Alert Level 2 starts on Thursday

Athletics NZ has put out some Return to Athletics guidelines. Most of them will be both familiar and common sense:

  • Local athletics can commence with public health measures in place.
  • Up to 10 people can gather for private training sessions so long as someone records attendance for contact tracing, and have good hygiene practices, and physical distancing. 
  • Everyone must adhere to basic hygiene measures, including washing and drying hands before and after any activity, and before and after using any shared equipment. 
  • Minimise use of shared equipment. Athletes should bring their own personal equipment, such as towels and water bottles. 
  • Stay home if you’re sick and do not take part in any sport or recreation if you have flu-like symptoms, self-isolate at home and get tested immediately. 
  • People aged 70 and over and others with existing and underlying medical conditions should also stay home. This includes athletes, officials, volunteers and spectators. 
  • Physical distancing is not required during a field of play, which includes training sessions, events and races. However, you should keep 1-metre physical distancing before and after training sessions and events. In these instances, you must undertake contact tracing. 
  • People should remain 2 metres apart from people they don’t know or where there is no contact tracing in place. 

Training and event tips 

  1. Ensure someone in the group is assigned to the responsibility of undertaking contact tracing – this includes all group training sessions and group runs, however informal they may be.
  2. Choose a venue that will allow plenty of space between runners. 
  3. Avoid group runs that will use a footpath or a trail where space is limited and where you might come into close contact with members of the public.

Michael Wray has posted the full Athletics NZ guidelines on Facebook. 

Wellington Scottish during Alert Level 2

Wellington Scottish is a large club and not everyone can participate in club runs under Alert Level 2 rules. So “business as usual” is not going to happen just yet. However, we think we can enable smaller groups to gather according to the rules.

The Wellington Scottish Management Committee and the programme manager are coming up with a plan for the season. This plan will evolve to match the changing circumstances. Look out for details next week.

Athletics Wellington is announcing its plans for the season soon. Athletics NZ is not anticipating any events until Alert Level 1 and Athletics Wellington will probably be similar.

Results

Congratulations to Chris Howard and Emma Bassett, who completed the Goggins Challenge by running 4 miles every 4 hours for 48 hours. That’s 48 miles in two days.

Athletics NZ Virtual Ekiden

During May Athletics New Zealand is running the National Ekiden Virtual Relay Champs and Scottish has 32 teams entered! You can find details of all the Scottish teams and race details here. If you are in a team and want to contact the people in your team contact your club captains Danielle and Ben.

Each team needs to run 42.2km. Three people run a leg of 10km and one person runs 12.2km. Athletes upload their individual results (as many as you like in the month) and an individual’s top times are collated into your team’s times.

Teams have already starting logging their Virtual Ekiden legs. The walking team has an early lead on the pack, having completed 32 of its 42 kilometres. Bob Stephens and our Ekiden expert Hiro Tanimoto were also out of the blocks early with their 12.2km legs.

We are tracking Scottish Ekiden results in an online spreadsheet. Please add any results you know of to the spreadsheet. Be aware that these are not the official entries though. Official entries for each leg need to go to Athletics NZ.

Social Distance Running May

There are only a few days left to get your entries in for the first half of May Social Distance Running Challenge.

Submit your entries

The challenges are:

Fortnightly Challenge

Run three loops of a triangle. Most Wellington street blocks are rectangle. Can you find a three-sided loop and run around it three times?

Monthly challenge

Do a Triathlon – go for a bike ride, swim and run all in one go. It is Wellington, it’s nearly winter and pools aren’t open so keep the swim safe – splashing your legs in the sea is enough.

2-minute mission

Tricep dips. Don’t be all about the legs. Find yourself a chair and do some tricep dips.  Three? Or two minutes’ worth.

Just for fun

How many window bears can you find on a 30-minute run? The toddlers have lost interest in the bear hunting so it’s our turn now.

Banner photo

Peter Stevens sent me the banner photo this week. It features James Turner after he ran the downhill lap of 2018 Akaroa relay. Pete says “yes he’s wiping the sweat from his eyes with his socks – socks that were also soaked with blood from losing the skin off the soles of his feet.” Eeuw.

Keep in touch with the club: