Stride On! the weekly newsletter from the Stevenage Striders running club

17th March 2019

There’s was a huge variety of things going on in the club last week.

The Zero to 5K training programme reached week 9 of 10 and I ran with them on Tuesday. I was so impressed with how they have thrown themselves into the training and how they have stuck with it. Over 25 each week and I also noticed several took part in the Stevenage on Saturday.

At the track on Wednesday we had a 400m interval session but ran the 400s in lanes 1 then 3 then 5 and lane 7. Each lap had to be run in the same time which meant the runners had to get quicker as they progressed across the lanes! They were working hard. Those are the sessions that will make a huge difference to your running – technique and pace.

At the weekend there have been loads of Striders out taking part in and races across the country.

Well done to you all!

Remember that training on Tuesday 19th is from , adjacent to ASDA. Meet there from 6:30pm so you can meet the team in store, perhaps do some shopping before we go for our training run. You can get a 3 hour parking permit when you go in store. So that Decathlon have some idea how many of us are coming they would like us to register on their event calendar. It’s easy to do and only takes a couple of minutes. Please use this link https://play.decathlon.co.uk/event/stevenage-striders-product-testing-night

Ok, so let’s have a look in more detail at our training for the coming week…..

What’s coming up – our training sessions

Tuesday 19th March - from 6:30pm, Decathlon next door to ASDA STEVENAGE. The store have invited us to visit them and see what they have to offer. Our training run will start from outside the store at the usual time of 7:15pm. Speed endurance, each of our three training groups (improvers, intermediates and advanced) will be using a group of 8x4 minutes with 2 minute recoveries. We will also be joined by the Zero to 5K training group on week 10!

Thursday 21st March – 7:15pm Hampson Park. 30,45,60 secs hill session. This is our short hill session that gets you moving faster but with all the benefits of a hill training session. Suitable for ALL!

Sunday 24th March – High Street, Stevenage outside Costa. 8:30am for a or 9:05am for a . Do both for 10 miles! Do you need to extend your mileage for training for a half or full ? Just run to Costa, High Street ready for 8:30am (or get a kind Strider to give you a lift home afterwards!). I am sure there will be a group of us having a hot drink and cake after the run!

Remember: if you are feeling unwell in any way during or after your run please make sure that you speak to the coach. They need to be aware of this so that they can monitor the situation during training.

If you are feeling unwell before the training session then you are advised not to run. It’s nice to see Striders out at training but if you are not fully fit or unable to complete the advertised training session distance running continuously you should not train as this may compromise the runs of other Striders and/or the run leaders.

Race results Please remember to tell us about your race results so that we can cover them within our weekly news release!!! Send them in to [email protected] no later than 8pm Sunday evening for inclusion in the weekly news release. This saves Danik searching through hundreds of race results on line to collate the club’s press release. Try and give us some comments about your run, even a short race review and don’t forget your pictures too! Upcoming races and events. Here is a link to the club’s website page showing the list of races and events. If you have any details of others please just let us know! Details on forthcoming races and events are being added all the time. http://stevenagestridersrc.org.uk/races-and-club-events/

Unsubscribing to this email and other club mailings If you no longer want to receive copies of this newsletter and other club mailings then tell us by email to [email protected]

Facebook and Facebook group The club has a Facebook page that can be seen freely. We use it to publicise our training sessions. If you haven’t already, please go and like it so you can track our every move!! In addition we have a Facebook group called Stevenage Striders that is only available to members of the club. If you haven’t already joined please find the group on Facebook and ask to join. This group is our primary source of news within the club and is the best way to keep up to date with all things Striders! We have 157 members but only 113 of you are members of the group!

Track training

Our next track training session is Wednesday 10th April at Ridlins stadium, Woodcock Road 7pm. Another chance to experience the fun of training on a great surface with a structured session. We charge £2 to help towards the cost of the track booking and are grateful to the subsidy we receive from Mather Marshall, Knebworth, our sponsor.

Suitable for ALL, it will improve your running and it is fun!

Club news release 17/3/2019

Personal Bests for Bates, Hislop plus Striders take on Milton Keynes

MK Festival of Running

One of the biggest running weekends for preparations for the big coming up in April (Manchester, Brighton, Paris and ) took place in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire on Sunday which hosted four different running distances.

The main event for marathon preparations was the 20 mile (32km) event which saw Danik Bates achieve a personal best in a time of 02-46-25 finishing 272 out of 933 runners. Despite an injury and strong headwinds, Danik was still able to finish the race and hopes to still be at the start line in Paris for the marathon in four weeks time.

