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Volume 12 Issue 10 Newsletter for Desford Striders Running Club October 2011
R.A.C.E.S. Challenge Handicap Trophy
T his year’s competition is starting to hot up and is looking like it could be a very close affair, as we currently have Gary Grimsley and Sean Tebbutt sitting joint top of the table on 228
points.
Sean scored a third place at both the Huncote 5 and John Fraser 10, whilst Gary was second at Huncote, but faltered a little at the Countesthorpe event, scoring just 38 points. This was probably down the extra training he did by running to the race with Dave Playford!
Not too far behind is Graham Hobbs, who recovered a little in the fifth race after a poor result at the Huncote 5. However, the dark horse to watch and possibly worth a flutter at the bookies, is Paul Carnegie. He has missed one just one race so far and scored three wins from four.
His latest triumphs were at the last two LRRL races and whilst he is currently lying fifth in the table, the final
scores will have each runners three worst results removed. So, with 5 events to go he is in with a good chance. At the time of writing the club run took place on the 8th Sept., but I’m awaiting confirmation of the result. By the way many thanks to Paddy Crowe for acting as time keeper at the club run.
The results and latest table are here for you and thanks to Chris Minto for calculat-ing these figures. The dates for the remaining fixtures have now been set and they are listed here, stick ‘em in your diary so you don’t forget!
Huncote 5
Handicap Results Combined
Time Pts.
Carnegie, Paul 53:21 50
Grimsley, Gary 55:05 49
Tebbutt, Sean 55:20 48
Marfleet, Karen 55:51 47
Crowe, Emily 55:57 46
Foley, Tabitha 56:40 45
Gill, Lesley 56:40 45
Lord, Pam 56:50 43
Bradshaw, Paul 56:58 42
Shade, John 57:03 41
Playford, Marie 57:06 40
Playford, David 57:09 39
Speed, Gavin 57:25 38
Barber, Lee 57:27 37
Glover, Nicola 57:40 36
Billington, Richard 57:41 35
Hobbs, Graham 57:45 34
Bailey, Steven 57:46 33
Goddard, Paul 57:58 32
Foley, Mark 58:01 31
Green, Joanne 58:28 30
Billington, Mhairi 59:27 29
Lea, David 59:31 28
Long, Henry 59:58 27
Trotman, Nigel 1:01:06 26
Morris, June 1:01:58 25
Morris, Steve 1:02:22 24
Hibben, Steve 1:08:31 23
To have a time recorded at the Parkruns, you need to register your-self. It’s very straight forward and easy to do. Just go on to their web-site, register, print off your barcode and bring that along to the run. You only have to register the once, but don’t forget the barcode! No bar-code, no time! Also they are free, so you won’t need any cash.
Just enter Braunstone Parkrun in Google and you’ll find the site.
Paul Carnegie comes home at the
John Fraser 10 and win number 3.
Remaining H/cap races.
Braunstone Parkrun - October 15 Desford xc - 23rd October Merrylees Sun Club Run - October 30 Conkers Parkrun - November 12
Countesthorpe 10
Handicap Results Combined
Time Pts.
Carnegie, Paul 1:51:34 50
Barber, Lee 1:54:04 49
Tebbutt, Sean 1:54:30 48
Evans, Ruth 1:55:19 47
Smith, Sarah 1:56:02 46
Hobbs, Graham 1:56:07 45
Bradshaw, Paul 1:56:19 44
Marfleet, Karen 1:57:20 43
Speed, Gavin 1:58:36 42
Billington, Mhairi 1:59:36 41
Long, Henry 1:59:44 40
Grimsley, Gary 2:01:11 39
Trotman, Nigel 2:03:29 38
Playford, David 2:04:56 37
Handicap Table
After 5 races Pts.
Grimsley, Gary 228
Tebbutt, Sean 228
Hobbs, Graham 219
Barber, Lee 205
Carnegie, Paul 193
Playford, David 182
Crowe, Emily 164
Glover, Nicola 164
Long, Henry 145
Goddard, Paul 141
Billington, Mhairi 139
Bradshaw, Paul 129
Hurd, Andrew 126
Speed, Gavin 118
Billington, Richard 116
Marfleet, Karen 113
Dixon, Lisa 110
Bailey, Steven 108
Playford, Marie 107
Richards, Amanda 94
Trotman, Nigel 90
Evans, Ruth 89
Lord, Pam 89
Smith, Sarah 85
Hibben, Steve 84
Dixon, Mark 67
Green, Joanne 66
Goodrich, Mark 63
Birch, Gary 58
Grewcock, David 50
Cave, Liz 48
Houghton, Jim 47
Vernon, L 46
Foley, Mark 45
Shade, John 41
Ackland, Neil 37
Breen, Francis 35
Marvin, Peter 29
Lea, David 28
Hobbs, Marie 25
Morris, June 25
Holmes, Valda 24
Morris, Steve 24
Paul scores wins
two and three!
