WFC Runners

Sunday, 17 March 2019

WFC Runners - Reading Half, parkrun, Surrey Half review and London Marathon training

News

This week we had One R, Anne and Rachel all running the Reading Half marathon. It was a cold morning, but conditions were far better than they had been the previous couple of days. With the challenge looming and all three ladies having set their targets as this race there was all to go for!! One R had been hampered in the run up by a dodgy hip and Rachel and Anne were coming off the back of a 20 miler last weekend!

As expected all three put in amazing performances with the times as follows:

Rachel 1:55:06

Anne 2:13:21

Sharon 2:15:12

Rachel's time was an all time PB of 4 and a half minutes and Anne's time was a whopping 7 minutes faster than her previous run on this course. Fantastic running by all three.

We also had Lynn running at the Fleet Half. Lynn posted a cracking result of 1:55:12.

Eastleigh 10km next weekend!!

This week we had a record 27 Fit Clubbers running at 4 different parkrun venues. There were a new club record 24 at Winchester, myself at Mountbatten School, Mike H at Eastleigh and Trish continued her tour down under at Mosman, Sydney Australia!!

Highlights were PBs for Charles (18:41) and Jenny (24:04), well done guys! In addition we had 4 runners in the top 20 at Winchester parkrun.

Here is the consolidated parkrun club report: http://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=26888&eventdate=2019-03-16

Thursday 14th Training Session - Blue Ball Mixed Bag

This weeks session started at Abbey Gardens and was followed up with cake and drinks at Number 5 Bridge Street. The lure of cake and drink enticed 26 Fit Clubbers along to the session. This number included two new faces in the form of Simran and Nicole. Welcome to the group!!

After a warm up we went on a short jog ending up at the bottom of Blue Ball Hill. Here we split the group into two teams. The idea was to alternate hill sprint and flat sprints. Group 1 would start off by running a one minute interval (30s out, 30s back) along Water Lane. At the same time group 2 would be running a rep of Blue Ball hill up to the junction with jog recovery back down. Once they had completed this, they switched so that group 1 was running Blue Ball and Group 2 were running the flat.

This was repeated 6 times (12 reps in total). After which we headed back to Abbey Gardens for a cool down. We then wandered over to the pub where we were met by Allen, Philippa G and Philippa D. There were loads of yummy cakes to buy, with the proceeds going to Rachel's London Marathon charity, Crohn's and Colitis UK. There was a Guinness cake, cupcakes, coolies, flapjack amongst other delicious morsels. A whopping £89 was raised for Rachel's charity and lots of fun was had by the team.

This week’s session will be meeting at River Park Leisure Centre at 7pm.

Race Reports

Surrey Half By Alf Rodway

The drive to Woking for the Surrey half marathon was a short 45 minutes followed by a 10minute queue for the car park. The start was at a Woking leisure centre, which was a 10minute walk too! So it was good that we had planned an hour spare. As usual, there was a big queue to drop your bags and surprisingly, and even bigger queues for the portable loos! Luckily, for John and I (running partner and the handsome one in the photo!), his wife Sarah and their 2 kids as well our very own beautiful Phily came to cheer us on as well as carry our bags! Thank you ladies.

As we walked towards the pens, it wasn’t clear where the actual start was because there wasn’t a sign. As we waded our way through, we stopped by the pace runner for 2 hours, and then started to walk in a snake type system to eventually that all important gentle jog and then the beeping noise of the timing chip becoming active. I said to John, ‘”I guess this is the start then” and off we went! The first 3 miles were flat but a challenge due to the gusty wind that we were running in and out of, dependant on the turn you did. It was hard to find a rhythm and settle due the number of runners versus the width of the road and I found myself constantly adjusting and weaving. Never a good look and I was wasting energy. Just shy of 2 miles, we turned into the countryside and pretty much stayed in the countryside for 10miles. It had similar scenery to the Winchester 10K, beautiful landscapes and that authentic country air including some lovely pubs!

I didn’t take a pint at the at the first water station albeit it was outside a pub!, but I was immensely grateful for the cheers I got and it makes a difference having your name on your shirt. Before the race, we had heard it was a flat course so immediately, our minds were thinking of PB’s. Well, at mile 3, this rumour turned to be false as we hit our first hill! It was a decent climb and I had James in my ear going, smaller strides, head up and pump the arms… yes coach!! The hill soon became a small flat and then downhill again before some more flat roads. At mile 5, I took on-board my first water and again, a good cheering point with a band playing some tunes. It was at this point that I realised the next 3 miles are going to be long as there was now runners either side, separated by cones in the middle of the road. I was very envious of the front runners, wishing I was that quick.