There were no Striders in the half-marathon and 5km events but in the 10km events there were a few Striders amongst the 1209 runners. First home was Glenn Cuzner in 45-22 (64th). Stuart Cuzner 47-26 (93rd). Darren March 48-04 (106th). Louise March: 01-11-05 (996th).

Reading Half-Marathon

Two Striders took on the 13.1 mile (21km) course around the Berkshire town of Reading. Peter Monk 01-55-18 (3357th place) and Sarah Goodyear, who was competing in her first finished in 02-45-10 (7635th place).

Welwyn Garden City Half-Marathon

Head coach Chris Leigh, Eilish Hislop and Fiona Davies took on the half marathon course which starts and finishes at the Gosling Athletics stadium. The recent bad weather made the off road sections of the course particularly tricky. Chris finished the multi-terrain course in 01- 58-54 and finished in 284th out of 531 runners. Eilish Hislop got a personal best finishing in 02-00-16 and Fiona Davies finished in 2:06:50.

Parkruns

For those who don’t know, the 5km (3.1 mile) free-event for all takes place every Saturday morning at 9am. Here are the results of the Striders who were out in force.

On the road.

St Albans (504 runners): Darren March 22-02 (57th) and Louise March 34-52 (430th).

March, Cambridgeshire (154 runners): Danik Bates 22-46 (11th).

Westmill, Ware (59 runners); Karl Sparks 24-42 (7th).

Panshanger, Hertford (286 runners): Greg Bradbury 23-47 (41st).

Stevenage Parkrun results (320 runners took part). Steve Wells 19-20 (3rd), Brendon Kelly 20- 38 (12th), Tom Sclanders 21-45 (20th), Russell Andrews 27:15 (118th), Louise Chancellor 30- 01 (176th), Tony Castro 31-02 (201st), Garry Wallace 31-03 (202nd), Peter Kelly 31-10 (205th), Ian McClements 33-04 (227th), Esperanza Castro 36-09 (257th), Tracy Norris 44-44 (301st).

New running vest! The order has been placed!

Following all of your lovely replies we placed an order for 100 running vests in the new club design. We expect the vests to arrive with us by the second week of April and we will allocate vests to those of you who have paid for one. Thank you to those who have already paid. We were able to negotiate a bulk discount so we are able to offer this initial order at £15 per vest, yes £5 less than our current vest!!! We expect to be able to hold a small additional stock across the sizes range, so if you haven’t already said you want a vest ask Marc Hagland to allocate you one from the order. For those that have asked for a vest please make payment to the club account stating VEST in the pay reference. The clubs bank details are Lloyd’s sort code 309191 account number 26725160 or alternatively pass your payment to Chris Leigh at training.

Training sessions 19/3/2019 – Decathlon

On Tuesday 19/3/2019 we have a special evening of training! Both the main club speed endurance and Zero to 5K sessions will start from Decathlon in Stevenage (next to ASDA). The run will start at the usual 7:15pm but we are encouraging members to come along earlier at 6:30pm to see what Decathlon have to offer in their range of running kit.

Decathlon will give you a three hour parking permit, so no issues with parking. So that Decathlon have some idea how many of us are coming they would like us to register on their event calendar. It’s easy to do and only takes a couple of minutes. Please use this link https://play.decathlon.co.uk/event/stevenage-striders-product-testing-night

It would be great to get a good turn out and we have the chance to use different run routes starting from Decathlon.

Marlow 5 12th May 2019

This is a traditional road trip/go to race each year for the club. It’s in a pretty location and offers a fast course with a great goody bag, technical t shirt and medal. We’ve had 26 Striders entered already, a record for the club. For this race we are treated as unaffiliated (it’s a UKA permit rather ARC). Please remember to include Stevenage Striders as your team/club name so we can see our results all together! http://www.handycrossrunners.co.uk/Marlow5.html

Stevenage 10K 15/9/2019

The club are hosting the first Stevenage 10K that is open to both men and women on Sunday 15th September 2019. There is a medal and T shirt for all finishers. The race route has been confirmed and risk assessed already. The race starts and finishes in Hampson Park and in addition to Hampson Park will pass through Fairlands Valley (north), King George V Park, past the high street and war memorial and along the pretty Avenue. We have secured sponsorship from Wagstaffs accountants, ASK Physio, Mather Marshall (Knebworth) and Stevenage Community Trust. Race entries are coming in too. We now have 78 entrants but we want 400!

Flyers have been printed advertising the race and we will be giving these out at the various local park runs this weekend (23rd). Chris Leigh will be at Stevenage ParkRun. Are you running at Letchworth, Ellenbrook Fields, Panshanger, Bedford or St Albans ParkRun? If you are, could you give out some flyers in the finish are after your run? Please let Chris Leigh know if you could help out.

