Wednesday 10 December 2008

Sussex Grand Prix - provisional dates for 2009

The provisional 2009 SGP Race Calendar is:

22nd February 2009 - The Sussex Beacon Half
1st March 2009 Eastbourne Half Marathon
15th March 2009 Hastings Half Marathon
5th April 2009 Worthing 20
19th April 2009 Hastings 5 Miles
(26th April 2009 London Marathon)
10th May 2009 Horsham 10K
3rd June 2009 Worthing 10K
(6th June 2009 South Downs Relay)
21st June 2009 Heathfield 10K
5th July 2009 Bewl 15
30th July 2009 Bexhil 5K (prov)
23rd August 2009 Will Page 10K
14th September 2009 Hellingly 10K
20th September 2009 Hove Prom 10K
4th October 2009 Lewes Downland 10 mile
11th October 2009 Chichester 10K
1st November 2009 Barns Green Half Marathon
8th November 2009 Phoenix Park Races
15th November 2009 Brighton 10K
29th November 2009 Crowborough 10K

Hastings Marathon

Good luck to the Waddies running the Hastings Marathon this Sunday.

The race starts at 09.30 and the route is Hastings Town Hall to Old Town, to The Ridge, past The Conquest Hospital, to Bexhill, to Catsfield, to Bexhill and along the Promenade back to the Town Hall to finish.

Try and spare some time to support the Wadhurst contingententry comprising Mark (skoll)Waring, Peter (I am flying) Burfoot, Lyn (my first ever marathon, yippes) Hayes, Albert (my 23rd marathon)Kemp and Sara (I have not run for 2 months)Wrenn. Best wishes and last person home is a sissy.

Also running on Sunday, Bonita Backhouse, Martin Burke, Tony Gates, Kathie Gates, Helen Goddard, Mike Mackay, Jim McCulloch and Eddie, Wattenbach.

Good luck to all.

Cross Country Series

The second race in the Cross Country Series (five races this year, reduced from six last year) over usually a 5 mile course(approximate) takes place on Sunday 28th December 2008 at Warren Hill, near Eastbourne.

These events are great fun, albeit a little cold and none of those run this series are considered to be particularly muddy. We have a combined team with Crowborough. The team needs 15 runners and usually does well whenever we have several of the Waddies running. There is always a children’s race over 1 mile only for ages 8 to 14 which starts at 10.30. These races are free and ideal for our family members as there is always plenty of baby sitters on hand if both parents want to run. Those youngsters 15 and older run with the adults. The senior race costs just £2.50 to enter and starts at 11am.

We meet at Uplands for 9am as usual for a warm up short run and car sharing.

The rest of the programme for this season is:

Sunday February 1st 2009 Ashdown Forest
Sunday February 15th 2009 Cross-in-Hand
Sunday March 8th Pestalozzi.

Helen Goddard works at Pestalozzi so it will be extra special to support her venue.

Handicap - combined results

The result of the combined Annual and Xmas Handicap races, for which the first male and lady runners, receive the coveted handicap trophies, are below but first a rule or two.

Both races must be run and each race is awarded a point for each position i.e. 1 point for 1st and 2 points for 2nd. Both race points are accumulated and the lowest score determines the trophy positions. The results are therefore:

Peter Burfoot 7 points 1st Man
Sally Toll 10 points 1st Lady
Eddie Wattenbach 10 points
Diane Osborn 13 points
Fergus Randolph 12 points
Helen Neary 19 points
Dave Jones 17 points
Albert Kemp 19 points

No other runners completed both races. Many thanks to our Club President, Roger Smith and especially to Chris and his daughter Jane, for hosting us and providing the mince pies, sausage rolls and mulled wine.

Winter Handicap results

Eleven intrepid Waddies attended this year’s handicap which started at our President’s house at 9am sharpish on Sunday. Two of our Crowborough friends ran too. They all braved a cold but crisp morning and care was needed on sheltered, quiet slippery roads.

Sadly the fancy dress this year was less than enthusiastic - whcih left the way open for Albert to win. It was pointed out - by Albert - that he wasnt wearing fancy dress.

