WFC Runners: March 2019

Monday 25 March 2019

WFC Runners - Eastleigh 10km, London Landmarks Half, parkrun, race reports

News

The next big local road race of the season was the Eastleigh 10km which was held this Sunday. This time last year the race was cancelled due to snow, this year could not have been more different. A dry, sunny morning made for perfect running conditions and this was reflected in some absolutely stellar performances from our amazing runners with 6 of the 9 runners getting new PBs. Write-up(s) will be in next week’s edition. Here are the results:

*42:40 – Tom L
*42:46 – James
*43:20 – Colin B
48:04 – Lynn M
*48:50 – Sarah H
*49:40 – Catherine W
*56:43 – Simon M
58:59 – Glenna G
1:09:53 – Simon B

* indicates PB

Meanwhile we were being represented in London by Anna H at the London Landmarks Half. As with Eastleigh conditions were good for running and Anna smashed it out of the park running a 12 minute PB of 1:42:22

This week we had 17 Fit Clubbers running at 3 different parkrun venues. There were 15 at Winchester, Kathy at Chippenham and Trish finished her tour down under at Willoughby parkrun!!

Highlights were PBs for Jenny, Alice, Simon, Kathy and Alf, well done guys!
Alf completed his 40 in 40 challenge for Macmillan, Glenna was running her 350th parkrun and I was running my 100th at Winchester, so there was plenty of cake

Here is the consolidated parkrun club report: http://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=26888&eventdate=2019-03-23

Thursday 21st Training Session - Flat Top Pyramid Session

This week we met at River Park Leisure Centre and there were 16 runners joining Coach James for a pyramid session, albeit one with a flat top. The weather was perfect and fairly mild for the time of year. We welcomed young, but speedy, Alfie Rodway into the group for his first session.

After a short warm-up jog up the hill we found ourselves at Courtenay Road.  From here the intention was to start with shorter sprints and work our way up to the longer intervals and then back down.  Each sprint had a jog recovery in between.  The intervals were as follows:

15 sec30 sec45 sec1 min1 min 30 sec2 min2 min1 min 30 sec1 min45 sec30 sec15 sec

After the session we jogged back down the hill for a post run stretch and chat.

It was lovely evening and it was great to see everyone working so flippin’ hard!!  Thank you all for your hard work and dedication during the sessions.

Next week we will be meeting at the South Winchester park and ride at 7pm for the last of the Winter sessions!  Bring on the light evenings and the opportunities that brings!

Race Reports

Reading Half By Sharon Smith

It was a bright but chilly morning when Anne picked me up for the drive to Reading. I was very pleased of her heated seats and even after a drive-thru Costa stop it was a struggle to get out of the car into the cold. We were advised to park by 8:30 so we had plenty of time as we got on the bus to the stadium. I thought the top of the stadium would be a good spot for some obligatory photos, not realising Simon had a fear of heights. Sorry Simon! After a wobbly decline we parked ourselves in the sunshine to have some food and watch the finish of the kid's race.

After more toilet stops than I could even count we finally put our warm layers in the bag drop and set off, shivering, to the start. It was a 10-15 minute walk to the start line but once there, Anne and I quickly found the 2'10 pacer and she informed him we'd be sticking to him like glue. Famous last words...

Soon we were off and the 1st mile passed pleasantly enough. As we passed the 1 mile marker the pacer announced we were 5 seconds over and we needed to make up time. Then he was off! As we started to drop behind Anne and I checked our watches. We were doing 9'25 minute miles uphill so didn't feel the need to try and catch up. "As long as we can see him" Anne said, I agreed. A few minutes later we were doing just over 9 minute miles but there was no sign of him. I'd love to be able to report how the rest of his race went but I didn't see again until after the finish!

Just after mile 5 I made a toilet stop but insisted Anne went on ahead. While queuing the 2'15 pacer passed me and I was starting to worry I wasn't going to make my target time. Renewed after my pit stop I tried to make up a bit of time, a mistake I would pay for in the last few miles.