Don’t Forget
THE NEWSTRIDER Page 2 THE NEWSTRIDER Page 2
W hat an incredibly strange start to the
2011/12 Cross-country Season! Not only was
the ground as dry as a bone, the weather
was hotter than anything the vast majority of us have
ever experienced in a ‘Winter’ cross-country race.
Reaching the high 20s, the hot sun beat down on us,
creating very unexpected conditions.
It was a complete contrast to last year’s opening race,
which was the same venue of Sth. Charnwood High
School, which was run in torrential rain. I’ve no doubt
that this year’s conditions suited the spectators more
than the runners!
Anyway, a disappointingly small, but nevertheless
enthusiastic, band of 16 Striders made the short trip to Thornton for this opening run and included
at least three ‘first timers’ to the cross-country league. They were Mark Foley, Anne Robertson and,
new member, Ali Ide. They all had good runs and whilst I don’t want to diminish Mark’s efforts, spe-
cial congratulations to Anne and Ali as they were both a little nervous beforehand (an understate-
ment in Anne’s case!), but as they both, hopefully realised, it’s not
about whether o not you win the race, it’s about turning up and
taking part…..and enjoying it!!!
The course was 5 1/4 miles in length and consisted of some quite
testing inclines. But not as testing as the field of bullocks we had
to go through….twice! Most of the them just stared at us impas-
sively, but 4 or 5 decided they didn’t want to be with their mates
on the right. No the wanted to join their friends on the left! So
they trotted toward the long line of runners and thankfully waited
for a gap and charged across. Certainly helps your speed when
they are behind you!
Once we passed our four legged friends we
headed off into the countryside and were
taken on an undulating route which also
took us down to the edge of Foremark Reser-
voir, before heading back and up a leg ach-
ing long incline, before twisting and turning
back onto the school playing fields.
Richard Billington was back in his expected
place as first Strider home in 36:29 and fin-
ishing 40th. Graham Hobbs was next in and was pleased with his 66th placing.
He in turn was followed by Gavin Speed in 42:37. It was also very warming to
see Duncan Percy getting back to racing, as it was to see Brian Moran running.
In respect of the ladies, we unfortunately had just three turn out, two of whom
I’ve already mentioned, Anne and Ali finished 58th and 92nd respectively.
They were led home by Mhairi Billington, who continues to make good pro-
gress on her return from injury and finished the course in 47:45, in 34th place.
Our sincere thanks to Paddy Crowe for taking the money and compiling the
Striders results. Also to Marie Hobs for the photographs, a few of which are
here for you, the rest having been posted on the club’s ‘photo site and the excellent cakes, most of
which disappeared very quickly after the run. . The results are also here should you be interested.
Also, very happy to see young Francis Breen out and running after his recent ‘turn’ up at SiD. It
takes more than a short stint in A&E to keep him down!
Derby Runner Cross-country League
Sth. Charnwood
Results
Men Pos Time
R. Billington 40 36:29
G. Hobbs 66 38:42
G. Speed 128 42:37
D. Percy 141 43:29
B. Moran 159 45:22
G. Grimsley 190 47:58
G. Birch 211 49:49
N. Trotman 212 49:58
M. Foley 214 50:16
H. Long 223 51:51
J. Shade 225 51:53
M. Hill 237 54:41
F. Breen 239 56:22
Ladies M. Billington 34 47:45
A. Robertson 58 50:56
A. Ide 92 57:56
Brian Moran heads for the final turn
before the finish at the first XC race.
Ali Ide sits on the shoulder of a Wreake
lady, ready to pounce!
THE NEWSTRIDER Page 3
All distances are approximate and could be out
Date Name Dist Name Dist
13-10 Kirkby Mallory + Track 7.5 Kirby Mallory 5.7
20-10 Round Desford 5/7 Round Desford 5
Back to winter running
Thursday Summer Club Running Many thanks to Desford Striders’ very own Route Meister, Francis Breen, for once again preparing the Summer run schedule.
Got anything for the newsletter?
Articles, photos, etc??