The road was like the A34, never ending and we were fortunate to have more music and good crowds, particularly at the turning point. I also didn’t realise that it had been a steady climb, which was when I noticed my pace had dropped. Mentally, I hit the panic button and tried to use the small downhill to get my pace back but I couldn’t therefore it was case of digging in to stable my pace. Around mile 8, we hit a couple of short hills that I decided to power up to see if I could get my legs going again but they resisted and it was at mile 10, when my watch buzzed, I realised that I had almost lost a min on the last mile from my earlier pace. It was now a test of my mental attitude towards the race and knowing that my buddy John would have been close behind, it was time to inject some pace and see if it would hold.

As I went through the last 5k, my mind drifted to a PB and I am kept telling myself, you can still do it. As I drew in the miles 1 by 1 to the finish, I could feel myself getting faster and as the crowds cheered my name, the adrenalin pumped in to see me over the line. It was hard to tell where the finish was because there was no big sign but as soon as I saw runners stopping in front, I stopped the watch and awaited the nervousness as to whether I had achieved a PB. After the watch completed it cycle, flashing up a message stating “excellent recovery’’, I was able to see my time of 1:50:39 and the official chip time was 1:50:38. It was a PB by almost 3 minutes and it was a bigger celebration as John achieved a PB too coming in 2 minutes behind me.

Overall as an event, I wasn’t massively impressed, particularly as there were no visible signs for the start and finish. They could have turned the mile 3 water station into a love station being outside a pub! And I can’t believe there was no cake! The route is surprisingly testing on your legs and mental strength in certain areas. The wind was gusty and the best way to describe it is the final 2 miles of the Great South run for those that have ran it. Where there were crowds, they were vocal, alongside bands and music to help you along the way. A congratulated hug was welcomed and the post-run burger (protein) and chips (carbs) went down nicely! Thank you for all the lovely messages from WFC!

London Marathon Training Update by Rachel Mills

Back in April 2018, feeling inspired by One R and her London Marathon Journey I decided I would apply for the ballot for 2019. However, I did not give it a great deal of thought beyond this, knowing how many people apply. On 8^thOctober 2018, Coach James reminded us all that it was ballot results day. Messages were popping up saying people had not been successful. I just had a gut feeling that I should ring Simon who happened to be off work that day to see if the post had come. He said it had and there was what looked like a magazine for me. GULP! I asked him to open at once as I knew I couldn’t wait till I got home. I remember him asking what I was expecting it to say and replying ‘commiserations’ before he told me it said I was in!!

I then panicked! I had just started my second year of my social work degree, I was working part time and had two children and a husband. How on earth would I fit in marathon training?! Maybe I should defer the entry. Though, being me, I rationalised that trying to run a marathon in my third year of my degree would be ridiculous and so I had no choice but to accept the place. Sometimes not being able to say no and being a rather stubborn and determined soul means I do things that perhaps I shouldn’t!

So, I accepted my place and started getting advice about training. I had to be realistic about how much time I could give to running. I decided 3 days a week was probably my maximum, with the odd week where I might be able to squeeze a fourth run in. Tuesday, Thursdays my shorter run days and Sunday was going to be my long run day. I love a race and so thought it would help my training to book races at various points in my training to support training. I ran in Gosport Half in November, managing sub 2 hours. Winchester 10km in February knocking 7 minutes off my previous years’ time, a last minute 20 mile race in Kent last week in 3 hours 39 minutes (not fast but a huge achievement being the furthest I have ever run).

Over the weeks I have had niggle’s in my hip, my knee and my calf. I am getting better at knowing when to rest and when to take things gently. Anyway, I won’t lie, marathon training has been a complete rollercoaster. I have been incredibly lucky to have had the best possible training partner, Anne who has seen me at my lowest (sobbing in the rain at 16 miles of a training run) and on cloud nine, when we have celebrated our achievements (a sneaky trip to Kent to run a 20 mile race!) together.

