Southland Harriers eNewsletter

From The Chair

What is Harriers all about, well I think the above photo sums things up pretty good. Its about running with your mates, and celebrating each others progress, whatever the goal may be. Were kind of like a family for four months of the year. Meeting up almost every weekend, and playing a mean game of chase each other around the park, up the hills, or maybe through the mud and over the hale bails. My favourite is watching how exited the kids get, but kids grow up to be competitive teenagers, who grow up to be faster then their parents, who if they are lucky are faster then there grandparents, who one day start to slow down but are happy to still be moving

A strong contingent of Southland Harriers were absent for our Opening Day run, as the were sweating there way up the Cardrona access road. Our local legend Dwight Grieve has provided us with a race report below. Congratulations to all of you that suited up for that start line and we are proud of you all. Results can be found on the Athletics NZ Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/AthleticsNZ/

The sun shone bright for our Season Open Day at Queens Park, and it was so great to see a few familiar faces and lots and lots of new ones, especially all the families that came along for their first event. Everyone lined up on the same start line, and ran 3kms, 6kms or 9kms. 70 runners completed the event and it was amazing watching you all cross the finish line.

We often hear feedback from other runners that Harriers is all about fast, competitive running. Results will show that we most definitely have some fast runners amongst us, but we cater for everyone, and the ice-cream at the end tastes just as sweet, whether you are first or sixty-first across the line. I hope that we will see everyone again throughout the season.

There were a few hic-ups, as there always is. One of your timing watches decided not to go. Thankfully the amazing Lillian Tudor always has a solution. We had a ghost runner (number 14), we are not sure where this ghost runner went, but I hope they got there ice-cream.

Please if you have any question about Southland Harriers, the season, joining a club, how the Athletics structure works, then reach out via email or messenger and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

So whose ready to do it all again next weekend………..

The Cardrona Climb and NZ Mountain Running Championships

As a mountain running event is a unique challenge, that can only ever be described as "tough"!

5km for under 20 and masters while seniors running the full 11km access road to the Cardrona ski field.

The 5km was fast and furious with the masters trying to push the young ones. For Southland James Weber of Queenstown club took under 20 silver with the bronze to Lucas Huia. Masters age group gold for Dwight Grieve. A few other Southland junior runners tasting the beast that is mountain running with some good efforts but no medals.

The senior 11km race was also the World selection race, a small but very classy field, Toby Gaulter recently run a stunning 63 minute half in Christchurch and backed it up with an NZ mountain title while Mia Flint took the woman's title. Huge respect to the Southlanders taking them on, Buddy Small, Sagar Khemani and Sarah Douglas missing medals but winning kudos for finishing one of the toughest events out there.

Huge thanks to Fiordland Athletic Club - Running Wild Fiordland Style for hosting the event and the team of volunteers especially Shaun Cantwell who did the organizing. All now await for the soon to be released naming of the NZ Mountain and Trail team for the world Champs to be held in Spain in September. Good luck to everyone involved.

Race 1 Shoe Clinic Series-No Watch Run

Date: 3rd of May, 2025

Where: Sandy Point, start of Rovers Track. Continue past the new car park next to the playground on the way to Daffodil Bay, approximately 200 meters down the road is a second parking lot and the start of Rovers track.

Time: 2pm start, please arrive early for sign in and to allow time to record your time.

Registration: https://www.webscorer.com/registerseries?seriesid=384307 (for the whole series), https://www.webscorer.com/register?raceid=384286 (for single event

NO WATCH RUN is part of our Shoe Clinic Series.

The idea being that runners and walkers guess their time over a secret course and completes race without a watch. Closes to their time, wins!! Seniors will run 5km, juniors will run 2.2km.

Spot Prizes will be given out at the Shoe Clinic Race Series Events. Races 1-7 on the calendar.

This event will also include a prize giving for the person(s) closest to their time.

The costs to enter these events is:

Runners/Walkers registered to a NZ Athletics Club-FREE
Everyone else $5 per event or $30 for all 7 events.
To be in with a chance of winning a bonus spot prize make sure you attend the last
event and prizegiving on September 6th.

Bank Account Number: Southland Harriers 03-1750-0096798-000 (please use your first initial and last name as a reference). Please bring correct change if paying cash on the day.