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Vegan Runners parkrun 13.04.24

Vegan Runners parkrun 13.04.24

April 14, 2024 0

💚🖤Another wonderful week for Vegan Runners! The sun presided over the majority of parkrun events in the UK on this second parkrun of April 2024, which saw 941 members attending 416 events. 871 VRs gained a finish token and we had over 70 wonderful volunteers.   Meet-ups a-plenty were organised and held at thirty-four different venues for groups of five and above. Thank you to Fraser Murray for this week’s fabulous photo from the biggest meetup held at Livingston, where twenty-five VRs were scanned. Other popular get-togethers occurred at:  15 South Manchester parkrun 13 Bedgebury Pinetum parkrun 12 Southampton parkrun 10 Eastville parkrun 10 Salisbury parkrun 10 Bevendean Down parkrun 8 Endcliffe parkrun 8 York parkrun 8 Centre Vale parkrun 7 Colwick parkrun 7 Southsea parkrun 7 Rothwell parkrun 6 Bushy parkrun 6 Hampstead Heath parkrun 6 Roding Valley parkrun 6 Milton Country parkrun 6 Preston Park parkrun, Brighton 6 Worthing parkrun 5 Hull parkrun 5 Cannon Hill parkrun, Birmingham 5 Whitstable parkrun 5 Forest Rec parkrun 5 Hillsborough parkrun 5 Bognor Regis parkrun 5 Lee-on-the-Solent parkrun 5 Felixstowe parkrun 5 Prospect parkrun 5 Coldham’s Common parkrun 5 Alvaston parkrun 5 Severn Valley Country parkrun 5 Bartley Park parkrun 5 Belvoir Castle parkrun 5 Yarborough Leisure Centre parkrun   There were also nineteen events with four VRs, forty-six parkruns with three Vegan Runners, eighty-nine with a pair from our club and two hundred and twenty-eight of you were solo repping.    As well as 398 parkruns in the United Kingdom, Vegan Runners also showed up in parkrun results in ten other countries (number is the number of events in each country with VRs).  🇺🇸   3 United States 🇮🇪    3 Ireland 🇩🇪   3 Germany 🇮🇹   2 Italy 🇦   2 Australia 🇸🇪   1 Sweden 🇿🇦   1 South Africa 🇵🇱   1 Poland 🇳🇱   1 Netherlands 🇨🇦   1 Canada   parkrun is not a race but it’s still interesting to learn about and to celebrate the achievements of our fastest parkrunners. So here is a list of our top ten fastest men this week:  🥇16:44 Philip Nind 🥇17:11 Andrew Worster 🥇17:14 Jake Stephens 🥇17:29 Matt Edmonds 🥇17:30 Christopher Pearson 🥇17:32 Neil Sexton NewPB! 🥇17:40 Shane Conroy NewPB! 🥇17:53 Dave Holmes NewPB! 🥇17:56 Alex Hinchcliffe NewPB! 🥇18:11 Gareth Thomas   And our top ten fastest ladies:  🥇19:49 Clare Meraz 🥇20:06 Lesley Connors 🥇20:55 Elly Maggs 🥇21:15 Kamile Stanelyte 🥇21:20 Julie Oswald 🥇21:20 Helen Seymour NewPB! 🥇21:25 Emma Eldridge 🥇21:28 Katie Louise Wright 🥇21:53 Tracy Moroz 🥇21:55 Michelle Vaughan NewPB!   Incredible times – congratulations! 