21st/22nd April – SJ Weekend Run Down

As the large yellow globe climbed high into the sky to herald the start of summer, parkrun saw one of its busiest ever Saturdays. The London Parkruns were particularly busy ahead of Sunday’s London Marathon but more on that later…

Down at Frimley Lodge the course was drying nicely and 543 runners toed the line. First member to finish was Mark Foker in 25:51 which was a new PB in his 23rd parkrun. Tania Strange also scored a PB with 41:44 in her second parkrun.

371 runners tackled the Bracknell course and of the local events this was the most popular amongst members with 17 in action. The SJs were led home by Robert Jerrett who finished in 9th position with 20:50.

Rushmoor was also busy with 479 runners in total. Many members made a repeat visit after last week’s pacing event including Charlie St Aubyn who ran his fastest parkrun at Rushmoor, his 2nd fastest ever and fastest since 2015 as he led home the twelve SJs finishing in 21:03. Blanche Barnes continued to improve with yet another PB in 25:48. It was a day of multiple PBs as Liz Ujszazi also recorded her fastest with 33:34.

Mostly local parkrun tourism this week. John Tovell was at home at Crane Park, George Green at Homewood and Jon Green at Woodley. Over at Woking Neil Praine completed his 100th parkrun and celebrated with 19:16 for 6th place, which was his 3rd fastest ever. Furthest traveller was Connor Vine who warmed up for London at Bicester.

There were lots of members running, marshaling and supporting at the hottest London Marathon on record. The official results are below but they missed Aaron Fowler and his guide runner Mum Julie who finished in 5:27:24 as well as Gloria Long and Sam Goodall who finished in 5:38:49 and 6:48:00 respectively. Well have more from the runners themselves later in the week.

London wasn’t the only race happening on Sunday and a couple of members tackled the Southampton Marathon.

While a trio of members completed the Half Marathon.

We are into the final weeks before many of the big spring races so tapers are seeing running volumes reduced however we still had ninety members logging runs on Strava, and many of those were in action in London and Southampton. To take part in this just create a free Strava account and link it to the club in your profile. Here’s the top 10 from last week:-

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. It’s also great to find out about new events or get an honest opinion on the multitude of events out there so we love to receive run reports. Any member, any event, any distance, any surface! Just email publicity@sandhurstjoggers.org.uk

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

Monday: Patrick will be leading the Monday night chatfest from Sandhurst Sports Centre at 7:30pm. The route will cover approx. 6 miles and will either be on or of road depending on the ground conditions. This is one of the most sociable runs of the week and a great opportunity to catch up with friends or discuss the preceding weekend. And don’t forget the Monday Mantra ‘Mondays defo make me faster’.

Tuesday Club Run: The Triumvirate of Tuesday General members Monica Burbidge, Dave Bartlett and Royston Crandley will be looking after the biggest club run of the week. As always there will be multiple groups to cater for all abilities from beginners through to faster and more experienced runners. It’s perfect for novices and those coming back from injury or a long lay-off because you can start with an easy group and work your way upwards. The start time is 6:30pm as always, this week from the Sandhurst Memorial Park.

Tuesday Intervals: Later the interval sessions will meet at The TYTHINGS in Yateley at 8pm. Tonight’s session will be at Waitrose 2 x 5 minutes (1 min recovery) and 6 x 2 mins (30 seconds recovery). You can read more about the Tueday night intervals Here

Wednesday: Sharon and Andrea are the General Members for Wednesday and they have great route planned for this week. Join them at Sandhurst Memorial Park at 7pm. The ‘5k to 10k’ course moves into its fouth week and will be aiming to help those members involved progress towards that 10k target.

Thursday: This week the threshold/improvers run will be off road. Nikki will have details on the route later in the week. Meet at Sandhurst Sports Centre at 7:30pm and don’t forget lights and high vis clothing as it will still be dark on Swan Lane!

