All runners and walkers of all ages and abilities are invited to come and join the Harriers on their weekly Thursday night events. All new runners and walkers are entitled to two free nights before having to become a member. Hopefully once you experience our friendly social environment you will want to join.
There are two championship seasons, Summer (October-March) and Winter (April-September). Please refer to the calendar and use the google maps for the specific location and the directions to each run
Championships
There are 11 championship runs in the season but only your best 10 runs are counted in the point score. This means if you are rostered on duty for a championship run you are not penalised. Generally, the way to win is to be consistent, as not many members will do all 11 championship races. So if you come to all the runs you will be rewarded. The system is also designed to reward people who improve over the course of the season.
Summer Championship Season
With our summer runs we try to get out into the countryside with a lot of the runs located outside of town and on trails through the bush or plantations. In the Summer season, the races are self-timed, but with group-based starts.
One of the members on duty will also announce each group before each group begins.
The groups below are a guide. For example, if you're consistently running at the front of Group 2, you can challenge yourself by running with the faster runners in Group 3. You may be placed in a higher group if you are consistently running at that group's criteria.
For safety reasons, group criteria may be changed throughout the season to avoid an overly large group starting at the same time.
Group | Start Time | Criteria (guide only) |
Group 1 | 5:50pm or upon arrival | Walkers |
Group 2 | 5:55pm | 5km time of 32 minutes or more |
Group 3 | 6:00pm | 5km time of 26-32 minutes |
Group 4 | 6:05pm | 5km time of 21-26 minutes |
Group 5 | 6:10pm | 5km time less than 21 minutes |
Winter Championship Season
Winter runs are located in Traralgon township on the roads and streets where there is enough lighting to make the run safe. A lot of runs start/finish at the clubrooms so that you can keep warm and catch up before or after the run.
The groups below are a guide. For example, if you're consistently running at the front of Group 2, you can challenge yourself by running with the faster runners in Group 3. You may be placed in a higher group if you are consistently running at that group's criteria.
For safety reasons, group criteria may be changed throughout the season to avoid an overly large group starting at the same time.
Group | Start Time | Criteria (guide only) |
Group 1 | 5:50pm or upon arrival | Walkers |
Group 2 | 5:55pm | 5km time of 32 minutes or more |
Group 3 | 6:00pm | 5km time of 26-32 minutes |
Group 4 | 6:05pm | 5km time of 21-26 minutes |
Group 5 | 6:10pm | 5km time less than 21 minutes |
Everyone needs to keep in mind that we share the roads with other users. We often have to cross roads so please look, be careful and consider it from a drivers and pedestrians perspective when crossing roads. Courses are generally designed so that runners will be running towards oncoming traffic.
Where this is not the case please make every effort to run in a safe position where you are either off the road or visible to traffic. If we are running on roads we ask that people do not have headphones in as it makes people less aware of the traffic around them.
In winter it will be dark so it is very important that you wear visible clothing (white, light colored or reflective) so that motorists can see you. The club also has some head torches available to help with visibility. The club has decided to invest in a set of flashing armbands for everyone before the start of the 2014 winter season, more details later.
There is a duty roster and every runner in the club will be rostered on sometime during the season. The duty roster is listed with the weekly runs in the newsletter and on the website. If you cannot attend to do your duty, please swap with someone else. There are three people on duty each Thursday night and they are required to start the race, time keep and record the race results at the finish line. For runs at the club rooms part of duty is to make sure that the rooms are left in a tidy condition.
For those doing duty for the first time, please arrive at 5:40pm to the start of the course. The list will be there provided by VP and Handicapper, Andrew Legge. You need to check in all attending members (by highlighting their names) before they set off on course, and write in their times at the end. One person should be on the list, the other should be on time (use your phone).
For Winter season runs: Set the groups off as per the timing schedule in the Winter Championship season table above
For Summer season runs: Set the groups off as per the timing schedule in the Summer Championship season table above
It’s your job to call out a five minute warning, 2 minutes, get set and go.
The course marker should inform you of any aspects of the course for safety, and you should be familiar via the plotaroute so you can give directions especially to new runners (who you should make feel welcome and inform the President, Vice-President or other organiser of their attendance).
