to all you SJ’s for adhering to the official parkrun request that until Covid is under control we avoid going to parkrun locations at 09:00 on a Saturday morning.
As a club this seems to be a point that does not need to be made but just a reminder please to make sure our passion and our club are respected during these difficult times.
I’ll be there for you!
Actually that is just a pathetic headline (poorman’s clickbait) for the weekends additional parkrun challenge.
If you were a fan of that sitcom Friends then you may well sigh and think life could get no worse Jim than it is so why make it worse? Sorry but **IT happens so I hope you can get into the spirit and make it happen 🙂
I was discussing walking routes with my daughter Becky and it kept coming back to “The one with…” or “The one where…” which is apparently how Friends episodes were titled (apologies I did not watch it).
So along with the new unofficial alphabetic series for our parkrun’s, can we please have a FRIENDS suffix of “The one with…” etc. for the following with an example in bold below:
A: Ambarrow Court B: Blackbushe old runways C: Crowvid-19 D: Derby Green (rename from Blackwater) E: F: Frogmore G: H: I: J: K: L: M: Mickle Hill N: O: Orseshoe Lake – The one where Fiona dropped her ‘H’ P: Q: R: S: T: U: V: W: X: Y: Yateley Common Z:
So as well as looking forward to additions to this list, be aware it needs to meet the criteria of having a Friends suffix 😀
It may well get worse if the lockdown gets tighter (Mr Evans, “N” is still free for your residence and locally famous marathon location).
Club Events for the week ahead…
Just to make sure you are all aware, all official Sandhurst Jogger club events are currently postponed until England Athletics formally amend their stance on the matter.
In the interim though our GMs are still giving us some structure to give us some purpose to our weeks.
Speed Work Tuesday:
From Katie Herrington:
Speed work Tuesday (7th April)! It’s the hills session with a twist. Find the hilliest 4 mile loop that you can (given the restrictions) and work the hills. If the gap between hills is more than 5 minutes then add some pick ups.
Be creative with it – and post your route on our facebook page💪. The hilliest route wins!
Wednesday: I am not aware of any time this has not actually taken place but it will not be happening this month.
As a club we would like to politely request that you do not turn up at 19:30 “anyway” to just do it as it would not take too many to turn up for “others” to see it as us treating covid with disregard and continuing club events.
This would potentially bring the club into disrepute and I know that none of our members would want to do this so I do feel I am “teaching my granny to suck eggs” and apologise for the preachy tone but the needs of our club outweigh our needs right now.
Friday:
Once more keep an eye on the Facebook page for one of our coaches to post this weeks variety of sessions.
Thank you to Jim Casey, Carl Bradshaw and Newton Johnstone for keeping us motivated during this period and I am sure you are looking forward to seeing us back in person to see how much hurt we will go through to achieve our goals!
Maybe we need to upload a post-session picture to show how deep we have gone 🙂
Thanks for reading and especially now, have a safe week of running and I’ll see you soon!
Please let’s all act as the best ambassadors of running there is and with the exponential increase in walkers that there seems to have been let’s be the best we can be!
There are a lot of scared people out there.
We are more used to being out and about and making sure we keep our own safety in mind we are probably better placed to act and react than these people who have only just found paths and trails so lets do our bit. If safe to do so move a safe distance away, wait at path junctions and connect emotionally even if socially distant.
Only concern yourself about what you can control !
Actually, I may make a request to our broader membership for some tips on how to cope as I am just some IT chap 🙂Any takers please PM me…..
First up, with the AGM having taken place, it has led to a changing of the guard for Sandhurst Joggers.
A big thank-you has to go to all those who gave so freely of their own time to make things happen for our club but are now standing down from their roles.