Friday: Track is still free and the coaches have some great sessions planned for all abilities to improve fitness and technique. This is a great way to improve your running form and fitness, get faster and help prevent injury. If you’ve never ran on a track before give it a try, it’s a lot of fun and you are never more than 200m away from the start.

Parkrunday: Lots of members will be action at Parkrun at 9am on Saturday morning. Don’t forget your barcode!

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.

Advertisements

Meet the Member – Neil Praine completes 100 parkruns

This weekend Neil Praine completing his 100th parkruns. He ran his first Parkrun on April 14th 2010 at Frimley Lodge, here’s some more achievements for the statos taken from the new ‘Parkrun Challenges’ Chrome Extension:-

100 x Parkruns in Total

62 x of those at Frimley Lodge

14 x Personal Bests (fastest ever is 18:57)

8 x Different venues

2 x Different volunteer roles

1 x Groundhog Day in June 2015 at Frimley Lodge finishing in 21:30 (finishing in the same time at the same venue on 2 consecutive runs)

2 x New Years Day Doubles (both Rushmoor / Frimley Lodge)

49/60 scored in Stopwatch Bingo

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

A) While born in Frimley I spent a huge portion of my youth and early adulthood in Southampton living with my Grandparents and my Aunt and Uncle. Hence I am a devoted and massive Southampton FC supporter, although this current season has been a bit of a disappointment! So moving swiftly on, I work in the building design, communities and housing industry and while it’s hard work the variety keeps me busy and interested plus I always manage a smile most days! I am married to my super wife Kate who does a bit of running but prefers two wheels and water (triathlons) and my two sons Tom and James and one daughter Bea (all avid junior parkrunners, not that they get much choice haha!)

Q) How and when did you get into running?

A) I have always enjoyed sport and used to play a lot of football in school and into my 20s. But admittedly as I got older the temptations of drinking, smoking and junk food caused me to get a bit lazy for several years. Fast forward to 2009 and a group of work colleagues had decided to run the Reading Half Marathon for charity and I was enlisted to the cause and had a entry to the race before they even asked me if I wanted to do it!  We did a training run one evening after work and I barely made one mile and it took me a very long time! I was sore for days and days afterwards. But I enjoyed it in a strange way and kept it going. A few months later I joined the Sandhurst Joggers and never looked back. I ran Reading and fell in love with this so simple yet complex process we call running.

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

A) The friendly bunch of faces you always meet at races or training runs. People who share this same passion and pleasure for running. It’s great and like so many other members of the club I have also made friends in the club and it’s fantastic to have a laugh and a joke together before a race or a serious chat about our latest training methods or niggles in our feet, calves, knees etc or just talk about the latest goings on in Coronation Street. I also love running a race in club colours and hearing the “well done Sandhurst” cheers!

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

A) I used to be a regular Monday, Wednesday and Friday track runner (many moons ago) but my current work schedule and my three children tend to fill my diary at the moment so for the last few years I have tended to be more of a “fringe” member. Your very likely to see me at XC races during the winter as well as Yateley 10ks and I am hoping to come along to more of Dave and Graham’s events over the summer too. If kids track starts this summer (hint hint) me and my 2 boys will certainly make an appearance there too!

Q) I see you’ve run most of your Parkruns at Frimley Lodge, of the seven other venues you’ve run at which is your favourite and why?

A) Newbury Parkrun was fun as it’s on an old airfield with a cruise missile silo ominously overlooking the runners. Worcester pitchcroft is also up there in the top three as I ran my fastest Parkrun there. Frimley is easiest as friends live near there who look after my children while I run so we tend to end up there a lot. But my favourite is Bracknell as there is usually a friendly face there to chat too and I quite like the course!  Plus I always seem to finish well when running there.

Q) What other events are on your programme for 2018?

A) I am off to Frimley Park Hospital for a 10k next month, the Yateley series through June, July and August and a weekend of orienteering in Essex under timed conditions navigating through difficult terrain to various checkpoints (or in my case getting lost in fields that all look the same). Oh yes and Team Praine are running the Windlesham pairs relay with my wife! After that – the winter XC season awaits the brave!

