Hedge End Running Club - News

Member of the Month June 2018

16/8/2018

MEMBER OF THE MONTH
Bit late I’m afraid, but June’s Member of the Month Award is presented to Mike Bridgeman

Mike took over as the Men’s road running representative for the club, encouraging as many people as possible to take part in the HRRL league races. He also took part in all 12 races himself, achieving numerous PBs along the way.

He’s dedicated much of his time volunteering in other aspects of the club, such as the Thursday night group run leaders and the running steering group leadership team. He’s proactive, not only suggesting new ideas but also offering to participate or even lead in their implementation. He’s also very encouraging to new or less experienced runners, both within the club and the wider running community.

Many thanks for all your hard work and dedication to the club Mike, and congratulations on a very well deserved award!

Member of the Month May 2018

2/7/2018

MEMBER OF THE MONTH

We’ve been inundated with nominations for one particular member, so it should come as no surprise that May’s Member of the Month Award is presented to Matt Bowers.

Matt is well known for doing crazy things when it comes to distance running, but last month he (willingly) took part in the 145 Mile Grand Union Canal Race, running from Birmingham to London along the Grand Union Canal path. For those of you that didn’t follow the story as it evolved, Matt started off well, but torrential rain and thunderstorms overnight took their toll. By the time he got to 120 miles he’s feet were heavily blistered and running was no longer an option. Undeterred, Matt continued to walk the final 25 miles (ie a marathon) to the finish line, through the constant pain from his feet, the heat of a late May day and general exhaustion. He completed the race in 40 hours and 38 minutes, finishing joint 32nd.

Not only is this an incredible achievement and demonstration of grit and determination, Matt is back up and running, and waiting for entries to open for next year’s race so he can better his performance.

On top of this, Matt has always been incredibly supportive and helpful to other club members, particular sharing his experiences and providing advice to novice ultra runners.

Incredibly well done Matt, very well deserved!

Hampshire Road Race League - 17/18 Summary

2/7/2018

The 12 race season finally finished last Sunday, after 10 months of racing! Across all clubs, over 1,000 ladies featured and over 1,200 men. With the final results now published, this post aims to recognise and celebrate HERC's achievements and progress.

TEAMS
Both teams had superb seasons, particularly the Ladies, showing great progress over the last few years for our young club. The final 17/18 standings:

Ladies A - 3rd in A Div 1
Ladies B - 2nd in B Div 1
Ladies C - 12th in B Div 2

Mens A - 5th in A Div 1
Mens B - 4th in B Div 1
Mens C - 12th in B Div 1

INDIVIDUALS
An amazing 165 Hedgies (66 ladies, 99 men) ran in 1 or more HRRL races this season, all of whom played a part in either scoring points for HERC and/or taking points off other clubs. Of those, the following 25 ran in 7 or more races and therefore qualified for the individual standings. The number is their overall HRRL position:

Ladies
13 - Kate Maslin
15 - Marie Droniou-Bordry
17 - Jo Labram
23 - Kirsty Cartwright
32 - Elizabeth Bamber
49 - Tracey Shepperd
52 - Yvonne Coxhill
53 - Lucy Kemp
72 - Tracy Puttock
84 - Maria Sparks

Mens
24 - Peter O'Donnell
27 - Will Baggs
38 - Mark Smallwood
41 - Carlo Van Leeuwen
46 - Jordan Winbourne
52 - Mark Chamberlain
73 - Mike Bridgeman
81 - Joe Amber
91 - Christopher Chester
111 - Keith Sheppard
118 - Alan Cowan
129 - Chris Winbourne
144 - Cliff Manton
148 - Ian Bowers
150 - Bryan Barry

A massive thank you to everyone who ran for, coached and supported HERC this season. All starts again on 2 Sep with Overton 5 - entries are open!

Cheers,
Mike Bridgeman and Tracy Puttock
HERC Road and Track Team Reps

2018 Club Championships - Eastleigh Hendy 10K

12/6/2018

The 2018 Club Championship race is the Eastleigh 10K, originally scheduled to be held on March the 18th, due to bad weather, the race was postponed to June the 17th.

