Bulletin
6th Feb 2009
Bad News ....
The Wokingham Half Marathon is cancelled due to adverse weather conditions. I went out running to have a quick look at parts of the course tonight and the roads are fine but the start finish area is very dangerous. With people coming from all areas of the country I think they have made the right decision!
We are still organising a training run from our house around the course (and maybe a bit further) at 9.30am on Sunday morning. We will print maps so people can take part at their own pace. Cakes, Biscuits, tea and coffee will be available after at our house.
Look forward to seeing as many of you as possible on Sunday.
2nd Feb 2009
Thanks to all those who turned out to run the toughest race of the series on a very chilly day yesterday. ?The provisional results have just been circulated, and we are delighted to report that Sandhurst Joggers came first , and by a comfortable margin too. ?What's more Reading Roadrunners were third (behind Sheen Shufflers, but only by one point and the results are still provisional). ?With two races to go this puts us just three points behind Reading in the league and 11 ahead of TVT, the third team.
Graham won the race again - over two and a half minutes (8.5%) ahead of the next runner! ? We also saw excellent performances by Dave, Tim (who scored for the first time), Erol and James (Casey), all of whom moved significantly up the league table. ?Among the ladies Jenny was second only to the almost unbeatable (that's what they say about Graham) Sarah Gee from Reading; and Helen put in a superlative performance, beating Laura for the first time (and that's no reflection on Laura who also ran a very fast race). ?But really it is disingenuous to pick out only a few - every one of our 27 runners deserves full credit for their hard work yesterday.
Among those 27 was a new member, Sim Ward, who we welcome to the team. ?It is always refreshing to see new faces appearing at these events. Sim ran well, finishing 11th of our 17 men. I'm sure he'll move up the team as he becomes familiar with the format.
Thanks too to Brendan and James (Ratcliffe) who came along to support the team. We hope to see Brendan running again in the next event (in three weeks). ?James was obviously far from well but still made the effort to be there.
The full results for our runners are in the attached document, including (at the bottom) a precis of the team points. You will see that we scored 116 points, less than half the second team's score of 237 (points are scored according to the gender positions of the first seven men and three women from each club, so low points = high position). ?Full details of the scoring procedure are on the league's website? http://tvxc.org.uk / ?where you will also find the full results of yesterday's race (and all the previous ones this season).
The next event is in three weeks, on February 22nd at Ruislip. We'll be sending out full details as usual, about ten days before.?
26th Jan 2008
Yes, it's that time of year again when some poor soul has to go through everyone's results over 2008 and try to work out who are the Sandhurst Joggers club champions in the various age groups for the year. I've tried to keep a record of times and positions over the course of the year and already have a provisional list of prize winners.
For those of you who are new to this, the club championship is calculated by looking at your best performances over a number of races over the year. To qualify, you need to have run in at least 4 of the following events:
Club Handicap, 10k, 10mile, Half Marathon, Woodland 5, Sunday Cross Country
The club does have a specified number of races which count towards the club championships. However, if you have been unable to do one of these and have set a PB in a more obscure race, then please let me know.
20th - Jan - 2009
1. Track is on this Friday at the usual time of 7pm at Bracknell Track. Hope to see YOU there.
2. Message from Sandhurst Joggers "Orienteering Division"
For those of you that are interested there is another Saturday morning School 's League event being organised on the 31 st January. It is being held at Ash South which is very local, and if you follow the links on the following web site it will give you a location map - http://www.southernnavigators.com/fixtures.html
As usual Chris and I will be there to assist, or shadow you around if you require it. As before these are low key events which cater for beginners trying the sport out for either a first time or with little experience. If you are interested and want further information please let either Chris or I know, our email addresses are: Gareth50davis@aol.com or cjkiddier@ntlworld.com
3. Thanks very much to Liz for organising a superb evening on Friday night - great food and lots of laughs. Details will soon follow about the end of year do on Friday 13 th March.
4. Well done to Erol and Dick for organising the canal run on Sunday - there was about 40 Sandhurst Joggers at the event and all made it back to the pub (we think.)
5. Also a big well done to Patrick Wadsworth and Andy Tarbet who completed a 50 mile race on Sunday. They both must be mad!
