fool of themselves on the bare foot bowling green (due to the rain cancellation). We must try again later.

July brings more race travels with the Gold Coast Marathon weekend coming up soon. So here’s hoping GC is on and Covid free with Pacers celebrating success and great results to reward the work put in.

The Marathon Bus Training sessions continued through May as our members prepare for the South West Rocks and Gold Coast Running festivals. Numbers remain high at training sessions and we look forward to welcoming numerous new members into the marathoners club. Good luck to all who will be competing soon and maybe a few other members may even consider the possibility in the future.

We had our usual array of competitions with the new format mile adding interest with the Ladies event bringing podium changes once the evening crew had competed. Adam joined Eb at the top of the podium this month.  Amanda L. won the pursuit joining a select group of qualifiers for the finals which are closing in fast. Many parkrun PBs were achieved  with Bernadette and Melissa both breaking their best twice during the month. Amira and Grace were mini pacers who improved their PBs also.

Pacer parkrun tourists were out and about at Burley Griffin, Campbelltown, Galston, Kirra, Lawson, Mt Penang, Newy, Nulkalba, Urunga, Varsity Lakes and Wauchope. Added to this Steph and Dave were our first Covid international bubble parkrunners at Queenstown.

Among the celebrations we had Jades’ 100^th parkrun at Port Macquarie. The UTA crew came back with amazing trail running stories in the cold. While the GC 30 pair had a 4 star experience despite the queues and late starts.

June brings more race travels with Brisbane, South West Rocks, Sydney and Gold Coast just some of the venues I am aware of while the Port Tri Club have been invited to join Tuesday’s speed session for a training challenge over the winter months. Enjoy your bowling, rehabbing, walking and running.

April saw the Gold Coast Marathon Training group or bus as it is better known kick into gear with a massive contingent of Pacers signing up for races over the GCM weekend but an amazing number of first time marathoners. This has seen the popularity of different training sessions spike with 27 Pacers out our last Pacer West interval session. So good to see. The other standout for me has been the array of Pacers getting out and about at races and parkruns up and down the east coast.

We had our usual array of competitions with the mile taking on a new look as an evening group added fast times to the morning crews efforts and taking half the podium. James won the pursuit with his competition seemingly scared off by his amazing PBs in the mile and parkrun 5ks. Numerous parkrun PBs were achieved by  Paul G, James, Amanda F, Alana and Trent.

Pacer parkrun tourists were out and about at Ashgrove, Bendigo, Bright, Campbelltown, Casino, Coffs Harbour, Lismore, Main Beach, Menai, Parramatta, Queanbeyan, Rooty Hill, South West Rocks, Stockton, The Entrance, The Ponds, Urunga and Warwick.

Among the celebrations we had Karina’ 100^th parkrun at Port Macquarie, Paul’s 50th and Jon’s 200^th parkrun. The NewRun Crew came home with a 20 minute pb and an age group win in the half. The Canberra marathon mob had a pb, a first time finishers and 2 equal times. The lone Gold Coaster had an age group win and 30 year pb in the half marathon.

All this happened as the Super Series cranked into overdrive but with Speed Week beginning on Saturday all things could change so we will report on that later.

March started with the Port RunFest which was a triumph on so many levels. Two senior podiums for Ryan (and age group wins) One senior podium was shared with Trent who won his age group on Sunday as well as the Junior event outright on Saturday which he shared with Grace (who won the Junior event on Saturday as well as her age group). The age group win was also achieved by her sister Emily. Molly also won her age group.

On top of all the podium success the participation levels and stand out achievements were amazing with 10 minute PBs and first timers being successful. Too many to mention. Congratulations to all involved.

As a club we had added some really interesting opportunities for members by the end of March with Plyometric sessions being run by our coaches, speed sessions repeated in the afternoon for the runners who can’t make the pre-dawn session and the Gold Coast Marathon training program in full swing with over 30 registered so far. Get on board the bus if you feel you are missing out.

We had our usual array of competitions with the youngsters taking over on the podium for the men’s mile being a standout and Trish going one better in the pursuit this month having a win with her new hips. Numerous parkrun PBs were achieved with Molly and Nik in the mini Pacers and Paul Gags, Alana, Rhiannon, Amanda F& Dan B in the grown ups.