Knebworth

We will need help to put the race on successfully, including race marshalls and car park marshalls. We also plan to put on a free cake stall for finishers at the end of the race. Can you bake??!! Can you help or enlist members of the family/friends? We would also love to give all finishers a piece of flapjack. Can you bake a delicious flapjack?!?! Chris Leigh had a really constructive discussion with the manager at the Hampson Park community Centre last week and they are gearing up in the coffee shop to serve runners and spectators alike before, during and after the race too! Get your tea and coffee there and support the community.

It would be great to see Striders run the race, however, there is a need for about another 15 volunteers to make the race a success and go off smoothly. Thanks to all of your generous offers so far. You can see the marshall numbers on the race route attached.

Here is a list of the volunteering opportunities and our volunteers so far. If you can help fill the gaps please let Chris Leigh know.

Handicap 5K series 2019

Here are the dates. They are all Tuesdays because attendances on Thursdays previously have been very poor.

Please note that our Tuesday 26/3/19 training session will be from Meadway playing fields car park, Redcar Drive where we will be giving you all a chance to practice on the course and you can refamiliarise yourself with it.

Race dates for 2019

Race 1 – 2 April

Race 2 – 14 May

Race 3 – 11 June

Race 4 – 2 July

Race 5 – 6 August

Race 6 – 3 September

2019 race series – 6 monthly races with the best 3 results of each runner to count. You must have completed at least 3 races to be eligible to be considered for the race series. Each runner is given a target time for each race. The target times are based on recent race and training data. The aim is to beat that target time by the largest margin. Runners are started in reverse order with the slower runners going first. The winning runner is the one who beats their target time by the largest margin.

Runners are allocated points based on their finishing position. Winner 1 point, runner up 2 points etc. The winner of the series is the runner who has the lowest aggregate score over their best three results. In the event of a tie the results of the fourth scoring race completed will be considered, and then the fifth and then the sixth to separate the runners concerned. If this still results in a tie between two runners then the aggregate of each runners margins between their finishing time and target time will be considered.

A trophy will be presented to the first three runners in the series together with the man and lady who has set the quickest average time over the three scoring races they have run.

Route details – the course is a flat, fast out and back route ALL on the cycleways. It starts close to the railway bridge on Gunnels Wood Road near the fire training centre. Running south along the cycleway you pass under the underpass near the Bridge Road/Gresley Way road junctions and head towards BuildBase and Fira. Stay on the left hand side of Gunnels Wood Road you pass BuildBase and then FIRA on your left. Bear right to enter the roundabout complex and then immediately left. Continue ahead until you pass Airbus on your left. On your right you will then see a small tunnel under the road. Pass through this and turn right. Staying on the left of Gunnels Wood Road proceed ahead towards the start. Pass through the initial starting point and head down hill to the underpass complex finishing in the underpass opposite. http://gb.mapometer.com/running/route_4065367.html

10K midweek league series Summer 2019

Thanks for the great responses on Facebook about the forthcoming race series. It’s great to see so many of you wanting to join in, take on the free 10K races and enjoy yourself. That is the spirit!

Here’s a quick reminder about the key points. - The club runs in four scoring races. These are free to all Striders. - Striders need to have a race number and a club top to run in the races. Race numbers are distributed at the start of the series. You keep the same number for all of the races. - The first 12 men and the first 6 ladies in the club produce our score for each race. HOWEVER, runners outside of these positions still make a big contribution to our results because where they finish effects other clubs finishing scores (every place you improve on can damage other clubs overall score by pushing their runners back down the field). SO IT IS CRITICAL THAT WE GET AS MANY STRIDERS AS POSSIBLE TO RUN AND MAKE SURE OUR QUICKEST MEN AND LADIES RUN. - We are in Division Three and the top two clubs in that division get promoted at the end of the four scoring race series. We want to be in the top 2 but WE WANT TO WIN! If we get our runners out in number then we stand a chance. - All of the races start at 7:45pm.

Here is what we know about the dates of the fixtures.

Divs 2& 3 confirmed:

Wed 22nd May Harpenden Arrows hosting at Harpenden Wed 5th June Harlow RC hosting at Harlow Wed 26th June Hitchin RC hosting at Stevenage to be confirmed Wed 12th June Watford Joggers hosting at Watford

Div 1 is as follows:

Thursday 23rd May St Albans Striders Thursday 6th June Royston Runners Thursday 20th June Orion Harriers Thursday 4th July Trent Park RC

Mob match Thursday 11/7/2019 WGC

We will get ourselves organised with car sharing for our fixtures at Harpenden, Harlow and Watford.

As we are not hosting a fixture we will be making a financial contribution towards the Watford fixture as there are cost issues in getting that one off the ground. We also plan to contribute towards the food for the fixture at Stevenage.