Richard Boese – our club chairman for the past 3 years and a great supporter & volunteer for the local parkruns too. Good luck in the journey to 100 Marathons and “Yours in sport” will always be a sign off I will miss…
Nikki Fallowfield-Smith – the social events have been a blast from you and your team especially the Zombie Outbreak and thanks for offering to ease the replacements in whilst going through the joys of parenthood 🙂
Wayne Boardman – although you are dropping your VC role, it is so good to hear you are carrying on running the home XC event which is recognised as such a brilliant event.
Dave Breslin – the summer events have traditionally been highlights of the SJ calendar and you have been pivotal in making these happen. For all those that took part in them, thanks!
Jon Green – you picking up the mantle of XC Captain was appreciated and your work was impressive given how many top-end runners you were robbed off for various reasons…
Erol Ali – hope your injury woes come to an end and your presence at the tempo runs will add to the quality of them!
Lara Winter – in your role as club secretary thank you for getting the places at various events for us to take a punt on at club ballots to get into as well as the admin side of the role.
Nick Metcalfe – Craig Bowles passed the baton on to you and despite an increasing pressure on your time you added your own take to this role too!
I will be getting some more info for our new committee members over the coming weeks and what they hope to grow their roles into.
With the current climate I hope many of you are taking to the trails to practice for next seasons cross-country!
Club Membership
As much of the membership work regarding joining and renewals is automated there is a little confusion out there regarding this as some were able to renew and some were not.
On Monday 6th April our new Club Committee will convene for the first time (via Zoom to adhere to social distancing) and a formal statement will be made about this years membership. You will all get an email when that is done and in the meantime do not worry, you are all still members!
Club Events for the week ahead…
Whilst we are all adhering to our responsibilities to social distancing and social gatherings, our SJ GMs are still providing some framework around the runs we so love and enjoy but now need to go solo on.
Keep an eye on the club Facebook page each week to see Katie Herrington’s tempo challenges and each Friday there is a track challenge suitable for all of our coaches groups.
CLUB REQUEST
The committee did send an email out last week asking all of our members to adhere to all the Government mandated requests regarding staying at home and going out to exercise.
That request is repeated here and please all do adhere to this especially with rocking up at 09:00 on Saturday at what may have been your Parkrun as this can have a detrimental impact on the event and also has negative publicity for our club.
We hope you are all well in these challenging times.
As a committee we wanted to remind you of the Government regulations regarding exercise and provide some clarification where possible:
– Only exercise once a day – Exercise locally to your home. – Only make essential travel (local police forces have stated that you should not drive to exercise) – Only exercise on your own or with members of your own family – If you do pass or meet people whilst out exercising make sure you keep 2m apart from each other.
As a club we have taken our responsibility to safeguard the health of the nation very seriously by cancelling all club runs and Yateley 10km Race 1. We hope that as individuals you will continue to follow this through into your own lives. We thank you in advance to adhering to these rules and ensuring that, as a club, we are doing our bit to help the NHS and save lives.
Kind regards,
The Sandhurst Joggers Committee
Onto the weekend running and starting with
A’part’run
This does appear to have been the play on our weekly Saturday fix at 09:00 and fits the bill of making sure we keep apart during our runs!
A’part’run Challenges
A’part’run Alphabet
So far I have spotted the following on Strava/Facebook so lets complete the challenge.
A: Ambarrow Court B: Blackbushe old runways C: D: E: F: Frogmore G: H: I: J: K: L: M: Mickle Hill N: O: Orseshoe Lake P: Q: R: S: T: U: V: W: X: Y: Yateley Common Z:
As can be seen by Fiona Marshall’s entry for “O”, we are going to be expecting you to be a bit imaginative about this. To be honest that was more of a London pronunciation but hey-ho 🙂
It would appear there are some who are compiling lists and let’s see who can come up with the whole lot??
As amusing as it is to see the naming of the a’part’runs including some diabolical liberties there may well be a new category of biggest p***take for a letter 🙂
If we have anyone amongst us with some decent photoshop skills we may ask for some help with “badges” and certificates to recognise contributions to the cause.
What other challenges can we come up with???
Quiz
#1: Who owns the garden below?