Pacer parkrun tourists were out and about at Wauchope, SWR, Rhodes, Gloucester, Newy, Woy Woy and St Peters.

Among the celebrations we had James’ 200^th parkrun with an adoring crew trying to emulate his grooming secrets. We also wish to celebrate Trent’s efforts in the state Little A’s running events. 4 events, 4 podiums, 3 wins and 3 Pb’s. Amazing efforts.

In late breaking news the Pacer Mob who descended on the Athletics NSW Country Championships held over the last weekend of Feb at the Mingara Sports Centre were in a rich vein of form running PBs regularly and standing atop the victory dais on numerous occasions. Congratulations to each of you and know that we are all proud to wear the 2 Blues uniform just like you. Highlights included Trent’s multiple wins, Ryan and Keelan winning their 3km age events and Wayne’s bronze in his age group over 5km. Nationals await for Trent and Ryan. This adds to the outstanding performances at the NSW Open 5000 metre championships where Ryan and Keelan both had outstanding performances against the big boys of the sport. Congratulations to all involved.

The start of Feb saw Pacer PMQ parkrun PBs drop regularly but as we neared the longer distances of Port RunFest this quietened down toward the end of the month. Congratulations to Grace, Mitch and Nick from the Mini Pacer crew who beat their best times (and doubly to Grace who had her first parkrun win). Honni, Alana, Bernadette, Dan B, Andy J and Steve also recorded PBs in Feb. Brilliant to see folks.

As usual our monthly competitions were hard fought. Dan W joined the winners in the 8k Handicap Pursuit and has qualified for the Finals in July/August. Trish came a very close second. Eb and Ryan took out the Mile while the winners of the parkrun Age Gradings were Alana, Alice, Dawso, Trish, Dan B, Ebs and Gary (according to the automated system anyhow – and who am I to argue).

Pacers  were on the tourist circuit for more social runs in February as well as the speed crew at the big events. Pacers ran, walked, splashed and paddled at Wauchope, Forster, Coffs, SWR, Main Beach, Taree and everyone’s favourite (after Mads’N’Dan splashing @ Coffs) the Brennans recapturing that spark at Rooty Hill.

There were lots of celebrations with notable ones being Stuarts 100^th parkrun at Port, Jade & Amanda’s 100^th and Chel & Ebs 50^th parkruns.

A full month of parkrun has been enjoyed by a large number of Pacers and mini-Pacers with all sorts of brilliant results and achievements occurring.

Breaking their personal bests at Port Macquarie parkrun were Christie, Alana, Andy O, Brent, Bernadette, Dan B, Keelan and Ryan (twice). Congratulations all. Could the huge number of PBs be a result of all the extra training in preparation for RunFest in a few short weeks.

We celebrated a series of parkrun milestones that we would like to acknowledge as well. It has been a very long wait for all these runners to finally be able to complete their achievements. Well done all.

We had all the usual contests this month with a familiar few names in the mile and parkrun Age Grade Championships as winners but added to that illustrious list was Pip O’Donnell as our 8k Handicap Pursuit winner (all those runners who would like to qualify for the yearly final are starting to run out of opportunities so be sure to come along in Feb to have a crack).

Pacer parkrun tourism was popular again this month.

Parkrun is back. A big thanks to Jon and Sue (and their merry band of helpers). Xmas Day saw the return in Port Macquarie, a week after some other local parkruns were restarted. As expected Pacerdom folk were out and about enjoying their longed for opportunities. Hopefully healthy numbers of Pacers will continue to join in the fun as runners and vollies.

Pacers were also out and about on the parkrun Tourism trail with Taree, Wauchope and Horseshoe Bay (South West Rocks) being popular. But the biggest news in Pacerdom regarding parkrun Tourism was Carina’s visit to Varsity Lakes where she was able to complete her parkrun alphabet (minus the non-existent ‘X’ parkrun of course). Fantastic effort Carina.

As usual Pacer speedweek Mile and parkrun Championship events were held as well as the Pacer 8k Handicap Pursuit (even though the weather and time of the year made this much less competitive than in previous months). Hopefully the (not) parkrun Championships will be the very last with a return to actual parkruns by late December.

