WFC Runners: November 2019

Monday 25 November 2019

WFC Runners - AGM, parkrun, C25K feedback, Andy M hits 50!

News - AGM

The main event this week was the 2nd Running club AGM and our first as an affiliated running club. There was a superb turn out at the Cart and Horses, with some runners having gone out for a pre-meeting run.

There was a packed agenda, which was started off by Mike and James talking about the year just gone and the plans for the future. Laura presented the club's financial summary before we moved on to the election of club officials for the year, who were all reelected to their positions. The committee is therefore as follows:

Mike Day – Chairman
Laura Day – Treasurer
James White – Member secretary and Head Coach
Sharon Smith – Welfare and DBS
Anne Richards – Secretary
Karen Parker – Deputy Secretary
Simon Holman – Member Representative
Rachel Mills – Member Representative
Alex Humber – Social Secretary

Next up was James' proposal to introduce a new payment option for affiliated members. This see's members being given the option to pay £50 a year for their affiliation fee and their weekly session fees. This was voted on and passed unanimously.

In between these agenda points Mike revealed the sample race kit for the club. The kit will now be ordered and should be with us for the start of the 2020 race calendar!

This led us neatly on to the two big ticket agenda items; The club London Marathon place and the Tina Jury Belly Button award.

As an affiliated club with more than 10 members we are given a London Marathon space. We had agreed at the last committee meeting that this would be done by a straight draw, with members asked if they would like to be in the hat. This gave us 18 members in the draw on the evening. To recognise the contribution she has made across the year we asked Monica Gill, AKA Simon's Mum, to make the draw. After some tension building the winners was revealed as Sally Boyden!

You can follow Sally's Marathon journey in her blog: http://sallymarathon.home.blog

Sally is also fundraising for Winchester Hospice. Her JustGiving page can be found here: https://www.justgiving.com/Sally-Boyden.

Then we were on to the final award of the night, the Tina Jury Belly Button Award. This is the first year that the award was being presented and we had a large number of nominations. This year the committee reviewed the nominations and agreed who should be the recipient. On the night we had Alistair, Katarina and Anna Jury there to present the award. After some words from Al the envelope was opened and the award went to Glenna Greenslade! Congratulations Glenna! Here are the nominations for Glenna:

"Her outstanding grit & determination in running her first marathon this year at the age of 69. She achieved her goal despite feeling unwell during the run.Her contribution to supporting parkrun both as a prolific volunteer & achieving over 250 parkruns. Giving something back to other runners by supporting the couch to 5k newbies.She is an all round inspirational runner and club member - she is always cheerful and friendly and chats to everyone. In short I believe Glenna embodies all the qualities the WFC running club aspires to."

"Great Role Model, puts a lot into parkrun, encouraging"

"Very inspirational lady. For her dedication and tenacity in training for and then completing a marathon"

"Glenna has shown there bus no age limit to what you can achieve as a runner ..training for a marathon is not easy truly an inspiration"

If you would like to read the Chairman's and Treasurer's reports I have saved them here: https://wfcrunners.blogspot.com/2019/11/wfc-runners-2019-agm-chairmans-and.html

Thank you to everyone who came and congratulations to Sally and Glenna.

parkrun summary – 16th Nov

This week we had 30 registered Fit Clubbers at 6 different parkrun venues. We had 23 members at Winchester, Trish at Penrose, Issy at Queen Elizabeth, Fran at Alice Holt, Glenna and Dave at Whiteley, James and Olivia at Littlehampton Prom.

There were loads more PBs, including some from our wonderful C25K graduates:

Dave G - Whiteley - 32:28 (course PB)
Trish H - Penrose - 27:25 (course PB)
Anna H - Winchester - 22:19
Kathy R - Winchester - 28:09
Debs C - Winchester - 33:33
Ian C - Winchester - 33:34
Maggie H - Winchester - 35:47

This week also saw Andy Mant Run his 50th parkrun. Andy has run 46 times at Winchester, twice at Southampton and once each at Basingstoke and Alice Holt. Andy has a PB of 20:08. Congratulations Andy, look forward to seeing you in your new red t-shirt! Read more about Andy's journey to 50 below!

We also had Sheelagh running at Crosby parkrun in 30:50.

