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Hello Green Army!!
There have been rumours circulating and I would like to confirm that yes!! After a three-year hiatus the blog is indeed back!!
Firstly, I would like to apologise, as I did promise to have this up the weekend after the wobbler and I would like to say that I have been incredibly busy, but unfortunately there has been a fair amount of procrastination involved.
Nethertheless, better late than never, eh? Those of you who are new to the club may not be familiar with it, but back in its heyday the blog was a very useful way of finding out what other members have been up to and what races are on the horizon as well as reports from previous races.
I’m going to take care of the race report from the Wobbler so here goes.
Robbie Webster Wobbler Race report 2023
Robbie Webster Wobbler – Helsby Running Club
We always chuck in a link for the previous weeks parkrun results so you can keep tabs on the competition. See the link below
Parkrun
Full results for Helsby runners is at the link below https://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=1721
We also used to have a google calendar which usually has all the local races of various differing flavours, but it’s not been updated for some time. Hopefully we can get this backup and running because it is incredibly useful.
Don’t forget Mike Fryer is hosting a track night the event will be on Friday 18th August at Ellesmere Port Sports Village and will be an opportunity for all members who have been enjoying our Monday track nights to test themselves over the Mile distance AND represent the club in some of our relay races.
Along with the mile events, we will be holding 2-mile paarlauf races (2 pair relay) and a 1600m Medley relay. The medley relay will be even more special as it is billed as the ‘Battle of the Sport Sections’ where we hope several our members will form teams and go head-to-head against our sport section friends.
The event will run between 6pm and 8pm and we strongly encourage everyone heads back to the sports club for some food and drink!
You can book on using this link Https://forms.gle/ZSKrnarzUrXteFeh7
We are going to try to get the blog sent out weekly going forward, but races can be a bit thin on the ground during the summer months so don’t hold me to that.
If you do participate in a race, it would be great if you could send in a race report to the following email address helsbyrun@gmail.com. A prize for the first race report!!! (might be 4VHM socks might not be)
Thanks Everybody
Peter
You will all be glad to know that the 2020/21 club counters have now been finalised (with a few dates and start times TBC)
We have done it a bit differently this year, as we wanted to encourage as much participation as possible and make it accessible for everyone. We have had dwindling numbers recently so are doing it this way for this upcoming season, and if we need to change things for next season we can, but the committee got together and thrashed out loads of ideas and this is what we come up with.
Basically, there are 5 disciplines, Road, Fell, Trail, Borders and Cross Country. The Borders and Cross country dates are TBC as we don’t get these fixtures until July/Aug time. There will be 7 races in each discipline. Your best 5 are to count and a a minimum of 3 are needed to qualify for a prize. You will also notice that there are no clashes (yet).
Here is the big change. To qualify for Club Overall Champion, you have had to have ran at least 2 races out of the 7 from each discipline. So that means you’re going to see me on the fells getting lost somewhere in Wales sometime soon.
See more details on our much improved website below with is ace btw (thanks Steve R)
https://www.helsbyrunningclub.org.uk/club-championships/summer-road-fell-and-trail-races/
Can I also thank everyone who contributed to this, Tim, Ben, Laura, Phil, Karen, Col, June, Debbie and anyone else, too many to mention who were at the meetings. We have tried to cater for everyone, there will even be a turning up cup I believe as well, so watch this space.
Any questions fire them over
Thanks
Fitzy
Warrington 5 mile trail series
Race 1: Winter 25th January 2020
by Karen Horsley
If you’re averse to a little mud then this race is definitely not for you!
I’d first heard of this series in 2018 and my plans to run last year were scuppered through injury which left me even more keen to sign up for the 2020 races. It was a lovely surprise to find out that Geoff and Hayley (and Geoff’s friend Carole) were also running, although through illness Hayley couldn’t join us.
The four race series is organised by Warrington Running Club and the course start is at Colliers Moss, near Warrington. It’s chip timed and the medals are themed around the seasons with the remaining races being held on 28th March (spring), 27th June (summer), and 17th October (autumn). It was fairly pleasant weather for the winter race, not too cold, not too windy, not too bright, as 368 brave souls waited for the start.
