Round Up 11th – 20th January
Early January has seen a pause in the Tuff weekend racing action, nonetheless a number of members have been busy with other noteworthy adventures.
MARK WALFORD’S LITTLEHAMPTON WAVE TRAINING DAY
Mark has set himself the massive challenge of completing 24 triathlons in 24 hours in June 2025 to raise money for Alzheimer’s Research UK. He chose ‘Blue Monday’, 20th January, to complete a training day at the Littlehampton Wave. Huge congratulations to Mark for completing the day successfully and many thanks to him for reporting in:
‘Unusual event day, a Monday. But on Monday I turned up at Littlehampton Wave to do 8 super sprint triathlons indoors, as training for my 24-hour challenge in June, all in support of Alzheimer’s Research UK. My small unique idea has now snowballed to a bigger event.
Monday was also coined ‘Blue Monday’, so we decided to use the tag line ‘Paint Blue Monday Orange’. This caught the attention of local media, which was nice but also a bit scary!
The plan: 400m swim, 25min static bike in Reception then up to a treadmill for a 15min run, a few minutes to rest and start again.
I was blown away to see so many Tuffs: Fraser and Adam joined me, Graham came down, Clive was in the pool and many said ‘hi’ during their work outs. I was equally grateful for the cash and online donations, adding £400 to my total amount.
I felt OK during the day, but also learnt a few lessons, and hopefully people are starting to understand my event.
CONGRATULATIONS TO OLIVIA MOREY & GARETH COOMBES ON THE BIRTH OF MILES!
The Tuff family is growing and we are delighted to announce the safe arrival of Miles Austin Coombes. Massive congratulations to Olivia and Gareth! Like his parents, he was in a bit of a hurry and arrived 2 weeks early weighing 7lb7oz. No doubt he will be in a buggy doing Parkrun before too long!
PARKRUN ROUND UP
Speaking of Parkrun, Tuff Fitty members have been present, as ever, for the last 2 weekends. Many thanks to Chris Evans who has volunteered to provide the Parkrun data for the Round Up. To make things as easy as possible for him, it would be helpful for all Tuffs to have Tuff Fitty included in their Parkrun profile. This is how you do it:
To set your parkrun club, sign in at: https://www.parkrun.org.uk/ or register at https://www.parkrun.org.uk/register/
You will then see your ‘parkrun profile’
From the list on the left select ‘groups’
Entering “tuff” will bring up “Tuff Fitty Triathlon Club”
If you are also a member of a running club, you probably want them to be your primary club. You can be a member of up to five clubs! Your primary club is what is shown on the normal results page. When additional clubs are set, your results will also appear on that club’s weekly ‘consolidated club report’.
On Saturday 11th January, we had a relatively modest 10 Tuffs competing at our local Parkruns in Bognor (Katie Young and Sue Pinky), Worthing (Ed Lay) and Littlehampton, which had the largest contingent of 6 runners (Steve Fryer, Colin Simpson, Emma Hinton, Al Evans, Chris Evans and Debbie Birch), along with Hope Newcomer volunteering. Trevor Harvey made his regular appearance at his local Maidenhead Parkrun.
Saturday 18th January saw more Parkrun action, including a few tourists with Katie Young and Will King taking part in Winchester, Sue and Colin Simpson running in Morden and Danny Cunnett in Cranleigh. Closer to home, Clive Harvey completed his 40th Bognor Parkrun, David March and Les Pearce took part in Worthing. Littlehampton was again the most popular Tuff Parkrun with 9 runners (Steve Fryer, Amy Kidd, Fraser Kidd, Adrian Oliver, Al Evans, Susan Douglas, Debbie Birch, Sue Pinky and Chris Evans). Chris was also among the volunteers, along with Hope Newcomer. Special mention to Amy Kidd for her 25th Parkrun and her 5th PB in a row!
