XC #3 - Snorbans, Verulum Park 9th December

The Firenze Mob Returns????

Hopefully we'll see and additional mob of people swell the XC coffers at the local St Albans race at Verulum Park.

I suggest that we all make our way down there separately this time around...  perhaps aiming for 10am there in order to have a warm-up, banter and salute the Arrows flag as it is hoisted up the pole.

Starts at 10:30am!!!!!

Details are below as provided by Striders - plus map of the course

Batman and Robin at Liverpool Marathon 2012

Batman and Robin run Liverpool Marathon

So I was teased I to doing an Autumn marathon by Chris Jones during the summer.  Liverpool seemed a good idea as it coincided with an Intended visit to see the outlaws in the Wirral due to several family birthdays in October.  Kate then also decided to do it and cajoled Jen and Marie to do it as well.  They organised their training schedule over lunch and got cracking on it.

During the summer I had taken several months off due to illness and a niggly Achilles heel, but had started running again toward the end of August when on holiday in France.  It was during this layoff period that I realised that I would not be on best form and I did not know if I would get ill again or get injured on my return if I tried too hard.  I decided to do it as Batman and would have to convince Chris to do it as Robin.  We would raise cash for Great Ormond Street Hospital and try and set a record for the fastest Comic Book Hero Duo.  This would be how I would make sure I did not go crazy on miles and do excessively hard training to try and try to do a really fast time.

I "eased" into training from nothing to 40 miles a week over 2 weeks.  All easy running to create a base fitness.  A couple of longer 20 mile runs with Viddy as a companion on one where I really did not have anything left in the tank at all and still had to run 4miles home.  Viddy took pity and did not drop me... (as in leave me behind).  Lots of training wearing too many clothes though was taking its toll - always dyhydrated, always a lot more effort than expected and always lots of clothes steaming in the washing pile very close to the machine..  I did try out the costume at the local St Albans Parkrun to conduct a chaffage test.  It coincided with an organised Arrows event as part of the club league we are doing.  Managed a 19:16 having taken time out to tie up my laces and run with a few buddies.  My eight year old, Sophia, took a great snap which made it in to the Herts Advertiser with small write up.

Day of the race on 15th Oct soon came around - a loverly sunny day, cool and not a breath of wind.  Met with Chris at the Birkenhead Park at the Start, changed and then the fun started....   especially trying to have a little wee when in a costume.  Chris, let's say, struggled a little more than I did to avoid splash back....  We said goodbyes to the girls and were off to the 3hr pen.

It was crowded at the start and people did not see us, but soon the "dinna dinna dinna dinna dinna dinna Batman!!!!!" and "ohhhh look there's Batman" all started..  occasional, "There's Batman and Robin"...   and "There's Rodney and Delboy."  Some of the people we were running with got sick of it...   we never did (I don't think).

Course was through Birkenhead, Wallesey to New Brighton then back along to the tunnel.  Under the tunnel was 13miles achieved in just over 1hr 30 mins.  With the band playing us out of the Mersey Tunnel we started to slow down.  The suits were taking their toll and we knew that Parliament Hill was coming. 

We carbed up.  I did gels and Chris did flapjack..  The flapjack did not go down well!  We battled on and carried on around Sefton Park and back down Parliament Hill.  We finally got into the final mile and split to high five most of the crowd.  Right at the end we even got Batman music over the line.  We managed 154th overall in 3:16:42/  Not quite where we would have liked as both of us have gone under 3hrs in the past - but the suits had been a step too far.

Thankfully, we raised over £1,500 for GOSH, plus the tax so everything was worthwhile.  Must say that the build up to it with Chris was great fun, the 1st half better than the 2nd and just a shame that the Guinness Book of Records considered our application too similar to the single SuperHero record that is 2hrs 34mins to warrant a separate record...  