The series Facebook page had promised mud and they certainly weren’t kidding. The race began along a nice solid track but soon had us slipping and sliding along a single file path, up and down hills and through muddy water troughs with plenty of marshals on hand to help if needed. The 5 miles seemed to pass by relatively quickly because we were having so much fun, as Geoff said, “with mud and puddles almost deep enough to swim in” – how could this race be anything other than fun?! The camaraderie on course was great with loads of encouragement from race marshals, other runners and spectators, I especially liked the young girl on the last hill climb shouting that we’d conquered all the mud! Great running by all, fabulous goody bags and medals and a great sense of pride at what we’d achieved. Very much looking forward to the next race.
Geoff: 00:46:04
Kai: 00:49:55
Carole: 00:57:28
Karen: 01:02:30
Parkrun
Below are the full results for Helsby members at parkrun this week
Cheers
Gaz
First blog of the year…
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! 2020 promises to be a fantastic year for runners!
Please please can people send in reports and updates for us to share in this blog. They can be short and sweet or longer as you wish. It’s really interesting to hear first hand what everyone has been up to.
Send them to helsby-race-reports@outlook.com
Thanks very much to Debbie for this report ..
Saturday saw me don my 2nd claim club vest and join 10 Delamere Spartans to partake in the Buff Winter Trail Half Marathon at Coed y Brenin, Snowdonia.
Despite having to scrape ice off the car before leaving home the weather for the run was absolutely glorious – cold, crisp, sunny with not a breath of wind – it certainly showed Coed y Brenin at it’s best.
Starting at the visitors centre the 1st mile is straight uphill – bit of a shock, but a sign of things to follow! The challenging race is approximately 8 miles of fire tracks and 5 miles single file woodland tracks with the uphills tough and the downhills very enjoyable. With feed stations at 6&10 miles providing drinks and torq gels it’s a very well organised race with encouraging marshals and very well marked.
At the finish you get a travel cup with either soup/tea or coffee and a genuine Buff buff.
If you like running in Delamere and you’re not afraid of hills I’d recommend this race – apparently they do a summer version where you’ve got the option of doing 10k, half or full marathon.
Thanks sounds tough but lovely!
Marshalls Eye View of the 4VMH
A misty day with some sunshine leaking through set the scene for the 4VHM. The conditions were ideal. Not too cold and roads frost free. The Helsby machine worked brilliantly setting everything up as planned.
I was posted at an early post then moved to the last marshalling post and therefore saw the runners when they were looking both fresh and exhausted. The atmosphere was fantastic at both positions. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves enormously.
The support for the runners was fantastic with a really vocal crowd at the last post cheering everyone on right till the end.
Our youngest helper!
Lots of support from clubs..
And lots of shouting and encouragement from the lovely marshalls..
I absolutely love helping at this event. It is wonderful to support such an inclusive race. Mick and Phil brought a smile to everyone’s face as they flew round.
Looking forward to next year already. Many thanks to the team of organisers who do a brilliant job every year.
That’s it … keep sending in your news…😀
Thanks.
Happy new year everyone!
Not much in the inbox last week, I assume you were all enjoying yourselves too much over Christmas! Remember if you do a race please fire a report over to helsby-race-reports@outlook.com, even just a few words or link to the results will be enough, generally if the bloggers weren’t at the race we won’t know about it!
Firstly a message from our Chair Phil:
I trust you had an enjoyable Christmas and New Year, I certainly did. My running was curtailed a bit by the fact that on Boxing Day, I pulled a stomach muscle celebrating Grimsby’s first goal in 6 matches against Macclesfield but ho hum.
Just a couple of things to mention; we are looking forward to another fantastic 4VHM, Laura’ team are well ahead with the preparations but still need more volunteers, so when these requests come out, please consider that the club’s success is based upon the hard work of the club pulling together.
