Weekend Round Up 11th & 12th February
With club training Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, two Saturday training sessions and Sunday – there is something for everyone, but our marvellous membership were still able to cram in the following:-
SUSSEX CROSS COUNTRY LEAGUE – RACE FOUR – STANMER PARK
The Cross Country organisers have more than once stated how pleased they are to see a pure multisport club take part in the league. Participation at all four is required to prevent the club dropping out, so we are grateful to everyone who responded to the call to arms keeping us on the league throughout, particularly Captain Adrian Oliver who was instrumental in cajoling people out onto the course. Adrian has given his thoughts below and thanks to Adrian, Simon Thistlethwaite, & Phil Scales for the men & Esther Fair, Vanessa Green & Vicki Hedger for the ladies. Also a shout out to Nathan Bilham who ran but had donned his running club vest.
“Our final outing of the season – and for once, no rain, no wind, no mud and mild – ideal running conditions”.
“The normal venue for race #4 is the muddy and distant Bexhill – relief resounded when it was announced the race would take place in Stamner park again”.
“Having arrived much earlier than expected due to little traffic and being able to park in the actual park next to the start/finish, the intrepid Tuff Team gathered around the Tuff flag in Stamner park contemplating whether to go for an early warmup or continue eyeing up the selection of chocolates”.
“Fortunately, Esther’s son Casey arrived to take control of the chocolates, forcing us to go on a quick warmup/recce of the course”.
“Before too long, it was time to wander over to see our elite ladies’ team line up against their foe. Gunshot and they are off on the one short 2km lap followed by a longer (and hillier) 3km lap”.
“Time for the chocoholic Tuff men to line up. While the men lined up, the first of the ladies started coming in over the finish line – the last km being downhill encouraged fast sprint finishes which resulted in the occasional collapsing – but Esther, having earlier seen off her competition, effortlessly flew over the finish line to finish in 43rd place in 25:03. Vanessa and Vicki conspired and successfully saw off their competition (there were no cameras or witnesses deep in the woods as to what ACTUALLY happened…) to finish 83rd and 84th respectively in 32:06 and 32:12.
“Another gunshot and the men were off on their one short 2km lap followed by two longer and hillier 3km laps. I have no idea what happened up in front with Simon (64th place in 36:13) or Phil (72nd place in 37:17) as I was so far back – but I shamefully saw off an 11 year more senior running at the line to place 101st in 37:17 (we had chatted as we neared the finish and he graciously agreed to allow me to win! Note to self: must remember to pay him…)”
“Despite our limited turnout, our team positions were very respectable, with the ladies taking 10th place in Division 2 and 11th in the Vets. And the men in 11th in Division 2 and 8th in the Vets”.
“Overall results for the season’s 4 races have yet to be published”
| Name | Race 1 | Race 2 | Race 3 | Race 4 | Total |
| Adrian Oliver | Y | Y | Y | Y | 4 |
| Simon Thistlethwaite | Y | Y | Y | Y | 4 |
| Esther Fair | Y | Y | Y | 3 | |
| Craig Blackman | Y | Y | supporting | 2 | |
| Casey Fair (Esther’s Son) | supporting | supporting | supporting | ||
| Kate Cooper | Y | Y | 2 | ||
| Juliette Reader | Y | Y | 2 | ||
| Vicki Hedger | Y | Y | 2 | ||
| Vanessa Green | Y | Y | 2 | ||
| Paul Martin | Y | Y | 2 | ||
| Jenny Oliver | Y | 1 | |||
| Claire Moyle | Y | 1 | |||
| Phil Scales | Y | 1 | |||
| Richard Jay | Y | 1 |
Adrian
Click on the photo below for the XC album:-
RUNNING GRAND PRIX – GOODWOOD CIRCUIT
With just under 900 finishers, Run Through events have become a regular around Goodwood circuit, with a choice of 5k/10k, half marathon, 20 miler, marathon and a small number racing 50k. There were two Tuffs running this time, Steve Fryer completing the half marathon in a spritely 1hr 31min just outside the top 10% – great running. Also present was Mark Sole who despite his modesty did well finishing in the top third of the 10k finishers. Thanks to Mark for reporting in:-
“A selection of races around the glorious Goodwood seemed like a good offer! Turns out it was a well organised event. 50k down through the distances you start with an out and back to then join the main track with everyone else who are running the longer distances. As I’ve not really been running much as I should of been, I downgraded from the half marathon to 10k. All sorted within minutes. Managed to briefly catch up with Steven Fryer whilst he was warming up for the half. Then a good organised warm up session for the 10k. I wasn’t sure what my time would be so went between the calls for 50 and 55 mins. Managed just under 50mins, so happy days. It proves the coached track sessions work! I’ll have a look at the longer races next year, if my ability to run consistently further improves! I’d recommend this event though”.
Mark
TUFF FITTY CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP & STRUN CHAMPIONSHIP
Unfortunately for our Triathlon Club championship, the preferred nominated 70.3 race – 255@Goodwood was cancelled. Other 70.3 races were considered but New Forest Middle Distance was ruled out because of the clash with the popular Southwater Relays, and very close to the standard race. Therefore our championship of races is as follows:-
Arundel Sprint Distance Triathlon 21st May
Brighton & Hove Standard Distance Triathlon 10th September
Ironbourne 70.3 (Eastbourne) 9th July
All the above races have different distances to choose from but it is the distance shown above for each that count toward each championship.
The return of the STRUN last year proved very popular and 2023’s fixtures comprise a specific Littlehampton & Worthing parkrun, plus Beat The Tide, Dawn on The Downs (10k) & Arundel 10k. The dates for each of the three events have now been fixed, so the committee will shortly look to slot in the two parkrun dates. Please note the following in your diaries – the scoring is on the WMA grading to take into account gender and age.
Beat The Tide – Monday July 17th
Dawn on The Downs (10k distance) Sunday 23rd July
Arundel 10k Sunday 27th August
WEST SUSSEX FUN RUN LEAGUE – CRAWLEY – RUN YOUR HEART OUT
We have several Tuffs who are also members of running clubs and after the cancellation of New Year’s HangOver 5 this was to be the first Fun Run league fixture of the year. Billed as a 5 mile-ish route starting from the K2 centre at Crawley and around Tilgate, Elaine Rousseau pulled on her running club vest for this one.
PARKRUN UPDATE
Littlehampton parkrun this week also included Adrian Oliver and Jon Babbage to spread the word about our forthcoming Frosty Aquathlon. Running parkrun were Colin Simpson, a strong run second in his age group for his 213rd parkrun. Next was Sue Simpson for her 176th PR, Alistair Evans (115 PRs) and Jenny Oliver.
Did you know that Worthing parkrun is ranked at number 17th in the 2022 rankings for the fastest parkrun in the UK? – impressive out of 779 UK parkrun locations! Running this week, surprisingly for the first time around this course as he clocked up PR number 96 – Nathan Bilham who viewed the event as a warm up for the afternoon’s cross country fixture. Worthing legend Les Pearce was on the organising team this week.
Bognor parkrun saw Glenn Parisi as first Tuff home, followed by Jon Roper who both attained PB’s over the course and Clive Harvey. Trevor Harvey also attained a PB on the course clocking up his 70th parkrun.
Last but by no means least more parkrun tourism as Edward Lay ran around the course for Holyrood parkrun in Edinburgh. Whilst this was only the 26th staging of the run it is proving a popular location with 506 finishers following a single loop right around Holyrood park
Well done to all thirteen.