#2 – Can we as members run the length of the UK??
A suggestion has come in to get some challenges that we as a club can make happen during this difficult period and one is for us to run the combined distance of an end-to-end UK run.
This sounds like a great Easter Weekend challenge and expect to see more later in the week. Obviously this is just a normal weekend for Leon Hicks 🙂
#3 – What else can we come up with?
An open question to our club – what other challenges can we a club give to us as individuals AND members to provide some sense of purpose and belonging?
Club announcements
April Club Handicap
Alas with the current constraints on social gatherings this will not be going ahead and please SJs, do not turn up at 19:30 @ Morgans Rec to take place.
If you are within walking/running distance then by all means at DIFFERENT times feel free to go there and run the handicap route to see how you are progressing.
We will be back together soon Joggers.
Thanks for reading the LowDown, have a safe week of running apart and I’ll see you next week albeit from a distance!
Remember it is also OK to not be OK – make sure you look after yourselves and if you have recommendations and suggestions to help us through all of this difficult time, use all our channels to do it.
I am sure there are many (and I am one) who will appreciate all the help and support of those who can give it.
Let’s keep connected through our social media channels or just direct messaging each other to “agree to do something with someone and then go and do it”. That is some great advice I got that works for Fiona Marshall & Sarah Hyatt and if we can share things between us to get us through this then lets share the hell out of it 😀
First up, Simon would like to thank all of you for your patience trialing the token system. It seemed to work reasonably well and with 45 of you there the attendance is still absolutely brilliant and the tokens helped!
On to the run itself and congratulations to John Barnes for being the March Handicap Champion knocking an incredible 5 mins 20 seconds of his previous best time.
An honorable mention to Cat Wickham for her 3rd PB on the spin knocking another 1 minute plus off her time, great improvements Cat and well done coming 2nd overall this month.
Debbie Watson took the final (virtual) podium position also knocking a minute off her PB.
Well done to all the PB runners this month:
John Barnes Cat Wickham Debbie Watson Harvey Young Paul Sliwinski Gloria Long Jon Payne Andrea Hadfield
Whilst the purpose of the handicap is for runners of all abilities to improve each month, the runners who will have the smallest improvements are those that are the sharp end of the run.
March did not disappoint here with Rob Jerrett finishing 1st overall in 25:12 with Jon Payne just behind in 25:15 in 2nd. Incredibly for the finish times, this was Jon’s 3rd PB on the bounce as well and saw him take 2nd place overall in the 2020 standings.
Consistency has always been the key to handicap success and Cat Wickham is proving this leading the overall standings with a healthy lead of 19 points over fellow hat-trick PB achiever Jon Payne.
With 30 points on offer now for the monthly winner, there are going to be plenty of opportunities in 2020 for those that can display the best improvement so good luck to you all 🙂
Thank you as well to Alison Jones and Sharon Burfield for acting as Tail runners for the second paced group – it really does encourage more members to turn up and give this a go.
Thanks as always to Simon and Anne Whillis for organising such an enjoyable club event!
We’ll see you all next month for the next handicap, taking place on Wednesday 8th April at Morgan Rec.
This Wednesday sees Race 3 of the 2020 Handicap Series taking place at Morgan Rec. at 19:30
Please all make sure you turn up promptly as there are some changes being made due to the increasing numbers we are getting. It will no take long to cover but you will need to know it 🙂
And most importantly for some, pop into The Raj in Sandhurst for the post-run drink and curry!
Onto the weekend running and starting with
Saturday Events
A much more pleasant weekend was in store for us for the first time in ages!
Phoenix Spring Marathon
It’s your birthday so what do you do? Well if you are Alison Jones you go run a Marathon to kick off a day of running, celebrations and gourmet dinners!
Joining her were Andrea Hadfield and Sharon Burfield for an enjoyable run down the Thames looping from Walton to Hampton Court.
Frimley Lodge
A PB of 18:33 saw Neil Praine finish 4th overall in his 95th run at Frimley and the ladies were led in again by Stephanie Tillman in 35:23.