In a change to how the club championships have previously been run it has been decided to move away from age categories and instead base it upon your runbritain rankings. This has been done so that the club champs are relevant for everyone, not just the top 3-5 people in each age category. This follows feedback provided that the club champs were not relevant for the majority of people in the club.

The way this works is that everyone is ranked on runbritain for each UK affiliated race, including parkruns. Based upon your time and how well everyone else did you, will receive a ranking. Club results are shown here.

It is proposed to break the club championships down into 6 categories based on the ranking (actual number). This will be done as of the day before the club champs.
0 to 5.99999
6 to 11.9999
12 to 17.9999
18 to 23.9999
24 to 29.9999
30 to 36

This means that anyone competing for prizes will be doing so against people of similar ability. There will be awards for 1st, 2nd and 3rd on each category. As you are competing against people of similar ability (as a result of how the system works) there will be no separate prizes for men and women.

There will still be one overall prize for the fastest man and fastest woman.

Some further comments:
• If you are listed twice on the runbritain website then your better ranking will be used.
• You must be first claim Hedge End Running Club
• You must be wearing club vest/t-shirt or if running for charity let a member of club committee know
• You must register for the race under Hedge End Running Club
• You must have paid your subs to the club before the day of the race

As you will appreciate the system only works if your races make it to runbritain. If you have races missing please ensure they are added to make it as fair as possible. There may be some people in the wrong category for various reasons (no races / injury), so please ensure your profile is as up to date as possible!

Hedge End Running Club Member of the Month for April 2018

18/5/2018

The April Member of the Month Award is presented to Anna Smith-James.
Anna has been a member of the club for a while now, and we were (quite frankly) surprised that she hadn’t been member of the month before given her marathon pedigree.
Anna was recently heard to say “I’m not a PB hunter. I love getting PBs of course, but realistically I’m not running every race for a time. It kills the fun for me. I find enjoyment in other ways, like collecting different parkruns, doing different marathons and basically just having a doss about.”
Whilst she may currently working on other challenges, such as the parkrun Alphabet Challenge and completing all of the Marathon Majors, Anna took part in the Brighton marathon at the beginning of April and stormed round to finish in a time of 3:16:29, taking nearly 8 minutes off her previous PB, a massive improvement given how quick her PB already was. She was also the first Hedgie (male or female) to finish.
Despite claiming not to be a PB hunter, she also recently ran her first sub-20 minute parkrun.
Many congratulations Anna on your fantastic marathon and parkrun performances.

2018 Virgin London Marathon - Event Report - Mark Staples

14/5/2018

I never thought that I would ever run...... Let alone do the famous London Marathon.

A surprise club ballot place came round really quickly... Training (slowly) seemed to work for a change and running twice a week was also part of a sensible plan. With runs to Ashurst, Lyndhurst and Gosport,.. mainly in Rain, Dark and Snow... I was ready for "The Big One".

Thunderstorms the night before ruined any chance of an early night, and a 4.00am alarm for a 5.30am coach was a shock to the system!!!. Arriving at the start line around 8.30, was a great feeling, It was very warm by the time I entered my pen at 9.30, very compact and busy... the Elite went off and we followed around 10.40. My training and plan was to run 25 minutes, then walk 5. Feeling fresh but boiling, I somehow went off with the crowd and ran the first 8 miles, I stopped for a foot issue and applied some Vaseline, kindly supplied by my amazing support team (Girlfriend).

The crowds were amazing, and wearing my charity shirt, I had so many shouts... Not sure if I had drank too little or too much, but by mile 11, I saw lots of people doing the same. I started to feel faint and drifted left towards the barriers... by Tower Bridge, I felt sick to go with the dizzy spell and was unsure what was going on. The Bridge indicates that you have made half-way point. I saw a friend shortly after, he too was struggling and so we walk/ran for a bit, I left him thinking "How will I find the guts to find another 12 miles".

I had the goal to get to Mile 17 as the GF would hopefully be there, The crowds seemed to roar, and even my walk breaks were quick, The heat was immense and even the showers didn't cool us down. By the time I reached the girlfriend at the 17 Mile marker, I was totally broken and did think of calling it a day. "No way" she said... "You can do this. Dont give up!!!", I didn't want to let my friends/family/training buddies/running club/gang down, so stuck at it and carried on...