🎊🎊   These VRs came first in their gender position at their parkrun:  🏆16:44 Philip Nind 🏆17:11 Andrew Worster 🏆17:29 Matt Edmonds 🏆17:30 Christopher Pearson 🏆18:42 Dan Stent 🏆18:48 Matthew Rhodes 🏆19:16 Douglas Williamson 🏆19:49 Clare Meraz 🏆20:06 Lesley Connors 🏆20:55 Elly Maggs 🏆21:00 Hester Hill 🏆21:15 Kamile Stanelyte 🏆21:20 Julie Oswald 🏆21:44 Joseph Brown 🏆21:53 Tracy Moroz 🏆24:28 Elena Roebuck   Fabulous repping and proving that our plant-based diet provides the perfect fuel for a powerful parkrun 🌱🥦🌽🥕   Marvellous milestones this week were achieved by: 🎊 Katy Wilson  250 Well done, brilliant parkrun presence and repping for the animals 🏃🐄   The average time for all Vegan Runners to complete their course on this second event of April 2024 fell just one second short of the noughty step, coming in at a respectable 29:59 😈🏃‍♂️   189 of us gained a new Personal Best for 2024! 🏃🎉🥦   Shoutouts to these Vegan Runners who finished their parkrun in a multiple of fifty position:  📣50 23:01 Catherine Charlton 📣50 25:38 Layla Whitaker 📣50 25:32 Jade Barrett 📣50 29:22 Fhiona Clark 📣50 38:14 Catherine Southgate 📣50 21:34 Tom Geere 📣50 24:05 Edward Owen 📣100 28:28 Jac Prigmore 📣100 23:45 Ryan Pollock 📣150 33:57 Matt Ashmead 📣150 25:58 Stephen Bray 📣250 31:17 Emily Mudhar-Fung 📣300 31:12 Hilary Cockshaw 📣300 34:00 Emma Bartlett 📣350 29:59 Francesca Parkes 📣850 33:32 Alice Baker 📣900 34:16 Claire Robinson   On the noughty step this week we have fourteen contumacious characters:  😈 20:00 Tom Gayle 😈 21:00  Hester Hill 😈 22:00  Greg Turner 😈 24:00  Julian Middleton 😈 25:00  Adam Kirsh 😈 25:00  Gary Beeston 😈 25:00  Mandy Scott 😈 26:00  Marti Spence 😈 28:00  Ella Yarrow 😈 32:00  Kate Nichols 😈 33:00  Hannah Charlton 😈 34:00  Emma Bartlett 😈 35:00  Fleur Deacon 😈 46:00  Ieva Jasmontaite  You are our heroes of the zeroes 🦸00🦸   And last but by no means least, an incredible fifty-one of you collected a repdigit finish token this week, Spring blossoms for:  🌺🌷 11 Julian Harrison 🌺🌷 11 Julie Oswald 🌺🌷 11 Lesley Connors 🌺🌷 11 Michael Inglis 🌺🌷 11 Nick Barrett 🌺🌷 11 Robert Ottolangui 🌺🌷 11 Sam Threadgill 🌺🌷 11 Stephen Taylor 🌺🌷 22 Adrian Pope 🌺🌷 22 Bev Dennis 🌺🌷 22 Bob Love 🌺🌷 22 Marti Spence 🌺🌷 22 Scott Bates 🌺🌷 33 Chris Calvert 🌺🌷 33 David Ball 🌺🌷 33 Elena Roebuck 🌺🌷 33 Rebecca Lait 🌺🌷 33 Stevie Tudor 🌺🌷 33 Tracey Lancaster 🌺🌷 44 David Anderson 🌺🌷 44 Graeme Smith 🌺🌷 44 Kasia Matuszyk 🌺🌷 44 Laura Fearn 🌺🌷 44 Rafael Bickley 🌺🌷 44 Stephen Robinson-Day 🌺🌷 44 Steve Proudley 🌺🌷 44 Wendy Lockwood 🌺🌷 55 Ben Musty 🌺🌷 55 Gregory Richards 🌺🌷 55 Michelle Vaughan 🌺🌷 66 Amy Moore 🌺🌷 66 Aurime Dovydaityte 🌺🌷 66 Rob Lupton 🌺🌷 66 Soleil Barrett 🌺🌷 77 Agata Szczepaniuk 🌺🌷 77 Gary Jarvis 🌺🌷 77 Keri Jackson 🌺🌷 77 Paula Lamont 🌺🌷 88 Kathryn Dobson 🌺🌷 88 Nicola Lewton 🌺🌷 88 Sean Whiteley 🌺🌷 88 Wendy Littlewood 🌺🌷 99 Angela Cresswell 🌺🌷 99 Ashley Price-Sabate 🌺🌷 99 Jo Rickerby 🌺🌷 99 Katy Winter 🌺🌷 99 Laura Whitton 🌺🌷 99 Michael Frawley 🌺🌷 99 Mo Warrillow 🌺🌷 333 Anna Broi 🌺🌷 444 Valerie Freestone   I had the absolute pleasure of meeting some of the names I write about regularly in my reports at the Salisbury meet-up, including Harry Pannell and Norbert Adison. It’s great to be able to put faces to names! It was also lovely to see Sharon Weinstein and Kate Buttimer again. There was much talk about the upcoming VRUK20 Bristol meetup in May, where I’m looking forward to meeting more of you soon. Have a great week and keep an eye out for the mid-week poll to find a meet-up near you! 🖤🐄🐑🐤💚               

