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This week we had Tina running at the Larmer Tree marathon in North Dorset. This is one of the amazing races run by White Star running. Set at Larmer Tree Gardens on the Dorset/Wiltshire border. It is described as:
"Tough hills with breath taking scenery".
White Star races are very rarely the right distance and I believe that the marathon on Sunday was clocked at just over 28 miles! Tina did an amazing job in finishing in just under 7 hours.
We also had Alf running in the Surrey Half. The race describes itself as follows:
"This scenic, single-lap half marathon is set in the glorious countryside surrounding Woking and Guildford, and follows a fully-closed and professionally marked and measured route out from Woking town into the rural delights of the nearby quaint villages. This picturesque race is made even more enjoyable by live music and communities of local supporters."
Alf has been training hard and put in an exceptional run, coming home in a time of 1:50:39.
Lastly the sneaky duo of Anne and Rachel decided at the last minute to enter a 20 mile race in Kent. The Brett Lydd 20 was billed as a fast and flat course which meant it was perfect for a training run. The ladies battled the elements and fallen trees to record a time of 3:39:48.
They now have just under 7 weeks until they will be toeing the line at London. Rachel will be providing a training update for next week's blog!This week we had 16 Fit Clubbers running at 3 different parkrun venues. There were 14 at Winchester, coach James at California Country and Trish at Curl Curl, Sydney Australia!!
In a rare week we had no PBs, with Fit Clubbers obviously saving themselves for their attempts at their challenge times later in the month!
Here is the consolidated parkrun club report:
Thursday 7th March - Barfield Close Sprints
This week saw the runners return to the more familiar stomping ground of Barfield Close for a classic interval session. After the standard warm-up at Abbey Gardens we headed over to Barfield Close.
The session was a classic 12 reps of 1 minute sprints, with jog recovery between each rep. As with other sessions the aim was to go as hard as possible and be as consistent as possible across each of the 12 reps.
We had 19 runners and they all gave everything for the entire session. Everyone seemed in good spirits with plenty of laughter and chat between each rep.
Next week’s session will be meeting at Abbey Gardens at 7pm and we will be heading to the pub afterwards for drinks and cakes!
Race Reports
Hereford parkrun and Rhayader 5 by Sarah Lewis
To give myself something to do while my husband plodded round the Rhayader round the lakes 30km race I decided to enter it’s little sister – the 5 mile version. Because my race was a bit shorter than his he decided that I could do the Hereford Parkrun en route as a warm up!
We arrived in Rhayader and the small welsh village was buzzing and full of nervous runners warming up. The 5 mile route was the last 5 miles of the 30km route in to the village. I got my number, said good bye to my husband and headed off on to the bus to the start line. This allowed me to have a recce of the route which had some lovely views and was mostly down hill. We waited in fairly blustery conditions for about 20 minutes for the start time and the pre race brief confirmed it was all down hill to Rhayader, which was good news to me as I hate hills, but we were also told we should all be getting PBs – no pressure!
I started off well following the marshal motorbike as the road was still open, dodging someone’s hat which got stolen by the wind and knuckled down in to the run. I tried to maximise my pace on the down hill to bag some extra time for the hill and as I plodded on I was making good time and overtaking a few people so I was happy!
The one hill was hard work and I couldn’t stay with a local runner but I was determined to overtake another lady who had crept past me and I got her on the down hill. Soon we were in to the village and there was a good amount of support out on the streets – particularly outside the pub! Before I knew it I had finished and was collecting my medal in a 5 mile PB thanks to the overall downhill gradient.
There was no rest for me as I switched straight in spectator mode and jogged up hill to the car to deliver some Lucozade to a weary runner!
It was a lovely race and in the sunshine would be stunning. At only £8 it was an absolute bargain and was incredibly well organised and marshalled. The 30km race would be a great challenge for some of our long distance runners but that one definitely isn’t downhill overall!!
California Country parkrun by Coach James
This weekend I was away with friends on a golfing trip. We weren’t teeing off until 1130 so I had an opportunity to visit yet another new parkrun. Fortunately a new one had started up nearby at California Country park near Wokingham, just south of Reading.
The course starts off on a path before turning and heading into a woodland section. This is a slightly muddy and twisting turning route through the trees. It was great fun with tree route and logs to jump. After a km or so we headed back on to the path and back past the start/finish.
The route then dropped down to the lakeside path. This was a long out and back section alongside a lovely lake. I love out and back sections for the support you can give to and receive from the runners going the other direction.
After a couple of km we turned and headed up another trail path. This took us back up the hill and looped round to the start of the first woodland loop.
One more trot around the woods and we then headed back on to the path and into the finish!
I was chuffed with my 23:51 on a course where the route made it hard to build up any consistent running. It was a really fun course with a great volunteer team.
Next week I will be at Mountbatten School parkrun near Romsey.
New Year Running Challenge - Week 9
This week was a strong week for the team with 25 of you recording 100% for the week. We now have 27 runners left in the challenge with 16 maintaining their 100% records for the first 9 weeks, although 5 of those have now used their wildcards. (A reminder...you can't use your wildcard for your predicted time!!)
We are now starting to get towards people's target races, so please let me know how you get on. 3 more weeks to go and the race times will be the differentiator at the top of the table. Best of luck everyone!
This week was a strong week for the team with 25 of you recording 100% for the week. We now have 27 runners left in the challenge with 16 maintaining their 100% records for the first 9 weeks, although 5 of those have now used their wildcards. (A reminder...you can't use your wildcard for your predicted time!!)
We are now starting to get towards people's target races, so please let me know how you get on. 3 more weeks to go and the race times will be the differentiator at the top of the table. Best of luck everyone!
General Announcements
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
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