Ladies’ August newsletter

· by · in Captain's Newsletters. ·

Well, that’s it – August slipped away into a moment in time, and this newsletter will contain talk of winter, mud and even the ‘C’ word. With that warning issued, we begin with the ‘news and notices’.  

News and notices

GBRC parkrun socials

This Saturday (7 September) sees the start our club’s Autumn parkrun socials, organised by Jon and Charlie. This weekend we’ll be heading to Clare Castle parkrun in Sudbury for a run and coffee.

The other upcoming dates are:

Hope to see many of you there!

Cross country (XC)

XC season is upon us, and Meera provided some extremely useful information by email about all things cross country, including key dates and a ‘beginners’ guide’ for anyone new to it. I won’t repeat the comprehensive information in there, but can confirm the key dates are:

NESS League (our main league):

  • Sunday 27 October 2024 – Ipswich
  • Sunday 8 December 2024 – Gosfield
  • Sunday 12 January 2025 – Writtle
  • Sunday 26 January 2025 – Harwich
  • Sunday 23 February – Hadleigh
  • Sunday 9 March – our club fixture at Hilly Fields

Please keep the above dates free. We’ll need a lot of support to host our fixture on 9 March, and we also want to put out strong teams with high numbers of runners in the other fixtures to help us maintain our position in Pool A of the NESS League (which was in jeopardy last season!)

Essex League:

  • Saturday 5 October 2024 – Hainault Forest
  • Saturday 26 October 2024 – Gloucester Park, Basildon
  • Saturday 16 November 2024 – Hilly Fields, Colchester
  • Saturday 30 November 2024 – Writtle College
  • Saturday 8 February 2025 – Hockley

Other XC dates:

  • Saturday 12 October 2024 – XC relays
  • Saturday 16 December 2024 – Veteran (age 40+) County Championships
  • Saturday 4 January 2025 – County Championships

Join us for some muddy, team-based fun this season – it’s more enjoyable than this gloomy photo suggests!

Awards Night – Saturday 7 December 2024

Don’t forget to save the date for our annual Awards Night party at Great Bentley Village Hall on the evening of Saturday 7 December. It’s a great opportunity to celebrate all of your achievements this year, as well as an opportunity to don our party outfits and socialise in the run up to Christmas.

There’s a NESS fixture the next day but that won’t stop us enjoying ourselves! It will, however, mean that the usual Chairman’s breakfast at the hall will be replaced with running XC at Gosfield followed by hot drinks and cakes! No better way to shake off a couple of drinks, I hear.

Club Champs

A reminder that our club champs is for 2023-24 is open until 10 November. Club champs are awards for the fastest person in each age group for an officially measured race, for distances from 5k to marathon, given out at Awards Night.

Times must be submitted by within 30 days of the event where you achieved the time you’re submitting. You can find out more and view the current standings on the Club Champs webpage. Many awards go unclaimed each year, so even if you don’t think your time is that “fast”, it’s definitely worth checking!

Great Bentley trail run series

The fourth and final trail run in the series is now on the webpage and takes in the countryside around Bures. Don’t forget to complete it by the end of September if you want to claim a free t-shirt (if you have completed all four runs)!

Training

You can keep track of which training sessions are on offer each week through our Training webpage and the weekly polls that Head Coach Caroline sends by email. Please start to look out your hi-vis gear and lights as the evenings draw in!

Track fans will be pleased to here that weekly sessions at the Northern Gateway Sports Park will resume on Thursday, 19 September.

Our Ladies Squad

What we did this month

Typically August is a quieter month for races, but you have been very busy ladies this month. Two Essex championships races took place in August – the Essex 5k championships at the Colchester Sports Park, which Inga and I took part in, and the Ingatestone 5 mile race, which Inga, Mags and I enjoyed. The club held its own 5k memorial race for former club member Geoff Day, which had a great turnout and was supported by his family and their friends.

Other local events included the Clacton half marathon (Donna Harris) and 10k (Louise Balfour, Sarah Blewden, Catherine Ott and Katie Siggery). Congratulations to Catherine for being first in her age category at this event! Caroline Searle travelled a little further for her 10k, to Sandbach in Cheshire, where she found lots of sunshine and blue skies.

Regular long distance runner Larina Marsh completed the Stour Valley Path 50k Ultra in 7:17:50, and Helene Tyler took on the 32 mile LDWA ‘Open to Offas’ event with her sister. Impressive distances in some warm conditions, well done ladies!

Parkrun tourism was also in full swing for the summer, with Deborah Hollidge glowing green at Sizewell, Kelly Hayhoe catching up on the club’s parkrun tourism schedule with a visit to Rendlesham Forest and Andrea Markwick enjoying a nice easy run around Guildford parkrun. Bee Harris also visited the only parkrun that takes place in two countries – Severn Bridge.

Runner of the Month

Our ROM is an impressive lady who inspires us all with her long-distance pursuits. Barely a month goes by when she hasn’t completed a challenging event, and this month she completed the Isle of Man marathon in an incredible time of 5:03.

Our ROM is Fiona Gosling!