Please forward to: Graham Hobbs
or
146 Kirkby Road,
Barwell, LE9 8FS
Below: Matthew Ratnett and Ed Percy
wait for the start of the Year 1 and 6 race.
Derby Runner Cross-country League 2011/12 Fixtures
23 Oct - Bagworth Heath 20 Nov - Foremark Reservoir 4 Dec - TBA 11 Jan - Grace Dieu 1 in Feb - Bosworth Country Park
All races start at 11.00 a.m., the junior races at 10.30. The senior races this year are now £3, but the juniors remain at £1.
T he good news about the teams is that
the ladies managed to hold on to their
Division 1 status as only one team got
relegated. Unfortunately the mixed team
was not so lucky and will now compete in Division
two. The men, who finished middle of the table
last season, remain in Division one.
In respect of the Charnwood event the three
teams unfortunately struggled to score any high
points. As it turned out we were we lowest scor-
ing team in each division. The good news for the
men was that Derby Tri were unable to get a
scoring team out, so scored nothing.
The tables are here for you to have a look at,
hopefully we’ll get more runners out at the re-
maining races.
Team - Div 2
Pts
Leicester Tri 15
Hermitage 14
Derwent 13
Huncote 12
Wigston 11
Birstall 10
Desford 9
Beaumont 0
Charnwood Tri 0
Fleckney 0
Harborough 0
Owls 0
R. Royce 0
S. Derbyshire 0
Stilton 0
Derby Runner League Tables
Men - Div 1 Ladies - Div 1
Pts
Hinckley 10
Shepshed 9
Barrow 8
Wreake 7
Hermitage 6
Hatton 5
Westend 4
S. Derbyshire 3
Desford 2
Derby Tri 0
Pts
Birstall 10
Wreake 9
Shepshed 8
Hatton 7
Barrow 6
Ivanhoe 5
Westend 4
Hinckley 3
Huncote 2
Desford 1
I must say I
wasn’t too sure if we would
have any Junior Striders run this
year, so imagine my delight when I saw 6 young men, all with Striders’ vest on, take part
in the first event at Sth. Charnwood High School. I’ve unfortunately not had any results as yet, as they normally take a little while to
come through.
Suffice to say well done and thanks to them all.
They’re off: Kieran Billington, Matt Billington, Dan Ratnett and
Alex Percy set off in the Year 7-12 race.
More ‘photos on the club’s website!
THE NEWSTRIDER Page 4
Bagworth Heath
Date: 23rd October 2011
Venue: Bagworth Heath
Time: Jnr race - 1030hrs
Snr race - 1100 hrs
Dist: 5-5.5M Cost: £3.00
Parking: Please car share.
Space is very limited, it will
help enormously. Post race: Sport in Desford
A s previously advertised the second cross-country league
race is our own event at Bagworth Heath, so, and you know
what’s coming, we need your help. Not only do we want and
need as many people running, we need people to assist on the day.
However we ideally need to know before the day if you’ll be there.
Saves the overall organiser having to run around like a headless
chicken giving out jobs.
So, if you’re not going to run and with just 16 running the first race,
that leaves around 75 people who theoretically could help out. Par-
ticularly if you’ve never assisted in the past, how about it?
Please let a committee member know or e-mail
Cross-country Individual Club Standings
A fter just the one race it’s obviously very early in the Individual Cross Country Club Standings. However here may be somebody out there who’s interested.
We had just two senior runners, one male and one female, so it won’t take much effort to realise that Gavin Speed and Ali Ide head their respective tables.
There is a little more to the veteran’s tables, although at the moment not a lot with the ladies, as just two ran. Mhairi Billington and Anne Robertson currently holding the top two places.
Richard Billington took maximum points in the first race and tops a table with 11 other participants. The tables are here for you to mull over.
F or anybody new to the club, or has forgotten how the Individual Standings work, here’s a brief ex-planation.
Every time you run a race, you are awarded points. The number of points you will get depends on how many Striders run in each particular category and how many finish ahead of you. As you will see from the tables we
had 12 in the male vets. So Richard got 12 points, Graham 11 etc. etc. If in the next race we have 10 vets, the first one home will get 12, then 11 etc. etc. However, if (as I hope they will) the number increase, say to 15. Then the winner gets 15, next 14 etc. etc. The results from the previous runs will be adjusted to reflect the new maximum score.
Hopefully this explains it, it’s difficult to put in writing without going on more than I have done already. I f you need or would like any more clarification, then please ask.
I have put a proposal forward to the committee that the three cross-country championships are also included in these standings. The original idea of the awarding of points was to reward members who ran the races. In which case I believe that representing the club in those races definitely deserves some recognition. At the time of writing I am waiting to hear their decision.