In anticipation of a successful event and by way of celebration, Paul Frodsham has agreed to give a talk on the History and humour of the club after the club run on Wednesday 22nd January, it is bound to be great fun. Chip butties will be provided, so if you would like to attend please let Louise and Helen know via HelsbyRCSocial@outlook.com
Cheers Phil
Please find the belated results from the cross country race at Arrowe Park on 15th December. Well done to Chris Murray who was first home for the Green Army and Rachel Arnold who was first over the line for the ladies.
53rd Chris Murray
85th Kevin Smith
164th Steve Riley
209th Chris Morgan
38th Rachel Arnold
56th Sue Buck
57th Debbie Read
There were two parkruns last week, there was an extra one on Christmas Day which I can’t seem to find the link for unfortunately. Well done to everyone who took part in one, the consolidated results from the Saturday parkrun is below:
https://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=1721
That’s all this week, good luck to everyone who is running at the Cheshire XC tomorrow!
See you soon
Cheers
Col T
Merry Christmas everyone
It’s a double blog this week as there were nothing in the inbox last week, but doesn’t look like there is anything this week either! So all I have are the 10k time trial results from last month and parkrun results 😦
Firstly though just a quick announcement about the 4 Villages recce this weekend. It will take place on Sunday 29th December at 1pm.
There will be 3 groups:
1.30 to 1.45 – Col T
1.45 to 2.00 – Gaz Boyd
2.00 plus – Ben Crossley
I could do with some volunteers to lead the other two groups, if you could spare a couple of hours on Sunday to help out please let me know. You can contact me at col808@hotmail.com or 07872121898.
Please see the results from last months 10k time trial below. It was another victory for one of our newer members Mike Fryer who smashed it in 38.57 and a brilliant run by June Swift saw her first over the line for the ladies. Well done both! A big well done to everyone else who took part, we had a great turn out so long may it continue!
It wouldn’t be possible to put on the TT without the crew, so thank you to all the volunteers who were Louise Spruce (results), Tracy Woods (timing) and Jackie (tail runner).
We are having a break this month for Christmas so the next TT will be on Weds 29th January.
Results:
10k
6k
The results don’t seem to have been uploaded to the website for this yet so I’ll try and include them next week if they are available.
Well done to everyone who has taken part in a parkrun these last two weekends, please see the consolidated Helsby results below:
https://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=1721
That’s all this week, remember if you did a race and would like to send a report over for us to include in the blog please email the blogging team at helsby-race-reports@outlook.com.
Cheers
Col T
Just the one race report this week, Richard Hankin sent this in from the Vale of Clwyd Half Marathon
I’ve been running a half a month as part of my marathon training. There are few halfs in December but I found this one on the internet. Run by Outfit it has been going for 10 years and goes out from the village of LLandyrnog near Denbigh.
Steve Wiggo had also signed up having run it before. Culturally, its more like a fell race than a half with only 111 participants and numbers handed out on the day. Chip timing was done using the organisers mobile phone!
The course has around 600 foot of ascent: it is an odd course, constantly undulating with some fast runnable hill sections. Run on open roads these were at times very narrow and covered in mud and slime. But the area is beautiful and the event is friendly and at £22 pretty good for a road half.
They provide no cups, just water butts at a few locations. I found this useless and on a hot day it wouldn’t work at all. The ‘feed station’ at halfway was also a box of jelly babies in a hedge that I missed.
I didn’t see another runner from mile 2 to the finish and it felt a little like a time trial….but, I enjoyed it and will be back next year.
I came fifth in 1:31, Wiggo was 68th in 1:56.
Richard
parkrun
Full results from the various parkruns from this week are below
https://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=1721
Cheers
Gaz
.
Hi Everyone,
Thanks to those of you who have sent something to the inbox this week. Sorry if you missed the blog last week but there wasn’t anything in the inbox. Please remember to send any contributions to helsby-race-reports@outlook.com.
A reminder from Fitzy:
“Borders league race 3 next Sunday, Birkenhead Park is the venue, 11am start. Its 4 laps around the park, very flat and quick course. I’m hoping for another huge turnout like last time out, who’s in?
