The big news this weekend was Glenna running her first ever race over the 26.2 mile distance at the Richmond Marathon. Glenna was paced around by her son, Daniel, on a baking hot late summer's day. The route went from Richmond, out along the Thames via Kingston all the way to Hampton Court Palace and back, finishing in Old Deer Park. Despite a few tummy troubles and the aforementioned heat, Glenna performed superbly coming home in a stellar 5:53:01 and taking 4th place in her age category.
I was fortunate enough to go and watch Glenna and Dan en route and it was a privilege to see someone working so hard to achieve their goal. It would've been easy for Glenna to step off the course when she started feeling poorly, or to quit and blame the heat, but she didn't. She pushed on, she walked when needed but she kept moving forward. I'm honoured to have been there. It was also the Hursley 10km this weekend. This multi-terrain, undulating race is popular amongst members, as is evidenced by the whopping 12 members taking part! Despite the hot conditions and difficult terrain there were some excellent results:
Mike Hastie - 44:19Tom Laessing - 46:34
Anna Hastie - 48:11
Steve Lucas - 57:06
Allen Westoby - 58:01
Catherine Westoby - 58:01
Alex Humber - 1:00:03
Isabel Mansfield - 1:00:40
Sharon Smith - 1:01:34
Sally Boyden - 1:03:35
Simon Boyden - 1:09:47
Trish Heaton - 1:09:55
This weekend it is the Winchester Half! We again have a large contingent taking part and a number of members volunteering in various roles. Best of luck to everyone taking part!
parkrun update - 14th September
This week we had 18 Fit Clubbers at
2 different parkrun venues. We had 16 at Winchester and James and Olivia at
Tetbury Goods Shed.The big news at Winchester was the visit from Dame Kelly Holmes who gave a rousing speech at the start and hi-fives on the way round. She was pushed hard all the way round by Andy, but she couldn’t quite catch Ben. Her visit clearly inspired a number of our runners as is evidenced by the list of PBs:
Ben S 18:55
- Winchester
Andy M 20:08
- Winchester
Olivia M-W
27:20 - Tetbury Goods Shed
Isabel M
27:59 - Winchester
Kathy R
28:28 - Winchester
Pav J 28:56
- Winchester
Debra C
34:11 - Winchester
Congratulations
to everyone who ran and volunteered.
Here is a
link to the consolidated club report: http://www.parkrun.com/
Thursday 12th Session - 2nd Birthday mixed bag
With Coach James supporting the C25K group Coach Hastie stepped in to lead the session. The group headed off and started the session with a couple of quick reps of Blue Ball Hill. Once this was done they headed over to North Walls Rec for some intervals.
Two years ago the first ever Fit Club running session was held at North Walls rec. Back then we did 10 x 1 minute with static recovery. Starting at the bridge at the art College end of the park we sprinted down towards the corner. Only Adam made it as far as the corner. We then regrouped and ran back the other way.
On Thursday things had changed somewhat. The group did 6 x 1min but with jog recovery back to the start and a number of runners made it to the corner!
After this was done the group were treated to another 2 reps of Blue Ball on their way back to Abbey Gardens. Here the group met up with the C25K group and Coach James led the cool down.
We then all headed off to the William Walker where we ate cake, expertly baked by Sharon, and had a few drinks. It was also great to have so many members join us for the celebrations, including our smallest Fit Club member, Owen and his wonderful parents Alf and Philippa.
It's been an amazing 2 years and I can't wait to see what the future brings for the club!
Couch to 5km
This week saw the first ever WFC Couch to 5km session. We met in Abbey Gardens and greeted some new and some familiar faces. Sharon was leading the session, and even had my official whistle of power! Sharon was supported by myself, Anne and Jo.
There were some nerves but before long we were off!
Week one of C25K is as follows:
5 minutes brisk walk (as a warm-up)
1 minute running followed by 1 and a half minutes brisk walk, repeated for 20 minutes
5 minutes brisk walk
So we had a nice brisk walk down to the bishop on the bridge and along the river. We started the 20 minute run-walk section and headed across Palmer's Field, along Garnier Road and back along the river. The final walk section took us back to Abbey Gardens where we met up with the main Thursday group and did the cool down stretches.
There was such a good atmosphere in the group. Everyone was upbeat and enthusiastic and all the runners supported each other through the inaugural session. After the run a large number of the group joined us at the William Walker for cake and drinks.
I'm already looking forward to next week! Huge thank you to Sharon for organising and leading the group and to Anne and Jo for supporting.