Woodley 10k – Teresa Milroy renews her relationship with running at this great 10k

For some reason I decided it was too cold for running this winter. I fell out of love with running. I opted to hibernate instead of putting myself through the pain of outside winter training. I would regularly look at the Joggers Journal and feel inspired by my fellow club members and impressed by their effort but I still couldn’t get motivated to get myself out running in the cold weather. I did lots of training from the comfort of my own home including circuit training and weight training but nothing compares to the feeling of running outside.

My dad, Colin Carpenter signed up for the Woodley 10km. After speaking to a fellow runner about the course I thought why not as it sounds like a good course so I entered the race, did some parkruns and a couple of long runs and was ready to go come Sunday 15th April.
On the evening of Saturday 14th April I really didn’t want to get up for the 9am start on Sunday. I wasn’t really feeling the running vibe so half heartedly got my stuff ready to leave at 7:30am. The alarm went off on Sunday morning and I was surprised by how fresh I felt. The weather was nice and mild. Perfect running conditions.
We arrived at Woodley Memorial Park at about 8am. Parking was easy and a very short walk from the start. Plus, parking is free on a Sunday. Result! After speaking to fellow Sandhurst Jogger Katy Mead and a quick warm up I was feeling confident about the race and hopeful of completing it in about an hour.
After getting ready and putting my bag in the car  I realised I left my Garmin at home charging……… This meant I had no choice but to run “naked”. No idea of my splits at all during the race. “This could be interesting!” I thought. Luckily for me Woodley is very well organised and they had pacers this year courtesy of Elite Conditioning. Not all is lost I just needed to find the 60 min pacer and see if I could stick close to them.

After a last minute dash to the loo I started at the back with Dad with the 90 minute pacer. It was a slow start but that’s okay; “I can still do this”. I ran the first 1km with Dad and we passed the 70 minute pacers. I left Dad after this desperately trying to find the 60 minute pacer… Still no luck. I passed the 65 minute pacer at about 2km…. Where was the 60 minute pacer? 3km, 4km still no luck.

Approaching 5km and I was getting disheartened. Still no sign of the 60 minute pacer. I was hoping somebody near me had an app that told them their splits but alas I was still running blind. I was then cheered on by a fellow Sandhurst Jogger who was marshalling. He lifted my spirits and propelled me forward. Even though I didn’t know my splits I felt like I was making good time. I decided that If I still felt this good at 8km then I would push the pace whether I found the 60 minute pacer or not. I clearly wasn’t as fit as I wanted to be.

At about 5.5km I caught the 60 minute pacer…. YAY! She didn’t even look like she was trying. I overheard her tell a fellow runner that she was holding back now to get her average back on pace after a faster couple of kms. She encouraged the group that had built up around her to run ahead if we were chasing the 60 minute finish time.

I felt good so ran on. Luckily this was on a downhill stretch. This changed my mindset from finding the pacer to not letting the pacer catch me. It added a bit of excitement to my race and made me push a bit harder, especially as I knew I was over the half way mark. The rest of the race went quickly and I found I was overtaking more people than were overtaking me. It was at about 8km when I realised that in my mind I thought I was doing 10 miles (The last race I did was Maidenhead 10 Miler on Good Friday). I was happy when I realised that I had just over a mile to go. I was running on my threshold but felt good. I felt even better when the man in front of me said we were on for sub 58 minutes. Excellent! I completed the race in 57.17 and was extremely happy with my efforts. I received my medal and headed to see Dad come in to the finish at 1.01.37.

Overall, I would say that Woodley is a very well organised race with a brilliant atmosphere from the start of the race to the finish. The marshals are brilliant and there was plenty of support on route. Even though it is an early start its worth it!
In regards to running with no GPS. I enjoyed the experience but I wouldn’t want to do it again. I don’t know how well I would have coped without the pacers as they gave me something to aim for and a general idea of where I was. I am very happy with my time but part of me would still love to know my splits.