Male Seniors Pts
G. Speed 1
Male Vets. Pts
R. Billington 12
G. Hobbs 11
D. Percy 10
B. Moran 9
G. Grimsley 8
G. Birch 7
N. Trotman 6
M. Foley 5
H. Long 4
J. Shade 3
M. Hill 2
F. Breen 1
Female Snrs Pts
A. Ide 1
Female Vets. Pts
M. Billington 2
A. Robertson 1
How does it
all work?
Cross-country Championships
Not heard about these yet, so I’ve done a little digging and as far as I can tell the dates below are correct.
Despite being titled ‘Championships’ they are not for the elite runners, but
open to us all. And they really are a good day out. So why not give it a go?
As usual there are a couple of rules, which I shall remind you of now.
1. Subject to funds, the club will pay for your entry fee for each race you enter. However if you put your name down and don’t run, then you will have to pay the fee back to the club.
2. To run in the National you have to at least enter either the County or the Midlands. Not run, just enter.
County Sat. 07/01/12 - venue to be confirmed Midlands Sat. 28/01/12 - Nottingham
Nationals Sat. 25/02/12 - Parliament Hill Fields, London
If you want to take part, PLEASE let us know as soon as possible, [email protected]
M y latest off road multi-terrain race was on Sunday 25/9, the Crossdale Trail 10K, a
race I have done once before back in Sept. 2007 and reported on in the November 2007 newsletter. This is the race that escaped the foot and mouth restrictions
around locally at that time.
I wanted to find out how many runners and clubs I had raced against in 2011. This is my find-ings. I ran 3 Derby Runner xc races (although I am only counting 1 for the number of clubs
exercise as it’s the same clubs taking part in each race). 1 Winter league, 1 open race (Joy Cann 5) and 8 multi-terrain races (4 in Notts, 2 in Warks, 1 in Derbys, 1 in West Mids) - that to-
tals 13-2=11.
Just an aside. I found it strange that in the open Joy Cann race there were only 4 clubs from outside the area (there were 519 finishers). With the combined total of 29 clubs running in the Derby Runner/LRRL Witer League, add to
that 108 from the other 10 races makes a total of 137.The largest/smallest number of runners in those races were 524/85. To conclude, my Striders vest has competed against 136 other clubs in just 11 races. The total number of
runners that have crossed the finish line in those 11 + 2 +1 (*) is 4,096. *I also did a m/t race in Northants with 318 finishers but the full results didn’t include club names.
I thought better of listing those 137 club names, it may have driven our newsletter editor insane or worse, made
him do 51 races in his 51st year. (Not a problem John, I would have used my editing powers and not included them)
Geeks-corner, during this period I have not run against any club beginning with the letters J, V, X, Y and Z. the most
common club letter is S (4), one more than W. The 4 other clubs in the Jpy Cann race were - Canix, running 4 Women, Bermuda and Rugby.
My favourite names of those 136 clubs are - Woodthorpe Huffers + Puffers, desperate Measures, Quakers RC, Toon-
ie Express, Bournville (mmmm chocolate), Sons of Wotan (this sounds like something the old comedian Les Dawson has dreamt up, but is in fact a social network for Pagans.)
The Crossdale 10K was raced in good weather including dry overhead and underfoot. The whole event is so well
organised that for example the results are printed and on display minutes after each runner has crossed the finish line. It feels that the only thing they don’t do is run the race
for you.
There were 10 members of GB Canoeing Team taking part, 3 finished in the top 25, the highest position of 4th.
Results:
1st male Stuart King - Mansfield Harriers in 34:23
1st female Emma Gould - Serpentine RC (33rd o/all) in 43:39.
My position was 150/256/214 in 53:47.
Striders go East for the Mablethorpe Half Marathon My thanks to Sean Tebbutt and Karen Marfleet for the following report and Ruth Carnegie for the photograph.
2 nd October saw the Mablethorpe mara-thon and half start on what seemed to be one of the hottest Sunday’s in October
ever.
Karen Marfleet (receiving complements on her club kit with the red skirt yet again!!), Sean Tebbutt and Paul Carnegie lined up for the 9:30 start of the half marathon which for some unknown reason was delayed by 10 minutes. Once the race got under-way it quickly started to feel very hot within the first couple of miles as the route twisted and turned through the streets of Mablethorpe and then headed out into a more rural setting, in fact in the middle of nowhere it seemed.
