WFC Runners - Winchester 10km, Wokingham Half, Glenna's 400th

News

This week racing returned with the Winchester 10km (or 10.6km for some!) and the Wokingham Half Marathon. 

Despite forecasted rain and wind Winchester was actually really good conditions for running. There was an excellent turnout from the running club with over 20 members running, a few volunteering and loads out supporting on the course. It was a fantastic atmosphere and a great showing from the team. Unfortunately there were some issues with the course which meant that the first few hundred runners were sent the wrong way and ended up running an extra 600m. This did impact the Fit Clubbers with Ben Smith, Andy Mant, Alice Dewsnap and Colin Burville all running longer than they should've. 

There were so many PBs that I couldnt mention everyone!  However special mention goes to Simon B for his HUGE 9m30s PB and Jenny for her 5m45s PB.  Alice and Andy would also have had PBs but for the issues with the distance! 

Here are the results, in no particular order (apologies if I have missed anyone). Those impacted by the longer course are marked with an asterisk and I have provided an estimate adjusted time. 

*Ben Smith – 44:20 – time adjusted to 10km – 41:49
*Alice Dewsnap – 47:52 – time adjusted to 10km – 45:09
*Andy Mant – 44:41 – time adjusted to 10km – 42:09
*Colin Burville – 47:29 – time adjusted to 10km – 44:48
James White – 46:04
Steve Lucas – 52:13
Karen Parker – 57:57
Sharon Smith – 59:26
Elise Gilbert – 50:55
Cat Westoby – 51:13
Allen Westoby – 47:38
Helene Beresford – 1:07:58
Marie-Clare Menez – 1:02:48
Simon Boyden – 1:02:55 
Sarah Robinson – 50:09
Simon Robinson – 46:45
Glenna Greenslade – 1:02:56
Trish Heaton – 59:54
Jenny Leishman – 47:16
Philippa Drew – 53:25
Sarah Geddes – 57:12
Fran Hansford – 1:08:27
Ali Longman – 54:27
Vicky Hadden – 59:44
James Hadden – 46:47
Sally Taylor – 1:06:52
Dawn Osbourne – 1:14:04
Isabel Mansfield – 57:07

We also had Mike and Anna running the Wokingham Half. Starting and finishing at Cantley Park the race runs on fast, flat rural roads and is renown for producing super fast times. So it was with Mike and Anna who both recorded fantastic new PBs! Here are the results:

Mike Hastie - 1:35:38 - 99s PB
Anna Hastie - 1:39:32 - 91s PB

Congratulations to everyone who ran and thank you to everyone who volunteered and came out to support us. 


parkrun 15th February

This week’s numbers were lower than normal due to Winchester once again being cancelled and the Winchester 10km on Sunday. We had just 15 registered Fit Clubbers at 5 different parkrun venues.

We had Glenna, Dave, Trish, Anne, Elise, James and Olivia at Netley Abbey, Vanessa at Harrogate, Matt at Bournemouth, Alice at Salisbury and Jenny, Katie, Rachel, Simon and Sarah at Southampton.

The big news was Glenna running her 400th parkrun. That’s 2,000km or from here to Albania! Glenna has run at 55 different venues and a whopping 231 times at Winchester, 51 times at Eastleigh and 27 times at Kingston. Glenna has a PB of 27:02 set at Winchester on the 22nd April 2017! Congratulations Glenna!

There was a course PB for Alice of 22:21 at Salisbury.  Congratulations Alice!

Thank you to everyone who ran and volunteered.

Here is a link to the consolidated club report: http://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/…

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!

My parkrun journey by Glenna Greenslade

I first heard about parkrun after reading an article in the national press the week after finishing my first ever race, the Great South Run, in October 2010. 

So, on 6 November 2010, while visiting my son for the weekend, I found myself at my first ever parkrun in Kingston, Surrey. It was Kingston’s 34th event and there were 51 runners. I finished in 42nd place in 29:31. Fast forward to 2020, Saturday 25 January at Kingston’s 516th event with 433 runners, my position was 274 in a time of 29:43. 