Marathon training is not just about running – obvs that is pretty important, but it tests you emotionally, physically and in ways I had never imagined. I have run in all weathers, snow, wind, rain and hail even when I didn’t want to. The time it takes from your family too. My long-suffering husband has spent a lot of time waiting for me to finish runs, mop my tears when I have decided I hate running or do the jobs that I had planned to do but then I was too tired to do it. I talk incessantly about running – every conversation can potentially become a running/marathon chat! I even dream about running. I don’t understand why people don’t always share my excitement about it!

I have been overwhelmed by the support from Simon and the kids, Anne, Coach James and WFC runners (Special shout out to One R too for joining many a training run and listening to my moaning!). The advice I have been given and the support when it has all been too much. The lovely runners who have joined Anne and I on training runs in miserable weather and boosted us when we could run no more. It's been a challenge and with six weeks to go, I am feeling the strongest and healthiest I have in years. I have another 20 mile run on Mother’s Day at Dorney Lakes in Windsor after which the tapering will begin and the countdown to the big day really starts!

I am raising money for Crohn’s and Colitis UK and any donations no matter how small are very welcome!

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/rachel-mills-london-marathon-2019?fbclid=IwAR1T9yILkUCRhURfHwsxxX3e8zESr5eatGiDRAP-3tTzHyh6lthAS5ep8XY

New Year Running Challenge - Week 10

As we reach week 10 there are still 15 runners on maximum points. 5 of those have used their wildcards.

There have already been some really close challenge times and the battle for the top spot is well and truly on. With 2 weeks to go it is going to be a really close finish!

Here is the table:

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

Monday, 11 March 2019

WFC Runners - Larmer Marathon, Surrey Half, unexpected 20's, parkrun, Rhayader 5, Hereford and California Country parkrun

News

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: http://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=26888&eventdate=2019-03-09

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!

It was a lovely Saturday morning as we arrived at Hereford for Parkrun. The course was two laps of the race course and mostly flat with only one slight incline. The path was compacted hard top so the going was easy and luckily we didn’t have to navigate any of the jumps! I suspected the field would be strong given the location and I tucked myself behind someone in a fan dance tshirt and aimed to stick with him! I didn’t quite manage that but I was 1 second off my parkrun PB and I won my age category which was a first for me, So I was really pleased. It was a nice course with just over 200 runners but I was beginning to worry that I’d over done it and wouldn’t make it through my second run of the day!

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.

I was awake early and didn’t want to disturb my room mate so I headed to the park early for a warm up and too meet the core team. Hence I found myself in the park at 8am! I managed to run about 3km and check out the first part of the course as a warm up before heading back for the first timers briefing.

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!

General Announcements

WFC parkrun Club

WFC Runners WhatsApp Group

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

Monday, 4 March 2019

WFC Runners - Rhayader 5, parkrun, challenge update, Winchester 10km and Wokingham Half write-ups

News

With a number of races coming up in March and April this was a quiet week in terms of racing. We did however have Sarah L running the Rhayader 5 mile race. The website describes the race as follows:

"Rhayader lies in the very heart of Wales and is the first town on the River Wye.

The first Round The Lakes Race, then 20 Miles was in 1984, the race has grown in popularity since. A 5 mile race was introduced shortly after.

The 30km Race starts from Bryntirion Lane a short distance from the Leisure Centre in Rhayader. The route take runners out of town and around the beautiful Elan Valley Dams.

The dams, reservoirs and 73 mile aqueduct of the Elan Valley were built over a hundred years ago to supply desperately needed clean water to Birmingham. It was an epic feat of civil engineering set within an area of outstanding scenic beauty.

The 5 Mile race starts at Garreg Ddu Dam (A Submerged Dam) and runners run back to Rhayader finishing at The Smithfield in Rhayader."

Well done Sarah, and a great run considering you missed out on your parkrun PB by just one second earlier in the day!

This week saw 24 Fit Clubbers at 3 different parkrun venues. We had a club record 22 at Winchester, Jake at Moors Valley and Catherine at Vicarstown. We had PBs for Fran (30:12), Karolina (29:59), Shelley (26:23), Lucy (25:36), Alf (24:19), Stefan (20:08) and Charles (18:53). In addition Jake bagged a course PB at Moors Valley with 23:19. Lastly, Catherine paced her mum to a new PB at Vicarstown.

Congratulations everyone!!

After the run a large group of us headed to the King Alfred pub for a well earned breakfast! It was a great social event and lovely to see so many there. We will look to do this again in the coming months...watch this space!

