SRC E-News
May 2021

Bitmoji Image Welcome to the May edition of the SRC Newsletter.

Well, the last few days have certainly turned around and made some of those early morning runs a little more challenging. Its a bit difficult to get used to having to rug up again, but the sun is certainly bringing some pretty nice days with it when it is here.

There have been a few things going on around the club lately and some of them will appear in here for your reading pleasure. There has been a bit of movement in the membership stakes as well and we have new members joining all the time, which is fantastic to see.

As always, if you have something that you would like to see in the newsletter, please make sure that you get in contact at cknicholson75@live.com. The next newsletter is due out late June.

But for now, kick back after your Sunday long run with the popcorn (or whatever your fav post run refuel is) and enjoy the content of this months newsletter.

Happy reading and……..  Keep Running 😉

President’s Podium

Hello SRC Members,

It is great to see everyone still out and about with the weather getting colder and colder.

Here are some updates from the last committee meeting.
Running Festival is underway. There are some changes that have been in the pipe-line for a few years now. Spacing the festival over two days. The kids 2km run and Trail Run on the Saturday, followed by the 10km, 21.1km and 42.2km on the Sunday. By spreading the events over two days we believe this will help reduce the amount of traffic on the course. Another change is that we will be starting on Tom Collins Drive to help reduce the cost of traffic management and then run north. We will be finalising the new course in June, but are excited to use some of the original marathon course.
We are still looking for a passionate person for events to shadow Steve Ayton this year and look at taking on the role in 2022.
We are also on the lookout for anyone who has the credentials to be our COVID-SAFE officer for the event. If you know of anyone who can assist the club with this, please let me know.
It is great to see interest from new members and interested runners at our Tuesday and Thursday sessions. With a lot of new faces, I encourage any member to go up and meet some of these new faces.
On the note of members, we are now up to 125 members. There are 63 males, and 62 females. There are 50 Individual members and 75 Family members, which comprises of 25 Family Memberships.
Below is a graph of the age demographics.
Stay safe and warm,
Matt

Thank you to parkrun volunteers

Many of our members regularly participate in parkrun, and many of them volunteer at parkrun as well. Parkrun is an amazing idea that as many of us know began in Bushy Park several years ago and has grown to the world wide phenomenon we know today. Shepparton parkrun has been running (pun intended) for over 7 years now, and regularly between 150 to 200 participants run, jog or walk the course. This wouldn’t happen without the parkrun volunteers.

During the recent Volunteer week, the Shepparton parkrun volunteers were nominated for the group volunteers award at the Greater Shepparton Volunteer awards. While they didn’t win the award, this was such an honour and an absolute shout out needs to go to those that have volunteered over the years for Shepparton parkrun. Recently several parkruns at other locations have had to cancel their parkruns or put pressure on members to volunteer, or volunteer when they didn’t really want to. But there hasn’t been a single occasion that Shepparton has had to cancel, and that is because of the support of their volunteers. 496 different people have volunteered at Shepparton parkrun since it started, which amounts to over 9000 individual volunteer positions being filled. That is huge!

So to all those Runners club members, and the general community, thank you for helping make Shepparton parkrun happen.

Runner Profile

Olivia Marshal

Age

20 years old

PBs

5km – 23:33

10km – 54:10

21.1km – 2:01:30

What initiated you getting involved in running?

I always hated running as a kid, I would complain if I had to run more than about 5 meters. Got out of almost every cross country in school. I started running when I was 18 to gain some fitness for footy so started doing parkrun. From there on I started to love it. I have been running for nearly 3 years and decided to join the Runners Club this year which is awesome. It’s great to run with others and get to know them.

Do you have any favourite running event that you love or want to try out?

The Goulburn River Fun Run this year was the first running event that I have done which was great, looking forward to the Shepparton Running Festival in August! I would also be keen to try out another triathlon, hopefully when it’s not as cold as the Challenge Shepparton this year.

What other interests do you have?

I play football and am a Girl Guide leader. I have been in Guides and have played footy for 13 years now.

Pizza, what’s your go-to?

Love a good cauliflower-based pizza with roasted veggies and feta!

What future running goals/events/PBs would you like to achieve this year?

I would love to get 5km time down closer to my PB again and complete a couple more half marathons.

Do you have any mental tips that help you when the pain barrier, or getting out of bed, just gets too hard?

Not really, I just love to get out of the house and have found that a good early morning walk every morning motivates me for the rest of the day!

Don’t Forget!

The May Handicap is just around the corner! 4.9km of FUN

Sunday May 30th at Princess Park. First runner starts at 8:15am
Details:
Where – Princess Park Shepparton
When – Sunday May 30
Start – 8:15am (Get there from about 7:45am)
Cost – SRC Members $0, Non-Members $5
Will there be a bbq? – Yes…. hopefully!!

The Great Ocean Road Festival report, 23 km event – Anna Gee

I entered GOR 23km run last year hoping to use it as a hilly training run for a marathon that I had planned to run a couple of months later…..but unfortunately both were cancelled due toCovid. I decided to transfer my entry in the hope that it would go ahead this year, and it did!!
A record number of nearly 9000 runners participated over the weekend with events for everyone, from the kids 1.5km gallop to the 60km ultra-mara. I settled for the more sensible23km. It was a family weekend of running for us with my 6 year old son James participating in the 1.5km (with my husband puffing along side him) my Dad the 14km and my 3 year old Harry, cheering us on with hot chocolate in hand. Having run the marathon course a couple of times, I knew what I was getting myself in to, but was up for the challenge …. hills and more hills, and this year wind and rain showers were also thrown into the mix!
I think I checked a few different weather websites until I found one I was ‘happy’ with. A stunning sunrise over the ocean set us up for the start of the race at Kennett River. Hanging around the starting area was bloody freezing, but that didn’t last too long…. the first section of the run is a relentless uphill climb and you certainly know you’re alive! Every twist and turn in the road presented us with another breath taking piece of scenery, and the wind presented us with another challenge. A stunning rainbow appeared to sit directly over the top of Apollo Bay the whole way (the finish line)
It wasn’t long before I could see Apollo Bay in site and having run the course a couple of times, I knew it was fairly flat the last 5 km’s, so I tried to finish it off strong. My months of training and running at the Botanical Gardens had paid off as I managed to run a ½ marathon PB, which I wasn’t expecting to achieve on such a challenging course.
I think everyone should have GOR on their bucket list….I’ll definitely be back!

