
Just a reminder of our quiz night on Thursday.
This is being held to raise funds to help two of our club members Sam and Sally get to New York later this year to participate in the New York Marathon.
As you will be aware Sally has been chosen to go as a member of the Achilles Team and Sam is her chosen Guide. Two weeks ago Sally and Sam completed the Half marathon distance in Taupo (Sally’s first half) and judging by their time training is going well.
The quiz night will be held following our usual club activities and we ask that you start to arrive from 7.00pm for a 7.30pm start. To be held in our Club rooms in the Hamilton Yacht Club, Innes Common.
Partners will be drawn on the night (so no stacking of teams!) and there will be an entry fee of $10 per head. This includes a light supper at the half way mark.
Some great prizes will be up for grabs and will include some accomodation packages and sports vouchers.
There will also be a special opportunity to own a framed All Black Jersey signed by Sean Fitzpatrick ! You will not get this chance very often at all. A great piece of history that could be yours.
Please feel free to invite all your family and friends along on the night for a fun time and for a great cause.
See you all Thursday Night!
P.S. Feel free to join us for a club run at 5.30 pm before the quiz if you wish. Hot showers available in the changing area.
SALLY MARSTON - MEMBER PROFILE
You will have seen Sally around the club lately who, together with Steve Donelly, has become a recent club member.
Both are members of Achilles International which is an organisation set up “to provide New Zealanders with disabilities the opportunity to participate alongside able-bodied athletes in local, national and international events”
Both Sally and Steve have joined our club with the encouragement of Sam Foster (another of our club members) and with the full support of your committee.
Sally has been given the opportunity to travel to New York this November to participate in the New York Marathon as part of the Achilles team and Sam is to travel with her and guide her along the way.
To help both Sam and Sally with their expenses your committee has made the decision to run a quiz night on August 15 following our usual club night runs and walks. As you know our quiz nights are a lot of fun and we will be donating the proceeds of the evening to assist Sally and Sam in their New York adventure. There will be more information to come re the format of the evening. (I can tell you that already we have had some great prizes donated for raffles etc.)
Here’s what Peter Loft has to say about Sally’s development. Peter is a Co-Founder and Honorary Life Member of Achilles International New Zealand:
“From my Perspective when Sally first joined Achilles she was quite the person in the background, very shy and would not instigate any conversation and basically we got one or two word replies to any questions.
Sally didn’t run. Initially she just walked and one lap of the Lake was more than enough. Sally slowly got faster and at one of our track training sessions Sally started to run and both Max Holmes and I looked at each other and said ‘that girl has some natural ability’. Sally looked good running so we spent time focusing on improving her running form and getting her to run further.
About this time Sam turned up and her and Sally seemed to hit it off straight away. Sam pushed Sally a little further and faster and before too long Sally’s running times started to improve as her trust in Sam grew along with her confidence. But Sally was still very shy and I think she could be quite stubborn and didn’t want to do any more than 10 kms jogging/walking (Sam would know this better).
Then along came the opportunity for the New York Marathon out of the blue. I don’t think we pushed Sally into it but we discussed the life changing experience and opportunities that would come from running New York. Imagine coming back to New Zealand with a NYC Marathon Finishers Medal.
Sally picked up on this and said yes (quietly).
Sam is a critical part of the team. Without her I don’t think it would have gone any further. Sally’s trust in Sam goes further than just being a running buddy.
In a training session at Porritt Stadium Sally ran 3 x 300 metres at just over 5 km race pace with 100 metre walk recoveries in between, plus the warm up and down and she didn’t stop talking !!! What happened to the shy girl who wouldn’t say boo to a grasshopper??
She has now agreed to talk about her journey when she gets back from New York and her first booking could well be a Rotary Club. No one who knew the old Sally would ever have imagined her having the confidence to stand and talk to a group.
Sally is what Achilles is all about and watching her grow into an athlete and to start getting recognised as a full human being is just so good.”
Here’s what Sam Foster has to say about her experiences with Sally:
“I’m not taking any credit, Sally is the one who wants to change. I’m just a little bully now and then.
Sally started Achilles in July 2017. I started November 2018.
I guided Sally on my own at the February, Wellington Round the Bay 10 km Run. She was not afraid with all the noises and all the runners. I kept her informed about time and distances, she just kept going even with my mixed up lefts and rights....oops. About 200 metres to go I encouraged her to pick her legs up more. She said she can’t run any faster anymore but I’m sure she did while laughing. We finished at 1 hour 4 mins. We are both very pleased. Sally also competed in the 2018 Round The Bridges race and recorded a time of 1 hour 24 mins for the 12 kms.
I am very pleased she agreed to come down to the club. I am sure it is a huge learning curve for her to be able to run with other club members, even able to start talking to others.
We are now swimming every Tuesday and recently swam 54 x 25 m in 55 minutes recently. Not fast but I’m sure still good”
And this from Jean Dorrell a former HRR member who also guided Sally two years ago:
“After starting at a decent walk pace, Sally agreed to run the straights and walk the curves. Sally was very quiet and she did not seem sure that she could run, but she was pushing herself. We did an easy run on each straight. As we were comingup to the final straight (with cheering Achilles folk at the end) I suggested she give it her all and finish in style. She really pushed herself and did a decent sprint (sub 6 min/km per my data) down the final 100 m.
Fast forward to now: I guided Sally recently at Porritt and was delighted to find she was very chatty, talking about New York and the horrible rain we had while doing this...as after the warm up laps, she was running so fast that I could hardly speak to her.”