August is here therefore its the Virtual Henfield Half Marathon – as a solo or team relay (2 to 4 people) if you are going to share – how you do that and who you do it with is up to you!

Share your result by emailing to enquiries@henfieldjoggers.co.uk, or set of results if you’re sharing with friends as a virtual relay, provided the course is covered, (Elapsed time please to make it a level playing field) before midnight on MONDAY 31st August – so there’s plenty of time to make arrangements, do recce’s etc – and I’ll compile them into Solo and Team results and publish here on Tuesday 1st September.

The Route – this is NOT the usual Henfield Half route – interestingly we don’t normally run the regular annual route as we’re too busy marshalling and I wanted to make it more interesting therefore I’ve arrived at a new route – the map is below and I can share a .gpx too on request….sadly the website won’t store .gpx files. Notably the route is CLOCKWISE, starting and finishing at HLC, and has a stretch on the West bank of the River around Laurence Oliviers old house – its well worth looking at this bit closely as I was surprised to find out how different everything looked to our familiar ‘usual’ territory – I think everyone will like it! I’ve added some arrows to the route….note there is one loop, which will be towards the end of the route, where you go along the river to Betley Bridge, rejoin the Downslink and head towards Henfield, then turn right at the stones and take the track up past the barn, turning right to go past Chates to rejoin the river back up to Betley, down the Downslink back to HLC!

NON HJ members are actively encouraged to join in the fun, and we have opened a JustGiving page: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/virtualhenfieldhalf
for completely voluntary contributions to St Barnabas House in memory of Brian Turrell, such an important and loved HJ member who passed away so sadly in June. Let’s see if we can raise something for a great cause which we know was close to his heart, and that of other people.

I think that covers everything but if I missed anything please let me know – I think this should be a lot of fun and the Relay option means that literally EVERYONE can have a crack at it! So – what are we waiting for?

Following the government update England Athletics updated their guidance this week, which you can see by following the link here. There is, as of now, nothing to stop 6 people running together, ensuring 2 Metre separation and anyone interested is free to do so. However for the CLUB to arrange any such runs is more complex, CLUB runs have obligations attached (for example we have to have a Covid-19 co-ordinator identified in each club to take responsibility for club plan and undertake the relevant risk assessments. These risk assessments and club plans must be in place before any activity can take place in order for insurance to be valid).

After considering this at a Committee meeting the unanimous decision was to NOT change anything at Club level and NOT organise any Club runs using these new rules. We believe that the restrictions mean that the benefits are so small, the complications so great, and the responsibilities so onerous that it just isn’t worth it. Nor was anyone comfortable in accepting the responsibility that taking on such a role required.

But what people do OUTSIDE ANY CLUB ORGANISATION is down to them. Just please be sure to stay within the rules. Hope that makes it clear

Sadly (but not surprisingly) we have had to cancel the 2020 Seven Stiles due to Covid-19. See you in 2021 – stay safe everyone!