13- Jan - 2009
Our thanks go to all of you who turned out to run in very challenging conditions at Sundays' Tadley cross-country. We are still waiting for the full results, which are often quite slow in coming out after the Tadley, but our provisional, non-gender-sorted results look promising. We will certainly be one the top three (of thirteen) clubs. Reading Raodrunners usually, but not always beat us into first place, and Thames Valley Triathletes, who were close behind us at Datchet, had a powerful team at Tadley too.
Some of the men's highlights were:- . Graham Robinson achieved another convincing win, finishing about 40 seconds ahead of second place. It is hard to believe that he competed in the Berkshire cross-country championships the previous day. . Clive Rolfe consolidated his position as Richard Johnson's main competitor for the (SJ) No 2 slot. . Mark F-S was back on form as our third finisher. . Chris Palmer continued his climb through the ranks to finish (SJ) fourth. . Andy Stevens is running really well too, rising to (SJ) fifth. . Further down the field we saw a storming run from James Casey, finishing (SJ) 13th.
The ladies were much more consistent in their performance, every one of them finishing in the position their recent cross-country form had suggested. Lucy Clayton, Laura Hales & Sue Wright took the first three (SJ) positions with Jo Newman and Kim Reeves close behind them. Despite the absence of Jenny Gray, Vicky Clarke, Helen Antram & Jo Obertell, I think we had three ladies (including the obligatory one veteran) in the first fifteen. Until the gender results are released we only have the overall positions, but comparing these with last year's Overall/Women's positions Lucy, Laura & Sue would have been 4th, 6th & 9th women; however this year I think TVT may have pushed them a little further down.
Jenny Gray, in the meantime, was competing in the Hetrfordshire County Championships, where she took a creditable sixth place.
There were three newcomers to Sandhurst Joggers cross-country at Tadley. We offer a very warm welcome to Ian Lynch, Richard Humphreys & Shane Woods, and hope to see them again as regular runners.
As soon as the full results of the events are available on the TV XC website < http://www.tvxc.org.uk > we'll let you all know.
Thanks again to you all for running. The next event is Finch Coasters in two weeks, on Sunday 25th January, close to home at Bramshill.
10th - Jan - 2009
Each year Sandhurst Joggers provides a number of marshals to work in the London Marathon finish area in the Mall (they are the people in white track suits and black caps that you may have seen on television). Volunteers to marshal at this year's marathon, on Sunday 26th April, are now being sought. There are several marshaling roles to be filled. Most are outdoors and active (these are the most interesting) but there is also a call for a few people to work, mostly seated, inside portacabins - nice in foul weather but not so close to the bustle of the front line.
Marshaling is, for most, a rewarding and exciting experience. But it is a long and hard day's work that shouldn't be entered into lightly.
Marshals will leave Farnborough station (by coach) at around 7 am and return there at about 6 pm. Most of them will be on their feet, active and in the open whatever the weather, from about 8 am until 5 pm, with only one short break, for "lunch", at about 10:30. And it is not a job for the squeamish or fastidious - if you are one of the "front line" marshals (as most of our volunteers are likely to be) you will certainly encounter sweat and tears, and very likely blood and other body fluids (don't ask!). But despite all that it really can be a rewarding day's work. And it gives you an opportunity to enter a special marshals' draw for places to run in next year's (2010) London marathon.
In two or three weeks I will send out (and ask for) more details to/from those who reply to this email. At that stage they will be able to state a job preference (brief details of the various roles will be given), but we can't guarantee that anyone will get the job they prefer. Applications will be processed in February and those chosen will be notified by mid-March. At that stage they will be asked to make a firm commitment to marshal, as last minute drop-outs can cause major problems for the organisers.
Marshaling in the finish area is organized by Southern Navigators, an orienteering club based in Guildford. They offer places first to their own members and then to other local athletic clubs, of which Sandhurst Joggers is but one. There are normally more volunteers than places so they cannot guarantee that all volunteers will be accepted. In recent years, depending on supply and demand, they have accepted between 7 and 30 Sandhurst Joggers. Last year of 39 members who volunteered 30 were selected. Priority will be given to unsuccessful applicants to run in the marathon, unsuccessful marshalling volunteers from last year (if they have confirmed that they want to marshal this year) and then to other members. Only current members of Sandhurst Joggers can be accepted.
It is important that marshals are available for a briefing and kit-distribution on (probably) the evening of the Sunday before the marathon,19th April.
