At this years AGM we announced that we had made a small profit from the 2014 Seven Stiles event, which under the WSFRL constitution should be donated to charity. We’re more than delighted to announce that we’re able to donate £100 each to three very local and well deserving organisations. Henfield Leisure Centre needs no introduction as our alma mater, Henfield Youth Club continue to do a great job with limited funds, and Know Dementia are doing a fantastic job with the growing societal pressures of this growing issue.
On Sunday 30th November Cathy and Paul handed over the cheque for Know Dementia at their Christmas meal in Henfield Hall, where we were made to feel phenomally welcome, especially by the best Father Christmas ever! Below you can see Cathy and Paul handing over the cheque to Alex, the chair of Know Dementia.
And then on Tuesday 2nd December Brian and Danielle popped along to the Youth Club to present the cheque to some clearly happy people!
The latest Handicap results are in and its a neck and neck finish as we enter the final month – Emma led for a lot of the year and Liz has been nipping at her heels, but Nikki enters the final race in pole position! You can see the full results here.
The final Handicap of the 2014 season is on Wednesday 2nd December – be there to feel the tension! The results and the award of the Grace Wells Trophy will be at the Christmas ‘do’ on 13th December!
Not everyone realises that the ‘fun runs’ (yes, I know they’re not all exactly ‘fun’ in the way we might think!) actually form part of a League, the West Sussex Fun Run League, of 18 Clubs, including Henfield Joggers.
After several years of decline to the point of finishing rock bottom, I’m pleased to say that we’ve had something of a revival, finishing 16th (see full table below).
Now for this thanks must go to everyone who has taken part in any of the Fun Runs during 2014, every single one of you earned points, and those accumulate. To illustrate the huge difference between last year and this year, take a look at the following table, which simply shows the year on year improvement. Henfield Joggers finished third, which just shows how much we have improved:
Apart from thanking everyone who took part, sometimes on cold and wet, windy days, and many times wondering what on earth you’d agreed to when you said ‘yes’ one Wednesday evening in a weak moment (yes, I KNOW that feeling too you know!) I’d like to single out Liz and Gill who really promoted this and encouraged everyone to just ‘have a go’, and of course introduced the ‘cake rating’ that will be in use in 2015!!
I’d also like to mention Danielle for her enthusiasm, in fact so much enthusiasm that I’m handing over the mantle of ‘Fun Run coordinator’ to her for the 2015 season! So ‘Paulie Gradings’ give way to ‘Dani Ratings’! But I won’t be far away and hope to see you all at more of these events next year than ever before! Thank you all so much, and maybe see you at the Hangover 5 on New Years Day???
With representation at no less than FOUR events over the weekend, here is a summary of the results as I have tracked them. Congratulations go to everyone, we had new PB’s set, Andys great time at the Great South Run, and especially to Jenny Cobby for her Beachy Head 10K AND Great South Run, and Mick Dee for his Beachy Head 10k AND Alf Shrubb 5 – inspirational all round! I feel positively lazy this weekend!
Overall the weather held up – yes it was windy as usual making those last 2 miles a real challenge!
The atmosphere was fabulous, the iconic ships looked great and the post race Nutella, Banana and Marshmallow Crepe was definitely worth running for!!
Always a bit of struggle to keep pace as there are so many people so it’s a bit like dodgems at times and with all the zig zagging I ended up running 10.14 miles instead of just 10. Most frustrating this time was the last 800m where twice I just couldn’t zoom (ok zoom might be a bit over the top)…past people as it narrowed quite a bit at points.
Pros and Cons to these big races really. Pros are the atmosphere, and the crowd support and pre and post race stalls yet cons are the slow shuffles at the start and the congestion during the run (unless you’re up with the elites!). No doubt we will both be back again next year though. Both of us did better than last time we did it – so course PB’s. Results that I can find are below but well done to Andy, 139th overall (out of 16,029 finishers!)
Great local run off road in Slinfold in memory of the great Alf Shrubb – an amazing world class record breaking British athlete of the early 1900’s and onwards who was born in Slinfold ( see Wikipedia entry here).
I would like to say that we emulated him but whilst Liz P, Mike D and I started, we lost Mike at the end, hence the picture of just the two of us. Hope that it wasn’t something that we said Mike!
A very relaxed and scenic 2 looper of a race from the Cricket pavilion over the fields and yes it was undulating (Paul), but with the new cake rating that we are now giving runs – this one must have merited an 8! The cake was so delicious that we have put a special picture in of it.
Well organised with clear directions and nice friendly marshals with a medal and a goody bag at the end. One to look out for next year.
Recently we’ve added more discounts for members, in fact we have so many that I’ve had to summarise them on a separate page. You can find them all here, and let me know at enquiries@henfieldjoggers.co.uk if you meet any problems……have fun!