Bracknell
Richard Johnson led Sandhurst home in 22:15 finishing 6th overall with Charlotte St Aubyn again leading the ladies home in 30:53.
An unofficial milestone of 200 parkruns was clocked up by Charlie St Aubyn, well done and a great achievement!
Rushmoor
Our leading Sandhurst Jogger this week was Helen Vizard completing her run in 24:50 with Simon Tigg the first male SJ to finish in 28:52
California Country Park
A Magnificent 7 SJs were over at California and were led down the finish funnel by George Green who finished in 24:55 with our first lady finisher being Beki Christian who finished in 25:54.
A new PB of 26:29 was recorded by Fiona Marshall who knocked over a minute off her previous best!
Sandhurst Memorial
Finishing in 5th overall, Krzysztof Zielinski was the first SJ to cross the line in 22:32. VTaylor was once again the first lady to finish in 26:57.
Running on the longer “Flood Course”, PBs are difficult but Chris Brooks bagged one finishing in 56:38.
As per usual a number of our members took part in their local parkruns or were out touring, details below:
Touring
SEATON
Prepping for the Grizzly, 8 SJs were in attendance down on the Esplanade.
Sarah Hyatt led the club members home in a new PB of 23:40 with Dave Breslin the first male to finish in 24:49.
Sarah’s recent streak of PBs must be contagious as Neil Hyatt also recorded a PB of 30:43!
Basingstoke – Stuart Mayes recorded 23:12 in his 1st run here. Gunnersbury – Simon and Anne Whillis both recorded PBs finishing in 27:06 & 47.22 respectively whilst Jane Ralls completed her 1st run here in 31:05. Southwark – Richard Boese crossed the line in 30:07 in his first time here to complete his parkrun compass challenge!. Lowestoft – Alurie Dutton recorded a PB of 34:14 with her sister Yvette Glacken completing in 44:00. Hazlewood – First timers Elin Loftesnes and Janet Ford completed the London Irish course in 26:54 & 29:51 respectively. Hanworth – Alison Winders finished in 27:50 in her first run here.
Alice Holt – Finishing 9th overall, Clive Rolfe led 4 SJs over the line in 20:08 closely followed in 20:18 by Andrew Provost. Our first lady here was also our newest member of the 100 Parkrun club, Theresa Milroy finishing in 28:55. Colin Carpenter completed the lineup finishing in 32:18.
This weeks parkrun milestones
Theresa Milroy
Sunday events…
Surrey Half Marathon
Advertised as Surreys largest Half Marathon, a trio of Sandhurst Joggers set off from Woking Lesiure Centre.
Well done to Andy Yates, Simon Tigg and Monica Burbidge for completing this.
Having received some adverts about taking part, one of the plus points adding to the atmosphere was the fact they had bands around the course.
Well not satisfied with just running the Half Marathon Monica Burbidge actually manged to also stop for a while and join her band to play along for a while. Absolutely outstanding!!
Absolutely class Monica!!
Hillingdon 20 Mile
Jim Laidlaw traveled over to Ruislip to take part in this popular local event.
Continuing his recent form with the build up to Manchester, Jim bagged a brilliant 20 Mile PB of 2:29:30 and earnt this little beauty in the process:
Larmer Tree Marathon
Described as:
We return to the beautiful Larmer Tree gardens, one of Britain’s poshest race venues. 4 epic trail races, a bit hilly, might be a bit moist under foot and guaranteed…. might be beautiful weather. The Rushmore Estate feels like our second home. We have been organising races there for 7 years now. We are grateful to the Rushmore Estate Manager Ruth Mason and Larmer Tree supremo Carol Cross for their patience, understanding and enthusiasm helping us bring these trail races to life.
As well as your amazing bling for completing the race, the lovely caterers at Larmer Tree are providing food again as we thought you would appreciate a hot meal at the finish, so we have vouchers to exchange for top nosh in the pavilion.