Postcode for the college is CH43 8SQ
See you there”
Well done to the Helsby ladies who completed the Marbury 5 on Wednesday night – and thanks to Laura for the report:
“On Wednesday Carol, Vanessa and I headed to Marbury Park for the inaugural Marbury Night 5 event organised by Northwich Running Club. Head torches at the ready we headed off for a great 5 mile route around the park on tracks, muddy paths, over bridges and past lakes. The atmosphere was great and the route was well marked with loads of marshals which seemed to be having as much fun as we were! A tasty cup of hot soup at the end finished off a great event. Just over 150 runners took part and results can be found here http://marbury-night-race.com/?fbclid=IwAR1iy7GZF5p4kH9CJDq9l2TxceUtllx9PeTaOrNgRgQv21Hx8Inls9LIvV8
Thanks
Laura”
Over to Susie Woodwardmoor for a write up on the weekend’s x-country. Thanks Susie!
Lots of great reports this week, thanks for sending them in. But first a quick mention that the Christmas Party will be on Saturday 7th December and will take in the festivities of Ho Ho Helsby!
Guess the Time – Wednesday 6th November
by Phil Gillard
Fifteen hardy souls braved a cold night for the first “guess your time competition” of the winter season. The competition is about being able to judge your pace without the help of technology, all the participants warm up by running to the top of the High School and then do one or two loops of the Matty’s lane / Godscroft lane route. Prior to starting they have to commit to an estimated time and the closest to their time is the winner.
Before going into the results; a big thank you to the marshals and time keepers; John Gallon, Mike Collins, Tim Palmer and Helen Gillard.
It was great to see some of our very new members showing up the experienced runners with some excellent pacing:
Third was Stacey Andrew who was 22 seconds off her predicted time, second was Ben Tumulity who was 16 seconds out, the winner being our very newest member Ste Currie who was came in within the 3 seconds of his estimated time – well done.
The next competition will be mid February.
Well done all, that’s some accurate guess work!
Heaton Park Half-Marathon and 10k – Sunday 10th November
by Susie Woodward-Moor
Lovely photo of you both and well done Flossy on smashing your PB.
Pen Llyn Winter Ultra – Saturday 9th November
by Ste Wiggins
All in all a brilliant race was had at the Pen Llyn Winter Ultra even if it did rain ALL DAY and I didn’t get to sit on a single bench.
Great achievement Ste. Well done in magically making the 10 hour time limit and on getting up and out the next day to enjoy the sun at Deeside Borders!
A big shout out to Hannah Cowley getting the ladies win and course record I believe and Colin Bishop coming home 1st for the men after running in the Warrington Way relays the day before, along with a lot of others as well, amazing commitment, you know who you all are.
Thanks to Jane and Mario for the support and the cakes, apparently someone told me you only turn up for the cakes, I don’t believe that, I know you do it for me.
Full results below. It looks like the men have an uphill battle even this early on in the season to remain in the top flight, whilst i know the women can improve and claw it back to challenge for that top spot.
Next race is 1st December, I believe around Birkenhead park.
Cheers
Fitzy
It was a beautiful morning for a run, autumn sun filtering through the trees and a slight chill in the air, some might say perfect. The event was well managed and the marshals were so friendly and supportive. The only downside was the hill… and what a beast of a hill it was. However, what goes up, as they say, eventually we hit the downhill – alleluia!
I’d like to say I was pleased with my run, and I guess I was, but coming in third from last didn’t exactly give me reason to crack open the bubbly! Although, thank heavens I wasn’t last! Having been injured for longer in my running journey, than I’ve actually been not injured I know that I couldn’t have put any more into it, and at the end of the race my leg was extremely sore (to the point that I thought I’d be back on the sofa for the next few days, although thankfully this eased relatively quickly). But pushing myself that hard and coming third from last, well… it was a litte disappointing.
However, for me, Borders is about more than finishing position, it’s being able to take part, doing my best and being part of a team, and that is actually what’s important.
Well done to the Green Army for a fantastic turnout and some great racing. I look forward to seeing lots of green vests at race 3 on December 1st.
Parkrun
Please find the consolidated Helsby RC results for last week’s parkrunners, well done to all, as well as those who volunteered on Saturday.
https://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=1721
That’s all folks, this blog comes alive through your contributions, so thanks and keep the reports coming.