If you have yet to register as Fit Club then all you have to do is go to your parkrun profile (link in the results email) and select Winchester Fit Club RC as your club. You will then appear on our results!

Congratulations to everyone who ran and thank you to everyone who volunteered.

Here is a link to the consolidated club report: http://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=26888&eventdate=2019-11-23

C25K feedback

Ian Cotgrave

9 weeks ago I started an apprehensive journey on the C25K. Couldn’t walk up hills without being out of breath. Thanks to the motivation of my wife Debz and the Winchester Fit Club I have not only completed my target but also my first parkrun.

What a great achievement thanks in no small part to all of the WFC helpers and the support.

Met a lot of lovely people and made some great friends too. Here’s to continuing this journey!

Yvonne Spikes

I’m not sure if James remembers meeting me. I had just finished the Monday class with Mike on the High Street and was introduced to him by a fellow WFC lady as we headed home, probably about half a year ago. James said I should join the running class. I explained that I couldn’t run. He said, “you don’t have to be able to run very far or fast, if you can run 400m you’ll be able to cope with the class”. I remember thinking how impossible it was for me to be able to run 400 m, told him so and went home thinking there was no way I’d be able to do that.

In September when the C25k began I thought it would be good to get to 400m or 5 minute runs at a time. I didn’t actually think I would be able to complete the program.

I decided to put the runs into my diary and minimise the chances of finding an excuse. For example; on way to see my sister I set off with my running gear on and went for a run on the way instead of stopping at the services, on weekends away I ran along the promenade and cliffs and enjoyed lots of beautiful scenery I wouldn't normally see. I foresaw that Week 5 was going to be absolutely horrible and that I was going to be away with work and miss the group run so I got ahead of the programme and asked if someone could join me on a different night and Rachel said yes. Thank you Rachel. After that I started to think, hmmm maybe I can actually do this (!?). And I did. Woo hoo!!

I feel incredibly pleased that I’ve actually completed the Programme. I’m not a natural runner. It has definitely been hard. When I’m asked what’s next; I feel like I’ve just achieved something big and would like to maintain it. That’s a challenge in itself.

I couldn’t have complete this programme without everyone’s support. THANK YOU!!!

Runner write-ups

Not looking bad for 50 (parkruns!) by Andy Mant

If self-indulgent tripe is not your thing…best look away now.

This time last year I had completed just nine parkruns (all at Winchester), and ran just once a week (not even every week) around a short 5k course with a buddy from work, usually in around 25 minutes. I am not really sure why (I had probably been drinking), but I decided to set two targets to start on New Year’s day; run over 500k in the year, and complete a parkrun in under 20 minutes. Given that my PB was just under 22 minutes at the time there was a fair bit of progress to make, so I started with new shoes! It surprised me the difference ‘proper’ running shoes made as the pain disappeared from my knees and relocated to my calves, although, it only took a few weeks of running three times rather than just one and the extra strength meant I could now run even 7k without any pain at all.

I used Strava (other running apps also available) to track my sessions, and build a programme that had me running further and further through the winter months. Every run teaching me something about my own ability, and an analysis that pointed to sections of the run I could go harder. This repetition may seem mind numbing, but as I learned to focus on my breathing I actually started enjoying being out in the fresh air and having time to sort through my thoughts.

It was soon February and my times at parkrun were not improving, but the fact that the voice in side no-longer told me to stop after the first lap was a huge step forward. My capacity for running had indeed improved, but as I read about speed control and practised changing my speed for intervals over my favourite courses, I became concerned about my failure to get to the target I had set myself. Each run seemed like a failure, and the only thing that kept me going was how my daughter beamed with pride each time she saw me doing a lap of the North-Walls park.

Then, the weather improved and the PBs came thick and fast, sometimes even consecutive weeks. However, something inside me was nagging away ‘I was still failing,’ but at least now I was failing better! As the school year came to an end I joined a running club that stands basically for running at any speed as long as you like cake (I dare anyone to pick holes in that) and was given the opportunity to really push myself over short distances in order to build strength and control that I could apply on my longer runs. I continued reading and learned about nutrition and speeding my recovery.