Taking part here was Jonathan Taylor as he completed marathon #106.
The course offered over 3,000 feet of ascent and plenty of mud to make it even more enjoyable 🙂
The Grizzly
A club favourite event which every year attracts runners who want to challenge themselves to a multi-terrain event, definitely give it a try if you love hills (cliffs), water and running on shingle beaches!
I will be asking some members for their thoughts on the event to be put into a separate Run Report as it justifies its own read.
In the meantime, kudos to those below that took part…..
Cub Results
Grizzly Results
The distances are still ramping up with the Spring Marathons looming large and leading the way this week is V Taylor.
Louisa Enriquez is obviously getting plenty of hill training as part of her training program!
Strava
To take part in this just create a free Strava account and link it to the club in your profile.
Club Events for the week ahead…
Monday:
Patrick Wadsworth will be taking the Monday Club run from Sandhurst Sports Centre leaving at 7:30 for 6 miles in an hour (distances and duration are Monday miles and minutes and bear passing resemblance to those in use at other times). Hiviz and torches welcome!
Tuesday Club Run: The biggest club run of the week will as always offer 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 regular start at Sandhurst Memorial Park.
Speed Work Tuesday:
Wednesday: I am not aware of any time this has not actually taken place but it will not be happening this month.
As a club we would like to politely request that you do not turn up at 19:30 “anyway” to just do it as it would not take too many to turn up for “others” to see it as us treating covid with disregard and continuing club events.
This would potentially bring the club into disrepute and I know that none of our members would want to do this so I do feel I am “teaching my granny to suck eggs” and apologise for the preachy tone but the needs of our club outweigh our needs right now.
Thursday: A run with Erol will contain hills, laughs, and a couple of wrong turns (normally), but you can guarantee you’ll end up at the car park eventually, and with a smile at the end of it all! Meet at Sandhurst Sports Centre at 7:30pm and lights and high vis clothing will be required. The run is a great way to improve fitness by running as a group at a slightly harder intensity.
Erol will post the route details to the club facebook page later this week.
Friday:
Saturday: Lots of members will be enjoying their weekly Parkrun fix at 9am on Saturday morning, if you’re thinking of going somewhere new then post on the Facebook page as there may be other members planning on running at the same place as you! Wherever you are parkrunning – Don’t forget your barcode!
Sunday: Come along and give the The Sunday Lookout run a try with Dick Newman and Emy Circuit. They say its the best run of the week but might be a bit biased! It’s a flexible run leaving from The Lookout at 9 am with different groups to suit a wide range of abilities. The three ‘Cs’ of Coffee, cake and chat are enjoyed in the cafe post-run.
Thanks for reading the Run Down, have a safe week of running and I’ll see you next week!
Please do let me know if you are doing any events, I can only report what I see on Strava and Facebook and I hope you appreciate there are those I may not see!
Ping me a message over the weekend and I will include it so others can see what we are doing and may be inspired to try a different event.
A bit late I’m afraid and only managed to capture the parkrun & strava stats
70 Sandhurst Joggers rolled up for the once in a 28 year opportunity to run parkrun on the 29th February despite Storm Jorge
Frimley Lodge
A bakers dozen were down at Frimley and GrahamRobinson was the events first finisher in 17:49 with Helen Vizard our first lady to finish in 26:56. The mucky weather and conditions were not favourable for PBs and there were no milestone runs either.
California Country Park
Knocking over 90 secs of his previous PB, Jon Payne recorded 19:27 to finish 4th overall today. Sarah Jones was the first SJ lady to finish in 41:49
Sandhurst Memorial
With the recent weather today’s event was on the “flood course” and after a brief excursion to Osterley last week, Craig Bowles was 5th overall in 21:45 to lead the SJ’s in. Beki Christian once more was our first lady finisher in 27:35.
Dave Breslin ticked off his 200th parkrun, a fantastic achievement! Jane Ralls managed a PB of 33:15 on the Flood Course.
