Just a quick intro from me before I hand over to Jodie Oborne.
Many thanks to the RCR committee for putting on a memorable awards night, with a special mention to Leigh & Jodie for their presenting skills!
I'm sure I speak for everybody in commenting that it was a brilliant night, surrounded by positive, like-minded people. Cheers, Rob
On Saturday the 30th November we came together to celebrate a year of individual achievements but
the overwhelming feedback I received in seeking your comments and input for the achievements we
celebrated was that those achievement were in fact a result of the group effort. We all, by simply
turning up and joining in have helped influence the individual achievements we celebrated on the
night. Not only that we create an opportunity for inclusion and discuss and solve many problems and
share so much useful information on the run. Thank YOU for being an active participant of the River
City Runners YOU help many in so many ways every week.
It was a lot of fun to see everyone embracing the ‘BLING’ theme with many interpretations on the
theme. Trisha Coonerty was awarded the prize for best dressed in classic bling and Chris Batt for his
interpretation of Gangsta Bling. The person with the freshest Bling was our Club Secretary Heidi Gould who participated in the Green Relay in Yerongapilly doing the early stages of a 4 hour relay on
Saturday afternoon. Our relay runners deserve a special mention and proudly wore the bling they achieved that day, Gold and Silver medals in the 3 x 1km relays. Great stuff team runners.
Planning was already underway for next year’s relay event on the night.
Leigh Hathaway took on the role of MC for the evening and did a fabulous job keeping us entertained and the proceedings on track and we even managed to squeeze in another ‘shave’ with Gary O’Connor making good on his commitment to shave the head too if over $1000 was raised.
Tim Coles (The Trail Co/The Guzzler Race Director) came along as our guest and spoke to us about setting
big scary goals, doing a bit of planning, accepting help when it’s offered and achieving the goals but not forgetting why we wanted that goal in the first place, sometimes you’ve just got to run with it. Thanks Tim.
I crammed as many medals as I could into a jar and threw down the challenge to guess not only how many medals were in the far but how far I had run and for how long to achieve those medals. I gave a range but it really was a best guess situation. The results were as follows;
Total Number of Medals – 59 – Garry Wingreen
Total Number of Kilometres – 2861km – Cathy Staite
Total Number of Hours Running – 349 hours – Craig Jones
Major Awards
Harvey Hambleton Trophy, you get if for:
-Being a gritty and tenacious runner
-Never losing sight of your goals.
-Being a Team Player and always putting the club and the other members first.
-Never losing sight of your goals.
-Being a Team Player and always putting the club and the other members first.
Liz Russell
Liz meets all the criteria just mentioned. This year Liz achieved personal bests for 5km, 10km, Half Marathon and Marathon and to round out a brilliant year achieved a Gold Medal as part of the 3 x 1km relay team. Despite suffering an injury in preparation for The Guzzler 50km around the middle of this year this did not stop Liz for starting and finishing in 8 hours 26 minutes 49th female out of 107 and 1st in her age category. Later in the year after Coastal High was cancelled by the devastating bushfires on the Gold Coast Hinterland Liz with the help of Irish Nick spent a long morning in Daisy Hill running 50km to legitimately claim the Coastal High finishers medal and shirt. It is always a pleasure to have Liz’s company on the run even when we spend a good half hour in a creek bush bashing and run for way longer than was planned.
Club Spirit
Rob Martin.
Organising team runs in preparation for Guzzler and an ongoing basis on trails. It’s always an adventure and runs in good humour no one is ever lost… A regular at Tuesday Trails and the odd Saturday Morning Trails from QSAC and always a happy spirit who brings the crowd together.
Wheels Fell Off Award
Nick McKinnon
There were many adventures and mishaps throughout the year that would have made many eligible for this award. We as a committee felt it was best awarded for someone who truly did start their race in a blaze of glory, in an event where the terrain and distance would normally dictate a conservative start. What really sealed the deal in this case was that the persons misery or suffering was perfectly captured on course and despite that they finished, eventually in 8 hours 22 minutes 42 seconds.
Navigation Award
Nick Roberts.
Nick has stepped up and took on the role of planning a long run often in Daisy Hill which he knows well but also at Mt Cootha in preparation for Guzzler. On a couple of occasions, the scheduled run went a little longer than anticipated. Nick often claims the run will always be ‘about’ that distance. Just how much longer than ‘about’ is the real question?
President’s Award
Fiona Milnes
Being very new to this role I took some consideration into selecting this role. I (as President) thought I would recognise someone very new to ultra and someone who had really challenged themselves and approached their running this year with great dedication and discipline. In 2018 Fiona’s longest run ever was the 22km at Yarrabilba. In 2019 she was a regular at the Tuesday and Thursday morning sessions and really stepped things up with some tough events completing Up the Buff 25km, Brisbane Trail Half Marathon 25km and then her first ultra The Guzzler 50km. Some highlights of her year were the group training runs in preparation for The Guzzler and a solo 30km at Mapleton. Unfortunately Fiona couldn’t attend the awards presentation but I was more than happy to report that she finds all of you really inspiring and despite the fact that she has promised her family she won’t do another 50km in 2020 we all know we think they will understand if she does.
Long Suffering Spouse
Glenda Vigorelli.
Glenda is a non running partner of Rob Martin. Glenda has been present at the finish line of many a 100km event, and often at the checkpoints along the way. In some instances, this has meant a long long day, occasionally in pretty extreme conditions even if it is Italy or France. This year Glenda was committed to waking up at an ungodly hour to drive a car load of blokes up a mountain (Mt Glorious), waited around on the mountain for 3 hours or so to then drive a car load of sweaty and tired blokes home again. Our sympathies this year go to Glenda and bestow on her the honour of being the Long Suffering Spouse.
Patron’s Award
Amanda Neil
Amanda has been an integral part of the club for as long as I have been around. In the past few years this has been in more formal rolls of Secretary and then President. For the past at least 5 years she has lead the Thursday morning training session at QSAC rain, hail or shine only missing it when other commitments took her out of Brisbane but always arranged a replacement ‘coach’ to fulfil the role. It was great to see the group personally thank and show their appreciation this week with a gift. The Thursday morning session is our most popular with the highest attendance. Unfortunately, Amanda had other commitments on the night but Don spoke fondly of the contribution that Amanda has made to the club over the years including the fact that in that time she ran her first marathon aged 42 and 2 months, her 1st ultra and the Comrades Marathon in South Africa completing an UP and a Down run and this year achieved personal bests for 5km and the Half Marathon, had a great run in at the Great Wall China Marathon and Guzzler 50km.
Personal Bests/Achievements
Griffith Sport Toohey Trial Run – Team Results
- 10km – 2nd
- Half Marathon – 4th
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