Port Macquarie Pacers Running Club

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.

Despite the lack of races due to public health concerns, as a group we achieved a lot this month (our last of the 19/20 Pacer season). Our Pacer parkrun championships were concluded just when no one really knew they existed – don’t worry they start anew next week and we all have an even starting point. Speed Week was run and won, (not)parkrun is growing in popularity, Coach Training selections were made (Carina and Clarissa) and some excellent Personal Best Times were recorded with the aid of Pacer pacers (?). All the while we were preparing to celebrate our 3^rd birthday (Plan C is sure to be activated soon as C19 wipes out each successive plan).

A huge few weeks for Bel who ran a PB 5k on the 15^th and then blew her previous 10k time out of the water on the 21^st and managed to run sub 50 minutes after 8 years of often interrupted preparation. Congratulations on a well deserved PB.

Speed Week started with the Mile at Tuesday’s Pacer West Speed Session. This month’s winners were Andy (5:24) and Ebanie (6:07). (not)parkrun grade winners were Rache, Honni, Karina, Ryan and James. If you wish to get involved (I am especially talking to you Andy) make sure you are registered with parkrun and your club is Port Pacers and then you just need to register your best 5k time for the week on the parkrun site. Unfortunately (not)parkrun seems to be the vehicle for parkrun for longer than we might wish. But there are positives. You can upload a time even if you miss the 7am parkrun time and are out of reach of a parkrun course.

Other (not)parkrun PBs were achieved by Adam, Carina, Kate (twice), Laura, Chel, Karina, Ryan, Rache and Jo.

Lastly we would like to take the opportunity to congratulate our 2019/20 Pacer parkrun grade champions. In the ladies our champions are Eb, Lyndsey, Karina and Minnie. In the gents our champions are Ryan, James and Dawso. A reminder that it all starts again in September so happy and safe running.

Nearly 2 months since our Covid Lockdown our club has returned to offering our whole range of running related fun. Taking into consideration that we are still in winter and race after race has been abandoned or put off until some, maybe, unrealistic future date our program is successfully up and running producing some outstanding results.

Pacer West (Tuesday 6am) is only averaging about half the numbers of attendees that we saw in February in the lead up to Port Run Fest but the intensity is producing brilliant results. Cruiseday Tuesday (Tuesday after work) has low numbers which will pick up once the daylight hours stretch out. The Wednesday afternoon Sussex Sufferfest is picking up and rivals earlier in the year for participation. Thursday morning at Oxley Oval is actually as healthy as it has been for a long time (must be the move from laps to Fartlek along the breakwall I think), ThursDAY morning numbers move around but were healthy at the end of July while the Back Of The Pack group is attracting good numbers, Friday Long has been popular and is hitting the long term average number of attendees, (not) parkrun has kicked up in attendees while the Sunday Pursuit/Social Runs are up and down. Please get involved if you fancy any of these sessions as we try to cater to all levels of running/walking abilities.

On the performance side of things, the obvious highlight was the performance of Trent and Ryan at the NSW short course cross country championships at Dapto with each qualifying to represent the state at the national championships.

Other performances of note occurred in the Gold Coast Virtual Marathon Running Festival held over the month of July. Eb, Manda, Kate and Tash all had outstanding results in their age group. In the 5k event the four ladies occupied places 6, 7, 8 and 11. In the 10k event they came 6, 8 12 and 17^th.  While in the 21.1k event Eb and Manda finished 12^th and 14^th. Trent placed 2nd in the 4k Junior Dash in a very quick time of 14:34. Meanwhile in the men’s 60-64 years events Gary placed 1^st in the 5k and 2^nd in the 10k and 21.1k events. Other memorable performances may have occurred and I am not aware of them at the time of writing.

Some fantastic run times were recorded in July with Ebanie and Amanda breaking into the sub 45 minute 10k club. Ryan ran a PR of 15:36 for 5K and Jade ran a 10k PR.

July saw the relaunch of the Mighty Mile, a monthly time trial for all comers over the mile distance. We decided to run the event as part of our Pacer West Speed Session on the first Tuesday of the month. Any Pacer who is unable to attend has the opportunity to run a mile, record and upload for Championship points at any time during the day of the race. The Mighty Mile will run in the first week of each month which will in future be known as Speed Week and will feature as well as our parkrun Championship (not parkrun Championship for the time being). The July podium saw Amanda (6:39 minutes), Tash and Goody in the Ladies event and Ryan (4:55 minutes – a new club record), Binny and Andy in the Gents event.

What a weekend it was for us, as the 9th annual Port Macquarie Running Festival was held on the weekend of the 7th/8th March. The club was well represented in the saturday events, with lots of junior pacers running across all distances, and a team of vollies helping out as marshalls across all the kids races.

Sunday was the main event. We had approx 80 pacers scatter themselves across all the events from the Buster, to the Half Marathon, the 10km and the 5km.

There was some amazing achievements across the club, with 13 stand-outs.

• Ryan Binskins efforts was voted the outstanding achivement in the club. Ryan won the 10km event in a time of 33:30, and backed it up with a 3rd placing in the 5km.
• Jo Ashton was voted the 2nd most outstanding achievement of the weekend, with her longest ever run, and her first Buster event completed.
• Kylie Brown was voted 3rd most outstanding achievement. Kylie didnt run on the weekend, but volunteered tirelessly on both days, dancing up a storm on the southern end of the course
• In a tight 4th placing was Adam Carralls amazing 80 minute half marathon, on his way to completing the Buster.

Other notable achievements included:

• Leon Poltorasky with his first sub 50 in the 10km.
• Julie Best with an outstanding run in the 10km.
• Bel Carralls blistering 10km run.
• Joanna Ryan with her first sub 50 in the 10km.
• Lyndsay Kinsman smashing run in the 10km .
• Christie Christoforo smashing out her first half marathon, and cracking 2 hours to boot.
• Gary Snows age group placings in the half, 10 and 5 as he completed the Buster.
• Trent Ally was the fastest junior on the Saturday and 4th placed overall in the 5km race.
• Laura Philps great runs in the half marathon and 10km on her way to completing the Buster.