Weekend Round Up 10th 11th February
Cap’t Verity
CAPTAINS CYCLING POWER HOUR
It is a while since we used the spin studio at The Wave; and we were grateful to our captains, Mark Sole & Verity Lacey who took our ‘Power Hour’ format and, with their mission to increase Tuff’s level of cycle participation, staged the Captains Power Hour. Led superbly by Verity, she provided the following:-
“Here we are at the Wave for the inaugural Cycling Power Hour. We had a plan in mind but were keeping a view of keeping it flexible as I wasn’t sure what spin bikes they had at the pool”.
“Plan for the evening was 4 teams of 3 split as evenly as possible, 5 minutes ride time, tag the next member and continue on until we ran out of time.”
“The evening pretty much went to plan, we just had to re-think the tagging of each team member as the bikes liked to enter sleep mode after a few minutes”.
“Team spirit was high throughout with everyone shouting words of support and encouragement at the riders, although I’m sure some would question some of the words of encouragement :)”
“Fantastic effort by all and everyone was so consistent in each of their efforts. Every rider got to ride three times, which I think was considered plenty”.
“Our winning team was Mark Walford, Olivia Morey & Vicki Hedger (above)”.
Verity
SUSSEX COUNTY CROSS COUNTRY LEAGUE RACE #4: GLYNDEBOURNE
Our cross country standard bearer, Adrian Oliver has compiled the report from Saturday’s final cross country fixture of the year for your delectation below:-
Finally, the last cross-county race of the season. Normally held at the distant Bexhill, Glyndebourne near Lewes (not Lewis) was a new cross-country race host – nothing was known about the course other than it consisted of the usual combinations of 2 km and 3 km loops to make up 5 km for the ladies, and 8 km for the men – oh, and that “Glyndebourne” name sounded familiar…normally associated with music and theatre?! Certainly NOT running and cross country!
For a change, getting to the race start was straightforward – a 50-minute easy drive and the car park was next to the race village – not the usual 10-20 minute hike! Having planted the Tuff flag to demark our territory, the reality of this new route became apparent…”Just” 1 hill…a MASSIVE hill! And to be run 2 times for the ladies and 3 times for the men!
Our intrepid Tuff team was decimated to Vicki Hedger and Adrian Oliver as our usual Tuff hot-shot Simon Thistlethwaite had succumbed to illness – probably from trying too hard at Friday night’s Captains Cycling Power Hour. Sue and Colin Simpson also turned up, Colin unfortunately tided to run for Brighton Phenonix (due to past transgressions?). Fortunately, Sue was our course scout and photographer – thanks for the amazing action photos!
Word from juniors who had run the shorter loops reported that the route was muddy. Sue quickly deployed to investigate the course, only to report the bad news – the course was not just seriously muddy but included a full immersion stream crossing.
Off first were the ladies on their 5.6km (instead of the usual 5km) race, led as usual by the incredibly fast Sussex County champions. Despite the monster hill and mud, Vicki kept smiling all the way through.
Before long, the men were off on the 9km (instead of the usual 8km) race, again led by the usual fast Sussex County champions who disappeared off. Thanks to the course route, which included a number of contraflow sessions, we kept seeing blurry lead runners flashing pasted in the opposite direction. But we were not lapped!
To say that the course was muddy was an understatement! Yes the fields were waterlogged, but they were by comparison dry as we rounded a bend in a far field to be met by the camera wilding and smiling Sue Simpson at the stream crossing! Our now clean shoes and socks enjoyed that state only briefly as we circled back up the field to re-cross the same stream, but this time as a mud bath!
I had no idea what the lead runners did up the hill – they were LONG gone by the time we got there! For our 1st encounter, most valiantly shuffle ran up part of the way before succumbing to walking. By the 3rd time, everyone immediately reverted to walking.
The finish was equally entertaining – having ascended to the top of the hill, the finish line was pretty much a straight flight down the side of the hill – fortunately, there were sufficient supporters to catch and stop the flying bodies.
We can safely categorise Glyndebourne’s cross-country course as the toughest, wettest and muddiest, but also the nicest. It makes you appreciate the Saturday morning Arundel Runs – we need to start the “Crawford’s Hills of Death – The Penultimate” earlier in the season!
As a team, Tuff Fitty did not fare well in the Sussex County League due to dwindling team numbers. It is unfortunately, the race times, 2 pm and 2:30 pm are inconvenient for many. But as winter strength training and race experience, they are 1st class!
Adrian
Click on the photo below and then the video after.