My next parkrun was at Eastleigh Lakeside (before it moved to Fleming Park) on 20 November 2010. It was their 29th event with 78 runners. I didn’t parkrun again until 23 April 2011 (back then I didn’t run if it was cold or raining) and, parkrun was growing, there were now 170 runners taking part at Eastleigh. 

Eastleigh soon outgrew Lakeside and it had to move to accommodate the growing numbers, it moved to Wide Lane School playing fields. By September 2011 I was parkrunning almost every Saturday in all weathers, Dave, my husband, came along and was soon volunteering at most of the home runs I attended. The numbers continued to grow and Wide Lane became unsuitable. While the Event Director looked for another suitable place for Eastleigh, he soon set up another local parkrun and Netley Abbey was formed and then, shortly after, Southampton. Fleming Park became the new home for Eastleigh and by this time there were now 3 local parkruns with more to come in the future. Eastleigh continued to be my home parkrun but I did go regularly to Southampton as it was on tarmac, which I preferred to the muddy course at Eastleigh. My first run at Southampton was event number 19 in November 2012 when there were 225 runners. They now currently have in excess of over a 1000 participants and are one of the largest events in the UK.


On 27 April 2013 Winchester had its inaugural event and it became my home run and in 2014 Dave and I became Run Directors. 

We have now stepped down as Run Directors from the 5k event (we help out if they are short during the holiday period) but remain as part of the Core team and we are now regular Run Directors at the Junior 2K event. 

To date I have run 400 events, 232 at Winchester, 78 at Eastleigh, 27 in Kingston and 15 in Southampton these being my main venues but have run at 55 different parkruns, some of them 2 or 3 times. My run time peaked at 27:02 in 2017 with my highest age grading of 77.31% the same day, which also happened to be my 200th parkrun, it’s been downhill since!

In the over 9 years that I have participated in parkrun I have seen so many changes most significantly in the events popularity with a huge increase in the number of runners and venues across most of the world. Two things that have not changed, since day one, is that all events are completely free to participants and they are all run by volunteers, I have volunteered 154 times mostly at Winchester.

Challenge - Week 7

We are now in the second block of the challenge and you have all predicted the number of runs each week and the length of the longest run.

The scoring for the number of runs is the same as block 1 (points = %age of runs completed up to a max of 100).  The points for the long run element of the challenge are based on the %age of distance covered.  The points are therefore as follows per week:

25 points for 100% (or more)
20 points for 80-99.99% 
15 points for 60-79.99
10 points for 50-59.99
0 points for less than 50%

Therefore if you predict 10 miles and run 10 miles you get 25 points.  If you run 8.5 miles you would get 20 points and if you ran less than 5 miles you would get nothing!  Best of luck everyone!!  

Here is the latest table.  We have 43 runners remaining in the competition.  33 are still on maximum points (775) with 11 of you having played your wildcards. We have lost 4 runners through injury.  

How is everyone getting on so far?  Is it benefitting your training? Any feedback would be gratefully received!

Name	Block 1	Block 2	Total
Alf Rodway	400	375	775
Ali Longman	400	375	775
Alice Dewsnap	400	375	775
Allen Westoby	400	375	775
Andy Mant	400	375	775
Anne Arnold	400	375	775
Ben Howett	375	340	715
Catherine Mulrine	300	375	675
Catherine Westoby	400	375	775
Charles Mason	400	375	775
Colin Burville	400	375	775
Debs Cotsgrave	400	375	775
Elise Gilbert	400	375	775
Fran Hansford	400	375	775
Glenna Greenslade	400	375	775
Graeme Read	400	375	775
Issy Mansfield	400	375	775
James White	400	375	775
Jenny Leishman	400	375	775
Jo Hindle	400	342	742
Karen Parker	400	375	775
Kathy Read	400	375	775
Lucy Gardner	400	375	775
Lucy Rhodes	400	375	775
Lynn McKeague	400	375	775
Marie-Clare Menez	367	300	667
Matt Mandelbaum	400	375	775
Philippa Drew	400	375	775
Philippa Gammie	250	265	515
Rachel Mills	400	375	775
Sally Boyden	400	375	775
Sarah Geddes	350	325	675
Sarah Lewis	400	375	775
Sarah Robinson	400	375	775
Sharon Smith	400	375	775
Sheelagh Evans	267	375	642
Shelley Talbot	400	355	755
Simon Boyden	400	375	775
Simon Mills	400	375	775
Simon Robinson	400	375	775
Stefan Kemp	400	375	775
Trish Heaton	400	375	775
Vanessa Hodgetts	400	110	510

