Sunday 23rd August
Westbury Harriers – Weekly News
Editor’s Piece
Next week we have the Severn Bridge 10K Time Trail to look forward to with seven Westbury Harriers participating out of over thousand runners. Unfortunately entries are now closed but good luck to those that have entered.
Club House Update
The Pavilion Committee are working on the final touches to a major refurbishment of the Blaise pavilion. Work is nearly complete after a marathon effort that started in lockdown.
The new facility will include new toilet and shower facilities, refurbished changing rooms and club room and new LED lighting. New flooring has been installed throughout the building with new LED lighting fitted throughout the building.
The new kitchen has been equipped with an instant water heater and new microwave. New cupboard space has been created and the attic cleared.
The project has been done mainly by contractors with additional work by the volunteers from the pavilion committee.
An official (socially distanced) opening will take place in the first week of September and the new facility will then be available for the club.
A video will be produced so that members can see the new facilities.
Pavilion Committee.
Nigel Gates is No. 1!
Our own Nigel Gates (67) has recently been recognised as World Masters (V65) Number 1 at 3,000m and 3rd at 5K. Together with his 10K ranking this makes him the outstanding runner in the World Masters MV 65 rankings.
In the 2019 / 2020 winter season Nigel won UK titles in 1 Mile on the road and 3,000 metres on the indoor track before going on to win the England (V65) 10K trial in an amazing 36.32. His great form continued as he went into the cross country season and recorded team and individual wins representing England at the British & Irish Masters International in Liverpool, where he raced with fellow Westbury and England athletes Vicky Tester and Katie Hughes.
Nigel has adapted to the new world of time trials and virtual races, posting great times on his new Garmin GPS watch (replacing his 30 year old Casio !). Nigel produced a phenomenal 18mins 08 secs for his 5K in the BMAF 5K virtual races (over 4000 entries) to win yet another title.
Nigel was interviewed by Westbury’s own Matt Swaine (himself a fine runner and member of our Tri Counties winning team in 2018) for Trail Running Magazine and also by Running ABC – see links below.
Picture below, Nigel in winning form for England in BMAF International at Aintree in 2019.
Nigel with fellow Westbury Harriers’ and England team mates Katie Hughes and Vicky Tester.
Mike Mewse
Treasure Hunt
The winner this week is Richard Hughes, just because he’s been able to shoe horn the photo of the same bike stand yet again into the treasure hunt! His kid’s TV programme was King Julien Stand up which I’ve never heard of. Perhaps you have to be of a certain generation of have children to know it.
A reminder of last week’s treasure hunt items are below.
- Theme: Guess the children’s TV programme past and present
- A ‘To Let’ sign
- A Mere stone
- A solar panel
- Something that make a noise
- Something beginning with ‘K’
- Something red and white
- An oak tree
Your treasure hunt something’s for this week are…
- Theme: Guess the TV soap opera or series
- Something beginning with ‘O’
- A ‘Let’ to Let Agreed sign
- Something brown and green
- A horse chestnut tree
- A coat fo arms
- Scaffolding
- A phone box
Thursday Club Intervals
This weeks intervals are a timed out and back session. Pods will start in different places to avoid congestion. Out for 30 seconds, stand still and recover (static recovery) for 30 seconds, back to start point for 30 seconds. Repeat for 40,50,60,90,90,60,50,40,30.
Recovery remains 30 on the way out and a minute on the way back throughout which feels very generous at first, maybe not towards the end! Equates to 18 mins of effort. Option for people to miss out the 90 seconds sets to bring the session to 15 minutes in total.
Please remember to spread out and stay spaced apart when you get there and are chatting. Please also read the email sent before the session with instructions, these are important so don’t ignore them.
Congratulations
Well done to both Tim Carr and Paul Gladding who ran the virtual Green Man. Thanks to Paul for the race report below.
Tim and Paul ran the virtual Green Man Ultra on Tuesday. The advantage of the virtual version of the race is as long as you run the whole 46 miles of the course in the summer direction (clockwise) you can start wherever you want and there is no cut off time.
The weather was mixed but somehow they managed to miss most of the rain, the main problem was the heat.
Being self supported they had to carry their own food and water, refilling water bottles along the way at church yards and through a friend who came to see them near Keynsham.
Although fun to run the race they were both glad there was no cut off time as their lack of ultra training since lockdown reduced them to walking towards the end, particularly over Dundry!
During the run Paul completed the 1000k Great Virtual Race Across Tennessee which others in the club have also been running.
Paul and Tim near the end of Tuesday’s run, still smiling but exhausted.
Strava Results of the Week…
Well done to Minkee Kim who’s already tried a couple of the interval sessions at Coombe Dingle. He was placed 5th overall on segment ‘Coombe Dingle left field short loop’ in a time of 1:29. Hannah Hobbs holds the overall crown in a time of 1:10 which is a very impressive pace of 2:19/km.
Diary Dates
Sunday 30th August Severn Bridge 10K.… running between sea and sky. No half marathon this year but the 10k event is still planned to take place. They have a race permit, insurance and agreement to close the bridge. This will be in a time trial format with runners arriving over a 3 hour period and starting at approximately 10 second intervals. Use the link below for more details and entry. RACE FULL
Sunday 20th September. Hullavington 5k. A 5-kilometre run over a certified accurate course and compliant with the with the latest UK Government health advice concerning COVID19. Medal and Cake for all finishers. RACE FULL
Sunday 4th October. 40th Anniversary Virtual London Marathon. https://www.virginmoneylondonmarathon.com/index.html
Sunday 4th October Clarendon Marathon (with half and mini options). A trail event that takes place from Salisbury to Winchester along the ancient Clarendon Way. https://www.clarendon-marathon.co.uk
Saturday 21st November. Club Awards Night at Westbury Village Hall
Editor this Week
Ian Gawinowski is Westbury Harriers Communications Officer. He can be contacted at communciation@westburyharriers.co.uk
