Running Links
The Turramurra Trotters is a simple, multi-faceted, cross-cultural, homogenous, secular, opinionated, irreverent community group .. bi-focal on fitness and indulgence, bipodal, bidirectional, bipartisan, biodegradable and hardly ever colour co-ordinated.
We are a group of runners and walkers .. some 1800 have passed through our ranks since 1974 .. who have been meeting for 35 years every Saturday morning in the carpark at Turramurra Station .. and then run off a handicap around the beautiful locality to keep fit.
Mainly, but not exclusively, the Upper North Shore professional class ... failed and destitute, debauched and decadent bean counters, wigs, tooth farriers, propeller heads, quacks, bureaucrats, entrepreneurs, bankers, poker players, scrap metal merchants, firemen, real estate agents, car dealers, teachers, engineers, private investigators, judges, insurers and peddlers of various pretensions, produce and paraphernalia.
20 kilometres north of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, up the Pacific Highway. The actual meeting place is on the East side of the Pacific Highway and the railway station, on the corner of Eastern Road and Rohini Street, in the Turramurra Station carpark ... and here's THE Map
Well, we are a group of runners who meet every Saturday morning in the carpark at Turramurra Station, and who then run off a handicap around the local streets to keep fit. At least, this is the theory. In fact, most Trotters don't get there every Saturday morning ... either because it is too cold, wet, or they are too tired, away on business, can't be bothered or had a better offer. Some of 'em don't run either ... they stagger around the course nursing a hangover, walk in patches or some guys actually think it's alright to go around on bikes.
The "Best Excuse for a Poor Performance Award" is held by Col Sutton, who complained of "shagger's back" on two consecutive Saturdays in 1996 .... we were going to ask Mrs. Sutton for a second opinion, but Col advised against this.
In the beginning, there were three.
The Turramurra Joggers, as they firstly called themselves, started when Peter Wicks, Pat Burke and Peter Welch ran from Turramurra up Rohini Street and down to Wanganui Street one Saturday morning in late March 1974, at about 9-00am.
From the very start, Peter Welch recorded his times and wrote them down at home ... he still does this today, some 35 years later. Sad really.
Within a few weeks Cliff Carpenter joined them and the course was extended down Bobbin Head Road as far as what was then known as the "Pentecost Highway". Today, it is Boomerang Street, opposite Pentecost Avenue.
The name "Turramurra Trotters" was suggested by Mason Thomas and was warmly embraced and has stuck ever since.
Then, after the 1974 City to Surf, some other chaps including Russell Whitmont, Mason Thomas, Nick Heath, Bob Sully and Russell Philp also joined the group - Bob and Cliff had been running with Russell Whitmont and the City Tatts Harriers in Centennial Park.
A list of the first 14 Trotters still exists on a piece of cardboard in the possession of Alan Cole. The first date that times were recorded on the card was at 18th January 1975 ... and here it is on the right. In 1975, other Trotters joined and by the end of 1976 there were more than 80 regular runners. The first female Trotter, that is the original Turramurra Trottette, was Allie Thomas, The story goes that in training for the City to Surf, Allie ran the actual course from the City to Bondi at night, wearing a referee's whistle .... the debate is still raging whether this was to be used in case of attack, or ..... well, who knows ?
Russell Whitmont then "decided" that a formal record of times and attendance be kept, so he drew up the first "book" and the start time was moved to 7-00am - in this way, the Turramurra Trotters really became established and records commenced nearly some 35 years ago. These are now valuable sources of local, demographic, historical and possibly sporting merit and have been maintained by Alan Cole for many years.
As at the beginning of 2009, these data files have been progressively transferred onto the Turramurra Trotters website. You can see the results of the indexing in the Trotters' Tables.