Vegan Runners parkrun report 30.03.24

Vegan Runners parkrun report 30.03.24

March 31, 2024 0

💚🖤 On this last parkrun of March 2024, a marvellous 958 VRs managed to attend 420 different parkrun events. 891 of us gained a finish token and we had over 67 wonderful volunteers. 228 Vegan Runners succeeded in setting a new Personal Best for 2024! 🎉🥦    It’s so exciting to watch our new parkrun facebook community grow and flourish, photos of your adventures and achievements bring the group to life in such a positive and inspirational way. Congrats to La Rubina for first pre parkrun photo & to Linda Jesson for posting the first actual photo of herself repping our lovely club at parkrun! 🎉🥦🩷    Lots of lovely meetups took place of course – thank you to Fraser Murray for this week’s high energy photo from the Edinburgh (Camper) meetup!    The most popular meetups this week were held at:  23 Eastville parkrun  20 Moors Valley parkrun  16 Queen Elizabeth parkrun  15 Edinburgh parkrun  11 Irchester Country parkrun  10 Preston Park parkrun, Brighton  9 Southwark parkrun  7 Eastbourne parkrun  7 York parkrun  7 Burgess parkrun  7 Centre Vale parkrun  6 Colwick parkrun  6 Southampton parkrun  6 Worcester parkrun  6 Hastings parkrun  6 Swansea Bay parkrun  6 Worthing parkrun  5 Oxford parkrun  5 Rothwell parkrun  5 Eden Project parkrun  5 Ferry Meadows parkrun  5 Dulwich parkrun  5 Great Denham parkrun  5 Alvaston parkrun  5 Berkeley Green parkrun  5 Sandringham parkrun    There were also twenty-six parkruns with four VRs, forty-eight with a trio repping the green and black, one hundred and ten parkruns with two VRs and two hundred and ten VRs solo repping. Well done, everyone! 🏃🎊    Vegan Runners participate in parkruns all over the world – here are the number of events per country with VRs in the results this week:  🇩🇪      5 Germany  🇦🇺      3 Australia  🇵🇱      2 Poland  🇳🇿     2 New Zealand  🇦🇹    2 Austria  🇺🇸     1 United States  🇸🇪      1 Sweden  🇳🇴     1 Norway  🇳🇱      1 Netherlands  🇯🇵      1 Japan  🇮🇪   1 Ireland  🇩🇰   1 Denmark      Congratulations to our top ten fastest men this week, who are:  🥇16:09 Jasper McDowell  🥇16:42 Philip Nind  🥇16:59 Elliot Collins New PB!  🥇17:18 Alastair Stables  🥇17:23 Andy Gardiner  🥇17:40 Daniel Borrett  🥇17:42 Bill Hill New PB!  🥇17:50 Dan Stent  🥇17:53 Tom Carpenter  🥇17:58 Jake Stephens    Amazing achievements also by this week’s top ten fastest women:  🥇18:51 Naomi Sutton New PB!  🥇20:00 Lesley Connors  🥇20:15 Fiona Newman New PB!  🥇20:32 Mary P Scott  🥇20:43 Laura Seaman New PB!  🥇21:01 Elly Maggs  🥇21:04 Clare Meraz  🥇21:07 Julie Oswald  🥇21:14 Catherine Charlton  🥇21:25 Kamile Stanelyte New PB!    Absolutely incredible times, with less than a minute between genders this week!     Talking of gender, these VRs came first in their gender position at their parkrun:  🏆16:42 Philip Nind  🏆17:18 Alastair Stables  🏆17:50 Dan Stent  🏆17:53 Tom Carpenter  🏆17:58 Jake Stephens  🏆20:00 Lesley Connors  🏆21:01 Elly Maggs  🏆21:14 Catherine Charlton  🏆22:10 Tracy Moroz  🏆22:42 Carla Brain  🏆22:44 Kira Rehfeld  🏆22:51 Geraldine Larham  🏆23:01 Jen Conway    Brilliant achievements, proving the power of plant protein for performance. 