...but it would appear that there will shortly be a Cranford Park parkrun – i.e. a 5k time trial every Saturday morning.  This should be confirmed by the test event due to take place on the morning of Easter Monday.  Anyone able to attend will be welcome (but please remember your parkrun barcodes). The event is being managed by Hayes and Harlington Road Runners but they will be looking for other local runners and supporters to help out as volunteers and provide run directors for some Saturdays. The event is being supported by Hounslow Council and will start and finish near the facilities in Avenue Park off from the High Street. The course will go out to Cranford Park, take in two laps of the main field (not through the woods) and then back to finish where the run started. It doesn’t look like it has been decided yet whether the parkrun will be known as “Cranford” or “Avenue”. Click on this link for further details including confirmation of next Monday's test event.

Roderick Hoffman

More info nearer the date.

Some of you may remember, about a year ago (yes it has been that long) I sent out an email to gauge an interest in whether to purchase a BA "technical" running T-shirts.. We had a good response, so we decided to go ahead with finding a supplier and getting back to everyone with prices. Finally we have managed to do that! Clara has found a supplier and the cost for the "technical" T-shirt will be £8.00 each.

We will be looking to place an order for any T-shirts you require, plus some spares for future sales. So if you would like to purchase one of these shirts, please reply to Paul Knechtl (paul.a.knechtl@ba.com), with the size and number of T-shirts you require. Ladies I will assume you require the ladies cut version, so please let me know if this is NOT the case.

Closing date for orders will be Friday 12th April.

regards,

Paul Knechtl

Thought I would give you an update. Things haven't gone well the last couple of weeks as I picked up a virus that has kept me in bed for a few days. Back on track now, but a bit behind where I would like to be........

I have a street Orienteering event in Canterbury tomorrow which should be a good workout & I will know better just how I am after it.

Regards to all

Steve Waite

Hi all hope your training is all going well with no injures, just tired muscles like mine. Just a quick update on how my marathon training is going.

Well so far so good, training up to 60 miles a week now with a long run on Sundays, and also on the Wednesday night run down at the club. Monday's I'm now doing a morning run of 3 miles easy then half an hour of core work, then off to the track for some speed work in the evening. So far races wise I've done a few cross country's and last week I did the Berkhamsted half marathon with a time of 1 hour 32 min (very hilly), so good marathon training. This week I'm doing the Finchley 20 mile then next week doing the Cranleigh 21 mile. So hopefully still on course for the 3 hour 15 min that I'm looking for, but you never know the weather come marathon day so fingers crossed.

I like to wish every body the best of luck on marathon day it's going to be hard, but one of the most rewarding days of your life when you cross that finish line.

So my training week looks like this. Sunday: 18 miles Monday: am 3 mile run + core work. pm speed work Tuesday: rest day Wednesday: 17 miles Thursday: am 3 miles easy. pm 8 miles tempo Friday: hill work Saturday: park run or 5 mile easy

Once again good luck on the day and hope to see you at the start. (I'll be in front of the big TV screen with a British Airways vest on in Greenwich park)

Cheers Gary.

Pleased to report that all muscles have mended but stamina still hasn’t properly returned to normal. Did the Gade Valley 17 miler which went reasonably well with just a few walks but struggled again with the Thames Riverside 20 – went off with the 9 minute/mile pacers which was fine until about half way where I flagged somewhat and had to walk/jog to the end again – wasn’t helped by a really grotty cold at the time. The end of February club 5mile handicap went well although a few gremlins came back again last week in the CIE Forrester Folly where a few walks along the way were necessary despite a good time – Steve H suggested that an ‘interval running’ approach may be the way at the moment. Been doing some steady 17 miler training runs in Windsor Park alone which have been OK, but the Reading half marathon this last weekend was a bit of a shambles for me, in atrocious weather where I had again to adopt a walk/run strategy to get there. Anyway, have decided now to ditch the prescribed blood circulation tablets as muscle fatigue is listed as a side effect so hopefully that may help !

Next Sunday is the Windsor 20 mile trainer and I am hoping to get over to the club family fun day afterwards to hobble the 100m. Two years ago I came third (…only 3 runners) after having just completed the Windsor half marathon the same day ! Still not really in shape for London but hoping still time……I think I really have to concentrate on getting my pace right. Hope everyone else are OK in their preparations, let's hope for some better weather soon.

Joe Nolan (18 March 2013)

Hello everybody,

want just to give you an update of my runs and preparation for the London Marathon. I was so glad, happy and delighted to have had a fantastic and pain free 20-Miler on the 3rd of March. I enjoyed every single mile during this lovely Sunday morning without wind, rain and mud. The start was at Putney bridge followed by the route along the Thames to Richmond. It was great. One of the other joy was my 50th parkrun in March. Parkrun is always a great event for me. Otherwise I have every week my 2 midweek runs after the work. For further preparation I'm looking forward to having one Half marathon and a few 10-15 miles runs on Sunday morning. 

Anyway, wishing all of you a lucky and injured-free preparation for the big day in April. All the best and THANKS a lot,

Kerstin Luksch.

Please excuse the impersonal nature of the general letter, but I am trying to recruit runners for a lovely event which the Rotary Club of Leatherhead organises each year over the beautiful Headley Heath. In previous years we have run it on the Sunday nearest to midsummer day, but this year because the bluebells are so pretty at Headley Heath we have moved it forward to bluebell time and renamed it!

I have run it every year it is a lovely undulating course, and we have the infrastructure professional organised for us by 2:09 Events. There are details both on their web site and Runnersworld, with reviews from previous years.

We maintain a website for the race www.rotarymidsummer10k.com where you can see pictures and times from last year.

Trophies for the first male and female winners and prizes for the first 5 ladies and the first 5 men - medals and goody bags for everyone.

The cost of the race is covered by sponsorship, so every penny from the entry fees (£15 + £2 online booking fee) will go direct to Surrey Air Ambulance, our charity for this year.

If we get just 5 runners from each of the Surrey running clubs we should raise over £5000 for Surrey Air Ambulance.

I do hope you may be able to help pass this on to interested runners

Kind regards

Adrian O'Loughlin
Leatherhead Rotary Club