The course was flat and just right for anyone looking for a PB (if the weather wasn’t too hot) and the route itself was good but a two lapper if you were to do the marathon, the only incline was at Sutton on Sea in the final couple of miles getting upon to the sea front, this is where we found a couple of people who had collapsed due to dehydration which is not surprising as tem-peratures got up to around 27. In all it was a great event and despite the heat would definitely do this one again and a great goodie bag which included a Tech T-Shirt and medal. Date for the 2012 race is 7th October
THE NEWSTRIDER Page 5
Paul Carnegie 2:10:45 Karen Marfleet 2:14:17 Sean Tebbutt 2:14:17
Sean, Karen and Paul pose for the camera after successfully completing
a very hot half-marathon.
THE NEWSTRIDER Page 6
S aturday 10th September was a rather momentous day in the Crowe family, for our illustri-ous Chairman, Paddy, escort-
ed his daughter Emily down the aisle to be wed to her fiancé Chris……….
And, after being vetted by Emily, Paddy, the proud father of the bride has sent these pictures to share with you.
Many congratulations to Chris and Emi-ly from all your friends at Striders.
20th Anniversary Do
Last month the club held it’s 20th Anniversary evening up at SiD and we had around 25 or so Striders and ex-Striders come along for an enjoyable evening of chitter-chatter, rem-iniscing , drinking and eating.
A very fine buffet was supplied and those present had their fill and with more to spare. A wall and table of pictures from recent and ancient events and featuring the Striders, had been created and this proved a real talking point. I understand this was down to some hard work by Pam Lord, and she deserves our congratulations and thanks for the work she put in.
Also to Sam Morris for the background music, he did try and get a bit of a dance going, but there was a little reluctance on behalf of those present to break away from their chatting. Our thanks to him though for his efforts.
More photographs are available on the club’s ‘photo site, accessed through the club’s website. And can I say that I’d love to receive old pictures for the site, Nigel Trotman recently sent me one from the Desford Quar-ter Marathi in 1995 and I’ve loaded this onto the site. It’s a group photo and there are a number of faces I don’t recognise, but quite a few I do……...all be it a tad more youthful than today!
So please get those pics in, if you can’t scan them on yourself, I can sort that for you and return the original to you unharmed or damaged.
Tuesday Night Running
Can’t make the Thursday Night
club run? Well how about Tuesday evening? The club can offer two ses-sions on this night.
Quality Session: which goes
from SiD at around 6.45 p.m. Depend-ing on the schedule this can be hill sessions or interval work. Runners go at the pace they want to and there’s no question of pushing any-body too hard. You work as hard as you like and if you put a little effort in, you’ll reap the benefits in the future.
The Co-op Run: Unless nybody
can correct me, I believe two groups are run from the Co-op in Desford at 6.30 p.m. One is of a slow/steady pace, with the other being slightly quicker. Sean Tebbutt is the man to speak to for further details.
Above: Ed Percy and below
Matthew Ratnett after what
looks like a muddy session!
Junior Striders
Four Juniors - Alex, Dan, Ed and Matthew have joined in with the Wreake
junior training program on Saturday mornings and Wednesday evenings.
They have “enjoyed” a range of short and
long runs, relays and stretching exercises
which will hopefully improve their times
for the upcoming cross country.
Alex has already run a couple of 5k races
at Hinckley and Belvoir Castle finishing
8th. Unfortunately his shoe laces came
undone at Hinckley ( giving the ladies a
chance to get ahead ) and he nearly did
not make Belvoir after an inci-
dent with the car engine falling
out !!! (Ask Duncan) Perhaps
third time lucky.......
Congratulations also to Matthew
Billington who was the fastest in
the u15 category in his second
Braunstone 5k park run with a
time of 23:39 - a personal best.
So move over some of you senior
men and vets.....the youngsters
are just behind you!!!
THE NEWSTRIDER Page 7
Now I’m always asking for contributions from our
members for this newsletter an as you will know we
have our regulars and some ‘occasionals’. Well I can’t
tell you how pleased I was to receive this one from Ed
Percy, one of our Junior Striders, hopefully he’ll be-
come our regular Junior Reporter(?) Thanks Ed.
Alex Percy sporting his Wreake Run-
ners shirt (don’t worry he has a Strid-
ers one too!)
ChristmasChristmasChristmas MealMealMealT his year’s Desford Striders’ Christmas Meal and Presentation will be
on Friday 9th December. As with last year it will beheld at The Royal Oak, Kirkby Muxloe, meeting at 7.30 p.m. to sit down for the meal at 8.00 p.m.