Bushy Park
Half a dozen SJ ladies took part amongst the 1029 runners. V Taylor leading them in 25 minutes dead.
Wimbledon
The deal was to finish in 29:02 to celebrate the date at the 2nd parkrun event. As we all know, our watches and parkrun timekeepers do not always sync so the official results were 28:58 to 29:00. Great effort though!
Parkrun Tourism:
Dinton Pastures – Andy Provost finished 9th overall in 20:29 in his 1st run here Killerton – Chris Derham finished in 33:00. Seaton – Will Lucas getting back in the groove finishing in 28:07
Strava
To take part in this just create a free Strava account and link it to the club in your profile.
Some great distances are being covered and here are last weeks strava results!
The draw for the names to be put forward as marshals took place on Monday night with Ian Watson having a very enjoyable time of it and club chairman Richard Boese making sure it was all above board.
I really do think Caroline Cutliffe was on to something with the suggestion of a new career for Ian with QVC 🙂
Congratulations to all those at the top of the list and I hope as many of you as possible are selected because it truly is a very enjoyable and memorable day!
Onto the weekend running and starting with
Saturday Events…
Phoenix 100 Marathon Club AGM
The organisers blurb for this is:
I’m delighted to announce that Phoenix Running will be hosting the 2020 edition of the annual 100 Marathon Club AGM Marathon and Timed Running Event on 22nd February 2020.
The 2020 100 Club Marathon AGM event will be a Marathon (Handicap Race) & a 7 hour Timed Running event welcoming all abilities of runner. We want to attract as many 100MC members as possible so we hope you’ll come and join us for the marathon. After the event we will be hosting the 100 Marathon Clubs Annual General Meeting at a nearby venue.
Becoming a member of this club takes a massive amount of commitment and if I had a hat, I would take it off to the guys that are members of it.
Running marathon #105 was Jonathan Taylor and here is on ”the blue bridge” which if you know about it, you know.
Alas I do not, well not yet anyway but as I have stated before I hope that people that see any events that they have not done before may feel like giving them a try.
Other Sandhurst Joggers taking part were Richard Boese and Nigel Evans.
Richard was glad to be back at the distance after a 2 month break since his last marathon with his reward being:
Nigel too was glad to be back after a massive 6 days since his last marathon; he must have been really missing them!
Frimley Lodge
Clive Rolfe led the SJs across the line in a great time of 20:14 with Stephanie Tillman our 1st lady to finish in 30:37.
Bracknell
In his 48th parkrun, Paul Sliwinski placed in the top 10 and he was the 1st SJ to finish in 22:40 and Helena Jones finished in 34:04 as 1st female member.
Rushmoor
Over in Aldershot, Max Woods was the 1st SJ to finish in 21:16 with our 1st lady being Charlotte St Aubyn in a time of 28:08.
California Country Park
Just shy of his PB, Iain Findlay led the SJ’s home in 23:40 with our 1st female Jane Ralls finishing in 45:27.
Sandhurst Memorial
Still the most popular parkrun with 15 SJ’s attending, the event also managed to see 5 new PBs achieved!
Every parkrun PB this weekend happened there. Finishing 4th overall with a great PB of 20:19 was Andy Provost with our 1st lady Vinnette Taylor going sub-25 for the 1st finishing in 24:55!
PB’s Andy Provost Vinnette Taylor Beki Christian Jackie Kent Natalie Pollard
Osterley Celebrating Sarah Hyatt’s 50th parkrun, some SJs headed to Osterley where Sarah led us all home! Unfortunately Craig Bowles had to finish after a single lap as Zak was not too good but Zak certainly perked up in the cafe!
At other local parkruns:
Woodley – a sole SJ here was Hannah Whitman who completed in 30:31. Dinton – Roy Bentley completed his 1st run here in 30:39.