Here is the consolidated parkrun club report: http://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=26888&eventdate=2019-03-02

Thursday 28th Feb - Park and Ride sprints

This week the runners were once again back at the South Winchester park and ride for more interval training. 22 runners were in attendance with Sally joining us for the first time. Welcome to the group Sally! Despite the risk of showers the rain held off giving the runners good conditions for their intervals.

In keeping with the theme of recent weeks the aim was to do progressively longer intervals with jog recovery in between. The purpose of this is to get the body (and mind) used to running hard on tired legs, whilst also building speed and endurance. The session was therefore as follows:

4 x 15 sec with jog recovery back to start

4 x 30 sec with jog recovery back to start

4 x 1 min with jog recovery back to start

2 full laps (roughly 0.5km) with 2 mins rest

It was one of the harder sessions we have done, with stacks of running at a high intensity, jog recoveries and only short rest periods. The team were superb though, supporting each other through it and really encouraging each other to run that bit harder and bit further.

Next week’s session will be meeting at Abbey Gardens at 7pm.

Race Reports

Winchester 10km - Philippa Drew

I was planning on a decent night’s sleep before the race but this proved elusive due to having more than one nightmare about arriving at the start line without my race number/safety pins/trainers.

I finally got up at about 6am, googled whether it was a good idea to run with conjunctivitis and then prepared myself a heady concoction of Lemsip and Berocca (other cold remedies / water soluble multi-vitamins are available).

By 7:40am, fuelled by peanut butter on toast, I was ready to go, and I headed down the road to meet with PG, PG’s sister Hannah and Alf. The WFC Runners had agreed to congregate outside Chococo (obviously) where we had a couple of group photos, ran back and forth to the loo numerous times and talked about the cake that Mr Humber had hidden behind a wall near the finish line. We also bumped into WFC Runner extraordinaire, the one and only Adam Stachowiak (supporting rather than running on this occasion).

It may have been sunny, but it was also rather chilly. Thankfully, just as teeth were starting to chatter, the gun sounded, the race began, and we were off! The first kilometre took us from the Guildhall, down towards the King Alfred statue, onto the one-way system around the Brooks shopping centre and up towards Jewry Street (the first notable uphill stretch) before turning right and heading off towards Hyde Street. Kilometres 2 and 3 took us out onto Worthy Road where we then proceeded along a ‘gently undulating’ stretch towards Kings Worthy. Here I fell into step with Mr Humber and One R and along the way we were cheered on by Mr Mike Day (from his bedroom window).

As we hit the 4 kilometre mark and turned into Bedfield Road we had our very own paparazzi in the form of Mike & Anna Hastie (thank you for the support and the fab photos!). We were really out in the sticks now and kilometres 5 & 6 saw us taking in the scenic Springvale Road and Wellhouse Lane, another gently undulating section of the course with a strategically placed water station. I am used to running with music (mainly to drown out my heavy breathing) but I must admit I really enjoyed the sound of so many feet trotting along together in the sunshine and the combination of chatter and gasping-for-air from the runners around me.

Kilometres 7 & 8 took us back into civilisation and southwards along Andover Road. Despite having driven along this road thousands of times I was under the misapprehension that it was downhill most of the way. I was wrong. Still a good hill or two to conquer along this part of the route but it felt something of an achievement to be over half way and heading back towards the city. We took the sharp turn back onto Worthy Road for kilometre 9 where another we encountered, yes you guessed it, another hill! I personally found this the hardest of the upwards climbs as the end was so near and yet still felt so far. The 10^thand final kilometre took us on a right turn off the main road and back towards the playing fields behind River Park Leisure Centre where One R unceremoniously overtook me. I have to admit at this point the finish line still felt like an age away but after a bit of squinting it finally came into view and I managed a sort-of-sprint-finish, just edging back ahead of One R at the last moment (N.B. she still beat me on chip time!)

I jostled along with the other slightly dazed but elated runners collecting medals, t-shirts, bananas and Haribo sweets before locating the growing cluster of WFC Runners. It was smiles all round and PBs for many, including a couple of particularly spectacular times from Charles and Allen. Most importantly though, Mr Humber had retrieved his cake and we were all treated to a chunk of delicious Italian lemon sponge, leaving most of us covered in a suspicious-looking white powder (a taste analysis confirmed this to be icing sugar).

