Hello and welcome to the monthly review for October. It’s been another odd month with lots going on virtually and actually.
We’ll start with the virtual London Marathon. The actual race was moved from it’s traditional end of April date to avoid a clash with the Corsham 10K and possibly because of that pesky Coronavirus. The date was rearranged for the beginning of October but as the date got nearer, it was looking less likely that the new date was possible and sadly it did get called off (for all but the elites), however London encouraged their runners to do a virtual version while the elites ran 19 laps of St. James’s Park.
The virtual version was to be run on the same raceday but on whatever course you fancied, unfortunately that raceday was wet, wet, wet. Stuart Henderson and Brian Atkins both did the same route near Chippenham and supported by many other club members they completed in 3:07 and 3:38 respectively.
Wendy Byrne (raising money for Prostate Cancer) ran her own course, with family for support, and despite the constant rain and a knee injury which flared up just 3 weeks before she finished in a little under 5 and a half hours.
On the same date as virtual London, Devizes half actually took place. With lots of different measures in place to protect runners and volunteers. Gary Young, Chris Hunt, Michael Luff and Max Luff all took part with Max getting a sub-2 half marathon for the first time in many years. Also taking part was Laura Midwinter, who of course scooped another prize for the trophy cabinet.
Of course, some people got carried away like Richard Biggs. He did the Devizes half and then did another 13.1 miles along the canal towpath to complete virtual London.
Also going sub-2 for a half marathon was Caroline Cozier as she did the Hullavington half. Another actual race with precautions in place and another actual half marathon for Chris Hunt too.
Taking slightly longer for their race were Susan Mackie, and David Mackie as they did A Run With No Witty Name (or ARWNWN for short). Roughly 50K around southern Wiltshire. Lots of mud, lots of fun. Look out for a full report from Dave, which will be posted 6th November.
Well done to everyone who has done a race recently – virtual or actual. It’s been a tough year for racing so great to see people out.
The Mackies also led some of our runners for a Halloween special Full Moon run in the Bybrook/Slaughterford valley between Colerne and Box. A great time had by all, nothing too spooky happened but everyone came back smiling and covered in mud, which sounds perfect.
Sadly, following the government announcement at the weekend, we’ve had to cancel our training sessions for the next 4 weeks as well as the Anniversary Waltz. The training sessions have been a great addition to the calendar since we were allowed to reconvene, many people mixing groups and meeting new friends and being able to run on different days allowed more people to attend at least one session a week.
Hopefully, we’ll see you all again at the start of December. When we do return, please note the booking priorities published below. Please let the committee know if you have any feedback on the booking system or sessions offered.
- 1 session can be booked on release of the training sessions a week before
- A 2nd session can be booked within 24 hours of the session closing in spaces remain
- A 3rd session can be booked within 12 hours of the session closing in spaces remain
Lockdown can be tough for some people and we want everyone to feel supported during this time. Jan Forsyth is setting up a WhatsApp group for anyone who is looking for a running buddy. If you’d like to be included in the group then please contact Jan.
As with the first Lockdown, Andrew Wood is hosting Strength and Conditioning sessions (you’ve already missed the first one) through Facebook. These were hugely popular last time and hopefully will help keep people connected this time. Please contact the committee if you’re not on Facebook and we can put you in contact with Andrew to get a non-Facebook link.
The CRC AGM is also going to be taking place online. The date will be Friday 29th January 2021 (time tbc) and the committee are currently working out the details of how this will happen. The members will be informed as soon as possible, but hold the date if you can.
That’s enough of lockdowns and meeting on computers, lets have some good news. After one of his recent sessions, the progress of Chris Cooke was highlighted. He joined us a few years ago on one of our beginner sessions, taking 10 weeks to go from coach to 5K. On completion of that, he joined group C, shortly moving to group B. However, this recent session was a group A session. It’s been great to watch Chris’ progress over time and congratulations to him.
Although please don’t think we expect everyone to run in group A, run in whatever group you’re happy to run in, just keep on running.
It can’t have escaped anyone’s notice that the temperatures have started to drop and this seems like a good opportunity to promote some kit. We have Hoodies, Jackets, long sleeved kit and buffs (which can also be used as a face covering). If you require anything, please speak to Vicky Henderson or email kit@corshamrunningclub.co.uk
And finally – There seems to be a trend recently of our members getting dog and especially dogs which can join us on runs. This has meant seeing some gorgeous pups on our Facebook page recently and they do make great company for runs, even if they do silently judge you for running too slowly