I was lucky enough, on a glorious summer’s day to hear a motivational speech from dame Kelly Holmes, and ran my heart out with her words ringing in my head and got to within 8 seconds of my time target for this year. I have continued to try, but still keep failing on the time target, although I am now close to 1000k for the year so at least that one is in the bag! I have taken on new challenges, made a lot of new friends, and can’t wait to up my distance in 2020. Thanks to everyone that has motivated, coached or just been there as I have moved towards my own goals, but the main thing I have learned this year is ‘failing is nothing to be afraid of once you learn to fail better.’

General Announcements

WFC Running Club Calendar

Dates for your diary:

Thursday 28th Nov - Dean Lane Park - 19:00
Saturday 30th Nov - Shelley's 1 year streak parkrun and team breakfast - 09:00

Winchester and District Sports Awards

Every year the Winchester District Sport & Physical Activity Alliance recognise local clubs, organisations and residents who have been recognised for going above and beyond whether individually or as part of a club or team.

Winchester Fit Club and Mike D have previosuly been recognised, If you would like to nominate Fit Club or any of it's coaches, or any other local sports organisations then you can do so by following this link: https://www.winchester.gov.uk/sport/sports-awards-2019

Nominations close 3rd of January, with the awards on the 6th of February.

WFC parkrun Club

Winchester Fit Club RC 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 RC and you will appear in the consolidated club report that we get each week.

WFC Runners WhatsApp Group

There is a WFC Running Club 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 Facebook Group

There is a WFC Runners Facebook page where we put the blog posts, news and race pictures. Follow the link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/976444695871618/

WFC Runners Strava Club

If you are a Strava user there is a Winchester Fit Club RC page. This can be accessed here: https://www.strava.com/clubs/WFC-RC. 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

Saturday 23 November 2019

WFC Runners - 2019 AGM - Chairman's and Treasurer's Reports

CHAIRMAN’S REPORT 2019

OVERVIEW

What a year! 2019 has seen the running club go from strength to strength. The Thursday sessions continue to be the cornerstone of the running club with the average numbers up across the year and a regular turnover of new members. In July we piloted the Tuesday trot, a weekly social run, and this has proven popular with our members. The Monday track evenings have been run roughly monthly, and also continue to be popular. These are more focussed sessions and have really helped members put more specificity into their training.

The inaugural Couch to 5km programme started in September and was led by Sharon Smith with the help of WFCRC members online and offline. This has been a huge success with 13 starting the course. Each session was led by a different member, supported by at least two other runners which made a huge difference to each week’s milestones. Couch to 5km is an important course to run going forward as it shows our commitment to the community in getting people active and encouraging participation. See a full write-up by Sharon below.

2019 has also seen participation in races increase. We have had fantastic attendances at the Winchester 10k and Half, Stubbington, Eastleigh, Endure24, the Great South Run and Hursley to name but a few. This is in addition to the vast number of other races that members have participated in. We have seen many members achieve their targets and smash their PBs, we have even had some podium finishes! We have had a number of members running their first ever marathons and, in the case of Endure24, some members running their first ever Ultra marathons. This is in addition to all the members who have pushed their limits and new run distances for the first time. One thing we are proud of is the spirit shown at these races. We support each other, we ensure that we cheer every member in, and we celebrate everyone’s successes alongside LOTS of photos!

In addition to the racing we have also seen our parkrun attendances increasing throughout the year. parkrun is not only an excellent way of judging your personal progress, but it is also an excellent shop window for Fit Club, especially with the large number of members wearing club kit, we have gained a number of members through this fantastic event.

This time last year we met and discussed the possibility of turning us from a group of runners into a formal affiliated running club. After a lengthy process this came to fruition in May. Moving to an affiliated club gave us the opportunity to build a platform on which we can grow and develop the club in the years to come. It gives us access to coaching courses and materials that will allow us to support our running group and help take them to the next level if they so choose. It provides us with help and guidelines to ensure that our runners are safe and protected. Going forward we will also be able to participate in the Hampshire road and cross-country leagues. During 2019 we have had 43 competitive members join and 2 volunteer members, significantly exceeding our expectations.

No summary of the year would be complete without mentioning the loss of Tina. After a long fight with cancer Tina sadly passed away in early August. Tina was a well-loved member of the Fit Club family who brought fun and a sense of mischief to everything that she did. Through her achievements as a runner and her battle with Cancer she has inspired so many to push themselves to do more, to make the impossible possible and to seize the day. She will be greatly missed. Carpe Diem.

