July 2008
The Achilles Heel
- Newsletter of the Achilles Running Club -Sydney
PO Box 240, Randwick,2031:
Achilles_syd@hotmail.com
www.achilles-sydney.org.au
July 2008 Edition
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The shortest day of the year has passed and still the weather on Sunday mornings has been really good for Achilles training. We have had good turnouts of both disabled members and guides. Thankfully we have more guides turning up than just those who have been on the roster. Please check on your roster day so that we can be assured of a nucleus of guides. As you should well know, Sunday mornings with Achilles has been a great place to be!
In this Edition:
*Breakfast to celebrate Marge Collier's 90th birthday
*City to Surf
*Bushwalk/Hiking day
*Welcome to New Members
*AGM
*Membership renewal
*News from Ali from the USA
*Michael Lovric - Ultra-marathon Man
*Matt Levy - Good Luck for Beijing
*Website
*Sunday Roster
CELEBRATORY BREAKFAST FOR 90 Y.O. MARGE COLLIER
Not many athletic clubs can boast having a 90 year old member. Heartiest congratulations to Marge, definitely our oldest, and one of our longest serving members. Everyone is amazed at Marge's true age given her youthful look and manner.
To celebrate Marge's 90th, we are having a breakfast. Achilles will foot the bill for the continental breakfast for all attending members.
Date: Sunday 3 August
Venue: NSW Rugby League Club, 165 Phillip Street, Sydney
Time: about 9-45am
Come and enjoy a great buffet continental breakfast, catch up with other club members and DRINK A TOAST (coffee, tea or juice) TO MARGE!
Please will you let it be known if you are coming to the breakfast so that we can ensure that the Rugby League Club are ready to accommodate us. email (
CITY 2 SURF
(after Sunday training)janks@comcen.com.au).
City 2 Surf is upon us once again. Following an earlier request, many of our members have signed up for this year's race. Once again, we are joining Guide Dogs in having our entries sponsored by Kimberley Clarke, the Kleenex tissue people (amongst their many products). Many thanks to them for their support of our great club.
BUSHWALK/HIKING DAY
Together with Vision Australia, Achilles is holding a bushwalk in the Royal National Park. There will be a group of visual impaired people from Sydney and Wollongong coming along. This is open to any Achilles members who are keen to have a walk/hike over rough terrain. A 5 km track has been chosen that is reasonably easy, but we can incorporate more adventurous side tracks, to add excitement! The idea of having this day is to broaden the scope of what is offered to Achilles members and to attract new younger disabled people to Achilles.
Date:
Venue:
Helensburgh (Royal National Park). Meeting at Helensburgh Station.
Time :
Transport:
Anyone, disabled or guide, who is keen to be part of the hike, please contact Nick (
nicholas.gleeson@visionaustralia.org )
NEW MEMBERS
A very warm Achilles welcome to our newest members.
Donella (Dee) Corbett
Angie Macken
John Domandl
Those who have been at Sunday training in the last month will have met Dee and Angie while those going in City to Surf will catch up with John.
(lives in Newcastle)
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Annual General Meeting will be taking place soon. We are very keen, as always, to have new people join the committee and add new ideas and help Achilles to move forward. As with each year, all committee positions will be vacated and up for nominations. If you would like to contribute to Achilles as a committee member and have the time, we'd love to have you nominate for the committee. Committee meetings take place on a Thursday evening roughly once every 6 weeks (venue the same as that of the AGM). Meetings start at 6-30 and are usually finished by 8 pm.
If you want to know more, please phone either Nick 9773 5631-(a/h) or Ellis 9664-4824-(a/h).
MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS
Membership renewal is due once again ( July each year). Annual fees are $20. It is vital for our club that you all renew your membership. Besides your fees being used for general running costs, we are trying to secure corporate sponsorship and the bigger our paid up membership, the better. Please forward your membership fees to PO Box 240, Randwick 2031 or give them to any committee member at training. Ted will forward a receipt to you. If your contact details have changed in the last year, please make sure that we have your updated information.
Please note: anyone who joined the club in or after March this year is financial through till June next year.
NEWS FROM ALI FROM N.Y.C.
This is an email received recently:-
Hi Everyone,
I just wanted to say "hello" and see how everything is with you. I'm doing well back here although I think that, if I move there, I will be giving my cats away rather than going through the process of bringing them over. That said, nothing has opened up for me in Australia, so I just took a new job in my company that will have me here for another year. I'm a little disappointed, but hopefully when the economy gets better, something will open up in Sydney.
I tried running with Achilles about a month ago - I saw Artie. It wasn't quite the same as Sydney:( I miss you guys....send everyone my regards.
Cheers!
Ali
Michael Lovric - Ultra-marathon Man
Those who regularly come to Sunday training will have gotten used to the sight of a super-fit Michael Lovric arriving at training having just run from his home in Clovelly. After training, he then runs home. After reading what he REALLY does, you will appreciate that Sunday morning is a mere 'warm-up' session for this crazy ultra-marathon man.
