WFC Runners

Monday, 11 November 2019

WFC Runners - Remembrance 10km, parkrun, AGM news, Reading 10km writeup

News

This week the only racing we had was Simon Holman at the Remembrance Day 10km in Portsmouth. This is described as:

"This event, takes in some of the areas most stunning views, over Portsmouth and the Solent beyond.

Run on closed roads, through country lanes and along part of the top of Portsdown Hill.Some of the proceeds from the Remembrance Day 10k will go to Service charities and Portsmouth Down Syndrome Association."

Simon smashed round this superb run in a shade over 1 hour. Congratulations Wee Man!

The Couch to 5km programme has now reached its final week. Last Thursday the team smashed out a 28 minute run to complete week 8. This means that this week is the grand finale, which will see the group running non-stop for 30 minutes. To celebrate next Thursdays final session will see both groups come together, with the normal Thursday night group supporting the final night of the C25K programme. Then on Saturday we will all be at parkrun to support their 5km graduation run. Please make every attempt to attend!

On the 21st of November we will be holding the running club AGM. This is at 7pm at the Cart and Horses in Kings Worthy. The agenda will be released later this week but will include the Chairman's report, the election of the committee, the annual award and the selection of the London Marathon place. Please make every attempt to be there!

parkrun summary – 9th Nov

Despite Winchester parkrun being cancelled, we still had 14 Fit Clubbers at 7 different parkrun venues. We had representatives at Southsea, Wendover Woods, Eastleigh, Fareham, Woking, Cleethorpes and Netley Abbey!

There was a new course PB for Trish at Cleethorpes parkrun today running 27:39.

Congratulations to everyone who ran and volunteered.

Here is a link to the consolidated club report: http://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=26888&eventdate=2019-11-09

Race Reports

The Rivermead 10km by Andy Mant

Lining up at the Rivermead 10K (Reading), alongside fellow WFC runners Alice Dewsnap-Smith and Graeme and Kathy Read, marks the start of what I hope will be a fruitful decade of running (my forties!).

Having only completed my first 10K training run 2 weeks prior, I am relying on my 1 year's parkrun experience, and the 'it's not much further' sentiment to ensure I finish the race successfully. Given it is my first official 10K the PR is inevitable, but I find it striking that I am still haunted by fear of failure and not performing at my best. I know that there will be a point in this race when my brain will point out that lactic acid is bad for me and I really should stop! This is, however, what I run for....that point that proves I am running at my best today, and the only thing preventing me getting the time I want is the determination to stick with my mantra; Breathe.

Well it is 9am, and we're off! Thoughts of coach James clear in my mind, start steady and build into the run. Whilst coach Hastie reminds me to stand tall imagining a helium filled balloon is stuck to my head.

The weather had not been good over the previous few days and so we had all decided to get to the front and have a good go at the first kilometre before settling in to 'race pace'. Running along what can only be described as tractor trails did not prove easy for the first section, but we were soon on the tow path and enjoying the views along this small stretch of the river Thames. We had been warned of congested areas of this out and back double loop course, with some areas being barely wide enough for a single runner, let alone two lane traffic and members of the public! However, everyone ran in good spirits and kept to their side as best as possible.

The main advantage of a 2 lap course is that you get little cheers from your teammates, as the WFC value of mutual support was evident each time we saw each other, even if just the four of us. I did think that Graeme had forgotten this on our second plod through the field loving known as 'the swamp', but it turns out he was wrestling his shoe free from the clutches of the freshly trodden mud, and needed every ounce of concentration to keep an even keel.

Perhaps I should have mentioned earlier that we did have a small issue with the ticket machine for parking, in that it printed blank tickets for us! Unfortunately because plate numbers had been entered we could not use another machine to print a valid copy, thoughts of getting parking tickets might not be your usual 'running spur', but it certainly helped to keep us all moving right to the very end.