General Announcements

WFC Running Club Calendar

Dates for your diary:

27th Feb - Abbey Gardens
2nd Mar - Track Session

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!  

WFC Runners - Committee news, parkrun, challenge week 6

News

The big news this week was the record breaking week for the running club.  Recently our numbers have been growing steadily and for the second time in 3 weeks we broke our Thursday night attendance record.  This week saw 40 runners turn up to the South Winchester park and ride.  

Run Leaders Mike and James split the duties again with Mike taking half the runners through their paces on an endurance based set of intervals.  James took the other half through a shorter speed based set of exercises.  

Thank you to everyone who came along!  

Committee Update

On Tuesday we had an excellent committee meeting where we discussed the future of the club and how we can continue its growth whilst maintaining the core values of the running community we have created. There will be more on this throughout the year, but initially I wanted to bring to your attention a few key points.

Visually Impaired Running

Mike Hastie has put forward a proposal which will enable us to offer sessions suitable for runners with visual impairments. We initially talked about potentially running one session a month with is suitable for runners with visual impairments and using runners from the club as guides. In order to do this we would need to get members some specific training. Once we have these qualifications in the group we can also reach out to local parkruns as a club and offer to guide VI runners on a Saturday morning. This will be a great way of us supporting the local community and extending our reach as a club. 

We are therefore looking for 3 volunteers to go on a 2-3 hour England Athletics “Sight Loss Awareness and Guide Running” training course later in the year (the course run during the summer months). As this will be fully funded by the club it is only open to affiliated members. If you think this may be something you would be interested in or if you would like further information please contact Mike Hastie who will be happy to chat! 

Couch to 5km (C25K)

Following on from our successful C25K programme last year we are intending to run a second course in the early part of the year. This will be starting in late April/Early May for 9 weeks. We will also be looking to do a parkrun takeover for the graduation, so will need volunteers for that!

As with last time Sharon “One R” Smith has kindly volunteered to organise and coordinate the course. If you know anyone who may be interested or would like any further info please let Sharon or myself know.

We will be looking for volunteers to support the weekly C25K runs and act as mentors to the new runners. There will more communications on this nearer the time. 

Run/Walk group starting in June/July

Another initiative we would like to start is a run/walk group. This would be for novice runners who may have just completed C25K but don’t feel ready to join the main group, new runners who may lack confidence or runners recovering from injury. This group would meet in the same location as the main group but would then split off to do a 30‐40 minute run/walk session. The route and pace would be determined by the runners attending. 

The committee think this would be an excellent way of us increasing our inclusivity and may also be a good way of encouraging non-running Fit Clubbers to give running a try.

Sunday trail run series

We are looking to start a summer trail series once a month on a Sunday morning. The Boydens, Robinsons and Holmans (plus guests) have been doing something similar for a while and I thought it could be something we could trial on a larger scale!

Starting at a different location each month and following a pre‐agreed route we would go for a social trail run of varied distances. Pace would be conversational with the focus on socialising rather than pace. We would then seek to go for brunch afterwards.

Alex H has kindly volunteered to organise the initial May run. Would anyone be willing to volunteer to organise the June run? You would need to choose a suitable date and time, start point, rough route and a place for brunch afterwards! If May and June go well we would then seek to book July, Aug and Sept dates. It doesn’t have to be one volunteer, it could be a small group of you to spread the load.

