Hi Ladies! Summer is on its way, and I hope that you are starting to enjoy the longer days and slightly warmer temperatures. You certainly gave me loads to keep an eye on over the past month, so well done to you all on a fabulous May!
News and Notices
“Easter” Treasure Hunt – now on 8th June!
Paul Arnold is putting on a treasure hunt in Highwoods on 8th June at 6:30pm. Here is the information – looks like it will be fun! I believe Paul will follow with required information a few days before.
a fun, very simple, orienteering run in Highwoods Country Park
Don’t be put off by the idea of navigating – it’s quite simple, and all done using an app on your phone. No compass work needed!
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.
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.
Ekiden
If you have yet to sign up for Ekiden you have until Sunday 4th June to do so!
Details of Ekiden are in your emails. In brief: it’s onSunday 23 July 2023 (timings TBC but senior races usually start around 10-10.30am) and is a relay race. In teams of 6 you will cover marathon distance, broken down into three 5k legs, one 7.2k leg and two 10k legs.
Details of the race can be found here: https://www.ipswichekiden.co.uk/
To sign up you need to fill out this form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/16JWRnaEHKO2CIDYs6jd2V4Vf26IALcbaWmgvGC6Cuq0/edit?ts=6447b62f
Geoff Day Memorial 5k
Another date for your diary is the Geoff Day Memorial 5k on 19th July. We really want a big turn out for this one, let’s make it a celebration of running – the thing that Geoff loved. We will be running the 5k route and afterwards we will have some nibbles and a bit of a social in the hall.
For those that are newer in the club, you might not know about Geoff – some notes about his life, and excellent running career, can be found on the GBRC website. Most will probably know that Geoff still sits at the top of many of our GBRC all-time top 10s. His son Ryan is known to most of is too, although he now runs in a green vest!
Friday 5 marshalling
A reminder that we need as many of the club as possible to volunteer to marshal at our Friday 5 on July 7th. We need people to help at the junior race (we will need you from 6pm) and at our Senior Race. Please email Matt Laverack if you can marshal.
Note that if you want to run our Friday 5, you need to volunteer to marshal to have a chance of being drawn in the ballot – please don’t enter online.
For the junior race, entry is free for the children of GBRC members. Please see your emails for information on this. Essentially you will need to fill out the form and send to Marion or I and we will ensure your child gets on the start list! Let me know if you need the form re-sent to you.
Essex Way Relay
We had so much fun last year, so we are going to put teams into the Essex Way Relay again. Look out for an email for details of how to sign up. For now, just save the date: 3 September 2023!
Club Champs & Performance Standards
There have been many new members this year, and perhaps some older ones who have forgotten, so here is a reminder:
To claim club champs you need to contact Paul Davison with the race and your time achieved.
Paul is not going to monitor who is running what race so you need to tell him of achievements!
There are some fine print rules … so check out the club champs section of our website: https://gbrc.org.uk/our-races/club-champs/
Similarly, performance (star) standards need to be claimed, we cannot monitor everyone! You need to contact Sue with your achievement at the gbrcstandards@gmail.com email and she can award your standard.
Details of what the standards are, and how to claim them are here: https://gbrc.org.uk/about/club-performance-standards/
Best of Luck!
Training
We are now approaching the warmer weather, so please remember to hydrate before training. I have also found myself starting to burn when out running, so make sure to cream up and protect your skin!
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.
And details of training will always be on our website. (which has become particularly useful as I think Doodle have changed the allowed format of the polls)
Membership Subs: have you paid?
Subs have been due now since the AGM and we really are getting to the end of the grace period. If you have yet to pay, and want your membership to continue, please do contact Nick Goodman asap.
If you have not paid by mid-June (and not contacted Nick) he will assume you no longer want to be a member, and benefits of membership (including being within the Facebook group) will be removed.
I understand from Nick about 50 people have yet to pay so if that is you, and you want to stay with us, get in touch with Nick at greatbentleyrc@gmail.com. He will be able to issue you the link to pay and discuss any issues regarding payment with you in confidence.
Our Ladies Squad
Due to the processing of membership subs, everyone shows on the list as a new member at the moment. So welcome to all ladies!
What we did
This month our ladies how been out running in force. There was so much for me to look at and think about: from PBs at the May Day 10 mile, to PBs at Mickey Edwards on the last day of the month. Running included (but was certainly not limited to): parkruns; the Colchester 10k; the Colchester Half; the Stampede 10k; Obstacle course running; Layer 5 event; moonwalk marathons; Hare & Tortoise; Big Bear Cider Run; trail runs all over; the start of the Friday 5 series; HBO; …
For those who want to catch up on past exploits, the race reports can be found here: https://gbrc.org.uk/category/race-reports/
I also want to say special thank you to all of you who helped out at the Colchester Half Marathon. Your time and energy meant that so many people could achieve both running and fundraising goals. It means a lot!
In summary: an amazing month, well done ladies!
Runner of the month
We reach Runner of the Month. This month there were so many performances to look at and this was really a hard decision.
This lady has been with the club for many years and most of you will know her because she is so generous with her time: taking training sessions and helping out at our races. During this month this lady has run her fastest parkrun since May 2019; she also ran the Colchester 10k in a time she hasn’t beaten since 2017 (according to runbritain). If post-covid-PBs are a thing, she’s chalking them up!
So many congratulations to Marion Simmons! Thank you for giving your time to our club, and well done on some excellent 2023 performances.
Great Bentley Running Club 