I will be doing Woodley again next year and now the warmer weather is here I look forward to getting my running relationship back on track and start smashing some of my PBs.

 

Manchester Marathon – Gaynor Falconi smashes her target at the northern marathon

8^th April 2018 I ran my first Manchester Marathon. It wasn’t my first marathon distance race, I’d done five London Marathons in the past but my last marathon was nine years ago. In the intervening nine years I had lost my love of running and my focus instead had been on building my career, getting married and having two children.

Then in July 2017 I realised that I was in the last year of my 30s and I wanted to try and get as fit as I was when I turned 30. This was not going to be easy. Before marriage and children running had been a huge part of my life. I had a much less demanding job and my social life at the time revolved around the running club I was a member of. I knew that I could pull off a 10k without much training so I wanted something that was going to keep me focussed on improving my fitness and would take a good few months of work. Therefore on that July evening I entered Manchester Marathon 2018 as well as the Three Peaks Challenge which I am due to undertake in a few weeks time on my 40^th birthday weekend.

Why Manchester? Well, I wanted a spring marathon around the same time as London so there would be lots of fellow runners going out for those long winter runs at the same time as me. My husband is from Manchester so we would have somewhere to stay and family members to look after the children. I was also attracted by the description of “flat” and that there would be good crowd support. This was important to me as having only ever done London Marathons I was used to huge spectator support and know that this has helped me when the going got tough.

So, I set about training with no specific plan in mind other than I wanted to run 4 times as week with one of those sessions being a long run. I planned to be up to 13 miles distance by the end of the year and would then increase my long runs by a mile or two a week so that I would work up to doing three 20 mile runs, the last 20 miler being two weeks before Manchester Marathon. I was very much just ‘winging’ it and making it up as I went along. I joined Sandhurst Joggers in January so I could train with other like mined people although what I did find was I preferred to do my long runs alone so there was no pressure to run a certain speed.

 I was fortunate enough to totally avoid injury (which I never managed before so when I was younger maybe I was over training?) and despite the rubbish weather and crazy hours at work I kept to my vague idea of a plan. I did many of my runs at 5:30am so then if I got stuck in work it wouldn’t matter, some runs in the middle of the night when I was working a night shift and even the snow didn’t stop me as I was able to run as the snow was falling and hadn’t iced over.

What was my goal? I told most people that it was just to finish it but I secretly wanted a sub 4 hour. All of my previous marathons apart from one had been sub 4 hours but I was also conscious that my circumstances had changed and I was older. The times of my long training runs suggested that sub 4 hours would be possible but it would be tight.

Marathon day. I woke up to perfect running conditions. Overcast and around 8 degrees. I set off from my mother-in law’s house at 7am and got on the tram which took me direct from her house to the start line within an hour. After taking a few photos and joining the toilet queue on more than one occasion I was able to easily get to the front of my starting pen Within 5 minutes of the start I had crossed the start line. This was all a huge improvement on London where it takes ages to get in and then you have so much hanging around.

There was no stop starting and trying to run around slower runners, if anything I had started with much faster runners. I completed the first mile in 8 minutes 11 seconds and felt brilliant but was aware that this was far too quick for my plan of sticking to 9 minute miles. I had a bra emergency in mile 2 and had to stop briefly to sort myself out but still completed that mile in a similar time. I kept telling myself that I needed to slow down but I just couldn’t. I felt great. So I decided to scrap the plan and ‘wing it’. I thought I would keep going as I was and hang on for dear life when things got tough. I hoped that it wouldn’t blow up in my face and that I wouldn’t regret being so risky over the marathon distance. What I did know from the five previous marathons I have done is that marathon distances suit me. I have good stamina and mental resilience and once I get into a pace I can usually keep it up without slowing down too much in the second half.

