WFC Runners - Winchester Half, Andover Lakes, Tough Mudder, Hursley write-up

News

This weekend was the Winchester Half and Fit Club had a HUGE turnout with 16 runners and 7 volunteers in various roles.  Despite the forecast, the morning actually started fairly bright but the closer we got to race time the more overcast it got, culminating in a heavy downpour just as we were about to start which continued for most of the way round the course. 

Despite the bad weather there was some fantastic support on the course which really helped spur us on to some fantastic performances on the notorious hilly route.  Times were as follows with the time for St James's Hill also included!!

Charles Mason - 1:27:54 - 6:24 - Course PB
James Hadden - 1:40:26 - 8:32 - PB
Tom Laesing - 1:41:20 - 7:58 - PB
Colin Burville - 1:43:09 - 8:01 - First Half marathon
James White - 1:43:30 - 8:06 - Course PB
Jenny Leishman - 1:52:34 - 8:51 - First Half marathon
Katie Johnson - 1:52:34 - 8:51 
Sarah Horton - 1:52:34 - 8:50 - PB
Alice Dewsnap - 1:52:46 - 8:44 - First Half marathon
Vanessa Hodgetts - 1:52:56 - 7:54 - PB
Lynn Mckeague - 1:54:10 - 8:52 - Course PB
Alf Rodway - 2:00:38 - 8:25
Steve Lucas - 2:02:20 - 9:50
Rosy Hall - 2:14:15 - 10:22 - First Half marathon
Sarah Geddes - 2:21:19 - 9:56 - Course PB
Simon Boyden - 2:46:48 - 10:27 - First Half marathon

Huge thank you to those Fit Clubbers who volunteered. 

Rachel Mills - Mile 8.5 water station
Will Mills - Mile 8.5 water station
Anna Hastie - Finish Funnel
Carrie Dickinson - Finish Funnel
Issy Mansfield - Baggage Hall
Catherine Mulrine - Baggage Hall
Ali Longman - Lead Bike

And to everyone who supported us en route.

Whilst we were on the 21km course in Winchester Sharon "One R" Smith was running the Andover Lakes 10km.  This charity race starts at the Charlton Sports Centre and heads out around the Andover Lakes.  It is in aid of the Andover Foodbank.  Sharon ran a fantastic  58:17.  Well done One R! 


On Saturday Simon Elliott was competing in the South London edition of Tough Mudder. This 9 and a half mile obstacle course race is known as one of the hardest races around. Simon completed this in a fantastic 2:15:29. Well done Mr Elliott!

Last, but certainly not least on Saturday evening it was the Dash in the Dark, a 5km race for the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance. This event was a festival of neon on Southampton Common. Sally ran a fab 33:47 for this fab cause. Excellent running Sally!  

parkrun update - 21st September

This week we had 17 Fit Clubbers at 3 different parkrun venues. We had 15 at Winchester, Mike at Eastleigh and Glenna at Milford Waterfront.

There were more PBs:

Ben S 18:49 - Winchester
Mike H 20:46 - Eastleigh (course PB)
Isabel M 27:17 - Winchester
Pav J 27:07 - Winchester

Congratulations to everyone who ran and volunteered.

Here is a link to the consolidated club report: http://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=26888&eventdate=2019-09-21

Coming up this week is the Fit Club parkrun tour to Alice Holt.  I hope you can all make it!

Race Reports

Hursley 10km by Sally Boyden

In the Spring of this year I gave myself a kick in the backside – I had slowly been putting on weight over the past year and I need to do something about it!! I looked at Simon, and wondered what all the fuss was about running and thought, ‘Surely, if he can do it, then I can too?’ When I first started I could barely get to the end of our road, or at St. Catherine’s Hill (where I walk our gorgeous Labrador, Inca, every Wednesday), I couldn’t even run that first straight bit up to the gate from the parking in 5 Bridge’s Road! So I just stopped and started and stopped and started and very gradually, over a few months, I could see that I was increasing the distance that I was running for and started to lose some weight (I was eating better as well!). 

On 20th June I plucked up courage to come to my first WFC running session and loved it – you were all so lovely and welcoming and to my surprise I did ok! I was one of the slowest, but I didn’t mind and of course, Simon was there with me for moral support! On the 10th August I put my big girls pants on and did my first parkrun, which again was a revelation as I completed it in 29 mins. Since then I have loved some Sunday morning runs with some of the Fitclub family – the Holmans have been so very supportive and encouraging – thank you. My lovely husband mentioned doing the Hursley 10K – he said, ‘You’ll be fine, it’s not very hilly!’ So I signed up, not really knowing what I was letting myself in for apart from that the words ‘multi-terrain’, scared me slightly! 

Anyway, we arrived– it was a beautiful morning, the sun was shining and I was kind of ready to give it a shot. I had a 1 hour finish time in my head and no plan at all as I had no idea what to expect!!! We all walked to the start – I stayed with Issy and 1R was a little bit in front in the 50-60 min area! And we were off – started running and what happened??? The end of my fabric bracelet got caught in one of my safety pins!!! So I was trying to negotiate the start, which was a bit potholey in the field and trying to get my arm free from my number!!! Issy and I were neck and neck for about the first 5K, but as the hills kept coming she was stronger and I started to lag behind, slowly losing her in the distance!!! The killer hill between the 6th and 7th Kilometre was an absolute ****** - I had to stop and walk. 

What I loved was the atmosphere between the runners – several people came up behind me and gave me encouragement to keep going!!! Round a corner we went and a man slipped and somersaulted in front of me on the chalky, dusty ground. I stopped to see if he was ok and we jogged together for a little while, finding out that we had both broken our left ankles twice - amazing what you find out in a running race!! Those hills kept on coming – there really wasn’t a let up and by this time I knew that I wasn’t going to make my 1 hour target. 

Another hill within the 9th K was also not great, but the end was near. When I saw the 1K to the end marker I felt ok – thought I would try and speed up a bit, but it was quite hard to do any overtaking as the paths were narrow at this point. Finally I could hear the loud speaker and see the end – phew!!! I put a spurt on for the finish, then could hear my name being shouted from the side and I was there!!! Thank goodness! All I could think of, was that any flat race after that was going to seem sooooooo good!!! I finished in 1.03.35 – not bad for a very hilly first 10K!! Thank you so much WFC runners and to my hubby for all your kind words and encouragement – keep them going as I’m signed up for the ‘Great South Run’ in a months time. It’s flat everyone has said……let’s hope so!! Good luck to everyone that’s running the Winchester Half – next year maybe!!???

General Announcements

WFC Running Club Calendar

Dates for your diary:

Thursday 26th September - Normal Session - South Winchester Park and Ride
Thursday 26th September - C25K - Abbey GardensSaturday 28th September - parkrun roadtrip - Alice Holt


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