Reading definitely can't be described as a pretty route, unless you like business parks and dual carriageways. What it lacks in aesthetics though it definitely makes up for in crowd support. The majority of the course had some spectators cheering and giving out sweets and drinks. I do love an amusing placard to distract me from my pain! On top of this there were several great bands on the course which really help to lift the spirits.

As we reached mile 10 there was not a lot that could raise my spirits. I was paying for my slightly enthusiastic pace earlier on and I'd had enough. The next hill finished me off and I had to start adding in some walk breaks. The last mile or so is an endless dual carriageway down to the stadium which you can just see in the distance but never seemed to get any closer. Then up the hill to finish in the stadium. A great place to finish but I was beyond caring and just wanted it over by then.

I was very pleased to be reunited with Anne and then Rachel and her amazing time. I was even more pleased to get back to the heated seats and large stash of snacks in the car!

Mountbatten School parkrun By Coach James

Despite there being some big celebrations at Winchester I had already organised to meet my Sister, Carly, and Niece, Chloe at Mountbatten School parkrun near Romsey. This is a new parkrun this being only the third event.

The pre-run briefing explained that the course was 3 laps all off-road and quite a convoluted route by all accounts, so I just decided to follow the person in front!

After the normal briefings we set off. I started running with my sister but soon decided to push on and so pushed my pace a little. The laps were as follows…

After a short section on the main playing field you rounded a tree and headed down a tree lined avenue, before going round a tee at the far end and running back up the outside of that avenue. You then skirted around the outside of a school building before going into a small wooded section. Here the main danger was the uneven ground and tree roots. You continued on this path for a while, along the back of some houses, before coming back out onto to main field. A left turn took you down to a second woodland section, which was muddy and twisted and turned through the woods. Another turn and we found ourselves on a path that bordered the main field. This again had loads of tree roots to avoid. Another turn and we were on the worst section of the course, a sloping section of muddy uneven ground where one foot was lower than the other! This went on forever, but in reality was just over 200m long. One last turn and you were back at the start/finish. This was repeated 3 times.

After finishing I ran an extra lap with my niece to see her safely into the finish.

I must say that although the volunteers and other runners were lovely the course itself was not the best I’ve ever run. It was hard to get any rhythm into the running, it was very uneven and in the end very repetitive. The camber section was really horrible to run on, especially with my ankles the way they are! Although cross country is normally good fun, this was not as enjoyable as it could’ve been. Not a parkrun I’ll be rushing back to anytime soon.

New Year Running Challenge - Week 11

Update to follow....Awaiting final results

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/

Race Calendar

The race calendar is now stored here: https://wfcrunners.blogspot.com/2019/01/race-calendar-2019-and-beyond.html

Race Kit

The full range of kit available to purchase and instructions on how to order can be found in the following link: https://wfcrunners.blogspot.com/2019/01/kit-details-and-prices.html

Sunday 17 March 2019

WFC Runners - Reading Half, parkrun, Surrey Half review and London Marathon training

News

This week we had One R, Anne and Rachel all running the Reading Half marathon. It was a cold morning, but conditions were far better than they had been the previous couple of days. With the challenge looming and all three ladies having set their targets as this race there was all to go for!! One R had been hampered in the run up by a dodgy hip and Rachel and Anne were coming off the back of a 20 miler last weekend!

As expected all three put in amazing performances with the times as follows:

Rachel 1:55:06

Anne 2:13:21

Sharon 2:15:12

Rachel's time was an all time PB of 4 and a half minutes and Anne's time was a whopping 7 minutes faster than her previous run on this course. Fantastic running by all three.

We also had Lynn running at the Fleet Half. Lynn posted a cracking result of 1:55:12.

Eastleigh 10km next weekend!!

