Welcome everybody to the July HRR newsletter and a special welcome to our newest members Holly, Noel and Kirstin.
It has been wonderful to see numbers great numbers at the Club over the winter months. Also great to see President Norm back from the UK and now VP Gary can take a break after doing a grand job of keeping the Club ticking over quite nicely. Thanks Gary, you have done a great job.
Also doing sterling service was Annette, putting on the HRR away run at Lake Ngaroto. Everybody had a good stretch of the legs before hitting the café to warm up. I am pleased to say we had a dry day and even Angela managed to break out of the house with young Ben, to come and join us.
Talking about being impressed, I have to put a mention in for Kerin and the Group 1 gang that put on our last dinner night. Not only was it a great night, but the word has it that we had about 53 people in for dinner, so they did very well. However, I suspect that there may have been a tad of a panic at the length of the dinner line.
My thanks to Sue Hunter who has run the May km’s event in the Club. This was logging down the km you have excessed each week. A great event for the motivation in the cold wet. Congratulations to the winners of this event – Gary, Pat, Jill and Val.
My thanks to Rod who convened the Sunday run from the Wayward Pidgeon all those hardened souls who went on the 14km run/ walk. Although the runs are a great hit equally so does a warm coffee and a catch up with everybody.
The run for Sunday 22nd July was hosted by Lynda, starting from the grandstand at the Claudelands Event Centre and being a river loop run, we had a dry run /walk only to rain a little as we got back to the cars. So well planned Lynda. The Joes Garage coffee was also good and great to see a few extra club members join us for the coffee hit.
Sunday 29th July – Flagstaff Shops 8am – This will be hosted by Chris
Great to see everyone home from away events. We had the jetsetters back from the Gold Coast event. Then there was the off-road mob from Taupo and the last contingent in Wellington. Wellington did not provide the goods and delivered a wet and windy day. All those that entered had to work hard to finish the event. Great to see that Mary Ann also joined us. But the shock of the event would have to be our web-footed Mary who absolutely scorched it in such wet conditions, and a PB to boot. Work that out?! If it had been a better weather day, I don’t know what sort of result Mary could have achieved on her time, so a very big congratulations to Mary on your performance and achievement under such conditions.
And speaking of PB’s there are have been a slew of them over recent Park Run events. Events Coming Up (refer Far Looker for dates):
We run the forest, Rotorua
Hoka One Taupo Half – looks like the Taupo event is getting a good Club hit. I will be part of the contingent as well, wanting to see Dick Breukink from Hamilton to come in on his 100th half marathon, all of which have been charity fundraisers. You may have seen a recent Waikato Times article about his achievements.
Brisbane Marathon - we will be represented at this event
Mt Maunganui Half is coming up and we will have entrants in this event
October is Ekiden Relay time – this is a great fun team event running around the Rotorua Lake, we have accommodation sorted and all we need is to fill it with our team members. This can be a dress up event, and the key word is fun. Speed is not essential with a maximum leg length of 8km. If you can do this event, catch up with myself or Gary. I left the poster in this bulletin. Please note that there has been a small price change.
July 26 is our next HRR Club dinner night and this will be brought to you by Group 2. We will be pleased to see you for another great Club night.
Just remember – The light at the end of the tunnel may well be – A fellow HRR team member
Club Notes
Club jackets and club running shirts: Just a reminder that Gary is putting another order in shortly. The sizing chart is at the Club house and all orders can be made through Gary.
Club Photo: If you have ordered a Club photo/s these are currently being printed. If you ordered any please either pay into the HRR account (this can be paid to our account: 03 1555 016275 00 (don’t forget to put your name in the reference field) or pay in cash to HRR Club Captain Neil Park Run: Did you know that in your Park Run profile you can list Hamilton Road Runners as your home club – We have 14 registered HRR Park Runners listed. Are you one of them? If not log into your Park Run profile and it is easy to add your Club DINNER NIGHT – Thursday, 26 July 2018 Hawaii Night
Hosted by Group 2 Wear Hawaiian Dress
What About parkrun, Then? The word ‘parkrun’ (with a lowercase ‘p’) has started to appear in dictionaries; and the concept is familiar to most social runners, and even to some competitive types. Back in October 2004, the idea of publicly recording of your weekly performance and having the details sent to your email address in a couple of hours was ‘pretty radical’. Apps like Strava and Map-my-Run on mobiles have changed all this, but here are still things that parkrun does that are ‘notable’.
The first is the provision of running ‘circuits’ in public spaces internationally; there are more than 230,00 parkruns globally (24 in New Zealand) and more than three million people take part every week. I’ve been in places where I couldn’t follow the instructions in the mother tongue, but the intent and purpose were familiar, and participation was easy. Some of the venues are iconic, but most are local parks and reserves; great places to run.
Then there are the social benefits of parkrun; local parkruns are meeting places for all ages, from those in pushchairs to centurions (I don’t know this for a fact, but in three million people … there’s got to be one?). Then there are the “vollies”, those people who turn up and (with just a little training) become the race officials for the day; parkrun acknowledges their efforts every week. The most important part of the morning is the après-event coffee meeting where the day’s event is dissected before the world’s problems are tackled.
Finally, there is the system itself, well documented on the web as you would expect. The global story makes interesting reading at https://www.parkrun.com/ and the national site notes local parkrun sites, course conditions and contacts (from https://www.parkrun.co.nz/). The event processing is handled in the UK, and results are ‘comprehensive’. Information on all your events and volunteering are available from the ‘results’ tab. Weekly reports are provided, recording the conditions and highlights of every run.
