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President’s Tan Talk – October 2023
The weather for our October Tan Time Trial was perfect for running, and the mood at the Tan was positive. We had a couple of first-time Tan runners, including one from Austria, who was doing a warm up run prior to cycling the Round the Bay in a Day the following day. We also had a number of VRR members who were tapering down their running prior to running the Melbourne Marathon the following Sunday, 15 October.
The marathoners included Stephen Barker, who is a Spartan Marathoner. Steve has completed 36 Marathons, the first in 1982 (which was the year of my third Melbourne Marathon!) when Steve ran 3:25:30, and Steve’s best was eleven years later when he ran his PB, (15 seconds quicker!) at 3:25:15. Note than Steve was able to tell me all that (and more!) without reference to notes. Like many of us he has a detailed memory of his marathon performances!! We wish Steve and all VRR members running next Sunday the very best of luck. We look forward to hearing about how they went after next Sunday’s run.
As noted below we had two milestoners this month, Gary Turner, completing his 150th TTT, and Steve Barker knocking out his 350th, well done to both on their great achievements. |
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| This photo shows some VRR members enjoying a cup of tea or coffee (and a Tim Tam!) now that that is again a regular part of the monthly Tan experience, many thanks to Lynn Kisler and Sally Browne for organising it, much appreciated. Having a cuppa makes the post-Tan chat a whole lot more enjoyable.
I mentioned in passing before we sent everyone off to run that our running clock, after two recent bouts of “illness” was now cured after attention from two different “clock doctors”. Fortunately, while the clock is (like us) getting old and showing signs of age, it has not slowed down!!
Have a good month of running, specially marathoners, and we would love to hear from all our marathoners, telling us about how they went.
Michael K.
VRR President |
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| Congratulations, Gary Turner on achieving your 150th TTT. |
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| And, Stephen Barker achieved the absolutely amazing total of 350 TTT’s this month – Awesome, Stephen!! |
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Long Time VRR Member, PAUL BAN (photo below) tells us about his adventures in France competing? in the Marathon du Medoc 2023.
As you can guess, this is a VERY unusual Marathon when you start with a Red Wine ‘energy’ drink!
Paul has forsaken living in Clifton Hill and now resides on the Mornington Peninsula so it’s not quite as easy for him to get to the Tan.
Paul, we miss Ya |
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| Marathon du Medoc 2023
The Marathon du Medoc has been held early September north of Bordeaux, France, for the past thirty seven years, excluding being cancelled for two covid years. It is run through vineyards and Chateaux in the Medoc region, which passes over fifty Chateaux and has twenty three fuelling stations (wine, cheese, fruit, croissants, oysters, entrecote – and even water!) There is a costume theme every year, with this year’s theme being gastronomy and over ninety percent of runners dressing for the occasion. I participated in 2013 (theme was Space) and 2014 (theme was Carnival) and thought I was lucky to have run it twice. In May this year I had no idea I would be running it again, as my running career has been winding down for a while and I hadn’t run over a half marathon since 2019, with my last marathon taking place in 2015. During the covid years and after I only ran two 10 k events and was happily looking forward to occasional 5k Park Runs.
When my wife and I had to change our mid-year Europe trip to September 2023, she pointed out I could run the Marathon du Medoc again if I wanted to. She thought I could rise to the occasion because it wasn’t a serious marathon and could stop whenever I wanted. While my head was excited, my body told me that a marathon is still 42k whether you are dressed in costume and drinking wine or not. So I committed to completing half the course, which is a figure eight and takes you almost back to the start before heading off for the second loop. I would like to have included more photos, as a picture tells a thousand words, but the editor has given me strict instructions not to. This was a surprise event and they are usually the best, as you find yourself doing something that seems out of your reach and feeling satisfied with the accomplishment.
Paul Ban |
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VRR PHOTOS
VRR photographer, Helen Myall takes great photos at each Tan Time Trial event..
ALL the photos are posted on Facebook.
To access Facebook you can use your internet browser and type in the following address:
www.facebook.com/VicRoadRunners/photos |
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VRR LIFE MEMBERS
Stephen Barker, Kevin Browne, Sally Browne, Tony Doran, Graham Edwards, Jenny Field, Peter Field, Vern Gerlach (dec), Peter Gunn (dec.), Don Hampshire, Eileen Helmers (dec), Frank Helmers (dec), Betty Horskins, Graeme Horskins, Mike Kennedy, Lynn Kisler, Greig McEwan, Ross Martin (dec), Vin Martin, John Morris, Helen Myall, Peter Nicoll, Bill Noonan, Brian O’Dea, Rod Opie, Graham Prossor, Melissa Sirianni, Doug Stokes, Brian Toomey (dec.), Stuart White, Robert Wilson, Judy Wines, Tom Worrell (dec) and Val Worrell. |
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Can you ask your running friends if they are receiving their email copy of Stride Out.
If they aren’t, can you get them to send me an email (gprossor@bigpond.net.au) asking to be put on the distribution list. |
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