With most races postponed for nearly a year, club members have found new and inventive ways to keep themselves motivated and running, setting themselves challenges to get through the lockdown and a very cold winter.
Steve Edwards – “The Godfather of Running”
Inspiring club members this week was a talk from Steve Edwards, the world record holder for 900 official marathons completed in sub 3hours 30 minutes. Over 25 club members joined the talk, in which Steve put his achievements down to “Discipline, dedication, desire and determination” and a lot of hard work! Steve gave tips on fuelling, training plans and tackling injuries, encouraging runners to find a routine (including strength work), love hills, and have rest days.
“Thoughts to Remember – The comfort zone is a wonderful place to be, but to achieve great things we need to step out into the unknown and embrace uncertainty, the doubts and the knockback, only then will we truly know what amazing feats we are capable of!”
RSE members raised money for a charity chosen by Steve, Kate’s Home Nursing, who offer palliative care to patients in Gloucestershire and West Oxfordshire.
Thanks go to Linda Edwards for organising this fascinating talk.
The Distance, the Mud and the Speedwork
January has seen heavy rain and snowfall, so it would have been tempting to hibernate rather than go for a long run! But RSE runners have not shied away from the cold, instead setting goals to complete high mileage during the month.
Club Chair, Pauline Tilbury, joined a Strava challenge, to help keep focus during the month. Strava challenges are an excellent tool for virtual inspiration, often with a leader board, and a notification ‘crown’ when you’ve completed them.
I do usually run at least 100 miles in a month but I thought January may be difficult due to lockdown, dark evenings, bad weather and going back to full time work, so clicking on the Strava challenge just kept me focussed on getting out there and doing the miles a few times a week
Pauline Tilbury
Another club member to use Strava as incentive was Caroline Terry, who exceeded her challenge for 100 miles in the month by quite some way – 111.5 miles for the month! Here are some stunning countryside shots from Caroline’s runs:
Elaine Chapman also set herself a distance goal on Strava, this time with a goal of 200km. Elaine ran over 250km this month – if my calculations are correct, Elaine bettered her target by over 25%!
No stranger to virtual races is Elliot Gardner, who chose DB Max’s iRun Virtual Challenge for January. The race goal was to run over 50 miles or 15 runs to earn a medal – Elliot selected the 50 mile option and smashed his target by running even further.
I used it as another motivator to get out on a run 2-3 times a week in this miserable weather and also to complete some longer runs at the weekends. Final total was 52.58 miles.
Elliot Gardener
Running goals come in all shapes and forms, so it wasn’t just distance that RSE club members aimed for in January. While some runners planned for speed or new routes, others overcame barriers to return to running after a period away. A massive well done to everyone who set themselves a goal that they completed!
After suffering an Achilles injury in 2020, Amanda Ball set a goal to complete the RSE coach’s effort session – a tough 10 minute tempo run with 6 sets of 2 minute intervals, set by coach Nadine Brown.
I felt a sense of accomplishment in getting out and doing Nadine’s efforts for my first bit of speed work in quite some time. Having spoken to physio I decided to test out how much ‘loading’ my Achilles can handle, it’s almost a year since it was first injured. I had to remind myself how to programme intervals into my App too. I was pleased for the company of my watch commands as I was running solo – I much prefer to run with RSE buddies!
Amanda Ball
Club member, Mark Manley, known for his penchant for long runs had to put a halt to his marathon streak in 2020. In the absence of races, Mark ran a half marathon every day for the last week, totalling 101m for the week! That’s a lot of miles!
If the nickname “Shouty Dave” is mentioned, most club members seasoned in DB Max races know who the reference is to. If you haven’t seen him in a race, you’ve more than likely heard him… Completing the Shouty Dave Virtual 10k were Caroline and Kevin Joynes-Creed – lovely to see some photos of RSE race vests!
The virtual race raised money for Wiltshire Air Ambulance, a charity close to Dave’s family and one they would usually race money for through the Royal Wootton Basset Triathlon.
Kevin and Caroline finished the race in 1 hour 6 mins and 20 seconds.
It was very cold, muddy and wet and I fell in the mud coming out of Haresbush. It was also flooded by the outdoor pool so did the last 4K with soggy feet!
Caroline Joynes-Creed
Club Teamwork
