Weekend Round Up 26th 27th October
Whilst the clocks may have changed and daylight saving time has finished, there is still no let up in Tuff activity as follows:-
GARETH & OLIVIA
To start this week, Tuff Fitty are delighted to announce the engagement of two of our members; Gareth Coombes to Olivia Morey. From us all we offer them our warmest congratulations and wish them every happiness together.
l to r Andy Gomm, Tiff Orton, Debbie Boxall, Glenn Parisi, & Jay McCardle
BEACHY HEAD MARATHON
Almost 2,700 runners took part in the Beachy Head runs this year with a choice of Ultra, Marathon, Half Marathon, or 10K.
On the Saturday it was the turn of the Marathon where Tuff FItty had five runners. The route was within the South Downs National Park including parts of the South Downs Way. It was an early 8:45am start and the marathon course would take in 3,875 ft of ascent. 1,103 runners finished with the final runner taking over 10 ten hours indicating how tough the event is. There was a great set of results from the Tuff quintet. Jay McCardle completed in 5 hours 20. Second Tuff home was Tiff Orton. Crossing the line together was Debbie Boxall and Glenn Parisi and then Andy Gomm who had been given the entry as a birthday present. Well done to all five.
BEACHY HEAD 10K
Also on the Saturday the Beachy Head 10k took place. This shouldn’t be viewed as an easy option as this shorter course still packed in over 1,000 foot of ascent. Ness Green was our representative here finishing her busy season strongly finishing well into the top half of the results.
Sheila Bailey
BEACHY HEAD HALF MARATHON
The Half Marathon occurred on the Sunday morning as the runners were off straight up the climb that the previous day’s runners faced and would navigate the course accumulating 1,600ft of ascent. Sheila Bailey took part as was delighted to achieve a PB, great work over such an undulating course.
OMM – ORIGINAL MOUNTAIN MARATHON
Danny Cunnett signed up for the 2-day OMM UK Mountain Challenge. The location varies every year to keep the challenge, with the Highlands chosen for this year based at Glen Artney. Danny took part in the event which is totally unsupported, meaning the teams have to carry all their equipment, tent and are only given a map at the start of each day to work out the route. Taking part in the ‘Long score’ the event is Orienteering where teams have to navigate to checkpoints ‘dibbing’ their timing chip to record their arrival. Great work by Danny and his team out on the rugged Highlands for 11 hours 45.
Will made the official HYROX Instagram post
HYROX BIRMINGHAM
HYROX is billed as the sport of ‘fitness racing’with over 40 global events in 2023. It combines both running & functional workout stations, hosted indoors in vast exhibition halls. The venue for Birmingham was the NEC. Kev Pearson is a regular at HYROX having raced seven events and for Birmingham Will King has reported in:-
‘Last year I joined a gym group to help with overall fitness and strength for my Luxembourg 1/2 IM. This gym group is great fun and Ben who runs it finds new exciting ways to kill me. His latest idea was HYROX Birmingham!’
‘HYROX consists of 8 1km runs separated by 8 strength/ endurance stations. Ski Erg 1000M, Row Erg 1000M, Sledge Push 50M, Sledge Pull 50M, 80m Burpee Broad Jumps, 100M Farmers Carry, 24 KG each arm 100M walking Lunges 20 KG weight 100 Wallballs.’
‘I was going to this with my old friend Paul Edwards formerly Bognor Cycle Club. We both had to run but could share the workload of the stations. Game plan First run was to be our warmup at 5:30 for the KM, then to hit the station and come out strong. All good so far, it was on the second run that Paul announced that perhaps more run training and less golf would have been a better way to train. With his pulse rate showing 175 we decided to reel it back. Now running at 6:30 per km and the odd walk we managed to soldier on being overtaken by buff topless fit dudes’.
‘The stations went to plan except the burpee broad jumps. Apparently, my technique was wrong, and a judge took me to one side to explain. She could have been explained quantum physics in Russian at this stage as my brain was just dealing with breathing! We crossed the line as a pair 1:28:50 Was hoping for below 1:20:00.’
‘Roll on the next one’
Will
KENT CLASSIC SPORTIVE
The Kent Classic Sportive started from Lingfield Park Racecourse taking riders along the Sussex Kent border before looping around Hever Castle. There was a choice of Long course 111km, Middle 84km or short 47km. Our representative was Isis solato who undertook the long route. Isis had to contend with 5,000ft of climbing with the highest ascent late in the ride at 90k
TIVERTON HALF MARATHON
Whilst Devon isn’t particularly flat the Tiverton Half Marathon starts from the canal basin with runners heading along the Grand Western canal on an out and back course. Therefore the course could see some good times and that was exactly the case as delivered by Steve Fryer. Steve finished 5th overall just 6 seconds behind fourth and a podium not far off. Steve was also first in his age group crossing the line in just 1hr 35 – great running.
STEEPDOWN CHALLENGE
The sixteenth Fun Run League fixture, (with the final one next weekend) was the Steepdown Challenge; an 8k run starting from Lancing Manor Leisure Centre which included a climb of 172 metres to Steepdown Trig point. There were 3 Tuffs in action for their running clubs. First, we had Kate Cooper, then Steve Feest & Debbie Birch.
PARKRUN ROUND UP
Worthing parkrun saw Steve Feest getting close to his PB finishing as first Tuff home with a 78% age grade. Edward Lay was our next runner completing his 187th run. Another Worthing stalwart is Les Pearce who finished his 217th run. Nina Tully completed our Tuff quartet.
Bognor parkrun numbers rose with Littlehampton cancelled because of the bonfire celebrations. In amongst the runners was Clive Harvey. Bob Rogers was our next runner and then Alistair Evans. Whilst a Littlehampton regular he has built up 24 runs at Bognor and managed to get a new PB shaving 10 seconds of his previous record. This is building nicely for Al’s 200th parkrun next week.
Across at Netley Abbey parkrun you can’t keep a good man down. Fresh from last week’s World Triathlon finals. James Mapley was running the course next to Southampton Water. Another great result as James finished 4th overall in just 18:54 attaining a new PB in the process knocking 57 seconds off his previous best set in 2022
Maidenhead parkrun was the choice of Trevor Harvey who also gained credits as he was busy undertaking pre-course set up and first timer briefing, as well as running the event.
Preston Park parkrun saw Paul Fielder undertake the laps around the Park where the Brighton Marathon starts from.
Uckfield parkrun also saw a Tuff presence around the out and back course in Buxted Park. Sheila Bailey & Kate Evans ran together.
Another location with Tuff runners was Wakehurst parkrun where a further tourist location was ticked off for Colin Simpson who was first in his age group by a margin of over 7 minutes. Sue Simpson was also present who has now amassed 232 parkruns.
Well done to all fourteen
