Home
Newsdesk 2020
*************************************************** RANELAGH HARRIERS E-NEWS # 580 31st December 2020 Editor: Steve Rowland mailto: sandsrowland@btinternet.com *************************************************** HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! A reminder of the current advice from England Athletics for Tier 4: Organised outdoor and indoor sport for over-18s is not permitted. You can train with your household or one other person in a public outdoor space. You can do unlimited exercise within these rules. Organised outdoor sport for under-18s and disabled people is allowed. Indoor sport for under-18s is only permitted for education or to facilitate childcare that enables parents or carers to work, seek work or take part in education. 1:1 coaching can take place in a public outdoor space following social distancing measures Virtual training sessions can be delivered by qualified coaches MEANWHILE¦ there is still time to join in the RANELAGH FESTIVE CHALLENGE 2020. The Challenge Run parkrun courses anytime between 7th December and noon on 3rd January to earn points and the chance to win prizes! The Rules Run any and as many parkrun courses as you like. You can run the same course more than once and still earn points. 10 points will be awarded to the fastest runner overall that day, 9 to the next and so on. All runners will get at least 1 point. Bonus points will be awarded if: You run more than one parkrun course in one day You wear a festive outfit and take a photo (we will run your entry through our festive-ometer to determine how many points you earn) You get a course PB You earn any Strava segment PBs, crowns, trophies or legends. The Prizes First place - entry into the next Ranelagh 10k (hopefully 2021!) and a unique winners t-shirt Second place - 2 x Third place - 3 x Fourth place - 4 x Fifth place - 5 x How to enter... Add yourself (and your results) to the spreadsheet - As ever, please ensure the safety of yourselves and others, and follow the current guidance around COVID. NATIONAL VIRTUAL ROAD RELAY Racing shoes at the ready, EA is putting on a nationwide virtual event right now! You have to register yourself, but it's free and works just like our usual virtual races using Opentrack. It's a mixed relay format with five-mile legs. You've got between 26 December and 10 January to run and upload your time. This is one for everyone and we really want to see as many of you running as possible. Details: What you need to do First you need to register yourself on Opentrack, where you'll upload your time. Do it now! There are a few stipulations on the course you run, etc., so please make sure you take the time to read all the details in full on the EA site. Basics: - Sign up on Opentrack (hopefully most of you are familiar with this now) - Go and run five miles as fast as you can between 26 Dec and 10 Jan - Record GPS - Finish about where you started (200m leeway) - Track not allowed - Lapped courses cannot use laps less than 1km - Upload your result by 11 January EA will take the fastest four women and four men from each club to make a mixed team of eight. The top 50 clubs then go on to a second round. - it's up to you where and when you run. Heres a potential course. Note that the EA guidance says you must avoid busy parks, so use your judgement - if Bushy is too busy, then obviously the most important thing is safety, so have a backup plan. The main thing is you can't go point-to-point - you need to finish roughly where you start. EA seem to be trying to make this as close to the stipulations of a real race as possible, so I'm expecting they'll be relatively hot on sticking to the rules. Once again - do read them in full. The mixed format should favour us and if we have enough strength in depth, we could give a really good account of ourselves We need you Now, if you're thinking you won't be in the top four, think again. You don't know who else is going to run! We really need to ensure strength in depth to be in with a chance of a top 50 spot, and that means everyone running. If that's not incentive enough, there are a rumours of a club virtual challenge being incorporated into this. POETRY CORNER This appeared unattributed in the October 1922 edition of the Ranelagh Harriers Gazette: Tis honour of club that spurs us on When weary and fit to drop. Tis only a slacker that turns it in, And none who can stand will stop. Tis a glorious feeling when racing over, No matter which man has won, To feel that you've run for your club throughout, And your race was a race well run. RESULTS Not many! RUNTHROUGH CHASE THE MOON 10k Wednesday 9th December Clare Fowler took 2nd place in the W40s, running a pb of 41.38. DORNEY LAKE WINDSOR HALF MARATHON and 5k Saturday 12th December Gary Armstrong ran a strong race in the Half Marathon to finish 4th in a PB of 72.26. Jonny Smith followed up last weeks Marathon PB with a remarkable 2nd place in the 5k with 16.41. MAVERICK TERREX 15k Saturday 12th December at Brighton Ally Salisbury finished 139th in this hilly course in 1:56.23. NICEWORK RICHMOND PARK 10k Sunday 13th December Will Harding placed 9th in 39.43 while Karen Campbell was 32nd in 48.58 KEEP IN TOUCH 1. Join the Strava group: 2. Log your run and give it a catchy title. 3. Give our segments a shot! 4. Check back every week for highlights 5. Note that Activity and Profile Privacy settings will need to be set to Everyone if you want the rundown team to be able to see your individual runs Follow us elsewhere on social: Twitter: @ranelaghharrier FB: Ranelagh Harriers Insta: @ranelaghharriers FINALLY¦ From Track and Field News May 1967 via Athletics International. Whatever happened to these? "Regarding coach Bud Winter's plans to try to shave a tenth or two from sprint times, by redesigning the slant of the spikes: the Finnish shoe company Karhu has just developed such a shoe, although, of course, it will not give any advantage on hard surfaces. The combination of the forward slanting spikes and the design of the spikes themselves is claimed to take some 0,18 seconds off a sprinter's time for 100 metres. The spikes are like knives. Their front edges are razor sharp and their backsides are flat, to brace against the ground. The theory is that the pivot point is at the tip of the spike, rather than at the sole level, enabling the foot to leave the ground a few centimetres farther ahead of each step. I saw a pair of these shoes being tested, and they seem to work" TO STOP RECEIVING the Ranelagh Harriers e-news, please reply with the word UNSUBSCRIBE