Great Ocean Road Running Festival, 14km event- Jacqui Noonan

When preparing for a long drive to a run that you’ve never done before it’s a great idea to have plan on how to get there. This was the first of many blunders I made for the weekend.

With a temperature of 7 and a feels like -.6 (yes negative) this was not a great way to start a run. We spent the entire trip watching the outside temperature from the gauge inside the car, hoping it would at some point increase to double figures.

Early in the trip we followed a detour for planned road works on the Hume freeway, it was to be closed. Unknown to us at the time these had been postponed until the following weekend. We did however enjoy the tour of Mickleham and navigating the new ramps back onto the ring road.

Breakfast stop was at a fuel station, we followed the strict rules of not trying anything new on race day. Taren managed a yoghurt and muesli bar while I stuck to the trusty tuna on rice cakes. We sat eating our much needed breakfast directly in front of the counter of McDonalds with our mouths watering over the smell of bacon and egg McMuffin.

Back on the road and 300kms in it was time to turn off the highway and head towards the coast. With Taren on navigation I followed her lead, ‘turn here’ I swung the car off the main road and onto the narrow exit. The road then widened, we looked around, no signage and no reflective guide posts, just a large empty truck parking bay, this was not our turn. We continued though the parking lot and back onto the highway towards the correct turn 500m ahead.

I did however learn on the trip that when stopped at a red light for road works there is always time to get a charger out of the boot.

As we pulled into Apollo Bay, Taren made a special request to the parking fairy, and the parking fairy came through, we pulled straight into a park 50m from the start line.

It was a huge event, loads of atmosphere, so many people and everyone was very friendly and chatty….. except for me. I hadn’t shut up for the whole trip until this moment, it had dawned on me that I could be last one over the line. I had no idea what to expect, had I trained enough? How steep are these hills going to be?  And to top it off everyone else looked oh so fit.

We lined up amongst 1000 other people shivering, trying to find our place in the crowd. Half way seemed optimistic to me but that’s where it all begun. The countdown started and we all took off…. walked for the first 50m and then a slow jog to the end of the street before the first hill begun to filter the crowd out.

The first km was slow going, slightly uphill, but felt like nothing with fresh legs. Packed into the crowd there was no sign of physical distancing.

The next few kms we downhill then flat, 4 km went fast, up to 6 people wide on the road making passing very difficult as we all ran for the hills. Barham Rd along the Barham river towards Barham forest.

Following the river the scenery changed from rolling hills of farms and horses to thick Forest. Sides of the road littered with fallen bark and fern fronds, moisture seeping through the rocks and trickling a crosses the track under foot.

The river ran cloudy from the recent rain runoff and multiple small waterfalls still remained on the hill side of the roads.

As the runners ahead reached the turn around the proceeded to head back to town the crowds of runners cheered and clapped as they raced past.

These cheers echoed through the gully as they passed the 1000 plus runners on their way to the finish line.

At this point I saw Taren running towards me, my energy level increased, I stood taller and ran with conviction. Seeing a familiar face in amongst the crowds was so uplifting. As we got closer there was an almighty cheer and a very confident high five (not covid safe).

I hit the turnaround point and was so happy not to be wearing white shoes, the 800 odd runners who had reached this point before me had churned up the track and created a muddy and slippery mess.

Now for the downhill segment, the sun broke through the clouds and created a moment of humidity. Rather than focusing on increasing my speed I took the time to grab a selfie with the river as my backdrop and have a chat to a few fellow runners. I figured I was on the home straight, it was all going to be smooth sailing from here, why not enjoy the ride.

In the distance I saw it coming, at 11.5km there was a rise in the road, a few hundred metres long and steeper than anything else I had conquered for the day. How had I forgotten this was here? What was I doing when I passed this point at the start of the race? Had my runners high made me overlook this one?

With burning legs but a determined mind I made it to the top and it was all downhill from here, a race to the finish line.

The final turn and the finish line was ahead, the pace increased and I knew I wasn’t going to be last. As I ran over the line there was an announcement from the commentators, ‘Shepparton running club are out in droves’ Taren and I laughed, think there was only two of us. They also gave the Shepparton running festival a plug.

Post-race hydration begun, first water or over powered lemon lime SIS if you grabbed the wrong cup and finally we cracked the bottle of bubbles.

Overall the event was sensational, well worth the travel. Beautiful landscape, gentle rolling slopes (except for 1) and a distance for everyone. A huge shout out to Taren for coming along for the experience, can’t wait to do it all again.

Nothing beats the feeling of a great run! Our course is flat so you can FLY. Now’s the time to enter:

https://bit.ly/3nuYer5
Shepparton Runners Club Victorian Running Network Athletics Victoria

Many thanks to our club members that volunteered as pacers for the Mothers Day Classic this month. We had a fabulous day supporting a great cause.