🌱🌿    The average time for all Vegan Runners to complete their parkrun this week was an astounding 29:54 🏃🏆🌽    Shoutouts to the lucky thirteen Vegan Runners who finished their parkrun in a multiple of fifty position:  📣50 27:58 Lucy Swarbrick  📣50 26:40 Stuart Morton  📣50 22:42 Alan Spacagna  📣100 24:25 Chrissie Buckledee  📣100 26:15 Stephanie Hughes  📣100 24:18 Jen Haywood  📣100 30:27 Neil Kirsh  📣150 29:56 Shireen Kassam  📣150 24:44 Rob Petch  📣200 33:57 Ruth Mountstevens  📣350 36:26 H Matthew Howarth  📣400 41:16 Jayne Eaton  📣450 32:06 Tamsin Mockford    A simultaneously lucky and unlucky thirteen again landed directly on the noughty step! Castigations, Easter carrots and chastisements for:  😈🥕19:00 Matthew Rhodes  😈🥕20:00 Lesley Connors  😈🥕23:00 Jamie Kinghorn  😈🥕23:00 Peter Taylor  😈🥕24:00 Jamie Wieland  😈🥕25:00 Lee Tooey  😈🥕25:00 Alison Sanderson  😈🥕26:00 Andy Begent  😈🥕28:00 Sophie Higham  😈🥕28:00 Rebecca Nisbet  😈🥕31:00 Vanessa Buckler  😈🥕32:00 Julie Oxenforth  😈🥕45:00 Sara Leudar    And last but by no means least, let’s hear it for our repdigit reppers, gosh and goodness you’re the best. Bunnies and bouquets for:  🐇💐 11 Alastair Penman  🐇💐 11 Bill Hill  🐇💐 11 Dave Colwell  🐇💐 11 David Ainsley  🐇💐 11 James Withams  🐇💐 11 Keith Rochester  🐇💐 11 Mark Revell-Wright  🐇💐 11 Scott Bates  🐇💐 11 Stephen Reeve  🐇💐 22 Callum Harling  🐇💐 22 Gregory Richards  🐇💐 22 Rachel Burgess  🐇💐 33 Debbie Kessell  🐇💐 33 Nigel Howard  🐇💐 33 Rob Werran  🐇💐 44 Jennifer Whittle  🐇💐 44 Matt Walker  🐇💐 55 Angelina Farruggia  🐇💐 55 Brian Saxby  🐇💐 55 Jane Stubbington  🐇💐 55 Kathryn Mcguinness  🐇💐 55 Nadiah Jamaa  🐇💐 66 Alice Wood  🐇💐 66 Emily Curnick  🐇💐 66 Hannah Ford  🐇💐 66 Jacob Butler  🐇💐 66 Matthew Sweed  🐇💐 66 Steve Proudley  🐇💐 66 Todd Haufek  🐇💐 77 Charlotte Swope  🐇💐 77 Daniel Perlaki  🐇💐 77 Gareth Snaith  🐇💐 77 Koby Crumpler  🐇💐 77 Thomas Giles  🐇💐 88 Jane Forbes  🐇💐 99 Corrina Barton  🐇💐 99 Kevin Boina M’Koubou Dupé  🐇💐 111 Amy Withnall  🐇💐 111 Jatin Shamji  🐇💐 111 Judy Johnson  🐇💐 222 Anna Duggal  🐇💐 222 Jasmine Rawlinson  🐇💐 222 Karen Louise Watson  🐇💐 222 Roxane Pratt  🐇💐 333 Alice Connor  🐇💐 333 Catherine Midgley  🐇💐 333 Katy Murrell    Well done everyone, great running and repping as always. During my parkrun on Saturday, I was overtaken by a lady around twenty years younger than me, who said, “I can’t be beaten by a vegan!”. I overtook her about ten minutes later replying, “Maybe you should change to a plant-based diet?” We ran together for a while, she told me that she was a vegan during her student days, but her father had chastised her and insisted that she included meat in her diet. She ran off, waving a cheery goodbye. Ten minutes later, I overtook her again and ended up beating her parkrun time by five minutes. Of course I waited for her at the end! We had a good chat and she told me she would give the plant-based diet another try. I personally dislike and actively avoid confrontation but find wearing my Vegan Runners top empowers me to have positive conversations in a non-confrontational way. And even on the weeks no-one comments, we are still actively promoting veganism just by wearing our Vegan Runners logo.    To conclude, here is an Easter treat! A BBC World Service feature on the rise of Vegan Runners at parkrun, reported by Shiroma Silva and aired today (31.03.24), heard by approximately 313 million listeners early this morning. Here’s a link to the report which starts at 14:33. Enjoy! 🖤🐄🐑🐤💚 

