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On behalf of the Club can I just say a huge thanks to Liz & Gill who organised again this years Christmas Bash at the Windmill in Littleworth.

It was really lovely to see so many faces, both new and old (in terms of long time since we last saw them, not age of course! Phew!!). The pub was really welcoming and smiley staff always make people feel good, and this felt very good! At £19 for food, bubbly on arrival, AND a taxi/coach home the value was terrific!

All the photo’s from the night are in the Gallery here – with more to be added as they come through. Either email yours to me at enquiries@henfieldjoggers.co.uk, and I’ll upload them into the gallery – or just pop them onto the Facebook group page and I’ll lift them from there and add them?

Of course we also made the Awards and announced the winner(s) of the Handicap too – in case you missed them then here is the list:

Best ‘Beginner’ in 2014  – MANDY KIANFOR

 

 

 

 

Best ‘Improver’ in 2014  – NIKKI HARGRAVE

 

 

 

 

Runners Runner of 2014 – MARK SKILTON

 

 

 

 

Handicap Winners         – NIKKI HARGRAVE/EMMA SMITH (it was a tie!)

 

 

 

 

 

And a special award to LOUISE MULLER was made by Nikki on behalf of a group of people who wanted to recognise her efforts to herd cows during the year!!

It’s forecast to be a sunny day on Saturday, fingers crossed, so it would be a pity not to do the ‘big hill’ aka Truleigh wouldn’t it, or would it? Anyway this is the slightly easier route, following the contours above Golding Barn. We can also follow the Downs Link, rather than the river bank, after Stretham Bridge, if we want to ensure we keep our feet dry until we get up on the Downs. No more than 14 miles in terms of distance, depending on route. Photo’s from the run can be found in the gallery here:

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 run tomorrow evening needs to be short and [hopefully] sweet, so everyone can get to the AGM on time. This one is only about 5 miles and the route can be varied, according to the state of the terrain.

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???

The weather was kind to us on Brighton seafront this morning. There was a very large crowd of reportedly over 3000 runners. Simon, Lorna, John and I started the race together, along with Simon’s friends ‘Pugsy’ and Tim. Both of which we are hoping to recruit as HJers!

Fabian also came to support us, unfortunately unable to run due to a injury. He is however a rather good sports photographer it turns out, (shame he missed his wife in most of the pictures) his photos you can see below.

It was wonderful to see the Infamous Jogger Mick Dee and his lovely wife Cynthia. Both looked wonderful in their new HJ team tops. I managed a quick wave at Lotte, who, in real Lotte style put us all to shame with her enviable speed. Particularly as Lorna and I are using the excuse of the lovely hilly trail run we had ran with the Saturday group the day before. Lotte ran that too but that certainly wasn’t slowing her down. Well done Lotte!

Lotte Moller-Vasby – 46:45
Simon Funnell – 50:11
John Winter – 54:04
Joyce Blundell – 57:37
Danielle Kaelin – 57:41
Lorna Winter – 59:49
Diana Anderson – 1:03:57
Mick Dee – 1:04:14
Cynthia Dee – 1:32:15

 

 

I suggest Lock Farm on Saturday – it’s just under 11 miles and there are variations, such as heading east at Moat Farm onto Honeybridge Lane to shorten the stretch along Spithandle Lane. I won’t be pushing the pace after Beachy last w/e, so it might be an opportunity for people who haven’t done a Saturday morning run to give it a go.

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