At Mile 20, the sickness whilst running had eased, and although the dizziness remained, I was loving the whole experience... I had only ever dreamed of this. My plan now was to run 600m and walk 400m,....and by sticking to this, I thought "I can do this".

We Did It!!!

At Mile 22, I spotted Ian from HERC, so I caught up and it turned out to be a good move... we were both in another struggle and my plan was now Ian's plan too!!!!... we chatted and strolled a bit, and in no time we were turning into the Mall. The finish line gave us so much joy and relief,,,, In a bromance moment we crossed the line hand in hand (awwwww!)....... I then fell into the barrier and we collect our Medals!!!

What an amazing experience, and something I'll never forget, My time didn't bother me at all, it was a task just to overcome illness and finish. I was greeted by my girlfriend with open arms and thankfully 4 cans of San Miguel!!!. The 2-3 mile walk to Park Lane was a task too, and the coach back saw us arrive home at nearly 9.00pm.

What a Day, and can I thank a few people in an "Oscars" speech kind of way.........
Hedge End Running Club (for the ballot place, support/advice, and agreeing that I could run in a charity vest)
My girlfriend (for trudging all over London, putting up with me throughout training, and for giving me a cuddle at 17 x)
My friends and family (for sponsorship, love and support)
Dan (for all training runs and putting up with my whinging)
Anyone who trained with me,.. and Georgie for the gifts that got me through

2018 Virgin London Marathon - Event Report - Ian Bowers

14/5/2018

As one of the lucky trio to be drawn out of the hat in the club ballot for a London marathon place, I found myself with the welcome distraction of training for a marathon in between two of the Centurion ultra marathons that were part of my main goal for the year! However, I do love a challenge, so with a little bit of tweaking to my training, I found myself traveling up to London two weeks after completing part 1 of my ultra challenge. I went up to the marathon expo with fellow Hedgie and main partner in crime, Ian Pierce.

This was my first experience of a big city marathon expo and I have to say they have the registering and number pick up down to a fine art, despite my fears it really is a well oiled machine that sends you on your merry way into the main exhibition where there are lots of opportunities to part with cash for all sorts of running wares. The expo runs from the Wednesday through to Saturday afternoon, we went up on the Friday and it didn’t seem very busy at all, I’ve since been told that the Saturday is a completely different experience with lots of people busily trying to grab their numbers.

On race day it was a very early start as we’d decided to travel up on the day, so leaving home at 5:45am, we set off on the drive up to Richmond, from where we’d continue in by train. If you’re running in the marathon, you get free travel for the day on the trains operated by London Transport. On arriving at Blackheath, we hopped of the train to join the crowds making their way to the Blue start area on Blackheath Common. This was the first inkling of just how big an event the London marathon is! Again, everything is just so well organised and laid out. Once you enter the start area you’re unable to leave and re-enter but it’s not a worry as everything you need is in there. With the weather forecast predicting lots of sunshine and high temperatures, we took advantage of the free bottles of water and Lucozade on offer. After sorting ourselves out and having waited until the starting pens had started to fill, we made our way to our different pens.

Once in my starting pen, I only had to wait 30 minutes until we’d be off. You could already feel the heat starting to rise at 9:45am and this was the main topic of conversation around me. With lots of nervous chatter amongst everyone the sense of occasion began to rise and before you knew it, it was our turn to set off. Away we went under the starting gantry and hopefully the next stop would be on The Mall! The support from the start was quite amazing, I’d expected the early stages to be largely supporter free but this certainly wasn’t the case as shouts of encouragement seemed to come from everywhere. The first big sight is Cutty Sark at about 6 miles and here the crowds and the noise started to go up considerably! This set the tone for the rest of the run, on we went until the next big moment as at approximately mile 12, we turned the corner to be faced by Tower Bridge! This for me was the moment I’d been waiting for and it didn’t disappoint. It was a surreal moment to be running over the bridge, looking up above to take it in and being met with a wall of noise from the crowds lining the bridge! It was here that I managed to catch sight of my wife as I came off the bridge, this gave me a welcome boost as I was starting to wilt in the heat. We turned right here and headed off on a loop that would take us round to Canary Wharf where the crowds got bigger and closer to you and the noise became unbelievable!