The cost per head is £25 as with last year, however The Royal Oak has changed the menu slightly. This year there is just a main course and pud-ding.
The main course consists of three meats, roast beef, turkey and ???????which comes with a variety of vegetables. This year the pub has only giv-en one vegetarian choice, which is spinach & feta cheese pie.
There will also be a selection of puddings available of the night along with coffee and mints.
Marie Hobbs will be collating names and taking the money which is need-ed, in full, by no later than 25th November, in order to give time for a cheque to made out by the club. Please make cheques payable to Des-ford Striders
Please send to 146 Kirkby Road, Barwell, Leicestershire, LE9 8FS Any queries: 01455 841901 or [email protected]
If you require a vegetarian meal please let Marie know when paying Ta.
THE NEWSTRIDER Page 8
I found this event some months ago and had been looking forward
to it ever since sending off an extremely reasonable £9 entry fee.
Organised by the Long Distance Walking Association, the Canter
consists of two distances, 18 miles and 26.8, which had to be negoti-
ated by the participants by following a typed set of instructions.
These would theoretically lead them from one checkpoint to anoth-
er (more about these in a moment as they were the real attraction!)
The route wound it’s way South, through parks and wooded area,
generally following footpaths and some minor roads. The first check-
point was an unmanned one, where we had to clip our own tallies at
The Drawbridge pub. We were then led onto the first canal which led
us to the South of the city, but heading West. The route eventually
took us through the city centre up to the Winson Green area, before
coming back on itself, back to the centre and then North to a check-
point under Spaghetti Junction. We were then returned back in the
direction of the start and a very welcome finishing line.
To increase the range of events I was doing within the ‘50 in 50’, I
plumped for 26.8 mile event, making it by far the longest run within
my challenge.
The event was open to both walkers and runners and started from an
adventure centre called The Arc, on the A45 and to the South-East of
Birmingham. There were a number of start times, depending on
which event you did and whether or not you were running. My start
time was 9.30 a.m. and I must say, not having run anything more than
about 20 miles for around 18 months, I was feeling tense. I knew I’d
finish, but just didn’t know what state I would be in and how it would
leave me for the remaining four races.
Overall there were around 200 participants in all events, with just
over 60 running the longer distance. Initially it was straight forward,
everybody ran together and the instructions were straight forward.
However a group of us found ourselves suddenly in some confusion. The instructions said ‘cross the minor road,
close to the ford’. What confronted us was a fast move A road and no sign of water! Anyway I eventually struck
out in what I thought was the right direction, until around a mile later, I couldn’t fathom were I was at all.
Thankfully with the help of a local dog walker and my road map, (brought in anticipation of getting lost!) I dis-
covered I was about a mile too far West and ended up adding around a mile and a half to the total distance as I
got back on track.
As previously mentioned the first checkpoint was ‘self-service’,
whereas the second one (actually named checkpoint 1, was in The
Horseshoe Pub on the Alcester Road, where toast, sandwiches, hot
and cold drinks were served.
Back on to the canal and I started passing many of the walkers who
had started an hour earlier than us. Even though the remainder of
the race was on the canals, I found that when we moved from one
canal network to another, I managed to get a tad disorientated and
kept thinking I was going wrong most of the time.
This was particularly evident at the next checkpoint. I had con-
vinced myself that I had missed the second stop. This would mean
that I wouldn’t complete the event correctly! Should I go back or
not? I looked at my map, no chance, too far. So I plodded on and
approached ‘checkpoint 3’ saying “make my day and tell me you’re
Checkpoint 2.” We are a sympathetic voice said! Splendid! I was
confused, but happily accepted the truth. Again more food, sand-
wiches, cakes and drinks. By now my stomach started feeling a little
full!
I thanked the wonderful people of Checkpoint 2 and plodded on for
a good few miles before reaching the zenith of checkpoints. Num-
ber 3! And what a stop! Biscuits, fairy cakes, carrot cake, chocolate
cakes, coffee cake, juice, hot drinks…………..and much, much
THE NEWSTRIDER Page 8
Setting the pace from the back, a few last
minute alterations meant a nice steady start.
Welcome encouragement from the better half
outside the Sea Life Centre. Emily’s behind
the lens.
T he path along
this route of my
‘50 in 50’ challenge
has been pretty smooth, I’ve had virtually no spanners thrown into the works. However it did always concern
me that something could happen close to the end and leave me with little time to re-arrange events.
And it happened, but with the event I never expected to have a problem with. With just four races to go and a
coupe of days to go to my 47th run, the club had to pull out of the Round Leicester Relay. I couldn’t believe it!