Nina Tully (library shot)
RUNNING GRAND PRIX – GOODWOOD
After last week’s Chichester 10k, runners returned to Goodwood circuit for Running Grand Prix’s Goodwood run where participants could select from 5k, 10k, half or full marathon, 20 miles or 50k. NIna Tully selected the Half Marathon distance and continued her sequence of getting faster results, reporting below:-
“I was totally surprised at my time, especially as I used it as a long slow training run for Brighton Marathon. It was a gifted place from The Mental Health Runner award in collaboration with Run Through UK. I opted to walk the water station on each lap and certainly didn’t shy away from walking and chatting to a fair few runners on my way round! Got to love the running community 🙂 run streak day 98 landed me a 14 min PB 🙂 I have no idea how long this will last and how attempting to continue the streak alongside Marathon training will go but for now I am one happy runner 🙂
Nina
RUN YOUR HEART OUT
Part of the West Sussex Fun Run League, “Run Your Heart Out” started on the track at the K2 centre at Crawley. However the running track might have lulled people into thinking this was a straightforward run, but as the route headed into Tilgate forest ; Yes it was hilly, yes it was muddy – but the organisers justified this by saying “would you want it any other way?”. Steve Fryer was in action and also Steve Feest, representing their running clubs, Worthing Striders and Worthing Gazelles respectively, incidentally both rocking their new style run club vests. (Editors note: Unable to find the results apologies if anyone has been omitted from a shout out!)
PARKRUN ROUND UP
Littlehampton parkrun saw Simon Grundy as our first runner home crossing in just 20:09. Steve Fryer was next running these short distances whilst also running long for his marathon, reaching his 90th parkrun. Adrian Oliver ran reaching his 25th milestone, for him an easier pace ahead of the afternoon’s cross country. Alistair Evans was out next club member. Sue & Colin Simpson ran together ahead of their journey to Glyndebourne to cross country with Jenny Oliver and Chris Evans completing eight Tuffs on the prom.
Worthing parkrun saw Edward Lay in action as first Tuff home. Just nine seconds later Paul Howie crossed the finish line in Beach House Park. James Brock was next crossing the line almost three minutes quicker than last week. Phil Turner was our next runner on pacing duty to notch up his 110th parkrun. Kate Evans was our next runner with Elaine Rousseau completing her 171st run. Kudos to Les Pearce who, once again, was on the volunteer team completing his 31st volunteer credit.
After many different parkrun locations last week, there was just a third venue to mention; Hove Park parkrun, where the undulating lap course was attended by Glenn Parisi, Clive Harvey & Jon Roper.
Well done to all eighteen.
FROSTY AQUATHLON
It is encouraging to see that entries for this year’s Frosty have picked up and are ahead of the number of entries received at this time last year. So this raises two questions of our membership. The Frosty is a significant event for our club in promoting multisport and we do urge all our members to get involved on the day. So the first question is – have you entered to race? and secondly if not can you volunteer to help on the day? To ensure our good reputation for the event is maintained we do require more helpers during the morning . There are a variety of tasks and we try to buddy up where possible so people will not be in a role where they do not feel comfortable. Don’t forget whilst everyone who enters will receive this year’s Frosty memento; (which is most definitely worth entering for alone), everyone who signs up to Team Tuff on the volunteer side, they also earn this year’s coveted memento. So don’t delay… if you are able to help on the morning please let the Frosty committee know here If you have family members who are willing to help, please let Jenny Oliver know. Thank you
TUFF FITTY TENPIN BOWLING SOCIAL
Was it really last March when thirty Tuffs got together at the Worthing Hollywood Bowl for an evening of Tenpin bowling. It seems Tuffs are a competitive lot as the evening was a huge success last year. The format will be similar in that upon registering on our Spond app, entrants will gain two games of bowling, plus a drink. Open to all because once you have registered to attend, teams will be allocated to ensure everyone is involved. Interested? well the details you need are – Friday 15th March at 6:30pm for a 7pm start. Whilst this great social is over four weeks away you will need to register to attend prior to the 10th March in order that sufficient lanes can be booked.
TUFF FITTY’S AWARDS AND SOCIAL EVENING
The clock is ticking towards our awards and social evening. This is your final opportunity to secure your place(s) as the ticket outlet will be closing THIS EVENING – 13th February. The link for tickets is HERE Have you purchased your raffle tickets yet, or would like to increase your chances with some more? Well the link is HERE We feel so sorry for Mike Barrett & Iris Bennett who have worked tirelessly for months following the aborted date in December due to a lack of heating. However the upside is the running order for the evening is polished and better than ever……… you wouldn’t want to miss out would you?