As mentioned earlier we all run for our own targets, and we all like to cheer on our running mates, but it never ceases to amaze me just how friendly runners are in general. I had to shout to warn the guy ahead of me on the first lap that he was going the wrong way, and we had a good laugh about that at the end (I beat him eventually!). But all the faster runners stuck around to chat and clap people as they finished chasing their own personal milestones, no one taking for granted the understanding that we all feel the same when we have given our best. Today it was an honour to be part of that, but seeing our own Alice finish 2nd female, clapping her in, and lifting her off the ground in celebration is an experience that will stay with me for some time. Perhaps I shouldn't mention that on seeing Alice's trophy Kathy's first words were 'What the f***', but to be fair I think the coaches sentiments were pretty similar on WhatsApp! Thanks go to all the well wishers today, I think my phone was at 60 messages by the time I returned to the car (no ticket, phew!)

Today's provisional times were

Andrew M - 43:20 (4th overall)

Alice Dewsnap-Smith - 47:03 (2nd Female)
Graeme R - 49:12
Kathy Read - 59:19

Final thought; I never would have believed when I was encouraged to start parkruns (thanks Alice) and then to join WFC (Alice again!) that running would be quite so addictive, but if what I have written above has conveyed even a small amount of what I have felt today, you'd be left wondering why everyone doesn't do it!

General Announcements

WFC Running Club Calendar

Dates for your diary:

Thursday 14th Nov - C25K final run, both groups combined Hiller Rd Car Park - 19:15
Saturday 16th Nov - Winchester parkrun - C25K graduation run and celebration
Thursday 21st Nov - Winchester Fit Club RC AGM - 19:00
Thursday 28th Nov - Dean Lane Park - 19:00
Saturday 30th Nov - Shelley's 1 year streak parkrun and team breakfast - 09:00

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

Monday, 4 November 2019

WFC Runners - Thames Meander, Rivermead 10km (Reading), parkrun, Sarah L write-ups

News

This weekend we had Sarah G taking part in the Thames Meander Half Marathon. This race starts in Kingston and heads along the Thames to Kew Gardens and back (a route Glenna would know very well). On a wet and windy day Sarah ran a cracking time of 2:18 and broke her PB by 3 minutes!

Further up the Thames the following day we had "Team Kings" (Alice, Kathy, Graeme and Andy) taking part in the Rivermead 10km. This is a two lap race starting at the Rivermead Leisure Centre and heading along teh Thames path in Reading. It is billed as a "potential PB course", and so it turned out for our runners!

Andy was first home in 4th position with a cracking time in his first ever race over the 10km distance, and he was closely followed by Alice, who took second female and gained a shiny new trophy in the process! Graeme went under 50 minutes with 49:12 and 20th place and Kathy put in a superb performance for a 5 minute PB and her first time under the 1 hour mark. Fantastic running by everyone and surely a race more people will be signing up for!

Here are the results:

Andy Mant - 43:17 - First time over the distance!
Alice Dewsnap - 47:04 - PB
Graeme Read - 49:12
Kathy Read - 59:15 - PB

A writeup of the Rivermead 10km by Andy Mant will be in next week's blog!

A reminder that the AGM is coming up on the 21st November. Please see the notes at the bottom of this blog!

parkrun summary – 2nd Nov

Despite the awful weather and the rugby being on we still had 17 Fit Clubbers at 5 different parkrun venues. We had 12 at Winchester, Shelley and Ben at Leamington, Mike H at the Basingstoke, James at Southampton and Sarah H at Newcastle!

There was a new course PB for coach James at Blandford parkrun today running 22:59. And Shelley matched her course PB at Leamington!

Congratulations to everyone who ran and volunteered.

Here is a link to the consolidated club report: http://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=26888&eventdate=2019-11-02

Race Reports

The Royal Parks Half by Sarah Lewis

I was running the Royal Parks Half with a friend who was doing it for charity so for me this was all about supporting her and getting her through.

As we neared Hyde Park we joined the thousands of people making their way through the park, with over 16000 competitors. There had been a lot of rain in the preceding week so Hyde Park had resembled Glastonbury as people hopped around avoiding puddles with Tesco bags wrapped round their feet! After a bit of a panic over the length of the toilet queue, (I doubted we would make it to the front of the queue before people even started finishing!) we were eventually ready to find our way to our start. This resulted in immense confusion over how to make it in to our starting pen, it was so busy and there was very little guidance as to where to go or how to get around the fencing! After a long wait in the pen inching slowly forward we were off.

As we wound our way out of Hyde Park it was very busy but seeing the large number of runners in front and behind on London’s closed roads was pretty cool! As we past Buckingham Palace (no royal support unfortunately!) we saw the race leaders already looping back at a cracking pace. We soon reached big Ben and the first water stop opposite Downing Street where there were some weird biodegradable water pods which you had to bite open. The issue I had was as I bit a hole all the water went flying out! Onwards down the strand to turn around by the Royal Courts of Justice and back towards the Mall. Being central London on a Sunday morning there were lots of people around and a fair few supporters, including the Extinction Rebellion protestors.

Soon we were running around St James’ park and then back in to Hyde Park for the second half of the run. As we re entered Hyde Park there was a gauntlet of Charity cheering stands and the noise was deafening, it was a really great boost for my flagging friend. As we weaved our way through the park there were handfuls of supporters and some steel drums providing to keep us entertained!

Thankfully for me the remainder of the route had cups of water which were easier to cope with. There were no gels or energy drinks and as my friend’s energy levels dropped I sought out friendly supporters with sweets to keep her going, diving off course anytime I saw a bag of jelly babies. Some of the paths were quite narrow which made it quite congested which wasn’t a massive issue for us plodding along happily (ish).

The remainder of the route looped through Hyde Park and there were large stretches with no supporters, just groups of confused tourists! It was quite confusing working out which bits of the route we had already run and when where we would be going next, so it was a surprise whenever I saw my husband pop up armed with his camera cheering away.
As we approached mile 10 my knee began to niggle and I was in quite a bit of pain, partially I think from running at a different pace and stride length to normal. Our pace dropped significantly as we walked a bit more but finally we were looping past the Albert Hall and the finish line was in sight! We managed a good sprint finish and stumbled over the finish line to receive our medals and tshirts.

Overall a good race, it’s always fun to run through closed London streets, the start was quite confusing and it took us 20 minutes to get over the start line. Some of the paths in the Park were very narrow so despite being lovely and flat I think those searching for a PB may struggle. There was only water, mostly in cups, so you need your own nutrition.

The Amsterdam Marathon by Sarah Lewis

So the blame for me running this race lies firmly with fellow fit clubber Lynne! Whilst out for a cycle in the summer she mentioned she might go and run the Amsterdam Half as she has a friend out there. I relayed this to my husband and suggested as we had never been to Amsterdam this could be a fun thing to do, His response… “well I’m not going all that way to run a half….”. After recruiting a group of friends to join us including one who had a marathon “on her bucket list” who had persuaded me to do the full marathon we were all set.

Unfortunately I had not trained. No real excuses, life got in the way and I didn’t have the motivation. I was relying on the fact that Amsterdam was flat and I had done my half ironman in August so had some endurance training in the bag at least… I’d had a pretty rubbish cold all week and had picked up a niggle the week before at the Royal Parks so I did not have good expectations!

After attending the expo on the Saturday, carb loading with Carbonara and declining cocktails and sensibly having an early night we were ready to go. After a good breakfast and a successful metro trip we arrived at the 1928 Olympic Stadium in plenty of time (or so we thought!). After finding a short toilet queue (I learnt from the previous weekend!) and taping my knee up we made our way to the Stadium Entrance, where we were in a huge mass of people which didn’t seem to move even as it got closer and closer to the start time. Eventually we saw the elite runners start and the pacers with our target times disappeared in to the distance. We were quite confused but eventually we started moving again. It transpired that to get the 18000 runners to the start line (on the track in the stadium) everyone had to funnel through a double door walk 10m down a corridor and then through a single door in to the stadium which couldn’t fit all the runners in – hence we had been left stood outside for over half an hour!

This meant that we were starting behind the 5 hour pacers and the majority of the runners. This wasn’t ideal as we all wanted to run faster than that with one of my friends aiming for sub 4 hours. Eventually we started and the boys left me to plod around on my own but after only 800m I came to a grinding halt as the road was so congested. I cracked on and tried my best to get in to a rhythm of a pace for somewhere around 4 hours 15 min. The advantage of starting behind people running slower is you can pick off people to overtake so psychologically it worked well for me. We meandered through the outskirts of the city centre and there were bands or DJs about every km which was nice. We ran through the Vondelpark and the famous Rijks Museum There really weren’t many supporters, but to be fair those who made the effort were in good voice! As we got to 10km I thought gosh I’m running a marathon, I feel quite good. At 15km we left central Amsterdam and followed a river out and back for 11.5km. This was essentially along a canal tow path and there were only a handful of supporters which was hard. There were lots of twists and you could see the runners on the other side of the river and I kept thinking I was nearly at the turn around point – but it kept going. Again there were music points interspersed and some people on hover boards in the river to keep us entertained. Eventually I reached the turning point and headed back towards the half marathon point. At this stage I would have happily stopped, every step I went from that point was the longest I had run in over 2 years and the fatigue began to kick in.

In the distance I spotted the back of Chris Evan’s head and that was my target, I had to catch up with Chris because a) I am an avid listener to his Virgin Radio and b) I (wrongly) thought I he was a 5 hour runner and really I should be able to run faster than him! It took me 5km to catch up with him and say hi which gave me a little boost. Shortly after I stopped to walk a few paces and he shouted “come on Winchester” so I had to keep going. I tried to keep up with him as we neared the end of the river section but he drifted away. It was entertaining watching people’s reaction to seeing him and that again gave me something else to focus on.

As we approached 20 miles I was really flagging, my pace had dropped and I was hitting the wall…. My friend (the one who’s bucket list we were supposed to be ticking off but had injured herself doing DIY and bailed on me!!) appeared with sweets and support. Massive morale boost. I trudged on. I stopped. Walked. Literally had a word with myself “you have to keep running, you cannot walk, think of all those people who can’t run, you have to keep going.” Run. Walk. Almost cry. Plod on. I was now being passed by people I had confidently overtaken at the beginning of the race as well as the 4 hour 45 and 4hr 30 pacers I had passed. This routine continued on until I reached 35km when I ended up running with a couple of Welsh guys, we chatted about marathons, how annoying his mate was and the rugby (Wales had just won their quarter final). The kept me going at a decent pace and provided great support and company until just before the end when one of the guys had a walk and the other had gone ahead of me. By this stage the half marathon elite were coming through but I was so tired and confused as to why there were some seriously fast people weaving through the plodders I didn’t realise!

As I reached the iconic “I Amsterdam” letters and the stadium my morale soared and I managed a sprint finish to beat someone I had overtaken early on who I’d had in my sights. As I began to hobble I was greeted by my husband in a huge hug as he had only finished a couple of minutes before me and I think was in even more pain than me!

In summary – Amsterdam was a mixed bag…. The start was really badly organised, I guess you would have to get in to the stadium and hour before to actually leave in your wave. The tented bag drop just outside the stadium was large and efficient and there were lots of toilets and urinals outside and inside the stadium. A good number of pacers for key timings. Feed stations alternated between drinks - water and isotonic, and food and drink – cut up peeled bananas, cut up energy bars, gels and drinks. They were frequent, for which I was very grateful! Tshirt was collected at the expo and was a bit rubbish, (mainly advertised TATA consultancy) a lovely range of marathon clothing for purchase had mostly sold out before we got there. Medal was good and received at the finish with an isotonic drink and a banana. There wasn’t a goody bag. Overall the course was flat (as expected) with just a few inclines to cross rovers/canals and it was mostly road and then gravel on the river section. The bands on the way round were great but there weren’t that many supporters. I am amster-done!

P.S do not run marathons without training – results in a lot of pain and you talking to yourself like an idiot.

General Announcements

WFC Running Club Calendar

Dates for your diary:

Thursday 7th Nov - South Winchester Park and Ride - 19:00
Thursday 7th Nov - C25K - Abbey Gardens - 19:15
Monday 11th Nov - Track session, Bar End 19:30
Thursday 14th Nov - C25K final run, both groups combined - 19:15
Saturday 16th Nov - Winchester parkrun - C25K graduation run and celebration
Thursday 21st Nov - Winchester Fit Club RC AGM - 19:00
Thursday 28th Nov - Dean Lane Park - 19:00
Saturday 30th Nov - Shelley's 1 year streak parkrun and team breakfast - 09:00

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

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

Winchester Fit Club RC AGM

As we are now an affiliated club we have an obligation to England Athletics as part of our club constitution to hold an annual AGM. There is a strictly prescribed protocol to follow for this, so apologies if this all seems quite formal!

The AGM date is the 21st November at 7pm. Venue currently TBC. Anyone is able to attend, but only affiliated members may vote.

It is the opening of the Christmas Markets that night so we have decided to not hold the usual running club session and just hold the AGM.

If you wish to submit any agenda items for discussion at the AGM please submit them to Anne (alr_property@btinternet.com) by the 7th November. The finalised agenda will then be distributed by the 14th.

The AGM will have no AOB section so please submit any discussion points in advance!

Election of officers

All positions are open for re-election, and all members of the committee wish to stand again. The current committee is as follows:

Chairman – Michael Day

Treasurer – Laura Day

Secretary – Anne Arnold

Deputy Secretary – Karen Parker

Membership Secretary – James White

Head Coach – James White

Welfare and DBS officer – Sharon Smith

Membership representative – Rachel Mills

Membership representative – Simon Holman

However, if you wish to stand for any of the positions you are more than welcome to. Please submit the position you wish to be nominated for along with a proposer and a seconder by the 7th November. If more than one person applies for a position it will come down to a vote.

London Marathon Club Place

At the AGM we will be drawing the London Marathon club place recipient. There are 18 members in the draw and the first out of the hat will be representing the club in London next April.

Annual Award

Also at the AGM we would like to introduce an annual club award, the Tina Jury Belly button award. This award will be presented at the AGM to a member nominated by their fellow runners. Nominations can be for anything…It could be for an excellent performance/effort, it could be for being a supportive club mate, it could be for consistency across the year, it can be for anything!

Can we please have nominations in writing to Anne A by the 7th November. The committee will then review the submissions and agree the winner. If a committee member should be nominated they will not be party to the decision.

Monday, 28 October 2019

WFC Runners - parkrun, AGM, race reports, dates for diary

Winchester Fit Club RC AGM

As we are now an affiliated club we have an obligation to England Athletics as part of our club constitution to hold an annual AGM. There is a strictly prescribed protocol to follow for this, so apologies if this all seems quite formal!

The AGM date is the 21st November at 7pm. Venue currently TBC. Anyone is able to attend, but only affiliated members may vote.

It is the opening of the Christmas Markets that night so we have decided to not hold the usual running club session and just hold the AGM.

The AGM will have no AOB section so please submit any discussion points in advance!

Election of officers

All positions are open for re-election, and all members of the committee wish to stand again. The current committee is as follows:

Chairman – Michael Day

Treasurer – Laura Day

Secretary – Anne Arnold

Deputy Secretary – Karen Parker

Membership Secretary – James White

Head Coach – James White

Welfare and DBS officer – Sharon Smith

Membership representative – Rachel Mills

Membership representative – Simon Holman

London Marathon Club Place

At the AGM we will be drawing the London Marathon club place recipient. There are 18 members in the draw and the first out of the hat will be representing the club in London next April.

Annual Award

parkrun summary – 26th October

Despite the awful weather and the rugby being on we still had 19 Fit Clubbers at 7 different parkrun venues. We had 10 at Winchester, Alice and Issy at Salisbury, Lucy and Stefan at Severn Bridge, Katie at Tilgate, Shelley and Ben at Abingdon, Kathy at the Old Showground, Frome and Andy at Southampton.

There was a new course PB for Andy M at Southampton parkrun today running a speedy 20:23. Congratulations Andy!

Congratulations to everyone who ran and volunteered.

Here is a link to the consolidated club report: http://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=26888&eventdate=2019-10-26

Race Reports

The Rushmoor Wellesley 10km by Isabel Mansfield

In October last year, during an emergency visit to my new GP who I had visited for a dose of anti depressants and sleeping tablets, I received a slightly different prescription. C25k and park run - either volunteer or take part. I had never really run more than 100 metres, though had been a competitive horse rider as a teenager, so know what it means to train and endure physical pain! What I had been enduring however, was the most extraordinary emotional turmoil having been in an abusive marriage which I knew I had to leave. I had moved from London to Winchester and knew almost no-one. I was not able to reach out to a running group, but pushed through the training and within six weeks did my first parkrun. I don’t think I talked to anyone other than my children during that time. The exhilaration of being able to get round 5k gave me the boost I needed, so I slowly worked on increasing my distances and reducing my time.

By March I felt that I was able to find a group to run with and made those tentative first steps. I wasn’t particularly looking to lose weight, but am 10kg lighter now than this time last year - perhaps partly due to stress but also due to feeling better about what I’m eating and doing. I finished a course in massage and reflexology and firmly ended my marriage.

For me, Rushmoor marked the anniversary of my first run and was an opportunity to possibly get under my 60 minute 10k target. As we gathered on the polo fields for the start, the heavens opened. I positioned myself between the 55 and 60 minute pacers and we were off. The first 1k was around the muddy field, but then it was along the Basingstoke canal path which was beautiful. On Strava it looks like lots of tight bends, but actually there were some beautiful tracks through the woods and you were unaware of the bends. A few small hills but otherwise quite flat aside from tree roots and the odd bridge.

Just after the 5k mark there was a very welcome water stop where they were also handing out jelly babies. I’m not a sweet fan, but for the first time I really enjoyed the sugar kick! By the 6k marker, I felt a good rhythm, but it was hard with wet, muddy shoes and quite a narrow trail. The next couple of markers passed more quickly than earlier ones and before I knew it I was at 9 and my watch said I was at 52minutes, so well on target. Despite soggy shoes, and then a pesky lace undone I pushed onto the finish in the army rugby stadium. There is nothing like that feeling of reaching the finish - even though the rain was still coming down! It was a friendly crowd, but definitely would have been more fun to have had another fit clubber there. Was well organised and would definitely do it again next year. Sorry there are no photos, it was just so wet!

Great South Run by Simon Holman

So the morning of the race started as normal in the Holman household, have you seen my bra top, which top should I wear long sleeved or short, pink or grey WFC top? Do you think I'll be cold how about leggings, and that was just me Wendy was in a far worse state. Her words to me as we sorted the last few bits of kit "don’t know about you but I'm bricking it"!

We left home nice and early to beat the traffic. Things didnt start off well losing my brother in law before we even left Winchester! He was following us down to Portsmouth luckily he guessed which way we'd gone and drove past as we picked up fit clubber Sally Taylor. Once we arrived in Portsmouth we made straight for Costa. Ordered coffee and waited for Simon and Sally Boyden along with Izzy to join us. The lovely aroma of Relgex signalled the arrival of Mr B a lot sooner than the man himself. Before we set off we all made full use of the facilities and after another large application of Relgex and a top up of Tiger Balm Mr B was fit to go.

We joined the many competitors walking to Southsea we got to the front just in time to miss a photo opportunity with Ewan Thomas, Mrs B being the most disappointed. but in good time to see Eilish McColgen running by looking like she was gliding over the ground.

We made our way to the start to take part in the mass warm up, to what I was told were some banging 90's tunes. An excited Mr B could barely contain himself at the possibility of being whacked over the head by the ever annoying Timmy Mallet. His dream came true as we passed through the start. Then we're off heading down Clarence Esplanade and towards Portsmouth Harbour. Then into the Historic Dockyard where the Commander of HMS Victory is encouraging everyone, heading out onto the streets of Portsea all the time getting great support from the crowds lining the course handing out high fives and Mario power ups. Some also offer great words of wisdom like " your nearly there" knowing you haven't even run 3 miles yet this leaves you thinking unsavoury thoughts.

As I approach the water station I spot five WPC's from Hampshire Constabulary and high five everyone of them. From there on in everytime I spot some of Hampshire's finest the same follows. Miles 4 and 5 take you back towards Southsea heading towards the 6 mile mark. Sally B and myself start to pull away from Wendy. Then I start to pull away from Sally, approaching the canoe lake and nearing 7 miles. Entering Henderson Rd, my favourite part of the race, the residents are out lining the street. One has a scaffold built in his front garden on which he's set up his decks and is blasting out tunes.

Getting to 8.5 miles Wendy, the little minx, goes past me looking very comfortable so I tap her on the butt and say "you go Shines", knowing how nervous she was before the race I'm just so proud of how well she’s running. I want to kick to try and stay with her but I feel like I'm running in treacle.
Coming into the home stretch I find a little bit left I'm my legs. Driven by the crowd shouting out your name and everyone banging on the hoardings. Crossing the finish line and knowing I've got my fourth GSR under my belt. There's a tap on my shoulder and turn to see Sally B looking as fresh as she did at the start, when we meet up with Wendy she’s beaming.

Big thumbs up to everyone who ran the GRS in the end it doesn't matter what time you ran it in but THAT YOU DID IT!

Great South Run by Isabel Mansfield

What a contrast to the previous week! Waking to a crisp clear day was a perfect start. I was excited that there would be lots of fit clubbers to talk to! Arriving in Portsmouth soon after 9 having travelled by train with team Boyden, we headed for a crowded costa to meet Simon and Wendy, and Wendy’s brother Adam and sister in law (another Sally). Needless to say we didn’t need maps to find our way to the start. Crowds already assembling and creating a very upbeat atmosphere. It's a decent trek (1.9km i think) from the station to The Pyramid, by the time we got close to the start the elite runners were on their way. They clearly have a different dress code to the rest of us with their skimpy tops and shorts!!

After a quick team photo, we dropped our bags and then it was nearly time to start. I was in the white wave and feeling both nervous but also moderately confident that I could hit my target 95-100 minutes. It was very exciting to bump into Rachel and Elise, and also Anne and Sharon. The warm up was kind of fun and the excitement was clearly building. In no time at all we were off, Rachel and Elise quickly disappeared and the first few miles passed fairly quickly with lots of great music. The African drummers were particularly colourful and upbeat and the course took us past twice. There were choirs, a rock band and some great improvised DJ setups including one guy on scaffolding at the front of his house with a great set up.

The weather was amazing, perfect temperature, no wind, sunshine. The crowds were abundant, creating a great atmosphere. There were water stops at 4 miles and 7 miles, somewhere between the two was a gel stand - this was a new experience for me! Having read about Glenna’s experience at Richmond, I was mindful that its probably best to ingest it slowly. I think it worked, but from about mile 6, there were lots of people offering jelly babies and other sweets so a few of those were perfect not just for energy, but also for distraction.

Around mile 8 I thought I was flagging, but then we hit the esplanade and the sea air was wonderful and I knew we were on the home straight. There was encouragement on both sides all the way to the finish with more sweets and a flat, wide road. Finishing was a great feeling as I had never run that distance even in training, and somehow the last 3 miles were all faster than any of the first 7! It was hard to find anyone afterwards so after a quick team TJ meet up I headed back to Winchester.

It's a great event with a nice T shirt, medal and goody bag. Not sure if I’d do it again as it was very crowded and you cover a lot of ground moving between other runners, but the atmosphere was amazing and its a perfect step to doing a half marathon.

General Announcements

WFC Running Club Calendar

Dates for your diary:

Thursday 31st Oct - Normal Session - River Park Leisure Centre - 19:00
Thursday 31st Oct - C25K - Abbey Gardens - 19:15
Thursday 7th Nov - South Winchester Park and Ride - 19:00
Thursday 7th Nov - C25K - Abbey Gardens - 19:15
Monday 11th Nov - Track session, Bar End 19:30
Thursday 14th Nov - C25K final run, both groups combined - 19:15
Saturday 16th Nov - Winchester parkrun - C25K graduation run and celebration
Thursday 21st Nov - Winchester Fit Club RC AGM - 19:00
Thursday 28th Nov - Dean Lane Park - 19:00
Saturday 30th Nov - Shelley's 1 year streak parkrun and team breakfast - 09:00

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