Weekly News 4 November 2019

Options for the week

Tuesday 5.30pm, Waterfront 5km, Outside Mac’s Brewbar on Taranaki Wharf. Come and run, volunteer or support 🙂
Wednesday 6.15pm, Newtown Park Track. Meet 6.15pm for 6.30pm start, led by Andy and Rowan, shorter distance track reps.
Saturday, 8.00am, Lower Hutt 5km Parkrun, Porirua 5km Parkrun, Kapiti Coast 5km Parkrun.
Saturday 8.00am, Remutaka Incline, Kaitoke Kart Track, Incline Rd.
Saturday, 8.00am, Newtown Track workout – contact Chandima for info, or check Facebook for details. Longer track reps with a focus on building towards major events
Saturday, 1.00pm, Mini-track meet including Wellington 10000m Walking Championships, Newtown Park
Saturday 4.45pm, The Agency Group 10000m Festival, Newtown Park
Sunday 8.30am, Long pack runs – we will alternate this summer between the usual 8.30am from Freyberg and some alternative locations to take advantage of some of the great trail running options around Wellington; watch this space! Contact Lindsay and Ben for info, or check Facebook for details.

The unofficial mayor of Feilding, Nicholas Bagnall, was second at the Feilding Marathon in a personal best of 3:08:12, beaten only by a visiting Scandanavian athlete – results
Mel Stevens ran the New York Marathon in 2.58.56 (98th place out of 22,000) and Todd Stevens finished in 3.10.11 – results.
A big result that I missed last week: Michele Allison won her age group at the Shanghai 70.3 race in a time of 5:15 thus qualifying for the Ironman World Champs in Hawaii next year – results.
Malcolm Kerr completed the Aorangi Undulator in 8.08.
A busy day on the waterfront last Tuesday with Waterfront 5km PBs to Andy John, Bill Wang, Lucy Fauth, Emma Wharam and Megan Ferry – results.

With over 100 confirmed entries there are only a tiny number of places available if you want to run. Entries are open and free here. They need to be in by Wednesday 6 November. If you can help volunteer for the event please contact me – otherwise, come along and cheer – there will be food, music and drink as well as all your favourite local runners.

Please join us for a celebration of another amazing year of achievements for the club. You don’t need to pay immediately; we will invoice you. We need to advise final numbers for catering a week ahead, so please get back to us by Friday 8 November. For queries please contact Marshall Clark. Tickets cost $35 for adults and $15 for children. You can register online here.

The Ballantyne Cup is a prestigious and long-standing Scottish trophy. By request, this year the club is going to run the Ballantyne Cup as a 10-mile race in early summer, along the Hutt River, and in the morning. There will also be a shorter 5-mile option. The 10-mile race goes up the east side of the riverbank path before crossing at the Fairway Drive Bridge in Avalon and returning down the west riverbank. The 5-mile race takes the same path but crosses at the earlier Ewan Bridge in Lower Hutt. Race starts at 8.30.

The Lifestyle Sports Scottish Night of Miles is an annual event organised by Wellington Scottish Running Club. It is a unique event full of Christmas fun and features races over the rarely run distance of one mile. Each year we collect donations ($5 suggested) from athletes and spectators then hand them on to a local Wellington charity. This year’s charity is the Mary Potter Hospice. The programme consists of a mix of children’s, senior elite and fun social events. There are several different mile races including elite men’s and women’s races and an all-comers mile that anyone can participate in (including Father Christmas). This year we are introducing a couple of new events: a Mile relay – teams of 4, each athlete running 400m (and a bit) to provide some fun at the end of the evening, prizes to any team that breaks the magical 4-minute mile! And the fastest Santa award – pop on a beard, Santa hat or full Santa suit and run the 100m or 200m – prizes to the fastest Santa this side of Lapland.

Welcome to new member Kasey MacKinnon!
With the conclusion of the Winter season, we are already looking ahead for the 2020 Cross Country Season. With this in mind, we have scheduled an Out of Stadia officials course for all winter officials and those who would be interested in joining the officials’ group. The course is scheduled for Sunday 10 November at Newtown Park. The afternoon will start with some light refreshments at 12.30pm and the session will kick off at 1.00pm. We always need new officials to assist in running our events and this is an opportunity to attend, learn and sit the exams. Unlike the T & F exams which are much more technical for each discipline, the out of stadia exams are much simpler – mostly knowledge of the relevant race rules, safety, general officiating and common-sense. The AthNZ Officials Grade 5 for Out of Stadia has 3 levels, starting at level C with an assessment paper, then exams for levels B & A. You can assure any newcomers that it is not onerous and we will ensure that they are appropriately briefed. If you are interested, or know anyone who might be interested, and are able to attend please get in touch with Alan Stevens alanstevens36@outlook.com.