We hope you can join us in this December’s TINATHON which is running in honour of her and raising funds for Winchester Hospice.

COACHING

This year has seen us expand our coaching team from James and me to also include Mike Hastie and Rachel Mills, both of whom completed their Leadership in Running Fitness course (LiRF) with England Athletics. This represents a considerable investment to the club and will enable us to be more flexible and hopefully offer more sessions in future. It also enables James to have a well-earned break from time to time! Not that he ever does.

Next year James will complete his Coach Running Fitness course (CiRF), which sees him take his next steps and we are also aiming to send two more members on the LiRF course. Jenny Leishman and Simon Holman have both put themselves forward and will both be booked in when club funds allow.

C25K - by Sharon Smith

As you are all aware, WFC have just completed our first Couch to 5K course. This is something that the club have been keen to do for a while and it was great to finally get it off the ground. I did c25k myself almost 3 years ago and it really did change my life. That's why I was so keen to have a role in organising this. It has been a massive success and thank you so much to everyone who has helped out.

A brave 13 turned up to our first session to be put through their paces. It was a beautiful sunny evening run through the water meadows followed by cake and drinks at The William Walker. We lured them in gently before the hard work hit!

Over the following 9 weeks the group worked really hard at fitting in 3 runs every week. Two were by themselves and one the supported group run on a Thursday. They have all done so well getting out there as the weather turned cold and wet and the nights started drawing in. We've obviously lost a few along the way but a fantastic NINE graduated the program last week at Winchester parkrun.

It's been a lot of hard work, not only from the runners but behind the scenes. I'd just like to say that there's no way I, or even the committee, would have been able to run this alone. I have been absolutely blown away by the level of support from the running club. Over 24 of you have offered help and given up your evenings to come and join the group. We've had at least 3 experienced runners at every session and the participants have all commented on how encouraging and supportive you've been. I've never had to ask twice for help, everyone has been falling over themselves to do so and it has made my job a lot easier. Obviously, I appreciate a small part of that is wanting to avoid the sprints and hills in the main session!!

I have loved being part of these new runner's journeys and really proud to be part of such a supportive welcoming club. Thank you all again for all your help.

STATS! (AS OF 11^TH NOVEMBER)

Since going affiliated in May we have kept a register of all Thursday sessions. Since that time, we have held 25 full sessions and had 66 different runners running a total of 483 times, therefore averaging 19 runners per session. We have always had 10 or more per session and have had a high of 27. Of the 66 runners 23 have attended at least 10 sessions, showing we have a strong core membership who frequently attend.

Since the start of the year we have also been tracking our parkrun stats. To date there have been 48 possible parkruns. These have been attended by 68 different Fit Clubbers running a whopping 1036 runs. These runs have been at 89 different locations across 7 different countries. Of those 68 runners, 40 have completed more than 10 runs across the year. We are averaging 22 runners participating per week and have had a high of 35 runners in a single week. We have also had Charles Mason get first finisher at Winchester on the 6^th April and Anna Hastie has been first lady home on no less than three occasions!

NEXT YEAR

Taking the club forward in 2020 we need to continue in the same vein as 2019. We need to continue to make our sessions fun and inclusive, as well as offering the same quality of coaching. We need focus on building a running community that gives the members so much more than running.

We are also keen to expand what we can offer the members. This will hopefully include additional coached sessions, guest coaches and first aid courses. The spring challenge will return and we hope to create some new challenges that will run across the year. We will seek to run at least one, hopefully two, more C25K courses in 2020. As per above we will also be seeking to expand our coaching team.

We should look to increase race and parkrun participation where possible and believe that we should consider entering the Hampshire Cross Country league in Winter 2020.

We have a great feeling about 2020 and feel it will really see the club go from strength to strength.

Have a great Christmas and thank you all again for joining Winchester Fit Club.

Treasurer's Report 2019

We started the year with a £300 balance.