Once sorted we would send the comms out to the members and get ideas of numbers. Members who don’t want to run can just join for brunch and family and friends will also be welcome. 

Please let us know if you have any other ideas for ways to take the club forward.

parkrun 15th February

This week’s numbers were really impacted by the appearance of storm Dennis. We had just 15 registered Fit Clubbers at 7 different parkrun venues in 3 countries!

We had Glenna and Dave at Osterley, Graeme, Mike, Anna and James at Portsmouth Lakeside, Jenny and Katie at Andover, Anne and Elise at Newbury, Rachel and Simon at Telford and Cat and Allen at Vicarstown in Ireland 🇮🇪. The prize for the most remote tourist visit goes to Matt who travelled nearly 10,000 miles to Gardiners Creek in Melbourne, Australia 🇦🇺!

There was a course PB for James of 23:20 at Portsmouth Lakeside.

Thank you to everyone who ran and volunteered.

Here is a link to the consolidated club report: http://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/…

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!

Challenge - Week 6

We are now in the second block of the challenge and you have all predicted the number of runs each week and the length of the longest run.

The scoring for the number of runs is the same as block 1 (points = %age of runs completed up to a max of 100).  The points for the long run element of the challenge are based on the %age of distance covered.  The points are therefore as follows per week:

25 points for 100% (or more)
20 points for 80-99.99% 
15 points for 60-79.99
10 points for 50-59.99
0 points for less than 50%

Therefore if you predict 10 miles and run 10 miles you get 25 points.  If you run 8.5 miles you would get 20 points and if you ran less than 5 miles you would get nothing!  Best of luck everyone!!  

With storms Ciara and Dennis causing havoc with peoples running schedules and the usual bouts of winter illness the scores have really been impacted.  More people have now used their wildcards (10) and we have lost a couple more competitors.  Of the 44 competitors remaining we have 33 on full points.  We are only half way through and there is still loads to play for so keep going!!  

Name	Block 1	Block 2	Total
Alf Rodway	400	250	650
Ali Longman	400	250	650
Alice Dewsnap	400	250	650
Allen Westoby	400	250	650
Andy Mant	400	250	650
Anne Arnold	400	250	650
Ben Howett	375	215	590
Catherine Mulrine	300	250	550
Catherine Westoby	400	250	650
Charles Mason	400	250	650
Colin Burville	400	250	650
Debs Cotsgrave	400	250	650
Elise Gilbert	400	250	650
Fran Hansford	400	250	650
Glenna Greenslade	400	250	650
Graeme Read	400	250	650
Issy Mansfield	400	245	645
James Hadden	400	215	615
James White	400	250	650
Jenny Leishman	400	250	650
Jo Hindle	400	250	650
Karen Parker	400	250	650
Kathy Read	400	250	550
Lucy Gardner	400	250	650
Lucy Rhodes	400	250	650
Lynn McKeague	400	250	650
Marie-Clare Menez	367	175	542
Matt Mandelbaum	400	250	650
Philippa Drew	400	250	650
Philippa Gammie	250	190	440
Rachel Mills	400	250	650
Sally Boyden	400	250	650
Sarah Geddes	350	225	575
Sarah Lewis	400	250	650
Sarah Robinson	400	250	650
Sharon Smith	400	250	650
Sheelagh Evans	267	250	517
Shelley Talbot	400	240	640
Simon Boyden	400	250	650
Simon Mills	400	250	650
Simon Robinson	400	250	650
Stefan Kemp	400	250	650
Trish Heaton	400	250	650
Vanessa Hodgetts	400	43	443

Please shout if there are any issues!

General Announcements

WFC Running Club Calendar

Dates for your diary:

20th Feb - Dean Lane Park
22nd Feb - parkrun celebration - Glenna's 400th! 
27th Feb - Abbey Gardens
2nd Mar - Track Session

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!