Above: Boolarra Run Race Directors Kaye Livingstone and Molly Irvine, with our amazing volunteers for the event.
To top off a couple of months full of club events, we have the King & Queen of the Mountain run on 1 December. RD Ron Verschuur and his team have plotted an exciting new start for the course, and it promises to be another fantastic event to finish off the club’s annual weekend run calendar. If you’re looking to be in a relay team, let Greg Semmler or myself know asap, and we’ll organise some fair and balanced teams to share some friendly competition.
Don’t forget club dinner tonight after the Toner’s Lane run. It’ll be our first club dinner at the Morwell Club (Helen Street Morwell) and our last one for the year, so make sure you stick around after the run for some social time with fellow members.
In the past few weeks we’ve had the Martin Thompson run at Boolarra, offering a 10k and 25k option. It was a wonderful day, a great run along the scenic rail trail towards Mirboo North, and was enthusiastically Race Directed by Kaye Livingstone & Molly Irvine. Last Thursday saw the Barry & Carol Summersgill run at Edward Hunter Reserve Moe, Race Directed by the terrific Sep Marino, with 6k and 12k tracks. See the race reports and photos in this NL.
These events only happen if we have members to put their hands up to organise them, and of course, members vote with their feet by showing up to actually run them. The Harriers charter says we have to run a certain amount of weekend events, but sometimes these things get stale and need a refresh, so we are looking at how we can enliven our smaller club events to attract more members and guests.
The committee is always open to suggestions and ideas, so you have any, share with a committee member. Likewise, if you’re interested in becoming a Race Director, we’d love to hear from you.
That segues into our Winter Run schedule. Safety is always a major consideration for the club, and protecting club members is a really important aspect for all our events, and especially for Thursday runs. Many of our club winter runs were established in the past, when Traralgon was less busy, with less traffic and road crossings, and some of them now are becoming untenable as the population of Traralgon grows.
With that in mind, we’re throwing it general members to make suggestions for new runs, which are safer, consider winter aspects of lighting, roads, traffic, volume of runners on course, trip hazards etc.
If you have a suggestion for a run in town that you think may fit the bill, have a chat with a committee member so we can consider it, do a safety audit, and hopefully include some new runs to replace some of the more risky winter Thursday courses in 2025.
A reminder, please check the Summer 2024/25 Duty Roster and the Season Run Calendar in this newsletter. The onus is on you to make sure your allocated duty night is filled, so please mark your allocated date in your diary.
Also note, the X’mas Lights Run has been rescheduled to Friday 20th December.
Club running singlets are available, with all sizes in stock. See Ann Bomers. Singlets cost the club $55 each (which is the cost to non-members). Continuing the policy of supporting and giving back to members, the cost to members is $40, which is a great subsidized rate, and yet another benefit of membership.
Marieka Reilly is also organising club T-Shirts. See the note in the NL for details. Orders are due this week.
We get so many wonderful stories in the club newsletter, and many of our members are always off doing something around the state (and indeed the world on some accounts). All members have a story, and other members love hearing about the achievements and adventures in running outside the club. Make sure you submit your stories, even if they’re just brief. It’s not just about beating your own drum; your stories are interesting, entertaining and you never know who you’ll be inspiring, so take the time to write and get your articles into the newsletter.
The club newsletter is an important communication medium, and most members use it as a place to get updates, information and share stories. Our NL editors work hard to ensure it’s engaging and informative, so don’t be shy to share. The editing team, led by Glenn Crawford, spend a lot of time and care putting the NL together, so shoot your articles, thoughts, photos, and running snippets through to [email protected]
*IMPORTANT Harriers Dates
1 Dec King & Queen of the Mountain (RD Ron Verschuur)
12 Dec Club X’Mas Break-up, Novelty Run & Winter Presentations
19 Dec Club X’Mas Lights Run Traralgon
23 March Harriers Community Fun Run (RD Trent Kooyman & Clinton Jolly)
Thought for the fortnight: There are hundreds of different ways to run, but they all have one thing in common; one foot in front of the other to move forward. Whatever your pace, time, PB, goals or motivation, all runners have the same requirement; repeating one foot in front of the other!
Phill Mayer – President
*Duty Roster Summer 2024/25
REMEMBER: If you can’t fulfil your allocated duty, the onus is on you to swap with someone.
OCTOBER
10 Tania Whitehead & Danelle Wright
17 Stephen Renehan & Shay Lorenz
24 Adrian Sutcliffe & Matthew Deppeler
31 Andrew Panayiotou & Claire Mcumber
NOVEMBER
7 Callie Cook & Sav Mavrofridis
14 Angelo Gaudiano & Shane Gavin
21 Kathy Quinn & Michelle Colwell
28 Bjorn Luxmann & David Hood
DECEMBER
5 Adam Riddle & Samantha Riddle
12 X’Mas Break-up & Winter Presentation
20 X’Mas Lights Run
JANUARY
16 Megan Scott & Paul Smith
23 Stephen McLeod & Kylee Earl
30 Peter Fairbairn & Catherine Leonard
FEBRUARY
6 Darrel Cross & Alfred Warner
13 Angeline Snell & Geoff Francis
20 Elizabeth Kenney & Mandy Ellis
27 Maree Graham & Stacey Podmore
MARCH
6 Luke Witham & Timothy Graham
13 Collette Hofmann & Anja Norwood
20 Gay Cornthwaite & Owen Notting
27 Glenn Graham & Michelle Sawyer
APRIL
3 Newborough Track (volunteers please)
