Hi ladies! The fireworks I can hear while writing this are serving as an excellent reminder that October is behind us and it’s time for your monthly newsletter, bringing you the important news and notices as we head into the winter season, as well as celebrating your many achievements in the last month!

News and notices

Cross country (XC) season has begun

XC season has begun, with the first fixture in our main XC league, the NESS league, having taken place in Ipswich on Sunday 28 October. However, one of the best things about XC is that you can do as many or as few of the fixtures as you like, and join in at any time. So don’t worry if you couldn’t make it to Ipswich – come and join us at one (or all!) of the upcoming NESS League fixtures, which are:

• Sunday 8 December 2024 – Gosfield
• Sunday 12 January 2025 – Writtle
• Sunday 26 January 2025 – Harwich
• Sunday 9 March – our club fixture at Hilly Fields – we’ll be seeking volunteers to help with this one, so please keep this date free in particular!

Don’t forget to read Meera’s email with the key information about all things cross country. For the NESS league, no need to enter in advance, and you can just turn up on the day in your blue club top and run!  

We still need offers of help with bringing the club gazebo, table, flasks etc to the NESS races, so please contact Meera (meerarajoo@googlemail.com) if you are able to help with this for one of the fixtures. Huge thanks to Scott, Claudia and Gary who brought this along to Ipswich. We aim to have a rota to share the load, and I’m sure we’ll all be glad of a gazebo and hot drinks when the proper winter weather sets in.

Outside of the NESS league, other upcoming XC dates are:

Essex Cross Country League dates:

• Saturday 16 November 2024 – Hilly Fields, Colchester
• Saturday 30 November 2024 – Writtle College
• Saturday 8 February 2025 – Hockley

If you want to run in the Essex League, you need to enter yourself online via the ‘Roster Athletics’ website (I recommend doing this on a PC in the browser, rather than on a phone or in the app) by setting up an account, adding yourself as an ‘athlete’ to that account, and registering for the Essex Cross Country League under ‘Competitions’.

Other XC dates:

• Saturday 16 December 2024 at Epping Forest – Veteran (age 40+) County Championships. Please email Mags (magskom.com@gmail.com) by 5 December at the latest to enter this event.
  
• Saturday 4 January 2025 at Basildon – County Championships – an email will follow about this soon.

As you can see, there are plenty of opportunities to join in with the XC fun, all kindly funded by the club, so why not give it a go?

Club Champs 2023-24

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. Don’t forget to submit your time to Paul Davison (GBRCraceresults@hotmail.com) by the deadline.

Awards Night attendance– Saturday 7 December 2024

Our annual Awards Night party is taking at Great Bentley Village Hall on the evening of Saturday 7 December, giving us an opportunity to don our glad rags, celebrate achievements, socialise and party (until 10.30pm anyway, since we have XC the next day and we will turn into pumpkins if the clock strikes 10.35pm). Distribution of club champs and awards starts promptly at 7pm, so please arrive in good time before then, and bring your own drinks, nibbles etc.

The usual Chairman’s breakfast at the hall the next morning is being replaced with running XC at Gosfield followed by hot drinks and cakes.

We’d love as many of you as possible to join us at our Awards Night, and you are welcome to bring a +1. Mags has sent an email with all the information. Please complete this google form to confirm your attendance.

Awards Night voting – DEADLINE 10 NOVEMBER

To ensure that we have awards to give out on the night, we really need your votes! There are a range of awards to vote for, but you don’t have to vote in every category, and Mags has prepared some helpful spreadsheets for categories like ‘Veterans (40+)’ and ‘Newcomers’.

Please submit your votes, which will be collected by our Chairman Paul D, via this google form by 10 November at the latest.

GBRC parkrun socials

The previous parkrun socials at Clare and Thornham Walks have been really enjoyable, and a great way to get out on the trails as part of your cross country training! The next two club social are at:

• Bury St Edmunds – 23 November
• Highwoods – 7 December

Hope to see many of you there for a nice run out followed by a coffee to warm up afterwards.

Fish and chip run – Wednesday 18 December

It’s beginning to look a lot like … fish and chip time! Join us for the club’s annual run round the village to see the Christmas lights followed by fish and chips in the village hall, starting at 7pm on 18 December. You can find the menu to order your food on the Facebook group or in the email Mags has circulated.

GBRC vs Harwich – 10-mile race – Sunday 5 January 2025

It’s not until the new year, but keep the date free for our interclub 10 mile race against Harwich Runners. A great course, perfect for a 10-mile PB, plus of course we’d like to beat our rivals (in a friendly way)! If you can’t run, why not keep the date free to marshal and cheer on our runners?

Great Bentley half marathon – Sunday 2 February 2025

Entries for one of the most popular running events in the local area sold out in a matter of hours, and now we need you to keep the date free so that we can deliver the fantastic race that those runners expect! Race Director Mel will be seeking volunteers for marshalling and the many other roles associated with putting this event on safely, and will be in touch to request names for this. In the meantime, please keep the date free to volunteer your time for this important event, which raises a large proportion of our club funds that go towards our training, entry to XC and relay events, social events like Awards Night and so much more.

Our Ladies Squad

What we did this month

Here’s a whistle stop tour through a busy month. I doubt I have captured everything you did, but hopefully it covers the highlights!

Firstly, I’d like to celebrate those of you who represented us in team events this month. Tonie Wilson, Eileen Shadford and Caroline Searle made up our ladies team at the county XC relay championships and did a sterling job (some of them even ran a little bit extra, they were that committed!) It was also great to see the camaraderie among our ladies squad in full force at the first fixture of the NESS XC league, where we cheered each other on to a 4^th place finish in Pool A of the league. The team element is my favourite part of XC and I can’t wait to enjoy the rest of the season with all of you.

There were also a huge number of achievements on a personal level. Magdalena Komorowska achieved a marathon PB in Poznan and Sammy Cotton added to her world majors’ stars collection by completing the Chicago marathon alongside husband Martin.

Parkrun tourism took our ladies to Coldham’s Common (which I can only assume was for the Pirates (7 Cs and an R!) parkrun challenge, based on the excellent outfits) and even took Bee Harris to not one but two German parkruns (Rheinpark and Aachener Weiher)!

Myself, Inga Hayden-Cooper, Kelly Hayhoe, Rachel Rodgers and Sue Wright took on the Tiptree 10 mile race, with Larina Marsh also there on pacing duties. Others tried out the new Clacton Seafront 10k race. Shout out to our very own Mel for being the Race Director for this event, which seemed to be a big success, and Eileen Shadford for a second place age group finish.

At the Layer 5 race, Kelly Hayhoe, she placed second female and was rewarded with a lovely trophy.

Congratulations everyone who ran this month! There’s only one person left to mention in the next section of the newsletter …

Runner of the Month

There have been so many and varied achievements this month that it was difficult for Meera and I to choose just one. However, this lady really stood out for her resilience, and her dedication to training and racing even in difficult circumstances. She didn’t just complete the notoriously-challenging Snowdonia Marathon in a great time, she even had to run over 2 miles just to reach the start due to travel issues. Now that’s dedication!

I think I can speak for us all when I say we are so proud of her and inspired by her. Our ROM for October is … Caroline Searle!