Vegan Runners’ parkrun report 24.02.24

Vegan Runners’ parkrun report 24.02.24

February 25, 2024 0

💚🖤 What a difference the weather makes! With floods and freezing conditions a-plenty across the UK there were over 100 cancellations. We still had awesome attendance and representation with 839 Vegan Runners attending 324 different parkrun events. 783 gained a finish token and we had over 56 wonderful volunteers.  Meetups were as abundant as the cancellations on this last parkrun of February with an incredible 34 VRs repping at Chipping Sodbury – an awesome turnout. Other meetups of note took place at:  19 Hull parkrun  18 Kesgrave parkrun  17 Andover parkrun  10 Whitekirk Hill parkrun  8 Colwick parkrun  8 Worcester parkrun  8 Preston Park parkrun, Brighton  8 University of Northampton parkrun  7 Eastbourne parkrun  7 Southampton parkrun  7 Southsea parkrun  7 Brighouse parkrun  7 Eastville parkrun  6 Heaton parkrun  6 Milton Keynes parkrun  6 Brierley Forest parkrun  6 Barnstaple parkrun  6 Southend parkrun  6 Forest Rec parkrun  6 Hillsborough parkrun  6 Margate parkrun  6 Folkestone parkrun  6 Hove Promenade parkrun  6 Portsmouth Lakeside parkrun  6 Alvaston parkrun  6 Mildenhall Hub parkrun  There were also twelve meetups of five VRs, eighteen meetups of four VRs, thirty-eight trios, sixty-five duos and one hundred and sixty-four solo reppers. We are a friendly bunch!  Thank you to Lesley Connors for this week’s wonderful photo from Hull parkrun.  Not only were Vegan Runners promoting animal rights and awareness of veganism across the UK, we were also advocating avocados and plant-based diets across the world repping in:  🇩🇪   3 Germany  🇦🇹   3 Australia  🇳🇱   2 Netherlands  🇮🇪   2 Ireland  🇸🇪   1 Sweden  🇸🇬   1 Singapore  🇵🇱   1 Poland  🇳🇿   1 New Zealand  🇯🇵   1 Japan  🇮🇹   1 Italy  🇩🇰   1 Denmark  Our top ten fastest men this week, with incredible times, were:  🥇16:42 Philip Nind  🥇16:53 Jake Stephens  🥇16:54 Matt Edmonds  🥇17:19 Michael Slack  🥇17:52 Christopher Pearson  🥇17:52 Scott Braunton  🥇18:02 Harry Pannell  🥇18:25 Joe Burn  🥇18:31 Ben Wickham  🥇18:39 Darren Francis  And top ten fastest ladies, proving plant power is all the fuel you need:  🥇19:45 Lesley Connors 🥇19:53 Clare Meraz 🥇19:55 Hester Hill 🥇19:58 Jo Fleming 🥇20:18 Paula Blackledge 🥇20:53 Jenny McNamara 🥇21:11 Lin Lascelles 🥇21:18 Fiona Newman 🥇21:27 Elly Maggs 🥇21:42 Helen Seymour  Congratulations!  Remarkable repping from these VRs who came first in their gender position at their parkrun:  🏆16:54 Matt Edmonds  🏆17:52 Scott Braunton  🏆18:58 Dave Holmes  🏆19:23 Nathann Thornton  🏆19:42 Brad Scarborough  🏆19:53 Clare Meraz  🏆19:55 Hester Hill  🏆19:58 Jo Fleming  🏆20:18 Paula Blackledge  🏆21:27 Elly Maggs  🏆22:28 Lisa Kaye  🏆23:14 Emily Axford  🏆23:57 Zeina Clare  🏆24:15 Emily Pereira    As you probably know, marvellous milestones are no longer easily available from parkrun data so this section relies on me finding out from other sources. This week I just know to congratulate:  🎊 Gary Jarvis on his 50th parkrun 🎊 Katie Pownall on her 50th parkrun 🎊 Luke Sayers on his 100th parkrun  🎊 Nigel Barnes on completing his 250th parkrun.   