Thanks Chris and next time we'll have to have a proper smack down race as we did a few years ago!.....  (or cycle like we suggested on the day)

If you do want to make a payment we can still be found on www.justgiving.com/Battyman

PS  as an addendum...   Kate, Jen and Marie all had a cracking race too!  Jen went over the line in 3:37 and Kate in 3:47 so both make good for age for Virgin London Marathon in 2014 whilst Marie still got under 4hrs despite several loo stops on the way.  Last one for her perhaps, but all very happy!

XC # 2 2012/13 - Grovelands, Southgate, 25th November

Grovelands, Southgate, N21 3DA

This is the one that counts.. .  Florence Marathoners are away doing their thing and this is where we really need people perhaps to try the XC for the 1st time.

It does appear that the course is similar to a 5k Parkrun - so not too hilly.  Please see below for all the details provided so far by the organisers.

Likely that we will meet a 9.00am at the Amble in to leave at 9:15am as per usual (or more like today for Watford joggers when I got a text to say you'd all gone as I had not factored in family faff time.)Sunday 25th November at Grovelands Park, Southgate, 10.30am

Men	Ladies	Possibles
Simon Speirs	Joanne Richards	Lydia - new member?
Chitra Dunn	Hannah Turner	Jenny - new member?
Steve Bowran	Georgie Hamilton	Juliet Jacobs?
Brian Yates	Laura Nathan	Georgia - new member?
Andrew Cripps? (before disasters)	Kate Speirs	Rachel H - new member?
Richard Johnstone	Philippa O'Donovan
Andy Jordan	Jennifer Finlay
Andrew Hazley-Payne	Sarah Thomas
Adrian (Jambo)	Catriona Davis
John Coyle	Dawn Burr
Clive Borthwick
Jamie Fisher
Jamie Nathan
Phil Jacobs
Paul Savage
Paul Goodwin
Julian Jones
Elliot Lamb
Paul Hermsen
Declan Sweeney
Jonathan Carr

__________________________________________________________________________

Serpentine Running Club welcomes you to the second fixture of the 2012-13 season on Sunday, 25 November, starting at 10.30am.

Location
Grovelands Park
Broad Walk
Southgate
London
N21 3DA

www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=530946&y=194169&z=110&sv=broad+walk&st=6&tl=Map+of+Broad+Walk,+London,+N_21&searchp=ids.srf&mapp=map.srf

Please also see the Parkrun website for location information:-
www.parkrun.org.uk/grovelands/course

The start and finish will be close to the lake.

There are no changing or showering facilities. Please come ready to run. Toilets are available adjoining the lakeside cafe in the centre of the park. Bring your own loo paper as the Council never supply any! The cafe may be open for refreshments. Kit can be left, unsupervised, close to the finish.

This will be a winding, 3-lap course of c.8000m all on open grassland. It will take a spike. Good spectator opportunities. This year, we will not be able to use the footpaths through the woods as these are no longer maintained.

Street parking only. There is no car park in the park itself. There are several entrances to the park, including those in The Bourne, Broad Walk, Church Hill, Park View and Queen Elizabeth’s Drive.

The ARROWS CaptainSlog: August 2012

 Hi All

 

