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 11TH 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 6th 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment