24th/25th June – SJ Weekend Run Down

More sunshine and more long evenings for running plus a mixed bag of conditions at the weekend where the cooler temperatures helped…

On the hottest day of the summer (and likely of recent summers) six members tackled a stiflingly oppressive course around Swinley Forest for BFR’s Forest Five race. Graham Robinson won overall finishing in 28:51, twenty four seconds clear of the rest of the field. Andrew Brooks was next SJ to finish in an impressive 17th overall and 5th V40. Helen Vizard took 3rd in the V45 category with Trish Monks 8th V35. The two Patricks; Wadsworth and Denston also finished strongly.

Also, in the excitement of all last weekend’s races I didn’t include the results from the June Handicap. Numbers were down due to a clash with the Woodland 5 and plenty of tired legs after Endure24 but some impressive runs nonetheless especially from Martin Steadman and Jim Laidlaw who both improved on their previous bests.

So halfway through the year the Handicap competition looks like this. Jim Laidlaw has a sizeable lead but it is very tight in the battle for the podium. Also with your best seven results to count there are still six more chances to score points and improve your position.

Big day at Bracknell Parkrun as the latest graduates of the Pure Beginners programme completed their first 5km event. Big congratulations to Samantha Pittick, Jonathan Evershed, Jo Harrison, Lauraine Briggs, Catherine Lacey, Lorraine Davies, Fiona O’Kane, Grace Stockle, Michelle Williams, Dawn Rudman and Jane Meakin.

Also at Bracknell, Dave Breslin ran his fastest time this year with 22:27 to lead the SJs home while Paul Biggs and Blanche Barnes each bagged another course PB with 25:13 and 32:52 respectively.

Over at Frimley Lodge Mark Pattrick was first member to finish in 21:07 closely followed by Dave O’Toole.

At Rushmoor Nigel Evans was home first of the SJs in 25:10 with Stuart Mayes not far behind as other members sampled the Rushmoor course for the first time. Kate Parker recorded her fastest ever Parkrun with 27:09 with Alice Copeland for company in her first run at the venue.

Some new Parkrun tourism this week. Lisa Hale ran at Banstead Woods in South-East London, Lee Wells was in action at Bedfont Lakes near Heathrow, John King re-ignited his love of running at the home of Parkrun; Bushy Park and John Tovell ran on his home course Crane Park.

Don’t forget to add Sandhurst Joggers as your club in your Parkrun profile to help us keep track of your achievements. If you are not sure how to do this I can help…

New event Beat the Boat attracted a good number of members with Jackie Kent, Dave Bartlett, Madeleine Duncan-Booth and Andrea Vincent taking part. See Madeleine’s report from Beat the Boat here

Sensational run from Patrick Denston at the Swansea Half Marathon as he knocked thirty two minutes off his Half earlier this year and beat his PB to finish in 1:48:27.

John King raced well at the Polesdon Lacey 10k doubling up this weekend having fallen in love with running again at Bushy Park Parkrun.

Lisa Hale was back to the top of the Strava leaderboard with a total of 77.3km followed by Patrick Wadsworth with 55.2km and Dave Breslin with 44.3km. Sixty-three members logged runs this week. To take part in this just create a free Strava account and link it to the club in your profile. I can help if you are nlot sure how to join…

As always, please let me know if I’ve missed anything and share your results and achievements in the future so the rest of the club know what you are up to.

Keep a look out on Facebook for details of the weekday evening runs.

Monday: Patrick will be leading the usual Monday night chatfest leaving Sandhurst Sports Centre at 7:30pm.

Tuesday: There will be multiple groups running on Tuesday from Sandhurst Memorial Park this week starting at 6:30pm. Later the interval sessions will be an ‘Away’ run meeting at Hawley Lake Sailing Club at 8pm for a pairs session.

Wednesday: Sharon Burfield and/or Andrea Vincent will be leading a great run of between five to six miles from Sandhurst Memorial Park departing at 7pm

Thursday: This week the threshold/improvers run will be on the off road, Nikki will have more details later in the week and soon we’ll have a route schedule planned out.

Friday: Track is still free and the THREE coaches have some great sessions planned for all abilities to improve fitness and technique.

Sunday: Anybody not racing can join the crowd running from The Lookout at 9am. It’s a flexible run to suit everybody’s needs and is either adapted to fit with distance targets or multiple groups are formed. The three ‘Cs’ of Coffee, cake and chat are enjoyed in the cafe post-run.

Beat the Boat – Madeleine Duncan-Booth reports back from this new event

This is a new race hosted by Datchett Dashers and Runface. A 10k race in Windsor where they also set off 3 different boats to try and beat in 40, 50 and 60 minutes. The race had 600 entries which filled up quickly, you could also book a place on the boat as a spectator so you could cheer on your runners.

I arrived in Windsor at 8.15am which gave me plenty of time to collect my race number and free technical tee shirt from the race HQ in the beer garden of The George pub. It was well organised by friendly marshals and lots of people also got changed to wear the snazzy tee shirt. I kept my Sandhurst Joggers one on (of course) and was pleased I did as I got spotted by Jackie, Andrea and Dave over by the start line. I thought I was the only SJ in the village so was very pleased to find friends.

The start was in the same field where the Datchett cross country is, although it looked very different on a summer’s day. With the start on the opposite side of the field I thought I would be clever and use the public loos rather than queue for the portaloos but they have gone! Knocked down and replaced by an office type building. The start area was fairly quiet as the spectators who had a place on the boat were boarding on the other side of the river. We had some music to listen to and aside from the usual loos and baggage drop they had a massage tent, tee shirt stall, coffee van and the most amazing smelling bacon butties!

9.30am and we were off, no chip time but with a spread out start I was quickly across the start line. A lap and a half of the field and we then started alongside the river. I really enjoyed running in pace with the 60 minute boat and getting cheered on, really good fun.

The boats went as far as they could before the weir and lock and then turned round. Whilst they did this we ran around a few fields (similar to the cross country route) which turned out to be 2 miles. A shame we were away from the boats for so long. This 2 mile section was grassy with cracked earth and mostly single file. OK for me being near the back of the field but I expect was a bottle neck for the faster runners. I never saw the boats again, which was a shame (just run faster eh?!) but the route was pretty and the marshals very friendly and encouraging.

A final loop around the field at the end and I was across the line cheered on by the other SJs. A fab medal and a goody bag followed by a short stroll into Windsor for a brunch with the lovely Jackie. For the first year running the event I thought it was brilliant. My only comments would be to put on another boat for the slower runners and why put beer and prosecco at the water stations early on a Sunday morning in hot weather?

Meet the member – Dave O’Toole

We’re having a run of Parkrun milestones with a recent trio of centuries completed. It’s providing a great opportunity to find out more about some of our members. Last weekend Dave O’Toole reached his 150th so let’s find out more about him…

Q) For members who don’t know you, tell us a bit about yourself?

A) My name is Dave O’Toole, I was born in Ormskirk Liverpool in 1949. I have 2 brothers and 1 sister. My family moved from Liverpool to Manchester when I was 13 years old, my favourite sport was playing football. I always fancied being a Soldier so when I was 19 years I decided to move out of my home and joined the army as a Vehicle Specialist. I completed my recruit training in Deepcut, Surrey. During my training I was spotted by the PTI Sgt while I was playing football for the unit side and he suggested that I go for a trial for the Army side I did what the PTI Sgt recommended and impressed the Army Football Coach. From then on I stopped my Vehicle training and was ordered to join the Army Football team on a full time basis; as I was self disciplined I did what I was told (!) and started playing for the Army full time. During this time I was spotted by an Army Physical Training Instructor who advised me to go on a PTI course. Again I did as I was told and finished the PTI course and eventually transferred into the now Royal Army Physical Training Corps. During my time in the Corps I was posted to Aldershot for 3 years as a Football Specialist. From there I was posted to Northern Ireland attached to the Kings Own Scottish Borders. My role in Ireland was head of Physical Training and keeping the soldiers Fit to Fight, my secondary role was Bodyguard to the Commanding officer (If any of you have a spare 15 minutes I would gladly tell you a few stories regarding my Bodyguard Duties). I joined the Army in 1968 as a Private Soldier and signed on for 6 years I ended up serving 25 Years and retired as a Captain being recommended for promotion to Major in 1994. The Royal Army Physical Training Corps motto is ‘mens sana in corpora sano’ which means  ‘A healthy mind in a healthy body’. This motto is something that stays with you for the rest of your life.

Q) How and when did you get into running?

A) In my mid 30’s when I eventually retired from Football I thought it would be a good transition to keep running to keep my fitness and health.

 

Q) What do you enjoy most about being a member of Sandhurst Joggers?

A) I’ve always enjoyed running with company, with company you always have that commitment to competition and camaraderie. I’ve always had the inclination to believe the saying when the going gets tough try a little harder and enjoy.

 

Q) On which of the weekly runs are we most likely to bump into you?

A) Most Saturdays I will be at the Frimley Lodge Park Run, it’s only 5 minutes from my house which is perfect. Parkrun is a fantastic event which is for all and everyone of all standards; you can race, jog, or just enjoy.

 

Q) I see you’ve mainly kept it local with Parkruns completing 130 at Frimley Lodge, of the 6 other venues you’ve run at which is your favourite and why?

A) My favourite Parkrun is Frimley Lodge because of its location.

 

Q) What other events are on your programme for 2017?

A) I have started competing in Triathlons lately with the London Tri, Hever Castle, Hart, The Beale Beastie and recently Guildford Tri. Providing my body keeps going I’ll do more.

The Women Can Marathon – Heidi Zymela reports back from her first marathon on a super tough Devon course

Ever since I ran my first half marathon, the immediate question people asked was “so when is the full?” So when my best friend mentioned she was going to sign up for a marathon, it took me less than a minute to decide I was going to do it too. The race she had picked was set in Devon, off road and centred on the fact that it had been 50 years since Kathrine Switzer became the first woman to officially finish a marathon (Boston). Kathrine was fundamental in getting women’s marathons into the Olympics and encouraging women everywhere that we are capable of the same endurance events as men. The race was therefore limited to only women entrants, with 300 places. So all in all, it sounded like a great unique first marathon to do!

As many of you know, I’m rarely present at club runs without my trusted running partner, Alice. According to her, from the first club run we did together, I was telling her about this marathon I was going to do. With just a bit of persuading (Sorry, Alice!) she agreed to sign up too, and training began.

Fast forward to the day of the run. The start was frustratingly slow, being single file through fields and hedge rows, but the scenery was lovely.

We are both fairly new to off-road running so it was still weird to have to tackle steps and styles on a run. Anyway, we carried on, finding enough gap to overtake and run at the pace we wanted. We went over a few easy hills before running down to the coast. All was going well so far, and we were enjoying it.   

Then the coastal cliffs appeared… I had looked at the elevation profile beforehand, and thought there were just two major hills to tackle, and the rest would be fine. How wrong I was…! I had neglected to realise that what looked like tiny hills on the profile were actually fairly significant hills on their own, and that the two major hills were more like running up the side of a mountain. Combine them all together and it was extremely different to what we were expecting, let alone ever run before. Very soon, we joined everyone else in walking up the hills and even that was a struggle. Occasionally we stopped completely at the top of the hills, simply to recover from the walking before we could even think about running again. We kept up a fairly good pace when actually running, but very quickly we decided that any kind of time expectation should be ignored, and we just had to tackle what was in front of us.

The run continued in this way, walking the hills and then struggling to get running again when the ground levelled out. The pictures from Patrick’s GoPro that I borrowed (Thanks Patrick and Kate!!) don’t do the hills justice, they were so long and too frequent. The downhills were equally as steep, not really allowing us time to recover. Eventually we got over all the hills (which lasted on and off for over 16km) and the flat/downhill 10k to the finish was ahead of us. This would have been a nice end had we not been so knackered from the last 32km!

I have never wished so much for the finish line to be within sight. We finished in a moving time of 4hrs 36, with a total on-course time (including rest stops) of 4hrs 50. It was by far the hardest thing, physically and mentally, that I have done. The worst part is that I currently feel disappointed in how it went, never expecting that I would have to walk in a race, let alone stop completely to rest. I think our biggest downfall was expecting to run it like a normal flat race, which it was far from. Hopefully over the next few weeks, it’ll hit me that I am a marathon runner, which currently I don’t feel like I am. But this does mean that Alice and I are already looking for a flat 26.2miles to run to get a proper marathon time. After a total ascent of 2000ft in this run, I will never be worried to tackle a Sandhurst hill again!

P.S. Just to uphold Alice’s and my reputation as mentioned in my last report, one spectator said this to us whilst we were running: “you must be doing well if you two can still chat!!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                  

Guernsey half marathon – Jackie Kent reports…

As well as being Fathers Day, June 18th was also the date of Guernsey’s only half marathon of the year, the Dairy Milk run half marathon. Not to be confused with the Cadbury’s chocolate bar, there is a comma in the middle making it the Guernsey Dairy, milk run half marathon, as in sponsored by the dairy! Or something like that. Anyway, there was no chocolate involved but there was milk…

I have friends who live in Guernsey and I try to visit them once or twice a year. I’ve been saying for a few years that I should combine it with the half marathon, so this year, since they were staying at home and not visiting family for Father’s Day I got myself organised, booked a flight and entered the race! It’s one of the cheapest I’ve done at just £17. The first 500 entrants also got a free technical t-shirt included but as I waited until my weekend was confirmed and flights booked before entering, I just missed out with number 510.

After a busy sunny day with my friends on the Saturday, the race promised to be a hot one on the Sunday. The start was at 9am so I got dropped off around 8:30am. This was a low key, relaxed and friendly race. No chip timing and a very relaxed bag drop (“I forgot to write my number on my bag” “It won’t matter, just help yourself to it at the end”).

The start line was about 100m up the road from the meeting point so once the road was closed we all walked there together. There were about 650 runners which I believe was one of the highest entries. Despite the lack of chip timing there was no jostling for a place in the pack at the start. The gun went and we all set off. The race started on the west coast, ran around the north coast and finished on the east side in St Peter Port. We followed the coast line all the way but were on the road not the coastal paths, so on occasions we were a little bit inland.

Being on holiday and with it being over 20 degrees C at the start of the race, I opted for the tourist approach, forgot about times and I planned to stop to take photos. However, I have run stretches of the route before on previous visits so didn’t stop for photos there as I already have lots. Further round, due to the position of the sun there was a long stretch where it wasn’t worth taking pictures with my phone, so I didn’t stop as much as I thought I might. I did however stop to get someone to take a picture of me at around mile seven, and again to message my friend as I realised I had forgotten to pack my sandals in my bag for afterwards!

At 1.3 miles the route took us right past my friends house and it was lovely to get a wave and a shout out from them. The organisers had claimed the route was flat, however, knowing the area, I had wondered if it actually was flat or if it was Guernsey’s version of ‘flat in comparison to everything else’. It turned out I was right to question the route description as there were a few hilly bits to contend with.

The sun continued to blaze down and I’m sure the temperature was a few degrees above my phone’s prediction of 23 degrees C. I saw one runner almost at the point of collapse. He was being assisted by two runners who had sacrificed their own race times to help him and they seemed to have things under control, so I gave them the half full water bottle I was carrying and ran on, alerting the next marshal that I saw to their predicament. By mile ten I’d had enough really. The temperature was uncomfortably hot and there was no shade to get out of the sun. I was sweating a lot more than usual and my sunscreen was running into my eyes and making them sting! However, I pushed on along the long straight stretch to the finish. My friends had come out to see the end of the race so I stopped briefly to ‘high five’ their two year old twins, who clearly had no idea what a high five was all about.

400m after that I crossed the finish line in 1:57:10. We were given medals, water and a pint of Guernsey milk from the dairy. I’m not normally a fan of full cream milk and I rarely drink milk on it’s own, but I have to say that at that moment I had never tasted anything nicer. It was perfect. I went and retrieved my bag from the baggage van (climbing in took some effort but it was cool inside the van, I was tempted to just stay there for a bit!) and met up with my friends. After a stretch and a not-so-quick change of clothes, we went into town in search of ice cream. All in all, it was a lovely event which I would love to do again in the future.

 

 

June 17th/18th – SJ Weekend Run Down

Summers evenings… and more importantly very sunny evenings have encouraged members out for the multitude of weekday events plus a fair few weekend events even though I thought it was going to be a quiet one…

Gavin Loader continued his superb run of form with 4th position overall at the second Woodland 5 on the usual hilly circuit around Crowthorne Woods (yes including the infamous ‘Wall’). He finished in a great time of 34:20. Sixteen members contested the event on a hot night in the forest.  Full results here

All three local Parkruns were open again this weekend. Frimley Lodge was the most popular with sixteen members in action from a total field of 531! Clive Rolfe was first to finish for the club in 20:18. Dave Ayling recovered well from last weekend’s South Downs Ultra attempt to record his best time at the shorter distance since 2016. Dave O’Toole had another great run in his 150th Parkrun!

At Rushmoor a trio of SJs enjoyed guaranteed PBs in their first visit to the venue; Samantha Pittick, Hannah Glaister and Karen Page finished in that order and enjoyed some post race sprint training to boot! Samantha absolutely smashed it as this result is her fastest Parkrun ever!

Seven SJs in action at Bracknell with Charlie St Aubyn first member to finish in 27:09 while Blanche Barnes recorded yet another PB in 33:13.

Some quality Parkrun tourism this week with Patrick Wadsworth running 22:36 at Wilmslow and Lisa Hale combining the Osterley Parkrun with the 10K at the same venue.

Don’t forget to add Sandhurst Joggers as your club in your Parkrun profile to help us keep track of your achievements.

Lisa Hale ran the Osterley Park 10k in West London finishing in 46:27 finishing 4th in her age category.

Stuart Overhill was in action in the South Downs Trail Half in 2:12:40.

Amazingly Leon Hicks had a weekend off marathons but has booked his 100th so keep your diaries clear on Saturday 7th April 2018. Starting in Walton-on-Thames the course is an out and back 3.28 mile look alongside the Thames of which you can complete as many laps as you choose. Obviously Leon will be aiming for at least eight laps.

Angela Foker and Claire Chase took on The Brutal race on a very tough 5k course around the Ash Ranges which included running, jumping, climbing and swimming. So tough in fact you could call it BRUTAL! Angela finished strongly in 6th position in her category with Claire close behind in 8th.

Nigel Evans also ran the 10k Brutal but wasn’t satisfied with that punishment so went out again on Sunday and ran the Hampshire Hoppit Half Marathon in 2:44:07 which he described as the hardest race he’s ever done due to a combination of hills and heat.

Jackie Kent made the trip over to Channel Islands and completed the Guernsey Half Marathon on a beautiful course along the northern coast. She took the tourist approach and took plenty of photos but still finished well under two hours and was rewarded for her efforts with a carton of milk as the event was sponsored by the local dairy.

Patrick Wadsworth met the legend that is Ron Hill having completed the Dr Ron Hyde 7 in 55:30 on a hot, hilly and rural seven mile course in the North West.

Neil Praine completed The Wall Ultra, an epic 87km challenge along Hadrian’s Wall from Carlisle to Newcastle in 18:43:52. More to follow on this epic…

This week we had a new King of Strava with Neil Praine topping 100km and the leaderboard with a total of 103.9km thanks to an amazing performance in his Ultra. Marathon Queen Lisa Hale was back on the podium in second with 70.7km and Andrew Brooks was third with 66.6km as he ramps up for the New Forest Marathon in august. Sixty-three members logged runs this week. To take part in this just create a free Strava account and link it to the club in your profile.

As always, please let me know if I’ve missed anything and share your results and achievements in the future so the rest of the club know what you are up to.

As always keep a look out on Facebook for details of the weekday evening runs.

Monday: Patrick will be leading the usual Monday night chatfest leaving Sandhurst Sports Centre at 7:30pm.

Tuesday: This week is the Tuesday Pub Run starting at 7pm from The Swan in Ash Vale. You’ve already missed the food pre-ordering deadline so won’t be able to add anything to the group boking but will be able to order food seperateley and buy drinks at the bar. Monica and Mike have some lovely routes lined up for all abilities. Later the interval sessions will meet at The TYTHINGS in Yateley at 8pm where the Jenny has a tough but beneficial session ready for you.

Wednesday: Sharon Burfield and/or Andrea Vincent will be leading a great run of between five to six miles from Sandhurst Memorial Park departing at 7pm

Thursday: This week the threshold/improvers run will be on the off road, Nikki will have more details later in the week and soon we’ll have a route schedule planned out.

Friday: Track is still free and the THREE coaches have some great sessions planned for all abilities to improve fitness and technique.

Sunday: Anybody not racing can join the crowd running from The Lookout at 9am. It’s a flexible run to suit everybody’s needs and is either adapted to fit with distance targets or multiple groups are formed. The three ‘Cs’ of Coffee, cake and chat are enjoyed in the cafe post-run.

Meet the member – Nigel Evans

Remember that romantic tale of heroism from the London Marathon as Nigel Evans battled through 25 miles with a bad back to reach his partner Liz, lift her over the barriers and propose as Orinocco the Wobble ran past… well he’s back and the engagement seems to be going well as he celebrated two Parkrun milestones last weekend; his 100th Parkrun and fiance Liz’s 1st. Let’s find out more about him…

Q) For members who don’t know you, tell us a bit about yourself

A) I am 52 years old , I have 3 children ranging from 12 to 22 as I like to spread my pain. I am a Senior Manager for a Japanese Electronics Company based in Weybridge- I have worked for them for 35 years having joined straight from school in 1982 when Beat Surrender by The Jam was No 1. I am currently in year 12 of my mid-life crisis.

Q) How and when did you get into running?

A) Football was my main sport when I was growing up playing for the school as well as a private club, I also played badminton and Squash regularly in a league. I then moved onto Martial Arts and did Karate and Kendo for a number of years , of course running was a big part of me keeping fit for these sports. My first running event was the Camberley ½ Marathon in 1999 so I suppose that was when running became more of a focus for me. More recently  I have enjoyed doing Triathlons and I completed my 100^th Park run on June 3^rd which I ran with Liz who did her 1^st (I think she finally realised that resistance was futile and if you can’t beat them join them ).

Q) What do you enjoy most about being a member of Sandhurst Joggers?

A) I can only echo what everyone else says about the club and that is we have the most brilliant ,supportive runners in Sandhurst Joggers and its great knowing that whatever event you enter the chances are you will see an SJ there. The choice of weekly runs is also great no matter what level you are at.

Q) On which of the weekly runs are we most likely to bump into you?

A) Unfortunately it’s been difficult for me to attend many club runs recently but I am hoping that will soon change but when I did run regularly I loved the Monday and Wednesday runs with track on a Friday.

Q) I see you have mainly kept it local with Parkruns, out of the 3 local venues you’ve ran at which is your favourite and why ?

A) My first ever Park Run was at Frimley lodge but I have also ran at Bracknell and Rushmoor.

My PB of 21.35 is actually at Bracknell.

I think my favourite is Rushmoor because there is plenty of parking and the course is flat with lots of room for the first 3/4km which is good if its busy.

Q) You have travelled further afield with Parkrun tourism at Tamar Lakes-what was that event like?

A) This was on the first day of our family holiday and I think Liz uttered the word “seriously ?” when I said I wanted to do it. The course runs round the lake which was lovely even though it was pouring down with rain. Most of the people running seemed to be tourists. I do remember there being a nice café there and we had a bacon roll and a coffee after.

Q) What other events are on your programme for 2017?

A) Yateley 10k races 2&3, The British 10k, Hampshire Hoppit ½ Marathon, Pilgrim ½ Marathon, Windsor ½ Marathon, Basingstoke ½ Marathon, Wellesley 10k, 3x Brutal 10k’s, The Hellrunner, The Grim, Mo Run and the Muddy Welly and maybe a Sportive if I can fit it in – hope to see some of you there!