And still can’t, but I didn’t have time to dwell on the issues surrounding the pulling of the team.
I had to go back to my list of races and then the penny dropped. Thank heaven for Parkrun!! Although I couldn’t
use the Brausntone event, having already taken part, there was the run at Conkers, out towards Measham. That
was it! Without that I would have been facing a trip to Nottingham or Northants.
Myself and Marie arrived at the run location, found the start etc and even better news, Marie felt o.k. to run! The
first one for months and made up for the previous disappointment. The route is an out and back course, shaped
rather like a speech bubble. The long section out to the loop is pretty much all down hill, with a sharp incline on
the loop and then a long, steady climb pack to the finish. Although it wasn’t as bad as I’d imagined it would be
as I was running down it.
The route goes through some extremely attractive woodland and also takes in a very small section of the Ashby
Canal and is well worth a visit as an alternative to the Braunstone run.
I managed to finish 7th in a time of 19:56, whilst Marie completed the 5K in 32:25, crossing the line in 47th place.
What I like about these runs are that they are open to anybody, including children and amongst the 54 finishersr
there were a number of very young people. Great to see!
How to Conkers a Problem!
quick start. After this start the rest of the course was surprisingly flat. There were a couple of exceptions, in particularly the re-turn up the very same hill used at the start. It seemed to have grown in ‘steepness’ whilst we had been on the main body of the course! It now became an energy sapping, lactate producing run to the fin-ish.
After the recent efforts and another visit of the ‘race fatigue bug’, I had decided I didn’t have the energy or wherewithal to give it everything I had, so elected to have a bit of a tempo training style run, and enjoyed it very much.
Occasionally I got a tad over enthusiastic, but man-aged to rein myself in. All in all though an excellent event, well worth a bash and I was rather pleased with my time of 42:13 and finishing 19th out of 256 runners.
more. In fact more than I could comfortably eat. Yum!
I resisted the temptation to fill my vest with slice of delicious cakes and
continued on my way, still filling my head with doubt as to whether I was
on course. This wasn’t helped by the fact that the runners had got strung
out by quite a distance and it could be many minutes before I saw any-
body else.
But everything was o.k, I remained on track. The biggest boost I got was
running through the centre of Birmingham, rounding the Sea Life Centre
to see Marie and Emily cheering me on. They had worked their way into
the City Centre for a little therapeutic shopping and hung around to shout
me on. After a quick chat I carried on and eventually completed 28.4
miles in 4:50:34, finishing 20th out of 61 finishers.
After a soothing, hot shower we were treated to a baked potato with a
selection of fillings and apple pie and custard. This was a very enjoyable
event and I would look to take part again, mainly to try and negotiate the
course correctly!
Where? A familiar pose, checking those
instructions…...yet again!
On to my 48th race and surprisingly the first visit to Nottinghamshire. The event was the
Crossdale 10K, an event I’d heard of when other Striders did it a few years ago and which I had want-ed to have a go at, but never got around to. This years challenge gave me the incentive.
And what a fine event it was! Run from a local pri-mary school in Keyworth, it’s very well organised, extremely well marshalled and to cap it all, practi-cally all off road, being run across local farm land. The only points which aren’t is an early road cross-ing and around 1/2 a mile of tarmac along a farm road.
With the dry weather we’ve had recently the ground underfoot (where else would it be?) was very hard and trail shoes sufficed. The start was to the back of the school, through a gate leading into a field and at the top of a sharp descent, which led to a pretty
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My thanks once again to my lovely Ma-rie for her support and taking a couple of piccies, and nice to bump into John Shade once again. I won’t relate any-thing about himself as he has kindly added another contributions to the newsletter.
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A little blurred, but this shot shows the
energy sapping last hill. A good shot of the
post though!
Nearly there! Gavin points out race
number 49 at Sth. Charnwood.
Sth.
Charnwood
Cross
Country
The penultimate race! I can’t believe it’s nearly all over! Anyway, this was the first cross-country race of the season at Sth. Charn-wood school. I’ve already written about it so won’t add anymore here, suffice to say it was hot, but enjoya-ble to run with me Striding mates, who’s encourage-ment and interest have cer-tainly helped.
This edition of the newsletter will be going out before my last event and if I
survive it I’ll tell you all about it next month. It’s rather a crazy one to do, but
I won’t go into too much, but the name of it should give you a rough idea.