If you would like to marshal please contact me as soon as possible so that I can send further details to you when they arrive. And in the meantime, please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
5th - Jan - 2009
Hi All
Green Belt Relay - Sat 23 rd May & Sun 24 th May
A few of us thought it might be nice to enter a Sandhurst Joggers team in the Green Belt relay in May. We've spoken to some people about this already and had quite a positive response. If I can get enough interest, then I will enter a team later this week. I think the event will sell out quickly, so we need to make quite a quick decision on this.
What is it?
The relay is 220 mile relay split over a weekend. As the name suggests, the route goes round the Green Belt (mostly just outside the M25). Each team member must run a leg on each day (legs are between 6 and 14 miles and vary in difficulty). It starts and finishes from Hampton Court .
It's probably best to have a look at the links below to find out more information:
http://www.greenbeltrelay.org.uk/stage.htm
http://www.serpentine.org.uk/pages/race_greenbelt_map.html
Names on my list (so far)
- Jenny Gray
- Graham Robinson
- Dave Breslin
- James Casey
- Brendan Cottrell (leg permitting)
- Janice Alves De-Sousa
- James Ratcliffe
- ?
- ?
- ?
- ?
Saturday Night
This will depend on what people want to do. Either we could book accommodation for some (or all of us) near the end of Leg 11 / start of Leg 12 or just make our own way to the start of our legs for the next day. If possible, I think staying together would be best and would mean we could go out for dinner on the Saturday night.
Cost
The event costs £200 to enter a team. I think this is too much for the club to completely subsidise. Therefore, I suggest that each team member pays £10 and the remaining £90 is paid by the club. I will need to ask the committee about this.
Please let me know if you are interested or if you have any further questions.
Erol / Clive / Jon / Mark - any of you interested in this?
See you all soon.
2 - Jan - 2009
1) Next Cross-Country
The fourth of the winter cross-country league events, that hosted by Tadley Runners, is now only a little over a week away, on Sunday 11th January starting at 11 am. Our best runners, those who will or might score league points for the club, are of course particularly urged to run if possible. But the invitation goes far beyond them - any member who has a little off-road experience and who can run five miles in under about an hour (or 10K in under 1:15) will be welcome to join us at Tadley.
Remember that you must wear club kit to score for the club. Non-members are welcome too, but it will cost them £3 (members' entry fees are paid by the club). After the race many of us will will adjourn to a nearby pub (in Bagshot). The course is about 5.5 mile long and over terrain that varies from good forest tracks to muddy fields; there are a couple of ditches to cross. Those who are familiar with it will welcome two changes -
(1) The circuit of the two large fields, during which the ditches are crossed, is near the end of the race rather than the beginning; this should eliminate the queues at the ditches.
(2) We run around, rather than jump/climb over, the fallen tree. There is also a minor change of direction in two places on the forest tracks.
A group of Sandhurst runners will meet in Frogmore lower carpark (near the road) at 9 am to car-share and/or drive in convoy to the venue, leaving Frogmore not later than 9:10. If you are driving there independently and have satellite navigation (or use an on line route-planner) the postcode RG26 5NL will take you there. There is no obvious "best" route - three different route-planners give three different routes - via the A30 (or M3) and Basingstoke (24 miles), cross-country via Heckfield (18 miles, on minor roads), or via the M4 (23 miles) - any of these routes will take 45-60 minutes. There is a map and directions on the club website : follow the links from the home-page or go directly to http://www.sandhurstjoggers.org.uk/2-SiteLinks/CrossCountry/Directions/Tadley.htm
There is ample parking at Tadley, but it is a 15 minute walk from the car-park to the start so please arrive in plenty of time .
As always it helps us if we know who to expect so, if possible, please let us know if you plan to run, particularly if you are one of our potential scoring runners (you know who you are). But that's not an absolute commitment - if you simply turn up ready to run at 10:55 we'll put you on the list.
2) League Website The Thames Valley Cross-Country League now has its own website. This is the place to go for any information about the league - results of earlier events, dates of future events, maps and directions to events, details of member clubs, contact details, league rules... there is even a weather forecast. Go to http://www.tvxc.org.uk
If you have any questions, or require more detailed directions please don't hesitate to contact us.
We hope to see you on Sunday week.