President's Report: January 2025

Happy New Year to all of our members! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and break with your families, and managed to get in some good running in the middle of all the celebrations.

Here we are at the start of 2025 and the beginning of what will be another year of progress for AUTRA as well as a few changes, all of which the committee see as positive! Without change, we don’t grow.

You will have received in your inbox (for members) or seen on our socials that we launched the AUTRA Survey for 2025 which will assist us in shaping AUTRA’s future for the next five years and help inform our strategic planning which is taking place this year for 2025-2029. If you are yet to complete the survey, we urge you to do so and have your say. The survey will be open for responses until 7 February, 2025. AUTRA SURVEY 2025

This month we also asked our members for their annual votes on the Performance of the Year Award. This is the members’ opportunity to vote for members who they feel have had an outstanding single or collective performance in 2025. Thank you to all the members who took the time to vote and recognise these achievements. The announcements will be made over the coming days.

Our 2025 list of events is growing rapidly and I want to once again thank all of the race directors who choose to list with us. There are many long-standing, much-loved events listed and also many new ones, so if you haven’t had a look at the calendar recently pop over to the Events Page and have a look, and take advantage of some great race discounts.

Finding new events to try introduces us to new areas and communities, it lets us explore places we haven’t been and make new like-minded friends, not to mentions it gets us out of our comfort zones. It also supports our race directors who work hard to put these events on for us and the communities that host them – aren’t these some of the reasons we all run? I encourage you all to try at least one new event that you haven’t run this year!

This month sees the first of our Monthly Members Draw where we will be giving away some fantastic prizes every month. The first prize this month will be allowing the winner to get their hands on some new AUTRA merch! And on the subject on our new merchandise it is all in stock and available now! Be the first to don the new shirts and Fractel hats! There are also still some bargains left to pick up on the old stock. Visit the AUTRA Shop here.

Our Coaches Corner has some excellent articles for our members this month (and every month!) from our Endorsed Coaches team. Make sure you log into your member account and have a read over the weekend. This month the topics are Training Load, Downhill Running, the benefits of RPE (Rating of perceived exertion), and the running demands on stability and balance.

Finally, we have an announcement from the committee that there will be multiple positions made vacant at the next AGM and we would like to invite our members who feel they have the time, the passion and the commitment to apply and help take AUTRA into its next phase. This is a fantastic opportunity for people looking to be more involved, bring fresh ideas and help make meaningful impacts for the future. I have already announced I will stepping down due to family and work commitments, and some of the amazing people I have worked alongside for the past five years also feel it’s their time to move on. The positions that will be up for nomination at the AGM in May are President, Secretary, Treasurer and Governance Officer as these positions will become vacant. Please note that all positions are up for nomination on the night of the AGM and are subject to member vote.

Details on the specific positions and responsibilities will be shared soon. If you’re interested or have questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out or email me at president@autra.asn.au. Please rest assured that anyone taking on these roles will have full support from the current committee for a successful handover process.

That’s all from us for January, we have at least 7 events on the calendar for February and that also includes the Australian 100km Road Championships in Canberra, which also doubles as the newly named Australian Athletics 100km Championships.

Simone Hayes
President