This week we had a record 27 Fit Clubbers running at 4 different parkrun venues. There were a new club record 24 at Winchester, myself at Mountbatten School, Mike H at Eastleigh and Trish continued her tour down under at Mosman, Sydney Australia!!

Highlights were PBs for Charles (18:41) and Jenny (24:04), well done guys! In addition we had 4 runners in the top 20 at Winchester parkrun.

Here is the consolidated parkrun club report: http://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=26888&eventdate=2019-03-16

Thursday 14th Training Session - Blue Ball Mixed Bag

This weeks session started at Abbey Gardens and was followed up with cake and drinks at Number 5 Bridge Street. The lure of cake and drink enticed 26 Fit Clubbers along to the session. This number included two new faces in the form of Simran and Nicole. Welcome to the group!!

After a warm up we went on a short jog ending up at the bottom of Blue Ball Hill. Here we split the group into two teams. The idea was to alternate hill sprint and flat sprints. Group 1 would start off by running a one minute interval (30s out, 30s back) along Water Lane. At the same time group 2 would be running a rep of Blue Ball hill up to the junction with jog recovery back down. Once they had completed this, they switched so that group 1 was running Blue Ball and Group 2 were running the flat.

This was repeated 6 times (12 reps in total). After which we headed back to Abbey Gardens for a cool down. We then wandered over to the pub where we were met by Allen, Philippa G and Philippa D. There were loads of yummy cakes to buy, with the proceeds going to Rachel's London Marathon charity, Crohn's and Colitis UK. There was a Guinness cake, cupcakes, coolies, flapjack amongst other delicious morsels. A whopping £89 was raised for Rachel's charity and lots of fun was had by the team.

This week’s session will be meeting at River Park Leisure Centre at 7pm.

Race Reports

Surrey Half By Alf Rodway

The drive to Woking for the Surrey half marathon was a short 45 minutes followed by a 10minute queue for the car park. The start was at a Woking leisure centre, which was a 10minute walk too! So it was good that we had planned an hour spare. As usual, there was a big queue to drop your bags and surprisingly, and even bigger queues for the portable loos! Luckily, for John and I (running partner and the handsome one in the photo!), his wife Sarah and their 2 kids as well our very own beautiful Phily came to cheer us on as well as carry our bags! Thank you ladies.

As we walked towards the pens, it wasn’t clear where the actual start was because there wasn’t a sign. As we waded our way through, we stopped by the pace runner for 2 hours, and then started to walk in a snake type system to eventually that all important gentle jog and then the beeping noise of the timing chip becoming active. I said to John, ‘”I guess this is the start then” and off we went! The first 3 miles were flat but a challenge due to the gusty wind that we were running in and out of, dependant on the turn you did. It was hard to find a rhythm and settle due the number of runners versus the width of the road and I found myself constantly adjusting and weaving. Never a good look and I was wasting energy. Just shy of 2 miles, we turned into the countryside and pretty much stayed in the countryside for 10miles. It had similar scenery to the Winchester 10K, beautiful landscapes and that authentic country air including some lovely pubs!

I didn’t take a pint at the at the first water station albeit it was outside a pub!, but I was immensely grateful for the cheers I got and it makes a difference having your name on your shirt. Before the race, we had heard it was a flat course so immediately, our minds were thinking of PB’s. Well, at mile 3, this rumour turned to be false as we hit our first hill! It was a decent climb and I had James in my ear going, smaller strides, head up and pump the arms… yes coach!! The hill soon became a small flat and then downhill again before some more flat roads. At mile 5, I took on-board my first water and again, a good cheering point with a band playing some tunes. It was at this point that I realised the next 3 miles are going to be long as there was now runners either side, separated by cones in the middle of the road. I was very envious of the front runners, wishing I was that quick.