Wonderful achievements and repping for the animals 🏃🐄   The average time for all Vegan Runners to complete the course on this last event of February 2024 was 30:31 🎉🏃‍♀️   Shoutouts to these Vegan Runners who finished their parkrun in a multiple of fifty position:  📣50 29:40 Laura Wright  📣50 26:55 Jasmine Green  📣50 35:18 James Henderson  📣50 29:38 Robert Franklin  📣50 25:31 Wojciech Walczuk  📣50 21:44 Nicholas Mytton  📣100 26:55 Karen Austin  📣100 30:05 Melanie Hayes  📣150 35:44 Gemma Clark  📣150 28:59 Doug Porter  📣200 31:19 Rachael Long  📣200 39:35 Sara Leudar  📣200 28:40 Ian Beasley  📣350 33:04 Hannah Rushton  📣500 35:35 Lizzy Sutton  Terrible behaviour from just twelve rambunctious VRs who landed on the noughty step this week, recriminations and time to think for:   😈 Tom Carpendale  😈 August Frew  😈 Michael Woods  😈 Katherine Alexander  😈 Guy Rayment  😈 Simon Scott  😈 Jacquie Little  😈 Jason Riley  😈 Tanya Barnes  😈 Tony Thyer  😈 Viki Bell  😈 Vicky Sullivan   Repping in style and collecting a repdigit finish token we have a resplendent punnet of thirty-four VRs. Avocados and animated applause for:  🥑👏11 Adam Doctor  🥑👏11 Darren Newman  🥑👏11 Emily Pereira  🥑👏11 Gary Godden  🥑👏11 Mike Harper  🥑👏11 Pete Colwell  🥑👏22 Andrew Nortrop  🥑👏22 Emma Collins  🥑👏22 Mary P Scott  🥑👏33 Jonny Hodgson  🥑👏44 Buff Forbes Stone  🥑👏44 Craig Wallace  🥑👏44 Kathryn Smith  🥑👏55 Harrison Tricker  🥑👏55 Suzi Brent  🥑👏66 Andrew Macbeth  🥑👏66 Ashley Price-Sabate  🥑👏66 Dan Russell  🥑👏66 Emma Warren  🥑👏66 Richard Catlin  🥑👏77 Alan Burgess  🥑👏77 David Chamberlain  🥑👏77 Jasmine Rawlinson  🥑👏77 Mete Guzelsoy  🥑👏88 Mary Wilson  🥑👏99 Kate Buttimer  🥑👏111 Alison Currie  🥑👏111 Janet Birchnall-Travers  🥑👏111 Jemma Gibson  🥑👏111 Simon Fuller  🥑👏222 Heath Harvey-List  🥑👏333 Adam Kirsh  🥑👏555 Caroline Gabriel   Gosh and goodness, such fantastic achievements, well done one and all for getting out to parkruns and representing our wonderful club. Veganism continues to gain attention and traction, this week the “Moral Maze” on Radio 4 discussed the moral case for veganism. Despite the presenter’s bias, it’s interesting to notice how increasingly difficult it’s becoming for non-vegans to come up with any rational argument for continuing to eat meat and dairy. Even the farmer agrees that current consumption and production of animal products is unsustainable and harmful.   Have a wonderful week – keep running and repping for the animals.  🖤🐄🐑🐤💚                 