What’s been happening......
July Club 5k	It was great to see a good turnout of 18 runners. The evening was a bit muggy and there were lots of flies buzzing, but no flies on our runners who ran some good times. PBs for Elliot and Catriona and lovely to see Heidi, Amy and Neil S come along for the first time. The race was won by Heidi, so hope to see you back in Aug to defend your title!
Luton 10k and Luton Series (5mile, 5k, 10k)	We had an amazing success in the Luton 10k: Viddy won the Male Vet (not even the MV50) prize but the ladies stole the day with Catriona who was 3rd lady, Louise won FV45 and Georgie won FV65. AND with only 4 Arrows ladies in the race, and requiring 4 to make a team, we were delighted (and surprised) to win the Ladies Team prize. Well done to Catriona, Louise, Jen F and Georgie!  It just goes to show that no one should underestimate their ability to contribute to team success. Well done also to Simon K, Phil, Brian and John R who also had good runs in the 10k. Viddy, Louise and Georgie were the only Arrows to complete the 3-race series and, in addition to a bright yellow t-shirt, also came away with 3rd male overall, 3rd female overall and 1st FV65. There may have been faster runners in individual races, but you can’t win if you don’t turn up! Between them the winners were weighed down with money, trophies and 7 bottles of wine – not bad for bit of running! One to look out for next year as these are local races in lovely settings including the private road through Luton Hoo.
The Thunder Run	Alistair, Ian and Lisa L, and some of their colleagues put on a tremendous show in this 24hr 10k relay race. They completed an impressive 24 laps and came a creditable 93rd out of 188 teams of 5-8 person team category. The event was won with 33 laps... and Garden City Runners came 3rd so there was some local competition as well.  We admire anyone who can run in the middle of the night and Ian and Alastair put in impressive performances,  but we have to take our running caps off to Lisa who ran 3 laps when the furthest she had run before was 10k!! Marathon next?? Seeing the photos of the camp and area it looked a really fun way to spend a weekend and we’ll be looking out for similar opportunities next year.  Do read Ian’s blog on the event at http://ianjlong.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/thunder-run-2012.html
Edinburgh	Brian won one of the coolest medals in a race in which participants had to see how far they could run in 33⅓ mins. He managed 6.5km and his prize… a ‘medal’ with a digestive one side with choco and liquorice the other plus a Roger Whittaker LP. Now that really takes the biscuit.
Herts Stroller	Viddy accomplished his 1st (and only?) Ultra. Gory details below.
Bearbrook 10k	It’s a welcome back to Joanne R who ran a very respectable 58 mins in the heat and humidity.  Hope your training for the XC goes well now!
Silverstone Duathlon	Michael completed his first duathlon on the racing circuit. See the full report below.
St Albans Parkrun – 5k	David Moritz, Viddy and Lou ran the parkrun this month. Lou heads up the FV50-54 category.
Sorry if we have missed out anyone – please send your race reports to captains@harpendenarrows.co.uk so we can make sure you get a mention!

30th August : Club 5k	I know a lot of you may be on holiday but those that are still here, come and shake out those legs and do the club handicap race. By popular vote we will be on the Nickey Line course again. This is probably our last summer course run, so let’s make it a good one.
9th Sept: Dunstable Downs Challenge	There’s a choice of Half marathon, 20 miles and 26 miles in these point-to-point navigationing, predominantly off-road trail runs. Ian L has signed up for the 26-miler and we wish him good luck. http://www.dunstableroadrunners.org/13_Challenge/20_mile_challenge.htm
15th September: St Albans Parkrun	Put a note in the diary for this event....   Please register so you can get a proper timing at http://www.parkrun.org.uk/stalbans/home It’s a free and fun event every Saturday at 9am in Verulum Park.
14th October: Herts 10k	Entries open NOW at http://www.herts10k.com/ for probably our biggest outing of the year! And a club league race (see below)
14th October – Liverpool Marathon	Jen Finlay, Kate Speirs and Batman have signed up for the Liverpool marathon along with non-Arrow runner Marie Pinnington and ex-Arrow Scouser Chris.  Wishing them luck
3rd March 2013: Silverstone Half Marathon	It’s a little way off, but entries are now open for this very popular, fast, half marathon which is timed to fit in to the training schedule for the London Marathon http://adidashalfmarathon.co.uk/