It was the first official race I’ve taken part in since becoming a WFC Runner and I felt very proud to wear my WFC t-shirt and to be running behind/ahead-of/alongside a truly lovely bunch of people. Well done to all and roll on the next one!

Winchester 10km by Sharon "One R" Smith

One of the great things with a local race is a little bit of insider knowledge. This was my main thought as I walked past the lengthy queue for the toilets at River Park to use the empty ones on the floor above

! After this I braved the chill to meet up with the rest of the club outside Chococo for the obligatory photo. It was a great atmosphere, everyone seemed relatively chilled as we found our spots on the start line.

The start was different to last years; heading down the high street towards King Alfred's statue rather than up towards the market and James's drain. As we joined Worthy lane and started heading up and out of town I settled into a reasonable pace. It was great seeing all the WFC tops bobbing around. Our great leader and founder even managed to get out of bed to cheer us on from his window.

Before I knew it we were passing the halfway point and my time was pleasantly surprising. I heard a few swears around me as Andover Road stretched out ahead of us and I definitely had to dig deep up the hill. What goes up must come down though so we were rewarded with a lovely downhill and I picked up my pace. Climbing Worthy Road again was pretty painful but I kept pushing and even caught up with PD's swinging ponytail that I had been following for 8KM. Turning down towards the Rugby club I could see we had around half a mile to go so the finish was not going to be where it had been last year. There was then an agonising few minutes when I couldn't see the finish and was desperate for it to appear. Obviously as soon as I could see it Philippa cheerily sped past me to finish in front.

We then joined the scrum for our medals, water cans and tops and then headed back to join everyone crowded around Alex. For anyone who wasn't aware, Alex had brought the largest cake in the world with him and hid it behind the bridge just past the finish line. Definitely a better incentive than a banana and a medal. The sun was shining as we had our giant cake slices and figured out what size tops we should have ordered.

It was a fab morning and made all the better with such a large number of us there. Definitely one that’s in next year's calendar already, hope Alex is coming!

Wokingham Half by Anne Arnold

When I was considering my training plan for the London Marathon I found a plan that said week 9 training should be a long run of approx. 13 miles which funnily enough coincided with the Half Marathon in Wokingham where my Leonard Cheshire running buddy happens to live so it was a no brainer and we signed up happily to do this.

As some of you know the training was going really well until I hit week 8 OMG everything went wrong I got a sore knee, sobbed in the showers at work after my usual Wednesday morning run and totally crashed and burned in the long 15 mile run on the Sunday – tears tantrums the works! But Hey Ho week 9 was another week and after some TLC and much needed rest I headed off to Wokingham with an air of anticipation albeit I was totally scared.

I decided in my head just to treat this run as a training run and not push myself too hard I needed to break the negativity within my head. I did a time of 2 hrs 15 in my last half so decided that my strategy should be to run with the pacers. This turned out to be a very effective strategy for me (not sure how the pacers felt) as I stuck like glue to them for 11 miles they then clearly had had enough of me and they encourage me to go off faster but steady to get a sub 2.15 time. I tried to kick up a fuss but they made me do it!

The last 2 miles were harder as I did push myself but I felt great and still had miles in my legs as I went over the finish line at around 2.13. What a difference a week makes and my mojo was well and truly back!

The half marathon itself was just lovely a fantastic sunny day well organized (lots of marshals, lots of water) event and more importantly flat …but isn’t everything compared to Winchester!! I can definitely recommend it and, for those of you who like to chase a PB, this would be a great course on which to do it. So much so I considering signing up or next year although I am never running again after the London Marathon!!!

New Year Running Challenge

The competition is down to the final 26 competitors with a whopping 17 still on 100%. 11 have now played their wildcards with 4 of those using them to maintain their 100% record. As we move into the final block all is to play for.

The final block of 4 weeks sees the competitors predicting their number of runs per week, the length of their longest run and a predicted race time. This is what people have been working towards during training and should be a stretch target.

Points will be awarded for how close you get to your race time, based on a point per %age basis. I.e. If you say a 30 minute 5km and run 33 mins you are within 10% of your target and would receive 90 points. You will lose points for being slower or faster than your target time, as the purpose is to be confident in your pace and what you can achieve. If you are massively under your target time you are clearly not as tuned in to your pace as you thought (however you will have a nice shiny PB to alleviate the pain of dropped points!)

Here is the table so far:

General Announcements

WFC parkrun Club

WFC Runners WhatsApp Group

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