#PaceYourself
We’re excited to be in this months Greater Bank competition. To quote the legends at Greater, they ‘realise that the best way to make communities stronger is by supporting the organisations that bring people together for the common good.‘
We’d love your help – it’s easy, head to https://www.greater.com.au/greatermidnorthcoast and cast your vote for us. You can vote as often as once an hour. Any proceeds we receive from Greater will help maintain our junior sessions. Thanks Greater!
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.
November started with the 10k Super Series club event which saw a great turnout of runners then continued with the brilliant runs by Hunter, Mollie and Wilton at the Little A’s Zone event where they each broke long standing individual records. Pacer domination followed at the Jacaranda Half Marathon with BJ and Rob Fish each winning. The month hit an enormous high with the culmination of months of hard work from the organisers of the RunHaven event which was an enormous success. Special accolades and thanks to JB, Christie, Madz (and all) for your efforts. The success could be summed up when checking the photos and seeing the number of Junior Pacers out enjoying the day.
The most amazing efforts over this time were the Sydney Marathon weekend runs by a huge cohort of members. It was an awe-inspiring effort from everyone who attended. Whether you were one of the many who trained for months or had to just throw together some short term training it must rate as the greatest weekend in Pacer racing history for many of us. Congratulations to each person for whatever distance you competed in.
We also had fantastic results in Coffs, Laurieton, Adelaide, Melbourne and in the 3 day endurance event. Added to the number of PMQ parkrun Personal Bests (3 each to Rosie and Josh, 4 members from the Medlin family) and the number of Pacers travelling on the parkrun Tourism trail it truly was a time to celebrate.
Special congratulations to Amanda L for winning the Pursuit and Tania for landing a national team position.
Another incredible month of running within our club leaves me in awe of our membership. Be it Trish finally getting to go on her trip to the birthplace of parkrun, Bushy Park, as the parkrun Hero or the inspirational heroes of Forster who completed their first Treble Bridge Busters – Luke, Kylie, Brent, Kristy, Kat, Julia and Jade. Not to mention the club securing 4 outright wins and 13 Age Group wins on top of the highest representation across the suite of races. Another highlight was Hunter’s outright 5th and Age Group 1st in the 5k while he was in the 00 to 12 age group which he followed up with a sub 20 minute parkrun at Port. Bring on Sydney and RunHaven.
NATIONAL GOLD FOR GRACE
On the weekend our very own Grace Morris competed at the NATIONAL Cross Country Championships in Canberra 
. Grace was then selected (top 5 from state school team- Grace was 4th) to race in team relay – 5x1500m, where the girls won gold , a GOLD National Medal 
Looking back over July 23 seems to be all about acknowledging so many speedy runs – whether it be at the front of a race or challenging your own past achievements. It is a credit to the fitness programs and the long term planning for the Sydney Marathon festival to have so many runners performing brilliantly.
The month started with the Gold Coast Marathon Running Festival which saw Christine take an Age Group win, Neil a 2nd and Trish, Leigh, Mark, Hugh and Jon Top 10 placings in their respective Age Categories. Sensational. The month ended with Rob winning the HM at Yeppoon and straight away he commented that Tamworth is next. Meanwhile Forster, Sydney and RunHaven are also in our sights. In the meanwhile Alice took AG 1st at the Winery Run, BJ was outright 1st at the Elephant Trail Race while Xander took a 2nd place. Molly, Grace, Emily, Herbert, Theo, Hunter and Wilton (these are the individuals I am aware of – there may be others) all represented their schools at State Champs in the cross country and a number will be off to the Nationals.
Pacer records tumbled during the month with Carly running our fastest 5K (F) and Hugh running our fastest Marathon (M). The list of new Top 10 Runners in the Pacer Records was amazing with Fi, Kylie and Jimmy recording T10 Mile times, Grace, BJ, Fi, Jimmy and Hugh T10 5k times, BJ, Fi, Kylie and Josh T10 10k times, Christine, Kylie, Laura C and Rob T10 Half Marathon times and Kate, Giulia, Jon and Rob T10 Marathon times. But that is not all we are about. How good is it to see Emily smash out 4 parkrun PBs at Port parkrun, Natalie 3 Pbs, Hugh, Alana and Grace 2 each with a number of family members also setting best times in July. So good.
Another month of brilliant running in June 23. Christine smashing the Port parkrun Age Grade record (the previous mark was hers and the one before that …) which now sits at nearly 97% is a standout effort. Amazingly she is being challenged by Vicki and Mechell in the same age group. What strength and depth we have in our Pacer Ladies members.
We also had numerous Pacer Juniors performing at outstanding levels with many of these getting that little bit extra from Mel’s Junior Pacers sessions. The club saw a huge turn out at the SWR RunFest not only winning the highest number of runners but wins in 5 races and domination of the half marathon (1st,2nd,3rd men’s and 1st,2nd women’s} which indicates to me how successful the training programs have been (not to forget the mighty efforts of all the runners who are benefitting from these programs and performing so well – thanks coaches and physios for your programs and leading of sessions).
