Thanks to everyone for the awesome Saturday of competitive racing. The Facebook posted photos give a great impression of how spoilt we were with the weather. Big thanks to our Sponsors Shoe Clinic, Otago Dental Service, Archie the coffee caravan, and all the various officials that helped make the event another successful year. Can any members still to pay the $10 entry fee contact oliver.osullivan@gmail.com or bring the $10 to the TK Cowan race this weekend.
This Saturday, 18 July we have our annual TK Cowan race – from the Tomohawk Hall, 307 Tomohawk road: This is a great event, an 8km Handicap race over road, beach, and golf course. There are kids races of 3km and 5km also available. There is no requirement to be registered, so come along and we will make sure a handicap is allocated. Please arrive by 1:30pm and racing will start at 2pm, All clubs and runners are welcome. Please bring a plate for afternoon tea. We will fire up the oven and have savouries to warm us up after the event. We will also require 8 marshals’ to monitor road crossings. Please contact oliver.osullivan@gmail.com if you are available to assist or have any questions.
View Looking down Tomohawk Beach. Its a tough climb out of the Sand dunes and tests even the toughest runners.
Last weekend we hosted the Lovelock relays at the University oval. We had superb results across all grades. It was a perfect day for some competitive racing. Awesome seeing so many people keen to be involved:
Social:
Team Rhodes (Archie, Anya, Lila, and Simon) cruised in for second place in the social grade. This provided a great warmup for their main events, which the whole family performed well, and contributed to the success of 3 separate teams. Great to see the next generation of runners experiencing tough racing. The HCU Social team of Rachael Shields, Hellen Collins, Ollie O’Sullivan, and David Mackle combined to compete in the social event.
Primary Kids:
Alex Walker, and Violet Pakeho competed together in the primary kids race. A sick team member had to cancel, and this resulted in Alex running 3 separate and impressive legs. It was fantastic to see both young athletes working together to come home first.
High School Boys:
Luke Geddes, Matthew Bolter, Lachlan Crumpton, and Archie Rhodes all had strong runs, winning the High School Boys grade. Some impressive times being run by these up and coming young runners.
Masters Men:
We had 2 Masters mens teams compete. HCU Masters team 1 finished a close second place (Elliot O’Sullivan, Tim Bolter, Simon Rhodes, and Stephen Bloomfield). Our number 2 Masters team also performed well with (Richard Fogarty, Phil Morris, Dwayne Sheddan, and Mark Geddes).
Masters Women:
Masters Women: Georgy Pakeho, Barbara Patrick, Cathy Weatherston, and Myrtle Rough performed well and are a total inspiration.
Senior Women:
The two Hill City-Womens teams were closely placed together. The HCU team 1 (Laura Bungard, Bella Bloomfield, Anya Rhodes, Lila Rhodes) and HCU team 2 (Shireen Crumpton, Ali Cragie, Leia Silby, Lilah Gilenberg). Apologies for some of the issues with our timing within this race. None the less there were some impressive performances here.
Senior Men:
HCU Senior men 1 and 2 had a few late changes, and the HCU team 1 came away with the title (Caden Shields, Kirk Madgwick, Ollie O’Sullivan, Logan Slee, Josh Hou, and Russell Green). HCU Team 2 narrowly managed to claim the bronze medal, with some exciting racing (Nico Alverez-Ray, Jake Owen, Tim Dawbin, Elliot O’Sullivan, Tom Spencer, Ollie O’Sullivan).
There are some errors in times. Particularly the Masters men/Senior women. There was an issue as a team picked up another teams pack. If you feel your time is not correct let oliver.osullivan@gmail know and we can add the athletes self timed results beside the result. Apologies for the inconvenience. Dubious times are (Bold and italics).
This week Hill City-University members competed in the combined clubs (Ariki, Leith, and Hill City-University) handicap 5km x-country at Rotary Park. The event was generously hosted by Ariki and was a great opportunity to bring local clubs together for the start of inter-club racing.
The Rotary park course is a challenging x-country consisting of 4 laps. It provides an excellent course to test yourself at the start of the season. It includes plenty of hills and grass running. The course loops through some interesting (and challenging) sections of Pine Forrest and is a great spectator course.
Junior athletes Cormac Moore (Hill City-University), Catherine Lund (Ariki), and Lila Rhodes (Hill City-University) all demonstrated their determination and ability over the course, all posting strong respective performances. Plenty of good racing to come from these junior athletes this year.
