Monday, 21 May 2018

WFC Runners - Running all over the world!

News

This weekend was another scorcher and it saw Lynn running at the Hackney Half, Roisin running the Riga (Latvia) 10km and myself running the Liverpool Rock and Roll half. 

Lynn was running with a friend and ran the Hackney course in 1:56, Roisin took 4 minutes off of her time and I was aiming for a PB but fell short with a respectable 1:49. 

There was also an excellent turnout at Winchester parkrun with 9 Fit Clubbers running (link to consolidated report below). If you aren’t on the list please consider adding Winchester Fit Club Runners as your parkrun club! 

There were PBs for Jake, Alex, Simon B and Fran (all of whom were there on Thursday!). Congratulations guys!! 

http://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=26888

Last week’s training session was a hard sprint session on the Viaduct. Read all about it here:

http://wfcrunners.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/wfc-runners-17th-may-viaduct-sprints.html

This week’s session sees us return to star at Abbey Gardens. Following the session we are aiming to go to the pub for a post run drink and a chat. Please feel free to join us!

This week’s main feature is a write up of the Wings for Life run in Poland by Magda and Adam. Enjoy!

Wings for Life run – Poznan, Poland – By Magda and Adam Stachowiak

A few months back we found out we would be going to Poland for our nephew and niece's first holy communion celebrations in the middle of May.  This enabled us to sign up for the Wings for Life World Run in Poznan, Poland.  Which just so happens to be near our home town. Adam took it as an opportunity for good training before the Race to the King Ultra in June and I just wanted to run for fun. 

Wings for Life World Run is so much different to other races as here the finishing line is chasing you! We all start at the same time and 30 mins after us chaser car comes to get us with steady 15km/h pace increasing by 1km/h every 10km.

Adam was preparing himself for about a marathon distance and I was hoping for 20km, which meant I needed to increase my pace from usual one. We came to Poland a week before the race and did some training runs beforehand. Adam bought himself an amazing cookbook made for runners and for the whole week he was testing it out to get the best from it before the race; breakfasts and homemade iso were amazing.

We left to get to Poznan in the morning, even though the run did not start until 1pm we had to collect our start packs and bibs. Weather was lovely but very hot and sunny, about 24 ‘C. When we arrived the venue looked peaceful but quickly started to fill up with runners. Around 12.20 we were asked to find our wave numbers (Adam was in no1 and me in no3) and stay there for a warm up. The atmosphere was amazing, we were one of 8k people taking part in Poland and much more around the world all starting at the same time. 

Introduction started with warm up then got connected with official Wings for Life channel and finished off with an outstanding 8k people wave so the rest of the world could see how much fun we have out there! Sun was so high in the sky and not a single cloud - then we knew it was going to be tough. Spot on 1pm we were off. Started steady but very busy as I had too take over quite few people.  I had no idea yet how Adam was doing.

After just few kms I knew I was not doing well, event though I was keeping my pace to beat that 20km I wanted, I was losing my power and the constant sun was killing me slowly, luckily I had my hydration vest on. Then I felt hungry far too early! Race was late in the day and really didn’t want to feel too heavy, had big breakfast and then banana and an oat bar before the run but clearly not enough that day. 

At about 6km I was almost giving up and I was just thinking when the catcher car would get me and honestly I was hoping to do a bit more, at least 10k. At about 8th km I was in heaven then got under a water curtain prepared for all the runners and this helped a lot. The support from people cheering and running too was amazing. Then in the crowd I spotted Andrzej Pilski - I met him through a FB page - Polish people running in the U.K. he’s a natural runner and so that day he was running bare footed.

It was about 12km and I started getting gripes too often and had to walk a bit too to soothe the pain, surprisingly, the catcher was still not there yet. I wasn’t feeling great but kept going, after 14km we could start hearing sirens, which could mean only one thing - it’s the catcher car coming to get us! We’ve started to run as fast as we could to get further distance but then at about 14.3 km my finishing line caught me. That was it, happy with the distance I managed to run as struggled from a long time, had to get to 15km mark to get a bus back to the venue place and get my medal. Found out that my friend was just few meters in front of me so could wait and go back together.

Adam had yet to call me so I knew he was still going. When I got back to the venue I felt like a winner, loads of people congratulating and clapping when crossing the ‘finishing ‘ line and getting the medal. Adam texted me too, he’d not been well all through the race and got caught at 34.5 km, which was brilliant news. As I found out later, he had unusual stomach problems, as if he had a tummy bug and had to use toilet 4 times during the run. 

Overall we were very happy with the run and our results and definitely will be back next year.

You can pre-register for next year's event here:  

https://www.wingsforlifeworldrun.com/gb/en/preregister/

Fit Club Kit

Winchester Fit Club offers a range of training kit at reasonable prices.  They are high quality and can be personalised.  By using the kit you will also be helping us advertise Winchester Fit Club at local events.  

Mike and Laura place orders at the end of every month and lead time is around 10-14 days.

If you are interested please speak to Mike or Laura, or email me at WFCrunners@gmail.com and I will pass it on!  

Race Calendar

Here is an updated race calendar.  If you have any others that you wish to add, please let me know!

Vitality 10000 – 28th May

Race for Life – Winchester – 3rd June

Eastleigh 10km – 17th June

Alresford 10km – 17th June

Baccus Marathon and Half – 9th September

The Lake Run, Andover 10km and 5km – 16th Septembver

Winchester Half Marathon – 23rd September
Clarendon Marathon, Half and relay – 7th October

Cardiff Half – 7th October

Great South Run - 21st October

 Gosport Half - 18th November
http://www.gosporthalf.org

As ever, if you have any submissions for the next blog then please send them through to WFCrunners@gmail.com

Happy Running!  

Coach James

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Kit pictures and prices










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