The winners were:

1st finisher – Sally Toll; 2nd Peter Burfoot and 3rd Diane Osborn. The top men were Peter, Eddie and Ciaran with the leading ladies Sally, Diane and Sharon Wheeler of Crowborough. The record for both the men and ladies fastest time were shattered by the husband and wife duo, Ciaran and Diane. The full results show that handicapping does give us slower runners a chance as the full details are:

1st Sally 0:56:28
2nd Peter 0:58:26
3rd Diane 0:58:31
4th Eddie 0:58:47
5th Sharon 0:59:04
6th Ciaran 0:59:09
7th Nick B 0:59:14
8th Fergus 0:59:31
9th Bryan 1:00:30
10th David 1:00:45
11th Tim 1:00:51
12th Albert1:01:58
13th Helen 1:01:59

The result of the fancy dress completion was hard fought but most eliminated themselves leaving Helen Neary the clear winner of the ladies and Albert squeezed in just as the male winner. Mind you he was clearly seen by several witnesses to pass a £10 note to Shane who was the starter and time controller. Bribery clearly works.

End of season report from the Headmaster

Chairman Albert Osaurus send us his end of term report:

"Wadhurst Runners entered the last round of the Sussex Grand Prix Road Running Series, being the last of 18 races, at the Crowborough 10K. After 17 races they were clinging onto 5th place, which is one place higher than they achieved in 2007.

Thankfully the race conditions were suitably cold rather than the wet and cold of previous years. The team needed to maximise their results to have a chance of achieving their best ever position.

Ciaran Osborne was the 1st Waddie finishing in a powerful 7th place, his highest place of the year. The first Wadhurst lady was Helen Goddard who also finished strongly in 58th place overall and was 7th lady overall.

Other notable successes were Lyn Hayes who was 4th lady vet 2 and Albert Kemp, club chairman, who was 3rd vet 3. Personal Bests were recorded by new comers Nick Brooker and Matt Seabrook. The team results were:

7th 37:35 minutes Ciaran Osborn – senior male; 58th 43:49 Helen Goddard Lady Vets class 1; 75th 44:57 Peter Burfoot Male Vets class 2; 101st 46:51 Lyn Hayes Lady Vets 2; 137th Nick Brooker 48:53 Male Vets 1; 172nd 50:36 Albert Kemp Male Vets 3; 258th 55:06 Fergus Randolph Male Vets 1; 316th 59:10 Barry Gilbert Male Vets 3; 318th 59:21 Matt Seabrook Male Vet 1; 340th 1:01:09 Tony Gates Male Vets 2 and 345th 1:01:47 Kathie gates Senior Ladies.

As a result of the team performance the Wadhurst Runners achieved their aim and ended 5th overall. Thanks mainly to the ladies who were 3rd overall and 2nd in the vets category. This is the very first time in their history that Wadhurst Runners has ended up with medals in the series. The men were 6th overall and the vets were 5th.

Tony Gates should receive a special mention once again for his award for completing all 18 races. This is an exceptional, indeed rare, feat and this is the 2nd year in a row that he has received this award. Just 3 have runners completed this amazing feat and last year this trophy was restricted to 2 runners only.

The whole Grand prix had 1,119 affiliated club runners of which 667 were men and 452 were women. The series is growing year by year and had 985 runners last year. Individually the Wadhurst Runners have won medals in a number of categories:

Ladies Team – 3rd
Vet Ladies Team – 2nd
Senior Men up to age 39 – 5th Ciaran Osborn
Senior Ladies age 34 – 4th Kathie Gates
Vet ladies age 35+ - 5th Helen Goddard, 7th Lyn Hayes and 8th Cathy Gates
Vet Men V5 age 60 to 64 – Albert Kemp
Vet Lady V1 age 35 to 39 – 2nd Helen Goddard and 3rd Cathy Hall
Vet Lady V3 age 45 to 49 – 2nd Lyn Hayes
Vet Lady V4 age 50 to 54 – 3rd Janet Drake
Vet Lady V5 age 55 to 59 – 3rd Helen Neary
Completing all 18 races – Tony Gates

Crowborough 10K

Eleven Waddies took part in the final Sussex GP race of the year at Crowborough on November 30th, including Barry Gilbert who made the long journey over from Reading. Although by the look of poor Barry's face at the finish we suspect its not a race - or a hill - he'll be in too much of a hurry to exerience again!

The results were:

7th 0:37:35 OSBORN, Ciaran
58th 0:43:49 GODDARD, Helen
75th 0:44:57 BURFOOT, Peter
101st 0:46:51 HAYES, Linda
137th 0:48:53 BROOKER, Nick
172nd 0:50:36 KEMP, ALBERT
258th 0:55:06 RANDOLPH, Fergus
316th 0:59:10 GILBERT, Barry
318th 0:59:21 SEABROOK, Matt
340th 1:01:09 GATES, Anthony
345th 1:01:47 GATES, Kathie

In addition, Ben Ubee, Nick Brooker's nephew, guested as a Waddie in a Waddie vest.

305th 0:58:12 UBEE, Benjamin

Well done to all who took part.