Parkrun Tourism:
Richmond – Helen Vizard recorded a good time of 24:03 in her 1st run here. Tamar Trails – A time of 29:17 saw Alison Winders get around this beautiful course. Eden Project – Neil Praine was 7th overall finishing in a very rapid 17:57. Harcourt Hill – over at the Oxford Brookes campus parkrun, Helen Davey finished in 28:17. Fletcher Moss– Patrick Wadsworth was up in Manchester for his 1st run here finishing in 23:19
Local parkruns further afield
Seaton – Will Lucas completed his home seafront course in 28:36
Sunday events…
Brighton Half
With Manchester having a reputation as being the rain capital of England and the Manchester Marathon day looming large, Jim Laidlaw got in some weather acclimatization training down in Brighton at the weekend
Despite the wet and blustery conditions, Jim kept up his recent form completing the run in a brilliant 1:32.
He certainly needed his beloved Steelers hat to help keep him warm!
Hampton Court Half
Described as:
The Quicksilver Hampton Court Half Marathon is the original race in the area. It is run over a fast, flat and visually interesting course that borders the river-side grounds of the magnificent Hampton Court Palace to the South West of London. The fast flat route is definite PB potential, while also offering great scenery. The closed road start adds to the big race feel and runner security.
Jon Taylor took part in this Half Marathon that certainly looks like an interesting option for a Winter half with some decent scenery. I have to say, the after run photo opportunity looks like one I would enjoy having 🙂
How we all feel after smashing a Half Marathon!
With just under 3,000 runners who set off in waves to make sure all runners had a clear run on the open sections, Jon completed his run in a great time of 2:05 and deserved his place on the throne!
Winter Wooly 10K
Described as:
The inaugural Winter Woolly 10k takes place will start from the fabulous grounds of Elstree School in Woolhampton, in Berkshire. This multi terrain course is a real treat – after touring the School grounds you’ll see the stunning Berkshire countryside from lanes, footpaths, trails and woodlands. We’ll throw in the occasional hill as well, before you finish back on the manicured lawns of Elstree School.
This certainly looks like quite a decent event and nice to see 3 Sandhurst Joggers gave it a try. Kerstin and Matt Johnson were obviously very keen to sign up as they got bib numbers 1 & 2 and they were joined by Beccie Wedderburn.
Beccie says she was told to smile but I am not sure I believe her, it looks like she was loving it!
Following on from yesterday’s 100 Marathon Club event, this was:
Phoenix Running will be hosting the first ever 100 HALF Marathon Club annual running event on Sunday 23rd February 2020 and entry is open to absolutely EVERYONE.
The 100 HALF Marathon Club AGM run will be a HALF Marathon AND Timed Running event welcoming all abilities of runner. Whilst the event is centred around the discipline of half marathon distance, we want to welcome absolutely all abilities of runner, and so will be offering a 5km, 10km and 15km set of distance options where folks can come along, have a bit of a run and ‘ring out’ in a no-pressured, fun environment. Basically come along, see what it’s all about and enjoy everything about the 100 HALF Marathon Club!
Taking into consideration the weather conditions, knowing you are going to running into a hideous headwind 4 times, this must have taken great discipline to complete especially as you know you are back at the start after each lap.
Who could take on this challenge I hear you ask??
The answer of course with it being a Phoenix event, it had to be Nigel Evans and Liz Ujszaszi Evans!
Wokingham Half
We had 33 runners taking part from the club on Sunday and it was really good to see so many. I will need to split this off as it deserves it’s own write up.
Congratulations though to Rob Jerrett finishing in 1:22:06, a fantastic effort in those conditions, well done Rob!
There were many other brilliant personal achievements too..
Club Events for the week ahead…
Tuesday Club Run: The biggest club run of the week will as always offer 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 regular start at Sandhurst Memorial Park.
Speed Work Tuesday:
Wednesday: The Wednesday run sets off from the Memorial Park at 7:00. Andrea Vincent, Sharon Burfield and Alison Jones will lead runners of all abilities on this flexible run!