Income for the year is summarised as follows:

Member Subs – £1,286.38

Affiliation fees – £600.00

Kit Purchases – £842.00

Total Income - £2,728.38

Outgoings throughout the year have mainly been on our England Athletics affiliation fees, training and purchase of the kit. This is summarised as follows:

EA Affiliation fees – £600.00

Purchase of kit – £1,189.56

EA Training Courses – £565.00

Charity donation to Tina Jury – £112.00

Total outgoings – £2,466.56

This leaves a closing balance of £561.82

Notes

- Kit was subsidised to the value of £79.56 - Vests were actually £15.54 and t-shirts £16.74. Agreed at committee however to keep cost to member at £15

- We have agreed to hold a stock of 20 kit items for future member purchases. These have a value of £300 and are therefore classed as a club asset

- Glenna Greenslade has overpaid by £15 which will be kept in the accounts as an early payment for her 2020 subs. Glenna transferred from another running club and therefore did not need to pay the EA affiliation fee.

- There are a number of payments due to be made for awards and gifts. These will be debited in December.

Monday 18 November 2019

WFC Runners - C25K Graduation, parkrun records, Gosport Half, AGM

News

This week the big event was the Couch to 5km programme coming to its conclusion. Starting on Thursday night the group completed their final training run, week 9 run 3. This comprised of a 5 minute walk followed by a 30 minute run. To support the group we merged the normal Thursday session with the C25k group with the runners providing support throughout the run. It was a huge turnout and the group celebrated appropriately afterwards at the pub with drinks and cake.

The graduation run was held on Saturday at Winchester parkrun. After the fireworks last week and heavy rain during the week it was touch and go if the run would go ahead. Fortunately the call was made the day before to go ahead with the run, much to our relief! And what a run it was!!

We had decided that all of the regular parkrunners would support the C25K'ers on their graduation run and so each of the graduates had an entourage around the whole 5km!

Once they finished we had arranged for a presentation ceremony with speeches, cake, bubbles, certificates and medals. It was a fitting end to a fantastic 9 weeks.

None of this would've been possible without the leadership and support of Sharon "One R" Smith. Sharon was the driving force behind setting this programme up and getting the volunteer support network in place. Thank you Sharon, from Fit Club and from all of the graduates.

See below for more detail on the Graduation parkrun!

After the excitement of Saturday we had 5 members at the Gosport Half. This coastal route is park of the Hampshire Road Race League and always very popular due to it's fast and flat nature. Despite a cold start, Sunday saw the runners blessed with perfect running conditions and so it showed in the stunning results from the day. Well done to all of our runners on a fantastic performance!

The results were as follows:

Mike H 1:37:17 PB

Anna H 1:41:03 PB

Jenny L 1:45:34 PB

Sarah H 1:45:43 PB
Katie J 1:50:34

parkrun summary – 16th Nov

To celebrate the graduation of our C25K group we had a record breaking parkrun week! We had 35 registered Fit Clubbers at 3 different parkrun venues. We had a massive 32 members at Winchester, Alice at Salisbury and Stefan and Lucy at Wycombe Rye.

Our C25K heroes (in no particular order) were as follows:

Maggie Hastie - 36:42 (new PB)

Debra Cotgrave - 34:38

Ian Cotgrave - 34:48

Rob Truscott - 30:31

Zulfiha Truscott - 30:31

Sam Nicolaou - 36:30

Yvonne Spikes - 37:33

Felicia Green - 31:19

Jo Marshall - 32:56

Should also be noted that Alice bagged a course PB of 22:44 at Salisbury. Well done Alice!!

Congratulations to everyone who ran and thank you to everyone who volunteered.

Here is a link to the consolidated club report: http://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=26888&eventdate=2019-11-16

AGM

Here is the agenda for next Thursday’s AGM. It is from 7pm at the Cart and Horses in Kings Worthy and everyone is welcome.

1) Welcome

2) Apologies from committee members

3) Chairman’s Annual Report including C25K

4) Treasurers Report

5) Committee Nominations and Vote

- Mike Day – Chairman
- Laura Day – Treasurer
- James White – Member secretary and Head Coach
- Sharon Smith – Welfare and DBS
- Anne Richards – Secretary
- Karen Parker – Deputy Secretary
- Simon Holman – Member Representative
- Rachel Mills – Member Representative
- Alex Humber – Social secretary

6) Subs proposal
7) Marathon Draw
8) Tina Jury Belly Button Award

Any questions, please shout!

General Announcements