Report : May 26, 2025
Yet another example this weekend of the diversity endurance sport offers and as an aside how a coach needs to prepare the athlete.
A Half Marathon, a Crit Race, a 3 x 1k run relay and a local Cycling Stage Race were our targets this week.
Jonah Newton headed up to the Noosa Half with fire in his belly. Training has been great post Port Mac and he was ready to go. Jonah had a killer race finishing in 1:11 and coming 5th Overall and 1st in his Age. An outstanding effort.
Harry Wiles is enjoying his trips over to Oatley on a Saturday arvo for their handicap event. Harry is developing some real bike strength out of these races and that translates to power improvements for his major Tri events, all while having “fun”
Hannah Goerges is new to the HPT coached athlete team as a cyclist and raced the SSCC Geoff Bradbury Tour on Saturday. This is an event that has an ITT, a long crit and a short crit. Hannah placed 2nd overall.
Craig Dortkamp moved into the city earlier this year and whilst it’s taken a little while to find his feet with training locations he has really dug into some great training rides and run groups lately. On Saturday night he raced in a weird “underground” racing vibe at the “Furies” 3 x 1km Mixed Relay race under floodlights around the factories of Marrickville. Craig and his team came in in 5th place.
Read Craig’s Race Report below :
Furies Mixed Relay
After the rain finally ceased and the sun began to set on Friday, a rainbow stretched across the sky as athletes from all over Sydney descended on the carpark behind CCACHE in Marrickville. The Furies - @furiesrunning - had organised a mixed 3x1k relay race hosted by Cadence (@usecadence), who had put up a last-minute $5000 cash prize for the winning team. The music was loud, the energy electric, and the technical street course was lit by spotlights for a one-lap loop around the industrial streets of Marrickville. The 45 teams were split into 3 heats of 15, with a few familiar faces in the lineup. The three winners of each heat were to proceed to the final.
Adi, Harlan and myself have been throwing together some pretty brutal track sessions out at ES Marks recently, so we were all buzzing for a race. And that’s what we got. From the gun, there were no rules. No false starts, and some shoulder-to-shoulder action from the go led into a savage course. A physical 20m dash to the gate opened onto an all-out 250m sprint to the first corner. Dump it and hold on.
Out of the first corner, cutting past parked cars, skipping over gutters and cutting behind skip bins. A dog-legged zig-zag over a few water-filled potholes, with marshals on the street cheering and waving flashing red lights to send us redlining down narrow alleys of half-attached gutters to the transition to tag the next runner in. Savage. We managed to pull a win in the heat, which gave us confidence for the final.
Looking across the start line, a couple of familiar pros had also picked up the scent and made their way down. After the dust settled, we managed 5th overall, with Ed Goddard and his team proving untouchable. Local legend Megan Chapple also picked up a win in the individual women’s race afterwards, and of course, Ed struck gold twice as he took home the men’s individual time trial.
With little events like this popping up all over the place at the moment, it’s a great time to be a runner. Running’s supposed to be energising. And it’s most definitely a team sport.
Craig