WFC Runners - Romsey, record session, parkrun, Abingdon 10km, challenge wk 3

News

The big race this weekend was the Romsey 5. This race is set at Broadlands house in Romsey and is a 3 lap race (2 small laps, 1 larger lap). It is fast and flat, on a mix of excellent paths and less excellent paths. Despite the weather being bad in the lead-up to the race and immediately following it, the actual race was run in near perfect conditions.

There were some superb performances from the team.  The times were as follows:

Glenna Greenslade - 50:00
Trish Heaton - 46:24 - 1st time
Simon Robinson - 36:21 - 1st time
Sarah Robinson - 38:16 - 1st time
Elise Gilbert - 38:46 - PB
Philippa Drew - 41:25 - 1st time
James White - 34:05 - PB

Look out for the run reports in next week's blog! 

The other big news was the record breaking Thursday night session!  A whopping 38 runners were out doing a slow-fast-faster session in Barfield Close, followed by a couple of team relays.  Coach James reinforced the technical points started the week before with the runners focusing on arms driving backwards (pocket to socket), standing up tall and working those high knees.  

It was a superb session and the growth of the club is phenomenal.  Thank you for your ongoing support.

parkrun 25th January

This week we had 28 registered Fit Clubbers at 5 different parkrun venues.

We had Glenna and Dave at Kingston, Vanessa at Seaton, Elise at Queen Elizabeth, Rachel and Simon at Cannon Hill and 22 at Winchester.

Continuing her excellent form in 2020 Vanessa ran a course PB at Seaton of 22:46. Congratulations Vanessa!

We also had Mike H complete his 100th Winchester parkrun out of his 124 total runs. Great effort Mr H!

Lastly I’d like to give a special shout out to little Maisie Mandelbaum who ran her 10th parkrun aged just 5. Definitely a future Fit Clubber! Congratulations Maisie!

Thank you to everyone who ran and volunteered.

Here is a link to the consolidated club report: https://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=26888&eventdate=2020-01-25

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!

Race Reports

Abingdon 10km by Katie Johnson

On 12th January I took part in the Abingdon 10k. It was an interesting experience. The 10k was based at the sport centre in town so there was plenty of parking, toilets and cafe facilities. The event was only small, approx 300 people were there. The 10k was based on laps around the sports track and then around the sports fields. It was a very cheap event- £16.50 and you did get a medal!!!

The info told you to get there at least 45 mins before however when I turned the people were just setting up the event, so actually 15 mins before would have been fine. I got my number only 30 mins before and you could even sign up on the day if you liked. I was doing the race on my own so not knowing where to go I started to chat to some of the other runners in the leisure centre reception. One runner who had done it last year did admit there had been a lot of complaints last years due to the state of the course and he hoped it had improved. I was wondering what it was going to be like.

At 9.55am people started to file out for the race which started at 10am. It was all very chilled and relaxed. We just lined up on the race track, there was not an actual start line or even a flag saying where the ‘actual start’ was. I stood in the middle of the crowd which then turned out to be right at the front as people kept moving backwards.

We had a park run style race director, but without any form of megaphone/loud speaker, who told us about the route which had been changed due to mud! 5 laps around the race track and 4 around the grounds.

And then a countdown and we were off, Strava on!!! The track was ok but the fields were very muddy in some places. I had to walk up some muddy banks and on one section of the field, I actually climbed a little bit of a tree on each lap I ‘ran’ past as I didn’t want muddy water to fill my trainers.

However it was alright until the end. The finish point was back on the race track however running towards it I saw lots of runners re-lapping the track. Confused I looked at my Strava and I found I had only done 5.4 miles. I couldn’t remember how many kilometres were in a mile and as my Strava is new I didn’t know how to find that out on it. This led me to getting my phone out and googling, while running, and finding out that I needed to run further to make up the 10k. I was worried that I might have miscounted laps but due to the amount of runners re-lapping I felt this was definitely more an event error rather me not being able to count. However it didn’t bother me I just ran round the track but I felt I had to do 10k to get the medal.

Taking everything into account it was a fun event but people who want PBs or fast times may get annoyed from a lack of organisation. However if you fancy a VERY chilled race which you can turn up just before, want good facilities and get a decent medal, then give it a go!



Challenge - Week 3

As week 3 of the challenge comes to a close we have 45 runners remaining.  We have 36 runners on 100% with 5 runners having played their wildcard so far.  This week also say 10 runners do more than their predicted number of runs!!  It is great to see runners pushing themselves and really striving for that training consistency.  Even running on holiday and in all weather!  

We have one more week of this first block, before we move into block 2, where you are asked to predict the number of runs and the length of your longest run each week.  

Full Table

Alf Rodway 300 

Alfie Rodway 250
Ali Longman 300
Alice Dewsnap 300
Allen Westoby 300
Andy Mant 300
Anne Arnold 300
Ben Howett 275
Catherine Mulrine 200
Catherine Westoby 300
Colin Burville 300
Debs Cotsgrave 300
Elise Gilbert 300
Fran Hansford 300
Glenna Greenslade 300
Graeme Read 300
Ian Cotsgrave 300
Issy Mansfield 300
James Hadden 300
James White 300
Jenny Leishman 300
Jo Hindle 300
Karen Parker 300
Kathy Read 300
Lucy Gardner 300
Lucy Rhodes 300
Lynn McKeague 300
Marie-Clare Menez 267
Matt Mandelbaum 300
Philippa Drew 300
Philippa Gammie 200
Rachel Mills 300
Sally Boyden 300
Sarah Geddes 275
Sarah Lewis 300
Sarah Robinson 300
Sharon Smith 300
Sheelagh Evans 267
Shelley Talbot 300
Simon Boyden 300
Simon Mills 300
Simon Robinson 300
Stefan Kemp 300
Trish Heaton 300
Vanessa Hodgetts 300

Good luck for week 4 everyone!

General Announcements

WFC Running Club Calendar

Dates for your diary:

30th Jan - Dean Lane Park
6th Feb - Abbey Gardens followed by drinks
13th Feb - South Winchester P&R
20th Feb - Dean Lane Park
27th Feb - Abbey Gardens

Sally's Marathon Journey

You can follow Sally B'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

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 through the Fit Club website: http://www.winchesterfitclub.co.uk/

Race Calendar

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

Training Kit

The method of ordering training kit will be changing shortly with it all being available through the main website...watch this space!