When you think about it, the parkrun ‘thing’ is rather special.
Some Little-Known Aspects of parkrun
There are some parkrun matters that don’t catch the eye quite as much. For example, what about ‘freedom runs’? What is that WAVA thing? What is a “milestone event?”
parkrun Freedom is the ability to record your time if you run a registered parkrun course at a different time to the normal parkrun. To record a Freedom parkrun, first sign in to your profile by putting parkrun.com/signin in your browser. There is an option called freedom, select this and enter the relevant details. The most recent Freedom runs are shown on the parkrun results page. Remember, though, that Freedom runs do not count in your run total or any of the parkrun clubs.
WAVA is a widely-used system that allows athletes to compare results. Age grading takes your time and uses the world record time for your gender and age to produce a score (a percentage). This score allows you to compare your personal performance against other people's performances even though they might be a different age and gender to you - the higher the score the better the performance. Age grading makes no allowance for different weather conditions or the varying terrains of parkrun courses. The parkrun table used to perform the calculations is loosely based on the tables produced by WMA, previously known as WAVA. In New Zealand above 80% is the territory of a nationally significant time, and above 90% is the international rating. Charli Miller has an 87.88% at Hamilton Lake, and Sally Gibbs ran 96.4% in New Zealand on 14/7/2018 to hold the national WAVA record.
Milestones are available when you reach a conspicuous target of completed parkruns. At Hamilton Lake in mid-July Jason McCarthy has completed 225 parkruns. There are milestones t-shirts available on completion of 50, 100, 250 and 500 parkruns. Over 100 people registered at Hamilton Lake have completed more than 50 parkruns, and 46 have gone on to pass the 100 mark. Globally there are 48,718 runners who have done 100 parkruns, and 3102 who have reached 250. With 676 completed parkruns, Darren Wood has completed the greatest number of parkruns. I don’t think I can catch him now …
Getting hold of your parkrun milestone has always been a bit difficult, because the supplies of men’s and women’s shirts (with different cuts) are always short. If you don’t get your shirt within a specified time, your application ‘expires’. You can re-apply when you get the message “your claim to a [specified] t-shirt has expired”. Ekiden Relay - Rotorua
October 13 2018
Teams of 6
Cost per team: $ 295.00
Accommodation at Lodge $90.00 for Friday and Saturday night
Hot Foot Award: June Athlete of the Month
Val Wilson PBs for Month Who Done It? Events and Times
Mary Carswell ** Wellington Marathon 42 KM Run 3h,41m,21s
** 2nd IAG / 12th Female / 30min PB for Month
Gary Fieldes Wellington Half Marathon 21 KM Run 2h,13m,33s
Rod Gill Wellington Half Marathon 21 KM Run 2h,07m,17s
Annette Hermans Wellington Quarter Marathon 10 KM Run 53m,22s
Anne Fredricsen Gold Coast Marathon 42 KM Run 6h,31m,19s
Michelle Goldsmith Gold Coast Half Marathon 21 KM Run 2h,05m,21s
Pat Goldsmith Gold Coast Half Marathon 21 KM Run 2h,50m,02s
Tau Holden Tauhara Trail Run 21 KM Run 2h,56m,47s
Lex Chalmers Tauhara Trail Run 21 KM Run 3h,00m,14s
Karen McLaughlin Tauhara Trail Run 21 KM Run 4h, 20m,36s
Ross Dewstow Tauhara Trail Run 21 Km Run 3h,06m,03s
Park Run Notices
Philippa Marley PB Hamilton David Marley PB Hamilton
Val Wilson PB Hamilton From the Bush
29 July Auckland Xterra – Waiuku
4 August We Run The Forest - Rotorua
19 August Mukamuka Munter
9 September Ocean Beach half – Napier
6 October Cape Kidnappers Trail Run
13 October Taupo Ultra Marathon
3 November Taniwha Trail Run - Kinleith
4 November Waihi Xterra
24 November Waitetuna Windmill Off Road
1 December The Goat – Mt Ruapehu
8 December Karioi Trai Run - Raglan
23 March 2019 Ring of Fire – Ruapehu 8 April 2019 Rotorua Xterra – Blue Lake
The Far-Looker
26 July HRR Dinner Night – Group 2- Hawaii Night
4 August Hoka One Taupo Half
5 August Brisbane Marathon
12 August HRR Sunday Run
25 August Mt Maunganui Half
30 August HRR Dinner Night – Group 3
2 September North Shore Half
8 September Whangamata Fun Run
16 September Cambridge Half
22 September Tauranga Int Marathon
21 to 25 September Project Raro – HRR International
27 September HRR Dinner Night – Walkers
29 September Blue Lake Challenge Rotorua
30 September Devonport Half
30 September Hamilton Half
14 October Pukekohe Joggers & Walkers
13 October Ekiden Relay
28 October Auckland Marathon
28 October Morrinsville Fun Run
4 November New York Marathon
4 November Tauranga City to Surf
17 November Queenstown Marathon
18 November Toi’s Challenge Whakatane
18 November Round the Bridges
25 November Percy Lawn Challenge, Te Awamutu
10 February 2019 Orewa Beach Half
9 March 2019 Kirikiriroa Marathon / Relay
4 May 2019 Rotorua Marathon 2019
25 May 2019 Whitianga Half
26 May 2019 Huntly Half