Thursday: A run with Erol will contain hills, laughs, and a couple of wrong turns (normally), but you can guarantee you’ll end up at the car park eventually, and with a smile at the end of it all! Meet at Sandhurst Sports Centre at 7:30pm and lights and high vis clothing will be required. The run is a great way to improve fitness by running as a group at a slightly harder intensity.
Erol will post the route details to the club facebook page later this week.
Friday:
Saturday: Lots of members will be enjoying their weekly Parkrun fix at 9am on Saturday morning, if you’re thinking of going somewhere new then post on the Facebook page as there may be other members planning on running at the same place as you! Wherever you are parkrunning – Don’t forget your barcode!
Sunday: Come along and give the The Sunday Lookout run a try with Dick Newman and Emy Circuit. They say its the best run of the week but might be a bit biased! It’s a flexible run leaving from The Lookout at 9 am with different groups to suit a wide range of abilities. The three ‘Cs’ of Coffee, cake and chat are enjoyed in the cafe post-run.
Thanks for reading the Run Down, have a safe week of running and I’ll see you next week!
Please do let me know if you are doing any events, I can only report what I see on Strava and Facebook and I hope you appreciate there are those I may not see!
Ping me a message over the weekend and I will include it so others can see what we are doing and may be inspired to try a different event.
Q) For members who don’t know you, tell us a bit about yourself?
I am married with two children, Casey 13 and Alfie 11, neither of them like running no matter how much I try to convince them how much fun it is. I work in finance.
As well as running I do triathlons.
Q) How and when did you get into running?
I ran competitively as a child when I lived in London, my best achievement was coming 2nd in my age group in the London Mini Marathon at the age 12 when it used to finish on Westminster Bridge.
I gave it up in my teens and barely ran again until after I had my son and joined Sandhurst Joggers, I’ve been with the club 11 years now.
Q) What do you enjoy most about being a member of Sandhurst Joggers?
The people! So many members have become close friends of mine, everyone is always supportive, from new runners to those that have been running for many years. The last 10 days have shown how amazing this club is, especially in times of need. The variety of runs on offer on a weekly basis is also fantastic.
Q) On which of the weekly runs are we most likely to bump into you?
Over the years I been a regular at all different club runs, Im just getting back in to things after breaking so my shoulder aiming to be a regular at Tuesday intervals or Friday track, I also enjoy the Thursday Threshold run. Oh and Handicap- I love the monthly handicap.
Q) You’ve ran most of your parkruns at Bracknell, tell us what you like about that event?
Funnily enough Im not actually a fan of Bracknell, I hate tough runs and Bracknell is just that, the course is varied with the woodchip, it saps the legs and is a much slower course than most others.
Q) Of the 14 other parkruns you’ve run, which was your favourite and why?
Oh thats a tough one….. I like runs that are on good sturdy surfaces. Northala Fields was a nice flat quick course, Crane Park was another lovely course.
Bushy Park was great being the birth place of parkrun. Definitely NOT Dinton Pastures, twice I’ve run there and twice I’ve fallen, that’s where I broke my shoulder.
This parkrun malarky is addictive, I went from ‘not getting out of bed for parkrun’ to catching the bug quite quickly, I can be now found checking out results to see if I can be first lady to finish at tourist locations- Me competitive? Nooo….
Q) What other events are on your programme for 2020?
Running – I’m doing the Grizzly Cub in a couple of weeks and I also have London Marathon in the diary.
Other events – I have Ride 100 and 2 mile Serpentine swim in the diary too so that i get the London Classics all in one year. I’ve also (stupidly) agreed to do rough runner with a team for work.
Q) What is your go-to nutrition to fuel the triathlons and Classic’s Sarah?
Thank you very much for sharing that with us Sarah and I am glad you are recovering well from that Dinton fall and you are a very encouraging and supportive member of the club too.
Good luck with completing the Classics in a single year!
I had better clarify that the bit at the end was a bit of fabrication!! (I think??)