Progress on the VRUK new website

September 18, 2013 0

The club has setup a temporary webpage to point visitors from our existing web address to the blog. Progress on the new website has been slow over the summer following the termination of the existing service provided by Activeg to local groups around the UK. We are relying on the availability of volunteers to develop a new site on Wordpress led by member John Bateson who is providing his expertise with support from other technical members of the committee. The development will be a long process but hopefully we can release the website in stages.Peter SimpsonClub Secretary

Cross Country Leagues & County Champs

September 18, 2013 0

Cross country leagues normally hold their first meeting / event at the beginning of October. Whilst VRUK is not registered with any league, members are welcome to participate as a guest runner for a nominal fee payable on the day. To find out more about your local cross country league, you could visit a local club website or keep visiting the Power of Ten diary. Results from last winter’s cross country leagues are likely to available here. You could also do a web search on ‘cross country leagues’.The English County Cross Country Championships are normally held early January subject to the weather and are organised by your local County Athletic Association. Registered members with England Athletics should be eligible to enter their county championship or the county where they were born. Closing date is normally early December. If you have difficulty finding the information to enter please contact the club secretary, Peter Simpson.It is recommended that you wear cross country shoes or trail shoes with good grip in heavy conditions.Peter Simpson

Power of Ten website – A Resource for Runners

September 18, 2013 0

The Power of Ten  website http://www.thepowerof10.info/fixtures/fixtureslookup.aspx is a source of fixtures / diary for the week ahead, results from past weeks and months and much more. It was setup with clubs in mind by the governing bodies and you can setup your running profile here, get more exposure for the club and see how you compare with other runners in your age category.The diary and results are especially useful for leagues, track events and local events that do not normally get coverage in the main running magazines. This information is also normally reserved for the Athletics Weekly magazine.Peter Simpson