I think it was mile 9 when I got to a stretch of road where the fast runners pass you on the other side. This distracted me for a while as I marvelled at the lead runners and kept my eyes peeled for the lead females. At 16 miles I saw my dad and husband for the first time. They gave me a big cheer and I remember my husband shouting out that I was going to smash my 4 hour target. After seeing them I felt a little emotional especially as I was beginning to feel really tired and realised that I still had 10 miles ahead of me. I started to have a little cry as I ran which lots of spectators saw. The next thing I knew, loads of people were cheering me on and shouting my name. I soon pulled up my big girl pants, got myself together and the smile returned to my face. I continued running well under nine minute miles until exhaustion and heavy legs started to hit at around mile 23.  It was then that I dropped back to what I had planned to be my marathon race pace.

Mile 21 to 24 felt long and lonely with not so much crowd support in this area and not much to look at other than fields and cows. I felt sick and could not stomach any more of my gels. It was at this point that I also realised that even if I slowed down significantly I would still come in under 4 hours. I just got my head down and concentrated on putting one foot in front of another, with each step taking me closer to that finish line and the post marathon high I knew awaited me. As well as a lovely bottle of prosecco!

I crossed the finish line in 3 hours 46 mins and was over the moon with that time. I was able to quickly find my Dad and husband and within an hour of me finishing we were in Manchester city centre and I was drinking the prosecco I had been promising myself. When I thought about  things later , whilst I was happy with my time, there was a tiny part of me that thought, if I had only pushed a bit harder in those last few miles I may have got a sub 3 hours 45 minutes Good For Age time…. However that was never my target. Sub 4 hours was the goal and I smashed that one. So I may well be back at Manchester next year, chasing that sub 3 hours 45 time after following a proper and targeted training plan now that I am member of Sandhurst Joggers.

A northern lad, in a northern city, running a northern marathon – Mark Neve shares his story from the Manchester Marathon

I guess I should start this blog with a short history of me and running. I started out on the mean streets of Owlsmoor in 2015 with the NHS couch to 5k app weighing in around 21 stone. After a few tough months I was able to actually run 5k. My eldest daughter and I ran the Frimley Park Jingle Jog from which we laughed about doing a 10k. 6 months later we finished our first 10k race and the next joke was doing a half marathon. My daughter was too young to run a half, so in 2017 I ran Reading, following the 2:20 pacer but watching him vanish around mile 9 and finishing in 2:27 then stumbling home. Just after Reading, I was in London to see a friend of mine – Mel Belsdon, run the London Marathon for the TV program “Mind Over Marathon”, and I told her that if she finished a marathon then so would I.

After a chat with Sophie Le Saux on a Wednesday night SJ run last November, she sent me details of a Black Friday deal for the Manchester Marathon, so being a tight northern lad I signed up!

My training went really well!! About 2 months prior to the marathon, I finished a 16 miler and was looking good for the race. The next weekend we had snow and the paths were covered! I decided not to risk an injury and run intervals on my treadmill on which I pulled my Achilles. I struggled to walk (never mind run) for a few weeks but 3 weeks before Manchester with the help of some KT Tape, I got 20 miles in and I knew I could do it.

My Marathon weekend started with a drive up to my wife’s parents in Doncaster. I decided I needed to take the day after the Marathon off for recovery, but my wife needed to work the Monday, so I would be in Manchester on my own. Initially I felt pretty disappointed about this but I realised that I’ve spent so much time running on my own it wouldn’t make an awful lot of difference her not being there. I did tell my wife that I’d record a mile-by-mile “video log” for her. I’ve linked this here

On to the marathon… I woke up at 5:20am, had a bowl of porridge with honey and chia seeds, packed my kit and set off to my pre-paid parking. I arrived about 7:30 and had to queue for 40 minutes to park, then spent until 5 minutes before start time queuing for the toilet! Thankfully I was really close to my starting position and in a couple of minutes we were moving.