Mark Geddes (Hill City-University) had a strong performance, coming through the field to claim line honours. He consistently worked through the field and finished with a 1minute gap to second place. Caitlin O’Donnell (Leith) claimed the Silver and was the first female home, also claiming fastest Female time in an impressive and well-judged run. Luke Geddes (Hill City-University) claimed the Bronze with a sharp performance. This backs up a large 5km PB two days before, in the Leith Harbour 5km race. Another lap and he may have been clipping the heels of his Father Mark.
Prize giving was back at the Ariki Clubrooms. It was a good opportunity to mingle with local runners and discuss upcoming events. The Afternoon spread was a well-received treat after a challenging run.
The Next inter club event is the Lovelock Relay (Hosted by Hill City-University) at the University Oval on the 11/07/20. Teams for this event need to be sent to hcyharriers@gmail.com by Monday 06.07.20. Any questions please contact Oliver O’Sullivan 0277518895, oliver.osullivan@gmail.com
We had a good-sized medium pack including several new faces which was great. This week, we turned left at Butts Road and continued straight along Dundas Street until we turned right at George Street. Then we (mostly) ran up Warrender Street which got our lungs working and helped wake up those of us not used to running in the mornings. Next, we turned right at Queens Drive, completing an ‘outer lap’ of Prospect park before continuing down Queens Drive through the town belt.
After passing Moana pool, we continued along Queens Drive above the Littlebourne Grounds/ Otago Boys High School before beginning our return at the Arthur Street Playground.
We followed Arthur Street through to London Street before running down Frederick Street until the very end. Finally, we ran along Anzac Avenue before some strode out along Logan Park Drive back to the clubrooms. This run was 9.03 km in total.
There were plenty of stops along the way to regroup, chat, and enjoy the scenery. A very enjoyable morning group run before some welcomed tea, coffee, and breakfast.
Fast pack (Ollie)
This week we had our first morning club run. It was great to see some new faces at the club, and positive feedback.
The fast pack consisted of (Oli Chignell, Simon Cromarty, Stephen Bloomfield, Matt Bolter, and Ollie & Elliot O’Sullivan).
The run went out on the cycleway to Mia, and back along the Port Chalmers Road to Logan Park.
At this point Matt Bolter split off, to impressively add in a Big Easy loop. Stephen completed an extra lap of Logan Park (no doubt at a blistering speed), and the rest of us hit the Caledonian track to admire Oli Chignell smashing out some exceptionally fast 1km reps. 1 hour 5minute total run.
Oli has been tasked with contributing to the Athletics NZ Instagram/Facebook page for the day, so if you wish to see more regarding what he has been up to, then Athletics NZ Instagram is the perfect spot to see some more details.
This week’s topics of conversation included the social benefits of group running, injury recovery, overseas racing, the upcoming local race calendar, and varying diets for health and performance optimisation.
Post run we all enjoyed a bite to eat, a coffee or two, and for some a sneaky can of Coke.
Scenic Pack (Helen)
Six lovely ladies and one very cute pooch headed off in the scenic pack of runners. We ran through the gardens then into Woodhaugh before tackling the climb up to the Ross Creek Reservoir. After a quick regroup and chat with a friendly familiar runner we opted for a lap of the reservoir before heading back down the very steep path and back to the clubrooms for breakfast. There was lots of good chat and time for everyone to catch up. It was really good to try the morning run and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Thank you all.
Its nearly the weekend again! This Saturday (June 20th) we host our first morning club run at 9am. The club room will be open from 8:30am for anyone that would like a bite to eat, or a coffee before the run. Breakfast cereal, toast, spreads, coffee and tea available. We look forward to seeing you all there.
Next week we Join Ariki for the Rotary Park 5km cross country race. This a great wee race, in what we call ‘handicapped’ style. This means that competitors are given different starts depending on their estimated 5km time. The slower runners go off first, and the fastest go last! Its very fun and exciting so if you havent done this before, its a goodie:)
Club registrations are now live so you can join the club and pay your subs. Just go to our website to do this https://hillcity.org.nz/. If you have any questions about this please do get in touch with me, or talk with Ollie, Richard, Tim or Simon at the club this weekend.
Finally, we are looking for people to help us with our race organisation for our new club event. Please get in touch, all help for comvening committee and ideas greatly received.
