Author: Port Pacers

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Run Against Violence and The White Ribbon Walk

This fortnight has been all about starting conversations around, and awareness of, domestic violence. About 25 of our members, spread across two pacer teams and others, took part in the bi-annual Run Against Violence – a virtual run from Broken Hill to Luna park – covering 1300km in 19 days. The maths works out at 7km per person per day for the challenge, which sounds easy – until you miss a day or two. Thankfully we all completed the challenge on time and all teams successfully made it to Luna Park.

Meanwhile, the annual White Ribbon Walk was held again in Port Macquarie – traversing the Coastal Track from Lighthouse Beach to Westport Park. Quite a few members took part in the walk, and the club manned the volunteer station at Town Beach.

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Smoke, Queenstown and Bouddi Coastal Trail

Its been a quiet month for the club, as running season draws to a close. The smoke from the recent bushfires has cancelled most club events, but that hasn’t stopped Liz, Mads and Sue from tackling some running adventures.

While Liz and Mads were taking on the soft sand of the Bouddi Coastal run, running the 14 and 21km courses respectively, Sue was even further south, in Queenstown for her second marathon with Jodine. Well done ladies!

Special mention to Browny and Kylie for working tirelessly in keeping us safe during the recent bushfires.

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James Conquers Melbourne

Marathon history made, as the great man James smashes his first marathon on Sunday in Melbourne. Look out for his finish at 4:43:20 of the official stream embedded below. Welcome to the marathon club! 👏👏👏

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Beach To Brother

After a relatively quiet weekend the weekend prior, this week we were back in action, this time at Beach To Brother. An epic trail race that begins at Town Beach in Port Macquarie, and ends 42kms away in Laurieton, at the top of North Brother Mountain. We had ten starters in the marathon, six starters in the half marathon, seven starters in the 10km and two in the relay teams.

Special mention to our epic vollies, Rach,Kylie, Rinnie, Mads and Rob and all those who helped out at Saturdays rego!

Congratulations to Cliff for winning the marathon, a back to back performance after winning last year! Also on the podium was Andy and his wife Pip winning the teams relay event, and Ryan collecting a podium with a 3rd placing in the 10km.

The Marathoners!

The Half Marathoners and Ten Km Runners!

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The Triple Event Weekend!

Another Huge weekend, this time in Forster, as the tribe headed south for the Forster Running Festival. Some cracking results, with the highlight being Lizzie and Claire’s first half marathon.
We had competitors in every event, from the kids event, the 3km, 5km, 10km, half marathon and Buster.
Congratulations to Trent for winning the 3km and his second placing in the 5km; Ryan and Clarissa for their 2nd placings in the 10km and to Paul for his age group placing in the half!

Meanwhile, the Poltoraskys hit the trails at the Tomaree Trail run, with Leon again collecting a podium finish! Browny and Pat were further west, at the Duval Dam Buster. And lastly, Gary knocked off his 7th International parkrun, in Belfast!

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Blackmores Sydney Running Festival

The Sydney Running Festival was held over the weekend. While The Whisperer was whispering sweet nothings to Dan and Jon in the marathon, we had a large crew in both the 10km and half marathon. Congratulations to Karina, Amanda, Laura, Bel, Mads, Cindy, Steve, Jo, Ryan, Sue, Lyndsey, Rachel, Tammy, Kaz and Bec for all competing on Sunday. The highlights were (arguably) Steve and Jo with their PBs in the half, Karinas epic 10km, and Ryan with an age group 2nd placing in the 10km. A huge team effort by all!

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Coffs Domination, Bushy Pilgrims and a Goat!

Coffs Harbour Running Festival came and went. There was 4 events on the card – a half marathon, 10km, 5km and a 3km race. Incredibly, Pacers won 2 of the 4 events, podiumed a 3rd and scored an age group win also! Pretty handy!

On the other side of the Globe, Gary and Jenny took a pilgrimage to Bushy parkrun, the spiritual home of parkrun, with Gary coming 100th overall!

Meanwhile, Social Sunday was a hit in North Haven, as we prepare for the upcoming Beach To Brother

And, for reasons we can’t really explain, LJ brought a goat along to a run! Will it become our mascot? We need one.

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Saving Lives and Celebrations

Like a scene from BayWatch the Tuesday Crew saved a poor lass from drowning this week, when she fumbled her phone and then accidentally chased it into the Hastings River, just as they were beginning their Intervals session. Quicker than you can say ‘No Kiel, leave your singlet on’, they were helping her up the 1m drop and to safety. #Heroes

Speaking of wetness, Gary got himself a good soaking at Lake Macquarie parkrun, where he met up with our favourite Plodder Don. We miss you Don!

And on the other end of the spectrum, Chel went west to Goondiwindi, where she blitzed the field to be the first female home at parkrun. #QueenOfTheWest

Oh, and did we mention it was our second birthday. We celebrated in style, pacing parkrun. We had pacers pacing every minute from 18 minutes through to 40, and even a very pregnant Kylie had a crack pacing a lonely 50 minutes. Hopefully this will become a yearly tradition (the pacing, not the pregnancy)

Meanwhile, Sue did her 100th Port Macquarie parkrun, and scored herself an entry into their Hall of Fame!

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The Run With No Medals :-(

But there’s nothing so lonesome, so morbid or drear
Than to stand at the start, of an event with no medals.
The sad story of the Pacer Ladies who snuck out to Brissie for the Bridge to Bridge Run, only to return home with no bling :-O Look at those sad faces 🙁

On a positive note though, the (CK)arina’s tackled Zillmere parkrun, and collected a parkrun alphabet Z for their efforts!

Closer(?) to home, a lunatic fringe braved a very early start and headed to Urunga to help celebrate its 100th parkrun. Hoping to finally crack 100 attendees, unfortunately they maxed out at 92, which is still a record for most attendees.

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Hills, Hills, Hills

It was a weekend of Hills Madness this weekend, with the highlight being Adams epic second placing in the Mudgee Marathon. What starts out as a lovely country run alongside vineyards takes a turn for the worse about halfway through, where you run a mountain for about 6kms 🙁 #ouch

Closer to home, Dave, Steve and Cliff decided King of The Mountain wasnt quite gruelling enough, so ran 20kms along the beach and trails from Lake Cathie to the bottom of North Brother mountain, before taking on the King Of The Mountain event. No quads were harmed in the making of these photos, we’ve been told

And the ladies took their dogs to the #dirtydogtrail event with Mel and Hinata securing the win, and Laura, Vilius and Turbo a second placing. #woof

Lastly, congratulations to Rob for entering the Port Macquarie parkrun Hall of Fame, with his 100th Port Macquarie parkrun this weekend