By the 14 mile mark, the heat had really started to build and was heading to the hottest London marathon on record, at this point I’d abandoned all hopes of pb’s and decided I was just going to finish in one piece. At the 18 mile mark I bumped into another Hedgie, Richard George, and with us both struggling by now, it gave us both a little nudge and spurred us both on. On we went back towards the Tower of London and starting to head for home. Coming out of a particularly low patch I heard a shout from the side and turned to see Andy Cockerell encouraging me on, this was like a shot in the arm at just the right time, that was it, time to get on with it and get it finished, with a sign telling me it was jus a parkrun to go I was off and heading towards the Embankment where the noise of the crowds were overwhelming, it was so loud at this point you couldn’t have had a conversation with the runner alongside of you. At the Houses of Parliament we turned to the right and entered the last mile, by now the heat was taking its toll and it was a battle to keep moving but knowing the finish was in sight was enough to keep me going. Turning by Buckingham Palace there was the finish line, with the clock heading to 4:30 it was a quick “sprint” to go over the line before the clock got to 4:30.

After being presented with your medal and posing for the waiting photographers, you make your way through to pick your drop bag up and on to the meeting areas for families and friends. Again, this is all well organised with lots of signage to guide you through.

All in all, it was a great experience to run the London marathon although with the record temperatures it proved too much for lots of runners, I’ve never seen so many people collapsing or pulling up from so early in a race! Luckily for everyone there were plenty of first aiders on hand to help. There are a couple of things I’d say to anyone who gets the chance to run at London in future. Firstly, if you’re able to, stay up there on the Saturday evening. This avoids the very early start on the Sunday morning. Be prepared to adapt your race plans according to the weather, I didn’t react quickly enough and soon started to suffer.

Enjoy the day and take it all in, you may not be fortunate to get to run it again.

Lastly if you’re unsure of entering the ballot, go for it, you really won’t regret it!

Hedge End Running Club Member of the Month for March 2018

26/4/2018

The March Member of the Month Award is presented to Stefan Hargrave

Stefan loves a weird event and has taken the HERC colours all over the country and abroad. He is kind and encouraging to all, be it through his blog (www.slowbutstubborn.wordpress.com), his Facebook posts or in person. He’s even volunteered to lead a group of members for their first ultra marathon in October!

At the beginning of March, Stefan organised the Hedge End Scramble based on his orienteering adventures in France. This saw over 40 club members running around Hedge End with sodden maps in atrocious weather, but everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy it nonetheless.

To quote one of the members who nominated him: “Not only does Stefan enjoy his running along with the other lesser sports such as cycling and swimming that he partakes in, but he encourages everyone and sacrifices his time to make everyone else have fun – even those who couldn’t attend the scramble for various reasons had an enjoyable evening. I know from experience that it takes a huge amount of time to organise things like this.”

Very well deserved Stefan and thank you for all your hard work

Hedge End Running Club Member of the Month for February 2018

31/3/2018

The February Member of the Month Award is presented to Kym Crosswell.

Kym joined the club last year and has made tremendous progress since. Last year she ran several major marathons, including Southampton and New York, and ran 8 of the 9 RR10 events. In February this year she ran a PB of 89:55 for the Ryde 10M to score valuable HRRL points for the club, on the notoriously un-PB friendly hills of the Isle of Wight.

Kym also completed her LiRF qualification and has become a committed leader for Thursday group runs whilst also assisting with the Tuesday Interval training at the Ageas. Wanting to get (even) more involved with the club, she has also become a member of the Running Steering Group leadership team.

She takes her training very seriously and can regularly be seen running solo in all weathers around the streets of Hedge End on non-club training nights and weekends.

Many congratulations Kym and thank you for all the time and enthusiasm you've given to the club in such a short period.

2018 Annual General Meeting

19/3/2018

The HERC AGM will be held in the Hampshire Suite at the Ageas Bowl, commencing at 20.00 on Thursday the 22nd of March 2018.