As my company sponsored the Simplyhealth Great North Run this year, not only was I lucky enough to get one of the 10 employee running spaces but I also got to enjoy with our clients the run VIP style!
The whole experience started on Saturday before the race with a pre run Pasta Party - ‘Tagliatelle on the Tyne’. (I believe the Great Run offers something similar but you have to pay, ours was included.) It was a carb loading feast of pasta on a themed boat on the river. As part of my company events team this was a unique opportunity to sit back and let my team look after me for a change, however I was still ‘technically’ working as I knew so many clients. I definitely had a lot of nervous energy as I told everyone I was aiming for a time of under two hours, putting that extra pressure on myself. However with all the training runs I had completed with Sarah and Jenny I felt quite confident. After saying no to any alcoholic drinks at the free bar, you can tell I was serious about this challenge, it was time for an early night!
The next day the VIP busses picked up all my clients and me from our hotel which had been booked for all runners as part of Team Simplyheath. My events team provided me with extra jelly babies, safety pins, the all important VIP wristbands and lots of support as we headed to the start line at 7:30am!
We arrived at the start line which was surprisingly right in the middle of a dual carriageway. We were there so early, just after the roads were shut and had the surreal experience of walking down the slip road onto the main carriageway itself, before walking up to the official start line. We then had a 3 hour wait so plenty of time for start line photos, elite and celeb spotting, to make our personal bag drop. We were also interviewed for the BBC which was sadly not aired. Most importantly of all, we had easy access to toilets!
Eventually the race was about to start. I had eaten so many jelly babies and chocolate buttons whilst waiting that I was buzzing with sugar, excitement and nerves. The VIP section we were in was right at the start line. If you watch it on TV we were in the right hand lane of the dual carriageway. The elite men including Sir Mo were just metres away on the left hand side. We were really going to race Mo, at least for about half a second! We had already had the great experience of seeing the wheelchair race start and the elite women.
There were two panics just before we started as my Strava was not picking up because of the 1000s of people there and my music was not streaming. Two lessons learnt; set up Strava before 10 mins to go and ensure the music is downloaded. However both were resolved - just in time.
Bang! And we were off. I was over the start line in a second, almost too quickly. Crowds lined the streets, on bridges and in the centre reservations of the roads. However for the first couple of miles it was the mass of runners on the roads. Running on a dual carriageway, (I was told to keep left to avoid a slight incline,) was an amazing experience and running under bridges with the runners shouting ‘Oggy oggy oggy oi oi oi!’
Within the first mile I knew my Strava had malfunction as it was telling me I had reached one mile long before I actually had. So the pacing I had worked out with Sarah and Jenny was now null and void. I tried to go with the flow knowing that they were calling me in an hour to know what pace I should be going and avoiding having to do some maths calculations.
Even though pace was pre-occupying my thoughts, actually a good distraction, I couldn’t help but smile as I ran. The famous run over the Tyne Bridge came all too soon, I think between 1-2 miles. That was a wonderful feeling crossing this iconic landmark even though the red arrows were not there as last year!
Running along the dual carriageways around each of the many roundabout, the miles flew. There was not a moment where there were no supporting crowds, bands, music or something to look at or watch. There were official drinks stations every couple of miles and food stops and they even had some shower tunnels which were very much appreciated as it was hot. People were also giving away so much. There was jelly babies, orange wedges, water, ice lollies and even beer being handed out along the route. This was incredible as even though I had my water bottle with a tablet in it about mile 9 I needed water and a lovely lady handed me a bottle from the crowd. I felt the whole of the Newcastle and area were supporting us.
Everyone had told me there were hills on route and coming from hilly Winchester and seeing the route I thought it would be fine. However they were ‘sneaky’ hills which were so slight I didn’t think I was climbing them until I wondered why I was starting to hurt so much. This is when the amazing phone support of Sarah and Jenny came in.
I was listening to music through my phone so I could easily answer a phone call. Their encouragement and guidance on what pace I should be going was invaluable. They also said I was going super fast and to slow down as I could barely talk or breath. They know I have a huge tendency to run too fast at times to the point of making myself feel ill so there advice was so gratefully received. I also run with my friends so even in a crowd of people I missed my mates next to me. They were amazing, there encouragement and just hearing their voices was fantastic and spurred me on to keep going.
General Announcements
WFC Running Club Calendar
Dates for your diary:
Thursday 19th September - River Park Leisure Centre
Thursday 26th September - South Winchester Park and Ride
WFC parkrun Club
Dates for your diary:
Thursday 19th September - River Park Leisure Centre
Thursday 26th September - South Winchester Park and Ride
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
No comments:
Post a Comment