The road was like the A34, never ending and we were fortunate to have more music and good crowds, particularly at the turning point. I also didn’t realise that it had been a steady climb, which was when I noticed my pace had dropped. Mentally, I hit the panic button and tried to use the small downhill to get my pace back but I couldn’t therefore it was case of digging in to stable my pace. Around mile 8, we hit a couple of short hills that I decided to power up to see if I could get my legs going again but they resisted and it was at mile 10, when my watch buzzed, I realised that I had almost lost a min on the last mile from my earlier pace. It was now a test of my mental attitude towards the race and knowing that my buddy John would have been close behind, it was time to inject some pace and see if it would hold.

As I went through the last 5k, my mind drifted to a PB and I am kept telling myself, you can still do it. As I drew in the miles 1 by 1 to the finish, I could feel myself getting faster and as the crowds cheered my name, the adrenalin pumped in to see me over the line. It was hard to tell where the finish was because there was no big sign but as soon as I saw runners stopping in front, I stopped the watch and awaited the nervousness as to whether I had achieved a PB. After the watch completed it cycle, flashing up a message stating “excellent recovery’’, I was able to see my time of 1:50:39 and the official chip time was 1:50:38. It was a PB by almost 3 minutes and it was a bigger celebration as John achieved a PB too coming in 2 minutes behind me.

Overall as an event, I wasn’t massively impressed, particularly as there were no visible signs for the start and finish. They could have turned the mile 3 water station into a love station being outside a pub! And I can’t believe there was no cake! The route is surprisingly testing on your legs and mental strength in certain areas. The wind was gusty and the best way to describe it is the final 2 miles of the Great South run for those that have ran it. Where there were crowds, they were vocal, alongside bands and music to help you along the way. A congratulated hug was welcomed and the post-run burger (protein) and chips (carbs) went down nicely! Thank you for all the lovely messages from WFC!

London Marathon Training Update by Rachel Mills

Back in April 2018, feeling inspired by One R and her London Marathon Journey I decided I would apply for the ballot for 2019. However, I did not give it a great deal of thought beyond this, knowing how many people apply. On 8^thOctober 2018, Coach James reminded us all that it was ballot results day. Messages were popping up saying people had not been successful. I just had a gut feeling that I should ring Simon who happened to be off work that day to see if the post had come. He said it had and there was what looked like a magazine for me. GULP! I asked him to open at once as I knew I couldn’t wait till I got home. I remember him asking what I was expecting it to say and replying ‘commiserations’ before he told me it said I was in!!

I then panicked! I had just started my second year of my social work degree, I was working part time and had two children and a husband. How on earth would I fit in marathon training?! Maybe I should defer the entry. Though, being me, I rationalised that trying to run a marathon in my third year of my degree would be ridiculous and so I had no choice but to accept the place. Sometimes not being able to say no and being a rather stubborn and determined soul means I do things that perhaps I shouldn’t!

So, I accepted my place and started getting advice about training. I had to be realistic about how much time I could give to running. I decided 3 days a week was probably my maximum, with the odd week where I might be able to squeeze a fourth run in. Tuesday, Thursdays my shorter run days and Sunday was going to be my long run day. I love a race and so thought it would help my training to book races at various points in my training to support training. I ran in Gosport Half in November, managing sub 2 hours. Winchester 10km in February knocking 7 minutes off my previous years’ time, a last minute 20 mile race in Kent last week in 3 hours 39 minutes (not fast but a huge achievement being the furthest I have ever run).

Over the weeks I have had niggle’s in my hip, my knee and my calf. I am getting better at knowing when to rest and when to take things gently. Anyway, I won’t lie, marathon training has been a complete rollercoaster. I have been incredibly lucky to have had the best possible training partner, Anne who has seen me at my lowest (sobbing in the rain at 16 miles of a training run) and on cloud nine, when we have celebrated our achievements (a sneaky trip to Kent to run a 20 mile race!) together.