Sadly no pictures from today’s 10k race in Worthing as I was the only one there and I take terrible selfies! So instead – here is my free T Shirt, medal and my race number.
Awesome run because I not only got an epic PB….took 4 mins off previous best…I actually for the first time ever – ran a 10k in under 60 mins. 59:16 according to Garmin.
Official results out in 48 hours but as it wasn’t chip timed I usually take Garmin time as usually more accurate.
Was very windy and very busy…dodging walkers, cyclists and dogs and closer to Goring there were a load of kite surfers out.
Nice route along the beach side but quite narrow in places especially when the faster runners were on their way back . I was also surprised how many Sunday walkers refused to move off the path and walk on nice grass area, to let runners through! So any overtaking had to be strategically planned to also avoid crashing into casual walkers.
As much of a dog lover as I am….I was also surprised how many owners let their dogs charge across the path we were running on…twice I nearly tripped over 2 dogs: little white Westie chasing his ball and a Springer Spaniel who was just charging around like a lunatic.
Despite all that – I’m feeling great and once again – huge thanks to this club and the regular Wed and Sat runners, for pushing me and not letting me dawdle too much at the back each week as I’m 100% sure my improvements are due to this clubs support
Steepdown is the FINAL WSFRL Fun Run event in 2014, therefore it was important that we didn’t slip backwards after such a good year. Yes I know, 16th out of 18 Clubs doesn’t sound great, but HJ are a SMALL Club compared to most. In fact today at Steepdown Arunners were holding a team photo for runners at todays event with more people in it than we have members! So we are always going to suffer, scoring points being limited by the numbers attending! For that reason it was great to get a decent turnout today, and even greater to see people like Joyce getting into the picture (Joyce has entered for some events individually, so it was great to get her in the group picture at last) and especially the legend that is Mick Dee at last. Mick is an inspiration, 70+ years young but next weekend he’s doing Beachy Head 10k on Saturday and Great South Run on Sunday!! I feel a total wimp!! I hope to feature a ‘special’ on Mick sometime over the next month or two!
Anyway, back to today. If you think of ‘Highdown Hike’, or ‘Roundhill Romp’, they sound quite benign, but really aren’t! Whereas Steepdown Challenge sounds positively evil, but isn’t! Demanding, yes, but the climb up to Steepdown trig point from Lancing Manor Leisure Centre is actually steady but not vertical. So next year, anyone put off by the name should definitely get along and give it a go! The route winds uphill steadily, and you can easily see the trig point that marks the absolute top once you break out of the woods……but the route dallies and delays that meeting, taking you around the back winding upwards. Its a great moment
Two Races in Two Days! Mad!!
to get to the trig point, looking out towards Devils Dyke, Chanctonbury Hill, Cissbury Ring, and of course the English Channel! No time to pause, as down we ‘dash’! At this point I need to break the news that myself, Danielle and Fabian all did the Brutal 10K yesterday – legs were NOT what they were! I’m proud to say I only walked for one short stretch uphill, during which Danielle passed me. But downhill I have the weight edge, so I slipped past her later…….but had zero energy to accelerate. It just wasn’t there, me legs felt like lead!
Always good to know that its not 50% up and 50% down….I haven’t got the exact split but its about 60% to the absolute top, and therefore a shorter trot down – the Leisure Centre appeared sooner than I thought, though nothing could get me legs going any faster for the final bit around the field to the finish!
I was delighted to get a Spot Prize – never ever had one before, which made my day. In fact we had TWO in our team!
So, a great day – results awaited but on this show I can’t see us slipping back and we should hold on to 16th. And – we’re THIRD in the ‘Most Improved’ table, which shows just how far we’ve come this year. My thanks go to EVERYONE who has supported the Fun Runs across the year, and especially Gill, Liz and Danielle who have encouraged lots more people to take part. This is my final event as Fun Run coordinator as Danielle picks up the post for next year – good luck Danielle – and remember, the NEXT Fun Run is the famous Hangover 5 on New Years Day!!
RESULTS:
37:36 Peter Longworth
38:04 Chris Brockington
38:52 Fabian Kaelin
39:12 Megan Melville
45:02 Kieran Lewer
46:12 Paul Crowe
47:32 Joyce Blundell
47:36 Danielle Kaelin
48:09 Louise Lewer
48:50 Angela Morrison
52:39 Michael Dee
Yes its that time of year again and the date and location of the 2014 Christmas ‘do’ is revealed! Liz wrote to all members earlier this week with the details, and you can check them all out again on the Events Page.
Please remember to email Liz at: lizpamment@gmail.com asap to reserve your spaces as we have a strict limit of 60 people.
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