I crossed the line and started my Garmin live track so my family could follow my progress around the course and started my watch then I was away. I made a point of keeping my pace above 12 minute miles and not get carried away with the great support. The atmosphere was fantastic for the first few miles, lots of people cheering us on and some fantastic music blaring out. Around mile 3 there was a choir singing “don’t look back in anger” which is a favourite of mine.

The next mile passed nice and easy and then another runner strikes up a conversion with me! It was Lisa McNally who works with Fiona Slevin-Brown. We had a good chat on and off for about 3 miles, this is one of the really fun things about running, just having a friendly chat with people. Eventually she disappeared ahead and I hit the point where we had a contra flow with the faster runners around mile 9. From the other side of the road I heard a shout of Mark! I saw a red blur which I believe was Jim Laidlaw or maybe the flash!! Either way it made me smile. As I saw the pacers go past I realised the runners coming the other way were probably 2 hours ahead of me and they’d probably be at home on their 3rd beer by the time I crossed the line, but there was still really great support from the crowds on both sides of the road and my pace felt fine.

The 5 hour 30 pacer and his pack of runners passed me around mile 10 and I started to feel a little more tired and I could feel a blister forming on my big toe. I made the mistake of chasing a pacer in my first half at Reading and was taught a valuable lesson. So I forgot about my target time and just focused on ticking off the miles.

By the time I got to mile 12, there was a bit of a hill and everyone around me was walking up it, I thought it would be rude to run passed them all, so I had a little walk too. At this point I started to feel a bit better; I was mostly running, but having a walk on any hills. The miles were starting to tick off ok now, and at mile 15 I was running back down the contra-flow again, but all the crowds had gone and it was very quiet.

This continued for the next few miles and 18 was really tough, my legs were really starting to hurt and I just had to push through. I made it to mile 20 and this was the furthest I’d ever ran, so now it was just a 10k to go. I was still doing my mix of running and walking, although the transition from walking to running was really hurting my legs for the first few steps, which must have been down to tiredness.

The marshal support was fantastic, even when there were very few spectators around they were all geeing us on. I got quite emotional when someone shouted “well done Mark” to me, my chin had a little wobble. The tiredness was really showing now, but it was only a couple of miles and I was over the line.

I dedicated the last mile to my mum and dad and made it over the line in 5 hours 51 minutes and 19 seconds. There are some real positives to being a slow runner, there was no queue for T-shirts, water or the ERDINGER alcohol free larger stand of which I had 2 lovely pints! After what felt like a very long walk back to my car, it was an easy exit and a 90 minute drive back to Doncaster.

Manchester was a great marathon and I’d love to do it again, overall the support was excellent, the Marshalls were fantastic. There was plenty of water stations, gel packs and people offering out sugar treats. I’d recommend Manchester Marathon to anyone wanting a friendly and flat course in a fine northern city!

 

Brighton 10k – Jim Laidlaw finds a slightly less gruelling way of being part of the big Brighton Marathon weekend

I entered Brighton 10k as an excuse to get down to enjoy the atmosphere of the Marathon event and support a few friends that I had been doing my own marathon training with. My last visit to Brighton hadn’t been the greatest of days so it would also be a way to exorcise some of those demons.

I had also thought it was a good idea to have something in the race plan after running Manchester Marathon the previous Sunday! Just to see what strength/speed would be in the legs before the speedy season starts.

The 10k started in the same area as the full marathon. The bag drop worked well with the self-seal and numbered bags we had received with the Race pack. The loo’s had zero queues when we arrived but as the marathon mass arrived they certainly got a lot busier. As the 9am start time got closer we moved down towards the colour coded pens and down to the main start line. Normally I think most 10k have a rough time of running idea marked out but not today… This Jogged a mental note to get as close to the front as possible but also near the side so I would have a little room to squeeze past the slower runners who had just ended up right at the front. Lots of lots of runners had head phones in already which was a shame as the chap starting the race was doing a great job of getting everyone up for the event. Paul Sinton-Hewitt the founder of parkrun and the owner of a outstanding Tash started the Race and we were off!