Marathon training is not just about running – obvs that is pretty important, but it tests you emotionally, physically and in ways I had never imagined. I have run in all weathers, snow, wind, rain and hail even when I didn’t want to. The time it takes from your family too. My long-suffering husband has spent a lot of time waiting for me to finish runs, mop my tears when I have decided I hate running or do the jobs that I had planned to do but then I was too tired to do it. I talk incessantly about running – every conversation can potentially become a running/marathon chat! I even dream about running. I don’t understand why people don’t always share my excitement about it!

I have been overwhelmed by the support from Simon and the kids, Anne, Coach James and WFC runners (Special shout out to One R too for joining many a training run and listening to my moaning!). The advice I have been given and the support when it has all been too much. The lovely runners who have joined Anne and I on training runs in miserable weather and boosted us when we could run no more. It's been a challenge and with six weeks to go, I am feeling the strongest and healthiest I have in years. I have another 20 mile run on Mother’s Day at Dorney Lakes in Windsor after which the tapering will begin and the countdown to the big day really starts!

I am raising money for Crohn’s and Colitis UK and any donations no matter how small are very welcome!

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/rachel-mills-london-marathon-2019?fbclid=IwAR1T9yILkUCRhURfHwsxxX3e8zESr5eatGiDRAP-3tTzHyh6lthAS5ep8XY

New Year Running Challenge - Week 10

As we reach week 10 there are still 15 runners on maximum points. 5 of those have used their wildcards.

There have already been some really close challenge times and the battle for the top spot is well and truly on. With 2 weeks to go it is going to be a really close finish!

Here is the table:

General Announcements

WFC parkrun Club

WFC Runners WhatsApp Group

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

Monday 11 March 2019

WFC Runners - Larmer Marathon, Surrey Half, unexpected 20's, parkrun, Rhayader 5, Hereford and California Country parkrun

News

This week we had Tina running at the Larmer Tree marathon in North Dorset. This is one of the amazing races run by White Star running. Set at Larmer Tree Gardens on the Dorset/Wiltshire border. It is described as:

"Tough hills with breath taking scenery".

White Star races are very rarely the right distance and I believe that the marathon on Sunday was clocked at just over 28 miles! Tina did an amazing job in finishing in just under 7 hours.

We also had Alf running in the Surrey Half. The race describes itself as follows:

"This scenic, single-lap half marathon is set in the glorious countryside surrounding Woking and Guildford, and follows a fully-closed and professionally marked and measured route out from Woking town into the rural delights of the nearby quaint villages. This picturesque race is made even more enjoyable by live music and communities of local supporters."

Alf has been training hard and put in an exceptional run, coming home in a time of 1:50:39.

Lastly the sneaky duo of Anne and Rachel decided at the last minute to enter a 20 mile race in Kent. The Brett Lydd 20 was billed as a fast and flat course which meant it was perfect for a training run. The ladies battled the elements and fallen trees to record a time of 3:39:48.

They now have just under 7 weeks until they will be toeing the line at London. Rachel will be providing a training update for next week's blog!

This week we had 16 Fit Clubbers running at 3 different parkrun venues. There were 14 at Winchester, coach James at California Country and Trish at Curl Curl, Sydney Australia!!

In a rare week we had no PBs, with Fit Clubbers obviously saving themselves for their attempts at their challenge times later in the month!

Here is the consolidated parkrun club report: http://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=26888&eventdate=2019-03-09

Thursday 7th March - Barfield Close Sprints

This week saw the runners return to the more familiar stomping ground of Barfield Close for a classic interval session. After the standard warm-up at Abbey Gardens we headed over to Barfield Close.

The session was a classic 12 reps of 1 minute sprints, with jog recovery between each rep. As with other sessions the aim was to go as hard as possible and be as consistent as possible across each of the 12 reps.

We had 19 runners and they all gave everything for the entire session. Everyone seemed in good spirits with plenty of laughter and chat between each rep.

Next week’s session will be meeting at Abbey Gardens at 7pm and we will be heading to the pub afterwards for drinks and cakes!

