I write this newsletter with looking out of the window thinking how nasty the weather is. They say March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb, but it is definitely still roaring! The weather hasn’t, however, put off our ladies’ squad and this month has seen some excellent running. I hope everyone has enjoyed what March has had to offer.

News and Notices

Training

We are coming into spring, but with the dingy weather I would recommend still taking layers to training and hi-viz and lights. Even though the sun is still technically “up” for evening training, the clouds can make visibility low and we want to make sure everyone remains safe at sessions.

I would note that the timetable changes a bit this month – Thursdays will not always be on the track at cycle gateway, but may use the gravel area behind the rugby club; or be across town at Westlands country park, so make sure you check each week to know where you are going!

Vicky’s Friday mornings are also back so if you fancy a social run before work, they provide a great start to the day. For these though, make sure to wear trail shoes or old trainers, as the paths can be muddy!

For a look at the Spring training schedule, if you go to the “Training” section of our website and click on this week’s training there is a link at the top to the PDF which covers sessions until 12th May.

As always, continue to fill in the Doodle poll if you are coming to sessions. If sessions have no one signed up, they will be cancelled. The poll also helps leaders know what number of runners to expect and potentially to alter their session plans to suit numbers so signing up remains important.

Club Kit

A reminder that if you need club kit, please contact Barbara (using the website contact form on the Kit page, or through Facebook). Barbara is not going to lug all of the club kit along to every session, so needs to know if you want to look at / try on something! You will also be pleased to know that we are setting up ability to pay by card for kit, and this will replace the requirement to transfer payment via BACs, so much easier for all.

Membership Subs for the coming year

Subs will be due this month, and you will receive an email from Nick with a link to pay via STRIPE. This payment goes straight to England Athletics, who then take their cut and forward on any remainder to the club.

A note that subs will have a slight increase this year. Whilst the committee really wanted to keep subs as low as possible, our current fee has remained unchanged for several years. In that time England Athletics have increased their cost per registered runner and plan to do so again this year. We also want to be able to continue to give great club benefits like the track training, entry into NESS XC, entry into the XC relays, Road Relays and Ekiden, provision of a T-shirt for those who manage to “trail them all”, use of a warm village hall for Wednesday night group session etc etc.

I don’t think it will surprise anyone that providing these great benefits is costing the club more this year, and so the committee feels that a £3 increase in subs per person is fair. This means that subs will be £28 per person (of which £17 goes to England Athletics, and £11 to the club to cover the cost of the benefits mentioned).

I hope that you will agree that given everything the club offers, this membership fee is still great value.

For more information about what we use memberships subs for, we will be presenting this at the AGM…

AGM

The Annual General Meeting for the club is on Wednesday 5^th April. Please do come along for this, it will be an opportunity for you to hear from the Committee about how the club is run and also an opportunity to ask questions or give ideas of things you would like to see the club do.

The AGM replaces the Wednesday “information night” this month, but information nights will be back in May (specifically on 10th May) when Rodger is going to tell you all you need to know about the Trail Run series.

Easter Monday Treasure Hunt

Paul Arnold is putting on a treasure hunt in Highwoods on Easter Monday. Here is the information he has given have so far – looks like it will be fun!

From Paul: I am organising a fun, very simple, orienteering run in Highwoods Country Park. This will be on Easter Monday 10th April, starting at 9am

Don’t be put off by the idea of navigating – think of it as an Easter Treasure Hunt, it’s quite simple, and all done using an app on your phone. No compass work needed and yes there will be chocolate prizes!

It will be entirely inside the Country Park, using the trails and paths. You can run as a solo or pair up to help each other from getting lost. I would suggest wearing trail shows or old trainers.

There will be a time limit of 90mins and you may end up running about 12kms, depending on which checkpoints you get to, and whatever route you choose. 

You need to install an app on your mobile phone and create an account but it is entirely free. I will publish details nearer the time.

Our Ladies Squad

A warm welcome to new ladies in our squad: Laura Khine and Debbie Eaton. I hope you enjoy running with GBRC and look forward to meeting you soon.

What we did

This month our ladies how been out running in the lanes of Langham and Boxted for 7.5 or 15 miles; in Bentwood for half marathons; completing parkruns all over; been battling sand, mud and hills at the Grizzly; showing some speed at Chelmsford 10k; running laps in Brightlingsea; and of course smashing training sessions out of the park. Well done ladies!

For those who want to catch up on past exploits, the race reports can be found here: https://gbrc.org.uk/category/race-reports/

This month we also had our end-of-XC-season meal and the squad voted for this year’s Ladies’ Cross Country Runner of the Year. Congratulations Nikki Laverack, this was very well deserved.

Runner of the month

We reach Runner of the Month. This month the accolade goes to Laura Cook. Laura flies a little under the radar with her achievements, but don’t think Lisa and I are oblivious, we have ways of knowing things 😉.

This month Laura has done parkruns in Bognor Regis, Wickford, Clacton and Maldon as well as running in the Dave Wright 7.5 miler and grabbing a PB at the Brentwood Half Marathon!

Well done on your running Laura, and wishing you a fabulous April of running as well. x