The first couple of kms headed back towards the Brighton seafront, on a nice gentle downhill this certainly help my pace and I felt slightly optimistic that the legs were strong enough and would last me the distance. I’m pretty sure everyone would feel this during the early parts of a race, I reminded myself that it was better to run 10k steady than blast the first 5 and fade during the 2nd, please remind me of this! And then someone show me my race data from every race I’ve done to remind that I still don’t pay attention to myself!

Kms 3/4 approached this contained the very Hill that has killed my Brighton Marathon 12 months previously , I was very aware of it . I’ve also been carrying a niggle since Farnborough Half in my right glute and it doesn’t like hills! It had also caught me out at Bramley and Surrey Half and was just in my head at Manchester. My reckoning was that I could find 5 miles even if it flared again but I eased slightly on the climb and this was my slowest km and unfortunately my dreams of a sub 40 had gone. It was always going to be unlikely but you need a focus.

The route was pretty flat after that, kms 5/6/7 headed down to the pier and turned right down towards the 360 Tower. The mass of Marathon runners and supporters had started to appear on the pavements as they made their own way up to that start. Unlike local events I had no team colours to look ahead for to try and keep up with or pick off. So I just focused on my stride and technique; I had got into a steady rhythm and felt comfortable enough and moving well at the 8k mark. The final 2k turn you back towards the pier and the finish area. I had a quick look at the watch and just had to hang on now, the glutes and legs were starting to get a bit angry, trying to remind me of the punishment of the previous weekend but I did manage to squeeze a little bit more out and run a 3.57 for the final km.

I crossed the line in 41.11 and came 133 out of 4552. Overall I’m pretty happy with my run, I’d love to have another go next year with fresher legs as its a mostly flat route. Very well organised and you get to watch the marathon after with a free beer (non acoholic). The weather had also been very kind this year – not a bit of sunburn in sight.

14th/15th April – SJ Weekend Run Down

Another busy week for the club with the April Handicap held on Wednesday evening (click here for all the details) , The Annual Ball on Friday Night (click here to read the full list of winners) and the Club Volunteer Pacing Event on Saturday at Rushmoor (More on that shortly).

Onto Saturday morning and starting at Frimley Lodge, Matt Jones ran his fastest 5k of 2018 to lead the club members home in 20:09. Caroline Stuart recovered well from the Manchester Marathon and capitalised on all the hard work to grab a new PB in 23:31. Simon Whillis reached the 150 Parkruns milestone, more from him later in the week, and Tania Strange ran her very first Parkrun.

On the Great Hollands Rec course at Bracknell Colin Carpenter was the first member home. Susan Plumb and Patricia Marshall also ran well with Mark Neve already back in action after Manchester pacing the Run/Walkers.

Rushmoor was the big draw for members this week with SJ Volunteer Pacing Event. Sandhurst Joggers were visible throughout the field of 493 runners with Graham Robinson finishing in 1st place in 17:22. Throughout the field we had 17 pacers covering times from 22 to 45 minutes. Our efforts were very well received with lots of thanks and positive feedback plus 74 runners achieving PBs on the day. From a members’ perspective we had a number of first timers at Rushmoor; Max Woods, Sacha Kendall-Woods, Jon Green, Andrea Hadfield and Jackie Kent. Most pacers were very close to target but the Gold Medal Pacers of the day were Louisa Enriquez and Blanche Barnes who were 100& spot on their target times!

Just two trips away this week and they were both relatively local tourism with Graham Bolton making his first and fastest appearance at Alice Holt while Robert Jerrett ran a superb time of 19:26 at Woodley to score an outright PB.

Neil Praine finally achieved one of his most elusive targets at the Windsor Spring Run and Duathlon series 10k; running a sub-40 10k before his 40th birthday. He ran a really well measured effort, 20:01 for the first 5k then turned up the pace to finish in 39:49 for 10th position overall.

