It is April Fools Day, so I have been trying to think of lots of funny jokes for this month’s newsletter. I have not thought of any… so let’s get straight on to the notices!

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” 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 the 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!

As always, continue to fill in the 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.

Parkrun and Social, including XC runner of the year – 8^th June

On 8^th June we will be heading to Harwich parkrun to start our social morning. This will be followed by coffee / snacks at the Pavilion, Dovercourt Bay. We will also use this morning to announce who has been voted Ladies XC runner of the year.

Voting for Ladies XC runner of the year will take place in May and will be based on the XC season from October 2023 to March this year. I will send out the voting spreadsheet and collect your votes using a google form.

For now, just pop the date of our social morning in your diary and look out for the voting email next month.

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 compared to last year. Whilst the committee really wanted to keep subs as low as possible however there has been a rise in fee per athlete from England Athletics, which has increased by £2 this year.

We 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. To ensure we can provide the club benefits we wish to, subs this year will be £30 per person; of which £19 goes to England Athletics, and £11 to the club.

[For reference, subs last year were £28, of which £17 went to EA and £11 to the club]

I hope that you will agree with me that given everything the club offers, this membership fee remains one of the best in the region.

AGM

The Annual General Meeting for the club is on Wednesday 3^rd 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.

Race Reporting

You may be aware that Lisa, Caroline and Charlie have all stepped down as race reporters and so we are looking for new race reporters. Is this something you would like to try?

The race reports have been key part of celebrating the achievements of members over the years and I know from experience that sitting down and looking at what everyone has done over a weekend and then writing about it can be incredibly inspiring.

If you are interested in becoming a new race reporter, get in touch with Caroline, Charlie or Lisa. You won’t regret it!

Mickey Edwards – 1^st May

The Mickey Edwards 5k series will begin on 1^st May and be held every other week until 26^th June. We hope that as many of you as possible come along to take part. You will note that for ME weeks, there is no speed endurance training on Thursday, so you can really give it all you have on a Wednesday night!

Ekiden – 7^th July

Please save the date for this year’s Ekiden Relays. This is always a really fun club event, open to all abilities. We have provisionally booked for GBRC 10 teams, which means 60 people can take part! Get the date in the diary and don’t forget to sign up when the email comes nearer the time.

Club Kit

A reminder that if you need club kit, please contact Barbara (you can contact her through the website or through facebook). Barbara is not going to lug all of the club kit along to every session, so let her know if you are after something specific.

Next XC season

Firstly, I would like to thank Vicky Presland for her years of service as XC ambassador. This has involved going to NESS league meetings, but also ensuring that we have our gazebo available at events, providing tables for us to put cakes on and things like that.

Vicky (and Phil) have done this role for so long that people probably didn’t even notice it was being done. However, it is time this year for the mantle to be passed. So, if you are able to help with transport of the gazebo, hot water flasks, cake tables etc for XC next year (even if not for all events) please let me know.

If more than one person comes forward, we will arrange a rota once the XC dates are confirmed. This is probably the ideal situation as then the job is shared. Teamwork makes the dream work.

Our Ladies Squad

A warm welcome to any new ladies in our squad. I hope to meet more of our members now the summer months are arriving, and I am able to attend training more often.

What we did

You have all been very busy this month. I must say congratulations to the ladies who took a team prize at the Dave Wright’s 15-mile race. There were also some stunning individual performances that day, with both the 7.5 and the 15-mile races having blue vested ladies on the podium.

A good group of you headed out to the Grizzly, which I hear was as tough as ever. Kudos to you all. Closer to home there were a great number at the Colchester Half Marathon. Despite the drizzle I think the feedback was positive.

As we move into Marathon season, I have been keeping an eye on those of you who are in training. Well done on getting those long runs done and best of luck in the coming month.

I also salute those members who have completed ultra marathons this month. Going beyond 26 miles requires a pretty strong pair of legs and an even stronger mind. Well done to you ladies, an inspiration to be sure.

There are also some members who this month are returning to running after illness and injury. Again I speak from experience when I say, take it easy and be kind to yourselves as you get back into it. It is great to see you back and I hope that recovery continues to go well.

Not to forget the shorter distance, there were some parkrun milestones achieved by you this month. Well done. Focusing in on those parkrun milestones is one way of ensuring consistency in your training and a worthwhile goal. Be proud of those milestone t-shirts!

And I look back to the start of the month when we gathered in Bromley village hall for our 10-mile race. Well done to all of you who ran and helped ensure we retained the trophy. We were outnumbered and it really came down to the last few runners – so if that was you, and you pushed to gain that one extra place ahead of a Harwich runner, thanks from all of us. Thank you also to those who volunteered and made the race happen.

Runner of the month

We reach Runner of the Month.

Most months Lisa and I have a debate about ROM. This month there was no debate.

There has been a lady this month who has run her heart out after a block of serious and dedicated training. She was nervous. She didn’t think she could do it. But on 3^rd March she stormed around 13.1 miles in a time of 1:33:32 and put herself into the 5^th slot on the all-time top 10 list. She then debated whether her legs were too tired to take on 15 miles only three weeks later; but they must have been fine as a second PB was achieved at the Dave Wright’s 15 mile in a time of 1:54:21.

She also reached her 150^th parkrun this month and dragged this here cappy round Colchester castle in fastest time since pre-covid. Some wizardry indeed.

So it is with great pleasure and to no surprise to anyone that I name this months Runner of the Month as Lisa Briggs.