Other stuff....
1.       The Club League has arrived!  Hopefully you all received the email about this new initiative to introduce a bit of friendly competition for those who are interested. It will run as a trial from now until the end of the year and, if people like it, will operate for the full year in 2013. Each time you participate in one of the races below, you will get points based on your ranking against other Arrows in that race (100 for the fastest man, 99 for the next and so on, and the same for the ladies), we then combine your points for the season and the winner has the most points.  You don’t have to be the fastest in the club to win – you just have to turn up to more races!  Note that there is no obligation to join in, and this does not replace the Club Standards. The League races for this year are: ·        5k St Albans parkrun*  - any from 1st Sep onwards – only your fastest will count ·        Herts 10k (Oct 14th) ·        Watford 5m Autumn Challenge (Nov 11th) ·        3 cross country races: Broxbourne (Oct 28th),  Grovelands (near Southgate) (Nov 25th) and St Albans (Dec 9th) ·        Any Marathon (from 1st Sep onwards). Must be chip-timed. Your time will be ranked against those who have run a marathon anywhere in this period.
2.       WE NEED YOU....!!!!!! The Cross Country dates have been provided.  See http://www.harpendenarrows.co.uk/SunXC.asp. There are some clashes with other events – especially the Florence Marathon.   Please see what you can do and put these dates in your diary:
Oct 28th:	Broxbourne (parkland course)
Nov 25th:	Grovelands (parkland course)*
Dec 9th:	St Albans Striders (parkland course)
Jan 13th:	Royston (lovely rolling chalkland)
Feb 17th:	Watford Joggers (woodland New Clubhouse)
Also note the Watford Autumn Challenge - 11th November. We swept the board with team and individual prizes last year, so come on guys and girls, keep this day free and let’s put on a good show.
3.      Special awards...   ideas and thoughts welcomed (can be serious or for fun).  Please pass your ideas onto Louise or Simon.

                Happy running in the remaining summer sun!

Lou and Simon                                                                                          captains@harpendenarrows.co.uk

The Herts Stroller:   

A 53 mile navigational foot race through the Beds and Herts countryside from Hitchin and taking in Barton-le-Clay, Harpenden, Kimpton and Preston.  Viddy was persuaded to do it by Speirsy who subsequently bailed on him due to illness.  With a few back-to-back long runs in the bag, practices of eating high calorific snacks and drinking whilst on the move and he was ready.

A staggered start every 30 mins or so meant walkers to chase and faster people chasing him down....  His planned slow start was then not really on the cards and he led the group before leaving the playing field at the start of the race.  He was cheered on by Speirsy and Brucey who had cycled over from Harpenden.

1st stop just north of Lilley at 8 miles meant he now had Phil Jacobs as well to reel out the standard advice:  Are you drinking?  Have you eaten? Do you need salt?  What colour's your pee?  Well, not the last one - he volunteered this to give us comfort all was well.  He was not yet effing and jeffing - but we heard him as he saw the scarps at Barton and his running buddy Mark's ears were bleeding by the next stop.

At 24m we found Mark on his own to give us the news that Viddy was cramping at 19m....  We grabbed a drink at the Bright Star and waited on him.  He "stumbled" into Peters Green at a reasonable clip for someone who cramps at the best of times - let alone in 25 degree heat. 

Brucey and Phil now left Speirsy to it for the rest of the day to earn himself a reputation as a stalker by all who were now going through road crossings and checkpoints at about the same time as Viddy.  Lee and Jules picked the old boy up at the WI Hall in Wheato, with Lee navigating him through some low patches to Preston just north of Kimpton. (Lee then just had the 10m home to add to the 12m he'd just done and Speirsy raced back on the bike to see Mo go go go).

Lou took over at Preston to drag him through last 12 miles, cajoling him to keep moving as the light started fading and she wanted her dinner. As the town sign for Hitchin appeared, he let out a whoop and sprinted for the finish.   

Back in 10hrs 49min, placed 3rd overall and pleased to not be overtaken by the winner of 2 years ago…. But it was really not about the time, it was the completing it - and he did.

USN Silverstone Duathlon 2012

Being a rubbish swimmer I always felt that a duathlon would be the closest I would ever get to that “Brownlee” experience of multi-eventing rather than just running. So, 48 hours after getting back from a 10 hour flight from LA I decided to enter the August USN Silverstone Duathlon which is a short series of four events of 2 mile run/10 mile bike/2 mile run held on weekday evenings.