Planning ahead for Cross Country Main Events

September 18, 2013 0

 Posting from the Club Secretary, Peter SimpsonFor the benefit of new members and any other members who need reminding, the entry details of the annual cross country meetings (events) organized by our national and regional governing bodies i.e. English Cross Country Association (ECCA) and South of England Athletic Association (SEAA) to whom the club is registered are sent directly to the club secretary. Unfortunately the rules of the sport only allow clubs to register with one regional and national organization hence members cannot represent the club in regional championships held in the South-West,  Midlands, North of England, Wales or Scotland say. All members registered with England Athletics can enter the national championships.The events are known as ‘meetings’ as there is a timetable of events for junior age groups (U13, U15, U17 & U20) for each gender and similarly separate events for all women and men also known as the senior events. All events are held on Saturdays.Details of the events listed below are posted on the governing bodies’ websites but entry is normally via the club. All members who have paid their England Athletics fee for the current year are eligible to compete. The events have already been added to the club diary on the blog http://veganrunnersuk.blogspot.com and are highlighted in blue. All members who do not mind a bit of competition are welcome to enter, it is participating as a team that counts. More than one complete team per event can be entered in the relay championships otherwise the first X members to finish count in the team result.DateEvent / Entry DetailsLocationDistances2/11/13ECCA National Relay Champs; entries with Peter by 7 Oct, fees per entrant: women £7, men £8Berry Hill Park, Mansfield, NottsSenior Women’s teams 3x3K (2.10pm), Senior Men’s teams 4x5K (2.40pm); Other junior events also timetabled.16/11/13SEAA London Champs (residents/workers/students in the capital); entries with Peter by 27 Oct, fees £6 per entrantParliament Hill fields, Hampstead HeathSenior Women’s 6K (1.15pm), Senior Men’s 10K (2pm); Other borough organized junior events precede the above events.  14/12/13SEAA Masters Champs; entries with Peter by 25 Nov, fees £8 per entrantShuttleworth Park, Old Warden, near Biggleswade, BedfordshireMen’s over 50 & 60 10K (11am), Women’s over 40, 50, 60 & Men’s over 70 6K (11.43am), Men’s over 40 10K (2.10pm); Other SEAA inter-country champs are also timetabled.25/1/14SEAA Main Champs; entries with Peter by 14 Dec, fees £5 per entrantParliament Hill fields, Hampstead Heath, LondonSenior Women’s 8K (2.05pm), Senior Men’s 15K (2.50pm); Other junior events timetabled22/1/14ECCA National Champs; entries with Peter by 30 Dec (tbc), entry fees approx £5 (tbc)Wollaton Park, NottinghamSenior Women’s 8K (2.20pm), Senior Men’s 12K (3pm); Other junior events also timetabled.It is normal for provision to be arranged for club tents otherwise some venues will only have separate marquees for changing. Some indoor changing is available at the Masters event. The London venue has provision for showers otherwise generally no showers at cross country events. All entrants must wear their club vest / top of the same design. Numbers & chip timing devices are collected on the day from the registration marquee, normally by the designated team manager for each event usually Peter if present. Except for the relay event, the distances will include 2 or 3 laps.Links to the websites:ECCA www.englishcrosscountry.co.uk SEAA www.seaa.org.uk Hope to hear from you very soon regarding the ECCA National Relay Champs in Mansfield on 2 November, closing date for entry by the club is 11 October so Peter needs your entry confirmed with fee by 7 October at the latest.

Tim Williams at Northampton Parkrun

September 18, 2013 0

Report and Photos by Peter SimpsonTim Williams recently joined VRUK after 4 events, his first at the Wellingborough 5 miles at the end of July. Tim has since been very dedicated and on 1 Septrmber completed the John Fraser 10 miles in South Leicestershire in a time of 1.26.Today’s park run was his 3rd in total and 2nd at Northampton.Conditions were good with a little breeze in parts and damp. The Racecourse park is mostly flat with only gentle climbs and the course is 1 large lap and one smaller lap. Tim was modest by hinting he was not looking for a fast time but given his recent good form it was no surprise that he achieved a PB of 23.29, 45 / 169.Tim arranged to buy a VRUK running top after the run but not thinking ‘camera’ when trying it on, we will need to wait until his next event for a sight of Tim in club colours.You may wonder why I was not running, in fact in the week leading up to the run, I appeared to aggravate an injury to my heal and have ‘plantar fasciitis’. I enjoy supporting events and in particular vegan runners so not such a disappointment. Hopefully I will be fit again to run cross country events in the winter and possibly park runs sooner.Start of  Park RunTim in blue completing 1st lapTim achieves PB of 23.29

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