Email to: helsby-race-reports@outlook.com
Happy running!
Karen 🙂
Hi everyone
Not much in the inbox this week, just the one report and the 10k TT results. I’m sure more people have been out and about racing, if you did a race and would like to let us know about it please send a report over to helsby-race-reports@outlook.com. Just a few words or a link to the results would be great, generally if the bloggers weren’t at the race we won’t know about it!
Before we get to the racing news Fitzy has sent over a rallying call for the Borders League on Sunday…
Borders league race 2 this Sunday in Deeside, it’s a 9.30am start so hopefully with it being local and early we can get a good turnout. Post code is CH5 4BR
Who’s playing out?
Fitzy
Please find last Wednesdays 10k TT results below. A fantastic run by one of our new members Mike Fryer saw him take the chequered flag and dip under 40 minutes, great stuff mate, there’s more to come for sure! Lauren Cooke was our first (and only) lady with a superb run in 1.07.58 Well done Lauren, and well done to everyone who took part, it’s great to see members turning out each month and supporting the event.
Big thanks to our volunteers who were Jake Holmes (timing), Richard Hankins (marshall) and Ben Tumilty (tail runner). We’re having a break over Christmas so our next event will take place on 29th January, hopefully see you all there!
Results:
Rebecca Tate has sent in a brilliant report for the Snowdonia Marathon last month, well done Rebecca!
“Saturday 26th October dawned grey, cold and raining, ready for almost 3000 of us to run on the roads around Mount Snowdon. I kept warm in a cafe for 2 hours before the start, which involved drinking a lot of tea and coffee as etiquette requires, but then spent the following 4 hours wishing there weren’t quite so many waterfalls and streams around reminding me of how badly I needed the loo (of which there were none!).
By the time we started the rain had almost eased off, and it soon became dry once we were going, turning into perfect cool running weather in the end.
There is 3000 feet of elevation on this course, and Pen-Y-Pass was the first of the big hills, but strangely it wasn’t really noticeable [mantra “it’s not as steep as The Yeld” kept me going, though it must be said it was considerably longer!] and we were soon heading back downhill towards Beddgelert, which was packed with people cheering. There was plenty of support around the route, very regular drinks stops, and having found a new friend to run with, we chatted away and the miles passed quickly. I realised that – far from needing to panic about the cut-off time at mile 18 (which I ended up within by one and a half hours) I was actually on for a time here!
My “walk 20 / run 20” method up the final massive hill worked a treat, I overtook a lot of people – though I knew at the time it was here that would cause me a lot of pain the next day. And I was right! At the top of that hill was a Mad Hatters Tea Party – the oddest sight in the middle of nowhere, somewhere on the slopes of Snowdon – “cup of tea?” asked a big flouncy dress, and I didn’t mind if I did. However, just a quick slurp then onwards as I wanted a decent time.
The next part was all trail – which was good because I don’t get on with road running or road shoes, and had done all of this in my trail shoes as a result. Those in road shoes were now sliding about all over the place – it had rained so much, the path was a stream flowing over the stones, with the grass on each side turned to bog. I kept upright, but the steepness of the descent was very very painful bearing in mind this was now mile 24 or 25. But all that melted away when we got into Llanberis and the streets were lined with people cheering us on, there was the finish for a decent paced final run up, and I felt quite emotional about it all. I got a time of 4 hours 39 minutes which is a PB for me, and was delighted.
I would happily do this race again, as the atmosphere, organisation, frequency of drinks stations and the views were outstanding. It’s going to become a ballot entry system next year, so it may be more difficult to get in. Onwards now to London 2020 where I understand it’s not quite so undulating ;-)”
Please find a link below to the consolidated results from last Saturdays parkruns, well done to everyone who took part in one. The standout performance was from Darren Sankey who had a stormer to win Phoenix parkrun in 18.34 and attaining a new PB in the process, anyone who has ever ran Phoenix will appreciate how quick that is as it’s a very hilly challenging course. Well done Darren!
https://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=1721
That’s all folks, keep on running!
Cheers
Col T
Helsby running club 