The running would be two laps of the Porsche Driving Experience Centre which is adjacent to the main Silverstone racetrack and is a windey tarmac track and what Graham would call “slightly undulating”. The cycling was to be three laps of the main Grand Prix circuit at Silverstone. Wow!

Entry for the event was straightforward (I entered on-line on the day of the event and could have entered on the evening), on-line information for the event was excellent and directions, parking and so on were painlessly simple. Toilet provision was only OK!

Once I arrived it was obvious that the whole show was exceedingly professionally run and organised. Also apparent was that the entry list was probably a 95:5 split between triathletes and runners with the former group wearing all of their fabulous tri gear and the latter in their t-shirts and shorts! Also, very apparent was the difference in the value of the bikes – with many of the tri people riding bikes probably costing more than my car. My (new) bike is hardly a Raleigh Chopper, but it felt like it was in comparison to some of the amazing machinery being warmed up even with an hour to go before the 7pm start.

    

Race instructions were given to us at 6.55pm with the format of the event being explained to the newbies as well as the etiquette whilst cycling and also in the transition area (this had been the day in which Jonathan Brownlee had been penalised 15 seconds for mounting his bike too early in the transition zone).

For me, who hadn’t run in six weeks due to injury, the running was hard work – 2 miles isn’t far but there were some doing it in 5min/miles which was far too quick! Following my 2 mile jog around the course, it was time to enter the transition zone, don my helmet and walk my bike to the bike start line. Well that was the theory: in practice I forgot I was doing a duathlon (“brain failure”) and promptly started to mount my bike IN the zone – at which point a hundred people “offered” me their instant advice on what I was doing wrong – which I instantly took, with thanks.

The cycling was brilliant - and scary. The evening had become fairly dark, wet and windy and so traversing a racing bike on skinny tyres on a very fast, non-trafficked course, all the time trying not to get in the way of the much faster cyclists was exhilarating – and tiring. I was only sworn at once by an overtaker (fairly impressive, I thought) and saw only one accident when one of the really fast chaps came off – on a straight!!

The “ten” miles cycle suddenly stretched to 12.5 miles (no idea why...) and then it was time to do the dreaded transition from cycling to running – apparently the really weird bit when your legs feel like they belong to some else. Which was true, I found, and the first half a mile running was just a case of getting back into my stride, literally. After this it finally dawned on me that we were running (which was good), on a lovely circuit (which was also good) and that in fact the finish was (almost) around the corner. Weirdly, most of us run 10Ks, half and full Marathons and very rarely run anything like a 2 mile race and so you kind of forget how to race this rather short distance.

The 2 miles was soon up. Official timing “slips” for all of the five elements (ie run/transition/cycle/transition/run) were available as soon as we finished and the data was fascinating. I remember receiving some water and a protein shake mix kind of thing at the end – but sorry, no medals, T-shirts, mugs etc etc – unless I missed them. 

So, will I do one again next year – definitely! Will I be wearing an all-in-one tri wet suit thingey with sunglasses, multitude of footwear etc, probably not! Will I have to understand what I need to do more in terms of pacing the running and cycling – definitely. Will I need to train harder for this particular type of event and its unique requirements – again, definitely.

In summary, a great day (evening) out amongst some very serious athletes on a world famous Grand Prix track.

New Challenge - BattyMan

Been off running and exercise for a couple of months, but forever up for a challenge will be doing the Liverpool Marathon in aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital dressed as Batman. 