I asked Michael to jot down a list of the events that he has participated in this year (so far!). No one will blame you for even feeling tired while reading Michael's amazing list of events.
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2008 has been a big year so far. However, it started on an ominous note with my first ever non-completion at the 'Beyond the Black Stump' (a 35 km road and trail race at Berowra) on New Year's Day. I managed to sprain both ankles before deciding that enough was enough and dropping out at the 21km mark.
With a week left to recover, I travelled down to the Victorian Alps to run the gruelling Bogong to Hotham 64km trail race. With both ankles less than perfect I gingerly completed the mountainous run in 11:20.
By February I was feeling recovered and headed up to SE Queensland to make my track debut at the Caboolture Dusk to Dawn running 108km in the 12 hour division.
In March I ran the 45km Six Foot Track in 4:53 (shaving 8 minutes off my previous year's time).
Later that month I headed down to Tasmania to run the 3 Peaks Race which consists of an 80km, 40km, and 30km run up serious mountains with about 600 miles of sailing in between.
[http://www.coolrunning.com.au/forums/index.php?showtopic=17107]
In April I joined three others to run the 100km Melbourne Oxfam Trailwalker. Finishing in 12:31, our team came third.
The following week I decided to try to tackle the 12Gate Loop. This 110km run consists of a 6 foot track out and back with the Hellgate Loop thrown in to boot. It took me 18:44, but I produced the first ever successful completion of the course. [http://www.coolrunning.com.au/forums/index.php?showtopic=17777&st=100]
With just a week to recover I was back in Victoria running the Wilson's Promontory 100km trail race in 14:35.
In May I was back in Queensland to run the Glasshouse Mountains 50 mile trail race (8:27), then running the Manly to Palm Beach out and back (60km road) in 5:27.
Since then I have been content running shorter races: The Nosh Run 15km trail (Lindfield) 71:55s and the Sydney Striders 10km road (North Head NSW) 38:46s
With a bit of rest under my belt I hope to do well in the next couple of races. June 14 is the date of the Poor Man's Comrades (for those who can't afford to go to South Africa) run between Sydney and Gosford. Then the following week I will be running from Katoomba to Mittagong.
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Michael did in fact complete the last mentioned events. Congratulations to him on a quite extraordinary running and racing program.
Matthew Levy - Paralympics
Matt Levy
has been hard at swimming training in preparation for the Paralympics. It is not long until he goes into pre-event team camp. We all wish him the best of luck and are looking forward to getting word of his success in the pool.
Achilles Website
Please be aware of the Achilles website
www.achilles-sydney.org.au . On it is news updates, the Sunday volunteer roster, The Achilles Heel etc. We are still battling to get a photo gallery working (it is a long story). If anyone in the club is a "wizard" at websites and may be able to sort a few things out with our website, please contact Ellis (janks@comcen.com.au)
Sunday Volunteer Roster:
If anyone is not on the roster and wishes to be on it, please contact
janks@comcen.com.au.
July 13
Karen Parker, Ellis Janks, Rebecca Sexton, Colin Bradford. Volunteer Required
July 20
July 27 -
Neil McCarthy, Marilyn Gould, Nikki Caminer, Rebecca Sexton, Volunteer Required
August 2
August 3
- Mariana von Lucken, Diane McEwin, Chris Laing, Martin Ruane. Volunteer Required
August 10
August 17
- Doug Ritchie, - NO TRAINING - (City to Surf) Neil McCarthy, Colin Bradford, Nikki Caminer, Volunteer Required
August 24
- Karen Parker, Ellis Janks, Rebecca Sexton, Mark Houlihan, Volunteer Required
August 31 -
September 6
September 7
- Chris Laing, Doug Ritchie,- SYDNEY STRIDERS 10K (North Head)Stephen Lenn, Mariana von Lucken, Marilyn Gould, Diane McEwin. Volunteer Required Neil McCarthy, Ted Magen. Volunteer Required
September 14
September 21 -
September 28
- Mariana von Lucken, NO TRAINING - (Sydney Marathon and Running Festival) Karen Parker, Ellis Janks, Colin Bradford. Volunteer Required Stephen Lenn, Mark Houlihan, Rebecca Sexton. Volunteer Required
October 4
October 5 -
, Diane McEwin, Marilyn Gould, Doug Ritchie,- SYDNEY STRIDERS 10K - (Sydney Olympic Park) Neil McCarthy. Volunteer Required
October 12
Karen Parker, Chris Laing, Ellis Janks. Volunteer Required
October 19
Mariana von Lucken, Colin Bradford, Stephen Lenn. Volunteer Required
- Rebecca Sexton, - Nikki Caminer, - Nikki Caminer,- SYDNEY STRIDERS 10K (Lane Cove) - No training (WYD): Hiking Day (Royal National Park)- Train from Central Station or private car 10-00am till 3-30pm Sunday 20 July 2008.