The second weekend of the Big Spring Marathon season saw runners descend on the South Coast for Brighton Marathon. Unfortunately illness ravaged Lisa Hale and Stuart Overhills races as both were forced to withdraw leaving Alison Jones and Monica Burbidge as our only representatives. They both overcame tough races to finish in 4:38:16 and 6:26:35 respectively.

Also in Brighton and just a week after the Manchester Marathon, Jim Laidlaw made the trip to the south coast for the Brighton 10k finishing in 41:13.

Collette Callanan had a superb run in the Croydon Half Marathon finishing in a PB of 1:25:47 to take 1st Female and 14th Overall in the race.

Barnes Fitness organised the Woodley 10k starting in Woodford Park, Woodley. We had six members in action including the four in the official results below, plus Teresa Milroy who finished in 57:17 and Charlie St Aubyn who marshaled the 2.5k fun run before doing a solo lap of the 10k course in well under 50 minutes.

The Brutal Alpine Trail Event was held near Bagshot with both 5 and 10k options and it proved popular with our ‘mudrunners’. Karen Page, Angela Foker, Mark Foker, Nigel Evans, Gareth Hopkins, Lynsey Spring and Jacq Hudson all completed the super tough course.

We are into the final weeks before many of the big spring races so tapers are seeing running volumes reduced howevere we still had eighty-four members logging runs on Strava. To take part in this just create a free Strava account and link it to the club in your profile. Here’s the top 10 from last week:-

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. It’s also great to find out about new events or get an honest opinion on the multitude of events out there so we love to receive run reports. Any member, any event, any distance, any surface! Just email publicity@sandhurstjoggers.org.uk

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

Monday: Patrick will be leading the Monday night chatfest from Sandhurst Sports Centre at 7:30pm. The route will cover approx. 6 miles and will either be on or of road depending on the ground conditions. This is one of the most sociable runs of the week and a great opportunity to catch up with friends or discuss the preceding weekend. And don’t forget the Monday Mantra ‘Mondays defo make me faster’.

Tuesday Club Run: The Triumvirate of Tuesday General members Monica Burbidge, Dave Bartlett and Royston Crandley will be looking after the biggest club run of the week. As always there will be multiple groups to cater for all abilities from beginners through to faster and more experienced runners. It’s perfect for novices and those coming back from injury or a long lay-off because you can start with an easy group and work your way upwards. The start time is 6:30pm as always, this week from the Sandhurst Memorial Park.

Tuesday Intervals: Later the interval sessions will meet at The TYTHINGS in Yateley at 8pm. Tonight’s session will be at School Hill with 2 x 5 minutes, 2 x 4 minutes, 2 x 3 minutes each with 1 minute recovery. You can read more about the Tueday night intervals Here

Wednesday: Sharon and Andrea are still the General Members for Wednesday and they have great route planned for this week. Join them at Sandhurst Memorial Park at 7pm. The ‘5k to 10k’ course moves into its third week and will be aiming to help those members involved progress.

Thursday: This week the threshold/improvers run will be on the the Coat Hangers route and this week is the paced run week with a range of groups to fit with your ability. Meet at Sandhurst Sports Centre at 7:30pm and don’t forget lights and high vis clothing as it will still be dark on Swan Lane!

Friday: Track is still free and the coaches have some great sessions planned for all abilities to improve fitness and technique. This is a great way to improve your running form and fitness, get faster and help prevent injury. If you’ve never ran on a track before give it a try, it’s a lot of fun and you are never more than 200m away from the start.

Parkrunday: Lots of members will be action at Parkrun at 9am on Saturday morning. Don’t forget your barcode!

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.

Of course Sunday is also London Marathon so we wish all our members who are running well. Many members will also be marshaling at the finish and supporting so no doubt we will have lots of tales from the event!