After such a long time with no races at all to report we now have two reports for your delight.
Jo Emerson’s report on the Virtual Riverbank Rollick and Jim William’s report on the Virtual Bath Half
Virtual Riverbank Rollick
After many difficult hours of deliberation, TRC is pleased to announce the winners of the photo competition.
We have 5 prize winners, and these are (in no particular order)
• Jonathon Flower – some great action shots in rollick worthy conditions
• Melanie Monro – Coldest muddiest looking puddle
• Fiona Evans – Best water crossing (complete with dog)
• Pete Bartlett – Great race effort for some great pics
• Angela Ashton (with Katarina Mhairi Branmer) – Some happy faces, beautiful views and enough energy for a lovely double air shot.
These worthy recipients will receive their prizes along with medals within the next day or so. Also after a slight delay all medals are now winging their way to successful virtual rollickers.
We would also like to give a special mention to the following merit worthy photographers and facebook posters who narrowly missed out on the prizes
• Ingrid Broadbent and Sarah Vogan – Super scenic snowy shots
• John Grimsey – seriously rollick worthy mud
• Becky Anne – Great soundtrack and some very cheery leggings
• Chris Woolley – some lovely artistic photos ( and not short of mud either)
• Nicola Currel and Sue Dyer – Beautiful photos of Weston pier and beach
• LJ Pudding – Great effort in some icy looking mud
• Natalie Parsons – Hangover heaven
All of the photos are still open to view on our website where you can shave a giggle and see just how difficult it was to judge the winners.
Virtual Bath Half
Jim Williams reports on the results from the virtual half marathon training group.
Back in November 2020 I decided I’d quite like to up my running distance and on the road back from recovery, run a half marathon at an unspecified time in the future. I posted on our club Facebook and club emails to ask if anyone wanted to join me on a running journey. I wanted to set up a virtual-only group as a way of ensuring that we could continue to support each other no matter what future changes to lockdown occurred. That seems awfully prescient now.
13 people joined the group (with only one not being able to complete the training due to family commitments). After a brief survey we decided to all aim to run a half marathon the weekend of the 13th/14th March when a number of the group had already signed up to run the Bath Virtual half marathon.
A weekly training plan was produced and we had a regular Zoom call every Saturday at 5pm and a WhatsApp group to share our runs, give each other support and to talk about the various training sessions for that week. Whilst we haven’t been able to meet in person, having all of us able to be there for each other has been a really great part of our virtual journey.
So how did we all do on race day?
Not everyone had entered the Bath virtual half or chose to run on the right days. In order of the runs run over the last week, our results were as follows.
. Jim Williams 2:02 (once all the breaks were taking into account)
. Emma Barnes 1:44:34
. Jessie Harrison 2:10
. Cathy Watkins 2:59
. Rachel Murphy 2:59
. Karen Carr 2:21 (included stops for water and chats apparently)
. Sonya Bryson 2:21
. John Franksen 2:32
. Simon Groves 2.28
. Julia Jolley 1:52:45
. Carol Mosses 3:04:52
Kevin Arnold also ran the Virtual Fleet half marathon on the 13th December in 1:53:44, had another go on the 22nd December (1:46:31) and then accompanied Julia Jolley around a virtual Hants half marathon that he persuaded her to take a spare ticket for on the 30th December in 2:00:15 as well.
It was definitely different doing this half marathon training as a virtual group but in many ways we were much closer because of it. 12 runners all supporting and encouraging each other, sharing tips, successes, bad weather and horrid hill efforts. We celebrated PBs and new longest distances reached. Commiserated over injuries or poor runs or unruly dogs. And most importantly we did it. We set out to run a half marathon and we did. Just need to work out what our next challenge is.
AR 17/03/21