B y now you should know if you have been accepted or rejected in the ballot for next year’s London Marathon. If like our household you (AGAIN!) had
to wade through the rejection magazines, then you may be wanting to enter the draw for the club places, which is due to take place at the Christmas Meal on Friday 9th December. This I must point out is subject to the club receiving them from the marathon organises…….they have been requested.
There a few qualifying points to allow you to enter the draw and they are re-peated below, just in case you don’t recall them from last year.
You have to:
1. Be a fully paid up member of Desford Striders 2. Have entered the official London Marathon ballot and been rejected. 3. Hand your rejection note to the draw organiser before the day of the draw (9th Dec). 4. Have taken part in at least 10 of the 22 following events between Jan and December 2011 as a Desford
Strider
* Derby Runner League races (6 races) * LRRL races (11 races) * Livingstone and Round Leicester Relays * Cross Country Championships (3 races)
Some of you may recall that last year it was only 7 races. It should have been 10, but as the qualifying rules weren’t put out until late in the year, then for one year only the number of races was reduced to 7. We revert back to 10 this year, less than half of the qualifying races.
I am willing to collate the names and check if you qualify. So if you think you fit the criteria, let me know as soon as possible please. To be fair to everyone I will then check the records and confirm eligibility. So far we have:
Graham & Marie Hobbs
REJECTED!
On a happier note I’ve been told that around £640 was raised for the Prostate Cancer Charity at the Run For Your Man
Now before you read any further, please don’t take this is a criticism of individuals, it’s more of a personal desire to try understand what our club members want, because for the first time in twelve years, the Striders didn’t field a team in the LRRL’s Round
Leicester Relay. After fielding an excellent three teams last year, we weren’t able to scrape together 13 runners out of a membership of 99 people!
We apparently had 16 people put they’re names forward to take part, but with less than three days to go, we were so short we had to pull out.. I don’t know how Andy and Nicola are feeling after spending weeks trying to sort out teams, but I know I personally feel miffed. I’m perplexed that a running club with nearly 100 members can’t get just thirteen to take part in an event such as this.
Yes, we have injuries, people who can’t make it due to work (myself often included in that in the past), visit-ing families, going away for the weekend, a whole host of reasons. And quite right, members don’t have to take part in events, it’s not compulsory. But after all we are a running club and as such I thought we’d be wanting to take part in running events.
I know my thoughts will possibly ruffle a few feathers, but I’m hoping to gain a little more understanding as to what it is that our membership wants from the club.
With this in mind I’ve done a lot of sole searching recently about the newsletter itself. I’ve been doing it now for 11 years and overall I enjoy doing it. However, the reasons for doing it were to get information out there and try and give our members enthusiasm about being a Strider and want to take part in events with their fellow Striders.
Well with dwindling numbers taking part in league races and now with no team competing in the RLR, the newsletter clearly isn’t successful in that role. Even Thursday club nights are seeing a decline in numbers, both running and socialising. Last night’s food night had just 6 of us sad old blokes staring into our pints….
So I have seriously considered knocking it on the head…….…..however I know that there are a number of people that do enjoy reading it, but I did question what the point of it is, and was teetering on the edge. But a conversation with two Junior Striders, Alex and Ed Percy encouraged me to keep going. They were very enthusiastic about the newsletter and Ed has even written a piece for you (see page 7), so I’ll keep going.
However, there is something I really do need feedback on. As I said numbers at league races are falling, so it seems there is little interest in these within the clubs membership. This newsletter (up to the point I’m typing this out has taken me over 14 hours. A considerable time is spent on sorting the league race re-sults, tables and individual results into a presentable format for the newsletter. Now if folks aren’t that in-terested in how the club is faring in the leagues, then I’ll not spend the time on it.
Now these are my own personal thoughts and don’t represent that of the committee in any way that I’m aware of, but I would like your thoughts, good, bad or indifferent please. Hopefully the committee won’t mind you sending them to the club’s e-mail address. If you’ve got this far without busting a blood vessel, thanks for reading. Now where’s granddad’s old tin hat?
Round
Leicester
Relay
What no team? Why not?
THE NEWSTRIDER Page 11
Just as I was finishing the newsletter off I received the results for the Junior rac-es at Sth. Charnwood. I can’t squeeze them in so have had to put them ion the last page, hope that’s o.k.
Year 1- 6 race (33 finishers) Mathew Ratnett 7:01 in 8th place Ed Percy 7:25 in 13th place
Year 7-12 (14 finishers) Kieran Billington was 3rd and Alex Percy 8th. Unfortunately we haven’t any times for this race.
News Flash!
