LADIES’ NEWSLETTER – NOVEMBER 2024 | Great Bentley Running Club

Hi ladies,
Happy December! I hope this festive season is treating you all well.
I am writing this just before the annual awards night and am looking forward to seeing loads of you there.
Straight on to the news and notices!

News and Notices
Awards Night
The votes are in, and the trophies are being engraved. The committee is very much looking forward to welcoming everyone to awards night on Saturday 7th December. For those who need some final reminders the key information is:

Venue is the village hall in Great Bentley;
we will start the ceremony at 7 so please arrive before then to settle in;
there is no cost to coming, so just turn up!
bring your own food and drink. Like last year we are not catering the event and so people can bring what they like or eat before they come if preferred;
wear your glad rags as after the ceremony there will be dancing!

Cross country – Gosfield 8th December
The next NESS event is the day after awards night on 8th December. We hope to see lots of you in your blue vests ready to take on the muddy Gosfield course.
Race info has been emailed from me on 1st December, and can be found on the NESS website (North Essex & South Suffolk XC league).
Key info is:

8th December;
Gosfield School, Halstead Road, Gosfield, CO9 1PF;
junior race at 10am, adult race at 10:45;
the course is 5 miles;
wear suitable off-road footwear if you can – it will be muddy!

Fish and chips run
The annual fish and chips run is on 18 December.
Please let Marion know if you are coming by ticking “going” on the Facebook event in the GBRC group, and commenting your menu choice in that event.
Any questions please contact Marion (Ballot O’Simmons on Facebook).

Essex Champs XC
Entry to Essex Champs is now open and can be made via this link: https://www.atwevents.co.uk/e/essex-xc-championships-10046
Details of the race can be found at the above link as well as being emailed from me on 23 November.
As you probably know, entry into XC events is included in your club membership, and so we will be ensuring those who run on the day get refunded their entry fee. Feel free to email me if you have questions about that.
The event organisers are also looking for helpers to marshal the course, so if you are able to help, please let them know.

GBRC 10 mile race: GBRC vs HRR
On 5 January we will be putting on the annual competition against Harwich. In this race, we run 10 miles and every runner scores! The club with the most points by the end of the race is the winner but I think the real winners are all the participants as the course is fast and so can be a good test over 10 miles.
If you don’t fancy running, please let Tom know if you can help out marshalling.
More information is here on the GBRC website: GBRC vs Harwich inter club road race‏ | Great Bentley Running Club

GBRC half marathon
You will no doubt be aware of how important the GBRC half marathon is for our club. This is the main income for the club each year and entry fees for the race enable us to provide benefits such as free XC, trail runs with t shirts in the summer and track training at the sports park.
If you can help support the club and marshal the race, please fill in this form for Mel https://forms.office.com/r/jFvcuUNijB

GBRC NESS race on 9 March
The final race of this year’s NESS league is hosted by us and not only will we need a team running in the field, but I will need volunteers to help me put the race on.
Please hold the date in your diary so we are able to fill all of the marshal spots. I will be emailing out with a form to gather volunteers in due course.

Trail Run t-shirts 2024
Rodger is still awaiting the delivery of the trail run t-shirts. Latest news is that these will not be ready until 17th December; perhaps Santa will bring them! I am sure Rodger will update us when they arrive and collection can be arranged.

What we did
So looking back at November, what did we get up to? Right at the start of the month was the Wix 5 mile and Stebbing 10 mile. Both races had some excellent representation from the club with an Essex medal being secured at one and a top 10 performance at the other.
We also had ladies at parkruns all over. I think the furthest away this month was Dublin, as well as closer to home at Bury where we had our social, and our local haunts in and around Colchester.
There were two Essex league XCs this month and for the first time the ladies fielded a complete team in this league. It would be great to get more ladies at these in the future.
In warmer climes our runners travelled to Benidorm, celebrating half marathons and half centuries (I hear!)
Well done to all who ran this month!

Runner of the month
This month was exceptionally hard to decide and I had a battle with myself on this one! However, I hope you will agree with me that this lady deserves the accolade. In the last month she has ran her fastest 5 mile race since 2018, smashing her goal time of 37:30 and coming home in 36:22.
She also ran in both Essex league events, Hilly Fields and Writtle achieving a top half finish in both races. She even managed to smile at Hilly Fields as she went past Eric!