Southland Harriers eNewsletter

St. Pauls Street Mile 2026

How lucky are we, two race reports for Saturdays event which saw 55 runners on the start line ready to race the Street Mile at the Ascot.

Thanks Ian Densie and Aidan Barclay

From Aidan (1st home in the Mile):

Arriving at the course the conditions felt near perfect for a race, which is unusual for an Invercargill winters day. I came into the event with little to no experience over the distance, and had little idea of a target time. I came with a pretty simple tactic to try and stick with the front ones and see what I had left at the end. I think taking the week leading up to the event relatively easy gave me a nice advantage as I felt pretty fresh leading up to the race.

Off the start line I felt a little weak, but half a lap or so around the hotel and that feeling basically vanished. The second lap was a pretty simple one, I just sat in behind the front three the whole lap and decided to save the hard work for the end. With around ¾ of a lap to go I was feeling pretty strong and decided to pick it up a a bit. I spent the final half of the lap attempting to pick off the guys in front of me, before a sprint finish at the end. Overall I was very happy with the result and didn't expect to have the finish in me, especially being new to the distance. Credit the guys around me for making it difficult.

From Ian:

What a great afternoon at the St. Paul's Street Mile! The rain coming down on Saturday morning had me a little worried, but thankfully the skies cleared and we ended up with a great afternoon for racing. We had good numbers on the start line, plenty of competition and lost of smiles afterwards!

My own race went pretty much to plan. I got away to a smooth and controlled start, held things together through the middle section and was able to come home strongly. I finished in a time of 5.25 which is a a new PB.

The mile certainly has a way of making you work hard, it was fantastic to see all those smiling faces once the pain had worn off! A huge thank you to all the volunteers and officials who helped make the event happen, and to everyone who came along and competed. These events are only possible because people are willing to give up their time and because runners keep turning up and having a go.

Thanks to St. Pauls for the afternoon tea and to Wendy Joy Baker who gave me the Crunchie bar she won as a spot prize! It was a fun afternoon, great people and plenty of tired buy happy runners-exactly what a Harriers event is all about.

Results: https://www.webscorer.com/race?raceid=444511 (Please note there have been a few changes since originally posted, thanks for heads up team!)

Thank You Liz Henry

Most people know Liz Henry the fabulous lady that brought Park Run to Invercargill. Recently Liz has gifted the sport 2 head injury assessment packs which we have been able to add to our first aid kit we take to Harrier events and during summer will keep at St Paul's club rooms for use during the summer season so big thank you from the Athletics community for this.

Also this week with no local Harrier run organized and Park Run is celebrating Invercargill 400th event and would be great to see a massive turnout as I hear there's a drive for 400 people on the 400th event. Amazing to think that 400 people running/walking around the beautiful Queens Park at 9am on a Saturday morning