Thursday Night Runs

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. Refer to the members page for more information.

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 a handicap start, with the slowest runners starting at 6:00pm sharp and faster runners starting at 1 minute intervals until the fastest runner leaves at 6:17pm or there about. First across the line is the handicap winner.

There is a list of the handicap groups and their start times at the race start. It is great if you know your handicap and which group you are in before the run, check What’s My Handicap Tonight?. One of the members on duty will also announce the runners in each group before each group begins.

Winter Championship Season  (Junior runs available)

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. In Winter, we have two starting times, people with a 5k handicap of 7 minutes or less start at 5:50pm and everyone else starts at 6:00pm. The handicaps are then added to your race time later to determine the winner.

5:50 p.m start those on 7 minutes or less 5km handicap
6:00 p.m start for all those on 8 minutes of above for 5km handicap.

Safety

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.

Duty

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 First Wave (walkers and slower runners) off as they arrive, Wave Two at 5:55pm and Wave Three at 6:10pm.

For Summer season runs: Set the First Wave (walkers and slower runners) off as they arrive, Wave Two at 5:55pm, Wave Three at 6:05pm, Wave Four at 6:10pm, Wave Five at 6:15pm.

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).