Have 40 days to get prepared, but the world record is apparently 3:01 - so we'll see how we feel on the day...  Surely that challenge alone should be worth some sponsorship?  If I get over £500 it will have to be done or I will have to do it again!

www.justgiving.com/BattyMan

The Arrows League - Scores on the Doors for 2012 (had we been playing so far)

Overall league as of 11th June based on attendance and placings for the following local events:

• Fred's Huge 10m, 
• XC Jan, 
• XC Feb, 
• St Albans 10k, 
• Wheathampstead 10k, 
• Whipsnade 10k, 
• Snorbans Half Marathon
• Any Marathon (so far in 2012)
• Any St Albans Parkrun (so far in 2012)

	Rank Name Sex Age Group TOTAL Count of Races 1 Simon Speirs M MV40 699 7 2 David Green M MV50 687 7 3 David Moritz M SM 669 7 4 Richard Johnstone M SM 659 7 5 Karen Skyrme F SW35 591 6 6 Louise Crosby F SW45 584 6 7 Graham Harper M MV50 499 6 8 Jim Charlton M MV40 497 5 9 Lee Scott M MV40 478 5 10 Laura Nathan F SW35 463 5 11 Ian Long M SM 437 5 12 Hannah Turner F SW 400 4 13 Sarah Dumbrill F SW 388 4 14 Phil Jacobs M MV40 379 4 15 Andy Wilkins M MV40 368 4 16 Georgie Hamilton F SW65 367 4 17 Annette Godfrey F SW35 360 4 18 Norman Whitwood M MV60 309 4 19 Camilla Davidson F SW 298 3 20 Sarah England F SW 289 3 21 Bal Sandhu F SW35 288 3 22 Andy Cripps M MV40 285 3 23 Darren McGrath M MV40 285 3 24 Julia Scott F SW35 282 3 25 Ronjon Chakraverty M MV40 282 3 26 Jamie Fisher M SM 279 3 27 Steph Davies F SW 275 3 28 James Bentall M MV40 268 3 29 Vicky Moran F SW 268 3 30 John Rowlands M MV50 267 3 31 Colin Wareham M MV40 265 3 32 Jillian Russell F SW35 265 3 33 Michael Hessey M MV40 264 3 34 Clive Borthwick M M60 259 3 35 Jamie Nathan M SM 221 3 36 Brian Yates M MV60 220 3 37 Lisa Wheatcroft F SW 198 2 38 Richard Bruce M MV40 195 2 39 Steve Bowran M MV40 194 2 40 Nikki Lovell F   193 2 41 Jennifer Finlay F SW35 190 2 42 Paul Goodwin M SM 190 2 43 Neil Risley M   189 2 44 Jennifer Cunniff F   186 2 45 Johanna Wood F   185 2 46 Paul Hermsen M SM 182 2 47 Jennifer Birch F   178 2 48 Elliot Lamb M MV50 173 2 49 Lloyd Watson M   172 2 50 Simon Townsend M SM 168 2 51 John Coyle M MV40 166 2 52 Andy Hill M MV40 164 2 53 Simon Kitchener M MV50 161 2 54 Daniel Day M SM 152 2 55 Jo Reid F SW 100 1 56 Kimberley Romaine F SW35 98 1 57 Tim Mauchline M SM 97 1 58 Chris Cottle M SM 97 1 59 Gemma Webster F   96 1 60 Ben Kemp M SM 95 1 61 Emily Taylor F   95 1 62 Kate Speirs F SW35 95 1 63 Lisa Long F   94 1 64 Ed Rhodes M MV40 94 1 65 Chris Mayne F   93 1 66 Ian Smart M MV40 93 1 67 Dee Bretnall F   92 1 68 Victoria Cook F   92 1 69 Mark Nelson M SM 91 1 70 Nigel Marsden M MV40 91 1 71 Joanne Richards F   90 1 72 Paul Griffith M MV40 90 1 73 Finlay Scott M   89 1 74 Craig Harper M   88 1 75 Marc Finch M   88 1 76 Susan Smith F   88 1 77 Helen Pearson F   87 1 78 Katie Sweetman F   86 1 79 Paul Hermsen M SM 86 1 80 Bruce Weir M   85 1 81 John Styles M   82 1 82 Sarah Thomas F   82 1 83 Heather Hassall F   81 1 84 Mike O'Brien M   79 1 85 Jeremy Smith M MV50 76 1