Weekend Round Up 30th Nov 1st December
Clare
CLARE WORGAN STARTS HER TENURE AS LADIES CLUB CAPTAIN
We start this week’s Round Up with a terrific initiative from Clare Worgan. On Saturday morning’s BBC Radio 2 show, Romesh Ranganathan has a slot where he invites two listeners to “Pitch their Passion”. Clare made a very impressive 45 second pitch brilliantly articulating her love of Triathlon and the sport in general. Clare also gave Tuff Fitty a mention on air and gave us all a shout out; what a way for our new Ladies Club Captain to begin her tenure. Clare’s inspirational pitch is definitely worth a listen. The link on BBC iPlayer is HERE. It is appreciated the full show runs to 3 hours but if you forward to approx 2:14 that is where ‘Pitch your Passion’ starts. Its worth listening through the other pitch to hear just how well Clare did. circa 10 minutes duration. Congratulations Clare.
Shelley, Jon & Grant
TUNNEL MARATHON
Our very own Danny Cunnett & Jay McCardle as directors of Sussex Trail Events (STE) have developed a brilliant reputation for staging wacky running races. However STE are increasingly getting more people take notice of their events including BBC News. If you wish to see BBC’s take on their bonkers portfolio, the article is HERE.
Situated just north of Portsmouth in Portsdown Hill, the tunnels were used by the Royal Navy as their underground HQ during the war. As well and Danny & Jay we had a Tuff trio in the form of Jon Babbage who ran well finishing in 4:29; impressive for a twisting course and a tall man. Grant Smalley also did well around the course completing the marathon. Shelley Babbage had planned to run a half marathon but ended up running longer. In addition to running well Shelley has reported in on her different way to spend a Saturday morning:-
‘Jon and I haven’t booked many events this year but when we saw Sussex Trail Events were putting on the tunnel marathon we knew that’s one that we would like to do! Why? I’m not sure! I don’t like enclosed spaces, specially dark enclosed spaces and we were going to be 100ft underground!!!! But still we paid money to go and do this 🙂 As many of you know Jon and I are known for not sticking to any training plans. But still we rocked up on Saturday morning with the intention that I would try and make it to the half distance and Jon will complete the full. When we arrived we saw Grant which was nice!! There was lots of other friendly faces too!
‘At the start I was looking around at all the other crazy people and it was a little bit funny seeing everyone in cycling helmets getting ready to run!!! Once we started running it was clear why we needed the helmets, taller people had to duck and as Jon found out a few times if you forget to duck you may bash your head and fall to the ground, sadly I didn’t witness this but did see him with mud on his hands and clothes, it was a little damp in there where the tunnels had a few leaks in places! The marathon distance was 91 laps of the tunnels!! I love laps but 91!!!!!! I made it to 15 miles and decided that was enough for me. Jon finished the 91 laps shortly after I had finished!!
‘Great event, really well organised. Super friendly runners and amazing race directors. All the volunteers were fantastic Would I do this again? Definitely yes! You know you’re going to have a good race with Sussex Trail Events! Even if it is a slightly crazy event!!’
Shelley
The video of the event follows:-
Steve & Kate
RUN THROUGH EVENTS – GOODWOOD CIRCUIT
Run Through Events returned to Goodwood Motor Racing Circuit for one of their regular events where competitors can participate in 5 or 10k, a half or 20 mile distance, marathon and ultra. This time there were over 1,000 runners who completed the various races. In amongst these we had a great run from Steve Fryer across the Half Marathon distance. Steve completed the laps in just 1hr 35m; a great result that saw him 2nd in his age group category. There was further good running from Kate Evans who ran the 5k course. Well done to both Kate & Steve running in such wet weather. Inspired to run around Goodwood Motor Racing circuit; then Run Through return on Sun 9th Feb – Also whilst talking about Goodwood Circuit – the Chichester 10k returns the week before on Sunday 2nd February.
Trevor
MAPLEDURHAM TEN MILE
The organisers state this run is their favourite run of the Winter Trail Run Series and the courses takes runners through a variety of muddy paths, woodland trails, private estate roads and across fields and up and down a few hills!!! Trevor Harvey undertook the Mapledurham 10 mile, which he reports, unsurprisingly is a 10 mile run at Mapledurham which is slightly north of Reading. Trev reports
‘I’ve completed it the last three years and it’s always a good well organised race…….and always muddy. It was pouring with rain throughout this year, and starting on the north bank of the Thames a figure of eight course is followed taking in ‘Tourette’s hill’. As stated there is plenty of mud so in-spite of good trail shoes, staying upright is key, The main ingredients: – very wet (tick), very muddy, (tick), very slippery (tick), hilly (tick) mince pies (tick) and mulled wine at the finish (tick) and good bling (tick). Trail shoes awaiting a clean, but all strangely enjoyable. (There is also a well supported 10K & Half marathon).’
Trevor
SUSSEX CROSS COUNTRY LEAGUE – FIXTURE THREE – ARDINGLY
This year Tuff Fitty have largely taken a hiatus from the Sussex Cross Country league, but other running clubs are available and we had three runners taking on the grassy slippery terrain at Ardingly Showground. The ladies start first and there was a strong age group result from Kate Cooper representing her club around the approximately 5k course. Half an hour later and the men commenced their approx 8km course. Two further running clubs were represented with Simon Grundy doing well finishing 8th in his age group and Steve Feest was also running who finished 7th in his age group.
PARKRUN ROUND UP
Littlehampton parkrun saw some great Tuff results with Nathan Cooper leading the way, crossing the line 5th overall in 18:22. This was a new PB from Nathan beating his previous best set in April 2023. Colin Simpson was our next runner winning his age group by a margin of over 3.5 minutes. Alistair Evans has completed 133 Littlehampton runs out of his impressive total of 204. Sue Simpson completed our quartet finishing by the river Arun.
Worthing parkrun is getting busy with over 600 runners for the past four weeks but this week reduced to a more manageable 529 finishers. There was a very high standard though, particularly amongst the Tuff contingent as Dave March was our first runner home in just 19:57, another great time as Dave has been squeezing down his finish times recently. Paul Fielder was our next runner as he completed his 60th parkrun. Bob Rogers maintains his strong form with a great age grade 75.92%. Les Pearce was also running and next we had Phil Turner who was on pacing duties.
Peachaven parkrun has a winter and summer route with the winter course around Centenary Park. This week Clive Harvey and Glenn Parisi were both accredited with the same finish time followed by Jon Roper.
Maidenhead parkrun was the venue for Trevor Harvey running around Braywick Park taking in the sports field and nature reserve.
Havant parkrun is a scenic route around Staunton Country Park taking in the lake and woodland. Vicky Cooper was our Tuff presence as she has built 49 parkruns, so just one away from her 50th milestone.
The furthest parkrun tourism this week goes to Murray Hodge who completed Porthcawl parkrun. This is a seafront run in South Wales comprising an out and back route finish back at the start point.
Well done to all fifteen.