Race Reports

Hereford parkrun and Rhayader 5 by Sarah Lewis

To give myself something to do while my husband plodded round the Rhayader round the lakes 30km race I decided to enter it’s little sister – the 5 mile version. Because my race was a bit shorter than his he decided that I could do the Hereford Parkrun en route as a warm up!

It was a lovely Saturday morning as we arrived at Hereford for Parkrun. The course was two laps of the race course and mostly flat with only one slight incline. The path was compacted hard top so the going was easy and luckily we didn’t have to navigate any of the jumps! I suspected the field would be strong given the location and I tucked myself behind someone in a fan dance tshirt and aimed to stick with him! I didn’t quite manage that but I was 1 second off my parkrun PB and I won my age category which was a first for me, So I was really pleased. It was a nice course with just over 200 runners but I was beginning to worry that I’d over done it and wouldn’t make it through my second run of the day!

We arrived in Rhayader and the small welsh village was buzzing and full of nervous runners warming up. The 5 mile route was the last 5 miles of the 30km route in to the village. I got my number, said good bye to my husband and headed off on to the bus to the start line. This allowed me to have a recce of the route which had some lovely views and was mostly down hill. We waited in fairly blustery conditions for about 20 minutes for the start time and the pre race brief confirmed it was all down hill to Rhayader, which was good news to me as I hate hills, but we were also told we should all be getting PBs – no pressure!

I started off well following the marshal motorbike as the road was still open, dodging someone’s hat which got stolen by the wind and knuckled down in to the run. I tried to maximise my pace on the down hill to bag some extra time for the hill and as I plodded on I was making good time and overtaking a few people so I was happy!

The one hill was hard work and I couldn’t stay with a local runner but I was determined to overtake another lady who had crept past me and I got her on the down hill. Soon we were in to the village and there was a good amount of support out on the streets – particularly outside the pub! Before I knew it I had finished and was collecting my medal in a 5 mile PB thanks to the overall downhill gradient.

There was no rest for me as I switched straight in spectator mode and jogged up hill to the car to deliver some Lucozade to a weary runner!

It was a lovely race and in the sunshine would be stunning. At only £8 it was an absolute bargain and was incredibly well organised and marshalled. The 30km race would be a great challenge for some of our long distance runners but that one definitely isn’t downhill overall!!

California Country parkrun by Coach James

This weekend I was away with friends on a golfing trip. We weren’t teeing off until 1130 so I had an opportunity to visit yet another new parkrun. Fortunately a new one had started up nearby at California Country park near Wokingham, just south of Reading.

I was awake early and didn’t want to disturb my room mate so I headed to the park early for a warm up and too meet the core team. Hence I found myself in the park at 8am! I managed to run about 3km and check out the first part of the course as a warm up before heading back for the first timers briefing.

The course starts off on a path before turning and heading into a woodland section. This is a slightly muddy and twisting turning route through the trees. It was great fun with tree route and logs to jump. After a km or so we headed back on to the path and back past the start/finish.

The route then dropped down to the lakeside path. This was a long out and back section alongside a lovely lake. I love out and back sections for the support you can give to and receive from the runners going the other direction.

After a couple of km we turned and headed up another trail path. This took us back up the hill and looped round to the start of the first woodland loop.

One more trot around the woods and we then headed back on to the path and into the finish!

I was chuffed with my 23:51 on a course where the route made it hard to build up any consistent running. It was a really fun course with a great volunteer team.

Next week I will be at Mountbatten School parkrun near Romsey.

New Year Running Challenge - Week 9

This week was a strong week for the team with 25 of you recording 100% for the week. We now have 27 runners left in the challenge with 16 maintaining their 100% records for the first 9 weeks, although 5 of those have now used their wildcards. (A reminder...you can't use your wildcard for your predicted time!!)

We are now starting to get towards people's target races, so please let me know how you get on. 3 more weeks to go and the race times will be the differentiator at the top of the table. Best of luck everyone!

General Announcements

WFC parkrun Club

WFC Runners WhatsApp Group

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