WFC Runners: WFC Runners - parkrun PBs, Wickham 10km, xcountry half

News

This week saw Winchester Fit Club runners at 5 locations across the UK and Poland. We had Alice running at Salisbury, Eric at Cwmbran parkrun, I was at Dinton Pastures (see write up below), Adam was once again representing us at Leszno and the rest of you were at Winchester.

Conditions were good for running in Winchester and this was reflected in the amazing performances. We had PBs for Charlotte W (22:44), Philippa G (24:27), Simon E (25:31) and Sarah P (27:19). In addition we had Mike, Anna, Sarah H and Simon H all volunteering

Adam had a great run to come in third place in a stonking 20:32 at Leszno parkrun. On finishing he received a text to advise him that the half marathon he thought was on Sunday was actually on Saturday afternoon! So in the afternoon Adam turned up at the X Forest Half in Osieczna where he ran an amazing 1:31:09. Wonderful achievement considering his efforts in the morning!! Magda and the kids also completed the 2k colour run at the same event. What a running family!!

Here is the consolidated club report: http://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=26888&eventdate=2018-08-25

In addition Tina, Alistair and Anna Jury ran the White Star Races East Farm Frolic, beer mile and Chaos race over the weekend. The Frolic was the main event; a 12 hour cross country loop of just over 5km. Alistair managed a stonking 6 laps and Tina one. The whole family then ran the Chaos race on the Sunday. The chaos race is fairly unique...there is a conga, they steal one of your trainers which you then have to find before you leg it up a hill. At the top of the hill you have to do a forfeit to get your medal before you run back down to the finish. It's mental, but fun! We should look to get a WFC team in for next year!

With Coach James still on paternity leave this week's Thursday running session was led by Mike, Anna, Sharon, Rachel and Anne. James had set a tough, but fun, hill session in the park at St Giles and 17 Fit Clubbers turned up and smashed out 8 brutal hill reps.

Read all about it here: http://wfcrunners.blogspot.com/2018/08/wfc-runners-august-23rd-session-st.html

Wickham 10km - 19th August - by Glenna Greenslade

It was with some trepidation that I walked to the start of the 10k as I realised this was going to be a much hillier route than first thought.

It started with a gentle incline and was up and down for the first 5k, on the downhill sections I felt I was running well and making up some time and the first 5k went by quite quickly. My overall pace was good at that point and, I was working out if I kept up this pace then I may get close to my time last year (56:48), that was before I saw Gravel Hill. I was hearing Coach James telling me to use my arms and take little steps, I tried that and it worked well to a point then I gave in and started to walk for a bit. Just around the corner there was a water stop so I took some water and carried on. I did struggle up most of the hills but made up some of the lost time going downhill.

There were just a few spectators as the course didn’t lend itself to spectators but Dave managed to get to 6km – just after the hill, on a flat part – and he thought I was looking strong (he hadn’t seen me walking). However, I was walking a little when he spotted me at about 7.5km!

It was a small friendly race, well marshalled and well arrowed on closed roads, although I did hear later that one irate driver refused to adhere to a Marshal to stop, the marshal had to jump out of the car’s way, as did some runners to avoid being knocked down!

It’s fair to say it was a tough 10k but I was pleased with my time of 1:00:26, although there was no chip timing, but a nice medal at the finish.

Many thanks to Phily for the photos and the support, it was very much appreciated and also the support of Winchester Fit Club runners.

Dinton Pastures parkrun by Coach James

This week Elsie and I headed up the A34 and along the M4 to the fairly new Dinton pastures parkrun to the east of Reading. It is set in a lovely country park with two main lakes. White Swan and Black Swan lake. The route starts at the bottom corner of White Swan and does and anti-clockwise loop of the lake, it then turns and runs along one side of Balck Swan before heading back to the finish.

The route is predominantly flat and on hard packed wide gravel path which made it perfect for buggy running. I ran the majority of the way with a fellow buggy runner and just chatted about running and various other stuff which made the time fly by.

After finishing Elsie and I hot the cafe for a very good breakfast and more parkrun chat with the other runners. All in all a very enjoyable morning!

General Announcements

WFC parkrun Club

Winchester Fit Club Runners is set-up as a club with parkrun. If you go into your profile (there is a link to it on the parkrun results email and newsletter email) you can select your club. Change yours to Winchester Fit Club Runners and you will appear in the consolidated club report that we get each week.

WFC Runners WhatsApp Group

There is a WFC Runners WhatsApp chat group where we generally just wang on about running, races and cake. If you are not already part of this then please get in contact with Coach James or Coach Mike who will add you.

WFC Runners Strava Club

If you are a Strava user there is a Winchester Fit Club Runners club page. This can be accessed here: https://www.strava.com/clubs/WFC-Runners. Request to join and we will approve!

Booking onto sessions

Booking onto our training sessions enables the coaches to plan the session accordingly. You can book on in the following location: https://winchesterfitclub.simplybook.it/v2/

Winchester Half Marathon - Volunteers needed!

Some of you may have seen the post by Lynn on the WhatsApp group about the Winchester Half Marathon needing volunteers for this year's race. The race is on Sunday 23rd September and needs over 300 volunteers to be successful.

By volunteering you get free entry into next year's race.

If you are interested please follow this link: http://winchesterhalf.co.uk/get-involved/win-city-marshal/

Race Calendar

Here is an updated race calendar. If you have any others that you wish to add, please let me know!

Overton 5 - 2nd September 2018

http://www.overtonharriers.org.uk/club-races/overton-5/

New Forest Half - 9th September

http://southernrunningguide.com/race/new-forest-half-marathon

Baccus Marathon and Half – 9^th September

https://www.209events.com/uk-running-events/surrey_bacchus_marathon_and_half_marathon

Meon Valley Express 5km, 10km and Half - 16th September
https://www.eventrac.co.uk/listed-races/meon-valley-express

Hursley 10km - 16th September
https://www.hursley10k.co.uk

The Lake Run, Andover 10km and 5km – 16^th Septembver