In other news the Pacer Virtual app is back up and running providing almost unending info on your running history with the Pacers. Details can found in the Pacers Facebook feed.

Training for our first big event after the restart, the Port RunFest, is now ramping up with our coaches designing 8 week training programs for those interested across 5k, 10k and Buster events. These can also be accessed through the Facebook page. With dozens of Pacers already entered we look forward to a successful return to competitive running events though how social distancing and a big group event will work together remains to be seen.

Finally we as a group would like to acknowledge and thank Larry and Yvette from Storage King Port Macquarie who have given us access to storage for our club ‘stuff’ until a permanent resolution to our problem can be arranged. This resolves an issue that has been of concern for successive committees.

As November 2020 comes to a close, we can look on the bright side and be content that we are now another month closer to the reopening of parkrun and other iconic races we are all missing. Another successful month of pacerdom saw the usual speed week activities and pursuit Sundays but the biggest memory will be the Festival of Trish when we celebrated our beloved Trish’s big birthday with not 1 but 2 social runs with cake rewards at the end. 

Speed Week and Pursuit Results

Pacer Spring parkrun Champions have been finalised after 3 (not) parkrun Speed Week events where contestants were able to accumulate up to 30 points in their grade competition.

In late news the Pacer Super Series extras continued with 10 and 21k times being recorded in what was described as a Sufferfest and while this was on Gary found a parkrun open in Canberra and notched up his 45th different parkrun event.

While we are still in our Covid Apocalypse and unable to compete at any regular events it is our good fortune to be able to compete in the club activities. So even though Beach2 Brother, the rescheduled NewRun and City To Surf were either cancelled or gone virtual we have had a full month of competition plus some. The buzz surrounding the Ryano v The Poachers (1x5km verses 5x1km) challenge will be hard to match.

Speed week once again started the month and while in the gents Ryan and James repeated their grade topping performances as did Karina in the ladies Leigh, Bel and Alana added their names to this illustrious list of monthly winners. A reminder to all parkrun and (not) parkrun competitors your best 5 performances count in the championships.

The Pacer Mighty Mile was run and won with a familiar feel about the individual winners as Ryan and Ebanie stood atop the rostrum again. Ryan in a club record of 4m 43s beat out Andie who beat the adult club record on the day. Ebanie’s time of 6:04 is the best time by a female in the post Kirstin age.

The 11th saw us run our second Pacer Handicap Pursuit 8km Event. Brent, Amanda and Gary were the podium places.

Meanwhile one of our members was able to race against their peers from beyond the club with Ryan competing in the state cross country long course championships and placing on the podium in an outstanding time under 20 minutes for the 6km course. Recent member Trent also had success in his age group. Congratulations to both runners.

Which brings us to the event that created the greatest buzz among the members for many long months. The Ryano v Poachers 5k event where Ryan was expected to run 5k against 5 speedsters taking turns to run 1k each in a relay. The challengers comprised a team who individually held the adult club records for 1k, 1 mile, half marathon, IM and an aging parkrun champion. So much interest was shown that the 1k time trial leading up to the event will no doubt become a more permanent event on our calendar after Paul smashed out a new club record. To cut a long story short Ryan must have been growing tired of seeing the back of his opponents as they streaked away at the start of their legs only for him to wind them back in before the next relay runner set out to break him again. Break him they could not despite numerous personal bests by the challengers and a new club record to Paul of 2m50s, Ryan prevailed in the final sprint to the line. Such entertainment. Brilliant performances all round. So much encouragement that Eb then went a set a new female club record for the 1k as well of 3:31.

The month of September saw the continued cancellation of all the iconic races that Pacerdom would normally be involved in so the new club season is a relief to all the Pacers who were yearning to get out, train and compete. As well as our Speed Week competitive (not) parkrun 5km and the Mighty Mile we had the RAV run (1300km team total and/or 200km individual distances in 19 days), we also ran the inaugural 8km handicap Pacer Pursuit time trial, the Super Series 10km and 21.1km events. On top of this our L plated coaches began structuring our Pacer West interval sessions for us and the Hello Koala sculpture trail social runs began. Highlight performances from Goody, Bernadette and Jo in the half; Dave Chinn in the 10k, Neil and Leigh Carroll in the 5k and Karina in the Pursuit stand out for me.