Wellington Scottish Athletics Club

This week’s newsletter is a bit early so as to give you a reminder about the Ballentyne Cup and Shirley Barton Trophy tomorrow morning.

This week

• Monday 9:00am: Ballantyne Cup and Shirley Barton Trophy, St Mark’s Church, Woburn Road.
• Tuesday 6:15pm: Tuesday Night Club Session – Dorne Cup tune-up, outside Freyberg Pool.
• Thursday 6:00pm: Thursday trail group, Mt. Kaukau. Meet at the start of the Skyline Track on Woodmancote Road. Check Stack for further details.
• Saturday 8:00am: Parkruns at Waitangi, Lower Hutt, Ara Harakeke, Trentham, Kapiti, Ōtaki River and Greytown.
• Saturday 12:45pm onwards: Dorne Cup 100th Anniversary, Trentham Memorial Park.
• Sunday 9:00am: Barefoot XTRAIL Towai Traverse, Wainuiomata Mountain Bike Park.
• Sunday long pack runs — usually, these leave at 8:30 am from outside Freyberg Pool and some alternative locations around Wellington. All speeds welcome, coordinate on the Facebook page.

Results

Parkruns

Check out all the results here.

Notices

Kāpiti Half Marathon discount

The Kāpiti Half Marathon isn’t until 9 November, but we have a secured a deal: We have set up a Wellington Scottish team which comes with a 20% discount. Each participant enters and pays for themselves and will automatically receive 20% off thanks to Dark Horse Coffee. You must use this link to get the discount when entering. 

WUU2K volunteers

We will host an awesome Scottish aid station at WUU2K again this year (12 July). Kath Littler has kindly volunteered to lead this project. All volunteers are offered a half price WUU2K t-shirt, discounted merchandise, discounted WUU/WAI race entries, and are welcome to come along for some drinks at the Volunteers Party.

Contact Kath if you want to be involved.

Can you house the Scottish tent?

We need someone to look after our gorgeous tent and take it to races (or help get it to races). If you can give the tent a loving home, please let us know.

Scottish apparel for sale

We are selling club singlets and Early racing singlets that club member John Plimmer manufactures locally. Crop tops, socks, puffer vests, rampant lion caps, technical “Wellington Scottish” short-sleeves, technical “Unleash your inner lion” short-sleeves, long-sleeves and white cotton short-sleeve t-shirts – all in a range of sizes.

Check our clothing for sale on our website

Coming up

2 June: Resurrection of the “Stevens invitational” Ballantyne Cup

At 9am on Monday morning, 2 June (King’s Birthday) Todd, Peter, Dani and Alan will be resurrecting the traditional “Stevens invitational” Ballantyne Cup, with a few tweaks. The Ballantyne Cup will once again be located by the mighty Hutt River, using the 2.5km loop of Strand Park, Ava Railway foot bridge, Ewen Bridge.  Runners and walkers will be able to choose between racing 1, 2 or 3 loops – with trophy winners being closest to their handicap.  The race is timed and designed to be the perfect primer for the Dorne Cup, five days later. In keeping with tradition, after the racing a morning tea spread will be put on by the Stevens family (for first time since Peter and Todd were just young whippersnappers!) at St Stephen’s Church Hall (now called St Marks) in Woburn Road.    

7 June: Dorne Cup

The Dorne Cup is a flat cross-country race at Trentham Memorial Park that usually takes place on the second Saturday of June. It is one of the biggest and most prestigious cross-country races in New Zealand. Hutt Valley Harriers organises the race. Everything you need to know here.

As this is the 100th anniversary Hutt Valley Harriers is marking the milestone with a special cake, place getter medals and most importantly a book produced by their Club Historian, Mark Growcott.

The book is available as a PDF and Mark will have a limited number of hard copies available on race day.

(No Saturday pack run this day.)

8 June: Barefoot XTRAIL Series – Towai Traverse

Surrounded in lush bush, high peaks and stunning views in Wainuiomata. Three options: approximately 7km for short course, 14km for medium course and 21km for long course. Full details on the event website.

14 June: Scottish paced Waitangi parkrun

Wellington Scottish will partner with Waitangi Parkrun to provide pacers on Saturday, 14 June. We have had plenty of positive feedback from earlier paced events.

Please sign up on the Stack Duty Roster if you’d like to pace one of the listed times, or message Chris Howard if you’d like to pace something else. We will continue to do this about once every two months; see 9 August, 18 October, and 6 December in Stack.

It is very easy to Pace. Consider using it as a friendly warm-up to your Saturday session and hanging with your Scottish clubmates over a coffee at Raglan Roast afterwards. You’ll also get volunteer credit from Parkrun. For other Waitangi parkrun volunteer opportunities, see https://www.parkrun.co.nz/waitangi/futureroster/

15 June: Three Peaks

The next event is on Sunday, June 15 and will cover Mount Victoria, Mount Crawford and Mount Albert. More details can be found here.

21 June: Shaw Baton Relay

Teams of four race in 2.1km each of hills, horse jumps, ditches, fences and the spectator favourite water pit. The Shaw Baton Relay was postponed from May after heavy rain. It is hosted by Olympic Harriers and takes place at Pauatahanui’s Battle Hill Farm Park.

(No Saturday pack run this day.)

21 June: Barefoot XTRAIL Series – Starlight Makara

A night run through bush-clad trails with hundreds of other bobbing head torches, all under a starlit sky. There’s a 6km and an 11km course. Details and entry here.  

29 June: Wellington Marathon

The Wellington Marathon returns on 29 June 2025 including a Half Marathon, 10km fun run and Kids’ Magic Mile. All races consist of flat out and back courses starting on the Sky Stadium Walkway, and heading south on Waterloo Quay toward the Railway Station. In 2025 the Half Marathon also doubles as the New Zealand Championship and Wellington Championship.

Race details

12 July: WUU2K

The WUU2K (Wellington Urban Ultramarathon) includes a 21km half trail marathon, 45km Trail marathon, or 65km Ultra Trail marathon. The courses explore some of the most picturesque trails surrounding Wellington city, with hills that will challenge even the most seasoned runners.

Race details

20 July: Wellington Cross Country Championships

The finale of the local cross-country season takes place at Harcourt Park in Upper Hutt. Each lap has a mixture of flat and undulating cross-country running.

Keep in touch:

• If there is anything you want to be added to the Scottish Newsletter or if your results have been missed, please email us at wellingtonscottish@proton.me
• If you want to contact anyone about anything, your first port of call is our club captains, Meg and Joel and our club president, Andy Ford.
• Public Facebook page and join the Scottish member Facebook group here.
• Instagram
• Website

Notes about results and upcoming events

• If you want your event added to this newsletter, contact us by Sunday evening.
• We’ll publish an event or a result and what makes it special if we’re told about it. So let us know what you, your friends, family members and teammates are up to. It is especially important for coaches to let us know when your athletes are attempting and achieving their goals.
• If you don’t want your name published in the newsletter or on the website, please let us know so we can omit you from the results.

Lifestyle Sports is a long-term supporter of Wellington Scottish, providing us with sponsorship in various forms and offering our members a 10% discount. Their store is located in Outlet City in Tawa, near the exit from SH1. They sell discounted running shoes for adults and kids, along with other running gear, and will make special orders – all with our 10% discount added on. If you shop at Lifestyle, please mention that you are a Wellington Scottish member. Let them know that we’re good customers! Lifestyle Sports on Facebook

Wellington Scottish have partnered with physical therapy practice Rehab Co., to help keep our runners on the roads and trails, doing what we love to do. More information about this new partnership, including how to book appointments is on our Scottish website.