Author: Port Pacers

July began with the Gold Coast Marathon weekend. Pacers had a very successful couple of days with three Age Group wins (one a race record), three other AG Top 10 finishes, one Fastest ever club record, eleven Club Top 10 Records and sixteen Personal Records. Balanced out with Hugh’s unbelievable misfortune where his expensive speed shoes fell apart when he was well on his way to a brilliant marathon time at the half way mark.

Ryan then went on to top Port parkrun for the 100^th time and added to his Pacer half marathon record it has been a very impressive visit home from his OS running and studying.

We continue to prepare for Forster, Sydney, Coffs, City 2 Surf etc and eventually RunHaven (toward which the Pacer sub-committee are in full preparation and asking for vollies. A huge thanks to Mads, Christie and Jon for their tireless work). The Pacer top parkrun comp is underway with freebie entries to RunHaven so throw on a Pacer/RunHaven top and get to parkrun and see if you too can be an early winner.

June started with Pacers enjoying an outstanding SWR RunFest. This year Lizzie and Wilton won outright. We had 5 other podium finishes, 4 Age Group wins out of 8 Age Group podiums and 9 Personal Records to round off a very successful weekend. The next weekend Vicki and Russ added age group wins at the Central Coast.

Carly then equaled her own club record in the Super Series event while 10 others ran PRs. Added to these impressive performances we had a number of PMQ parkrun personal records and the Ashtons mother and daughter team running the Coffs Backyard Ultra which they have reported was a fantastic event. A reminder that entries have already opened for next year’s event.

May seemed to come and go in a bucket of rain but it didn’t prevent Pacers from getting out and about whilst doing amazing things. The mob who travelled to the Blue Mountains for the UTMB races are all heroes to me. On a less than ideal weekend their efforts were inspirational.

On the speedy side of life Adam M, Hugh and Rob Fish ran brilliantly in their big city races with huge numbers of entrants. They ended up with new entries in the Pacers Records for the Half and 10k. Added to this their were 7 new times emanating from Pacer competitions this month as well. Fi, Bec, Laura C and Xander ran fast halves, Fi and Bec ran fast miles and Bronny ran a fast 10 to set new standards on our record lists.

Meanwhile so many Pacers  set new PBs at PMQ parkrun with a large contingent of Juniors leading the way. Special mentions for the Gott sisters, the Currie siblings as well as the father/son combo of Jannis and Janosch for all keeping it in the family. Annabelle A and Phil M managed 2 PBs each over May as well.  Congratulations to all.

My highlight for April has to be the Newcastle marathon efforts from the ladies contingent. Five runners and five in the top 12 outright. Fantastic efforts. Added to this the two men going so well in the half marathon made it a very successful day for all. Vicki also ran exceptionally in the heat and humidity of the Hawaiin half marathon to win her age group.

Port Pacers Born To Run was released by The Salty Folk. You can catch it here https://youtu.be/W1-3yY4JkqA

The month started with the Port RunFest where Pacers ran extremely well in all the distances. Fish and Lizzie were joined by a host of Juniors as podium finishers in the outright events. The most memorable results were in the half marathon Ladies 30s category where 8 of the first 10 finishers were Pacer members proving once and for all that we are better at running than filling in entry forms (a number had missed the club bit which was across the whole suite of races). Huge congratulations to Christine and Maree who had impressive away wins in their March events.

February 2025 was a quiet month as members prepared for the racing season with many fine tuning for Port RunFest early in March and many grinding through their preparation for the marathon season later in the year. The sub 20 crew grew again with Erinn successfully beating the 20 minute time not once but twice. Congratulations and well earnt.

The highlight for January had to be the outstanding performances by Pacer members at the NSW Country Championships on a wet and windy weekend in Maitland. Congratulations to all the participants on their efforts on the track and in the field where just getting to the meet was something to celebrate. Other celebrations included Dawso’s 250th, a return by Ryan from running OS and congratulations to all for getting out in the incredibly humidity Jan 25 brought.

Lots happened in December even though we had less planned. Standouts included the Pacer Xmas party where we owe the social committee Jo, Rach, Sue and Laura huge thank you. Others deserving mention are Timo for leading the festivities and Dave for set up and pack up.

Coach Rob Lloyd has his Trail Running program attracting big numbers on the days he organises. The Super Series also ran in the heat with Andy O scoring a well-earned top of podium in the 5k on a day where he was also official timekeeper. Multi-talented or what?

November saw the Run Haven running festival, a terrific success for our club. Madz, Christie and Jon have organised a super successful event that is proving incredibly popular with the local running community and an increasing number of visitors. Congratulations to the super trio on their efforts and to all the volunteers who make the event possible. A special thanks to Hales as well, who is a very engaging and interesting MC.

Great results for all Pacers at Run Haven as well as the Queenstown Mara Crew and Jacaranda RunFest crew at Grafton. A brilliant month for Archie W at PMQ parkrun with a set of PBs which is worth a mention.

October finished with a crescendo when Carly and Rob Fish were crowned Pacer Champions in the Diamond Grade. Congratulations on a fine achievement to you both as can be witnessed by the quality of athletes you finished in front of. Other major award winners Tim, Corinne, Rolfey and Madz deserve to be commended as well as all the other Grade winners.

Vicki and Timo shone in major European Marathon Race Days while the Kaddatz family saw Chel and Blake both run 5k PBs at the Port parkrun on 2 occasions in October.

The other big news was Fi’s send off. We are all so sad to see her jet off but at the same time we are excited for her. We all wish her the best and hope she reappears at Pacers in the future when she returns.