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Newsdesk 2021
*************************************************** RANELAGH HARRIERS E-NEWS # 583 11th March 2021 Editor: Steve Rowland mailto: sandsrowland@btinternet.com *************************************************** RESUMPTION OF ORGANISED TRAINING The current England Athletics guidance for the return of athletics and running states that as from Monday 29 March 2021, organised training within a Covid secure environment may resume. This means that, unless the guidance changes yet again, Ranelagh will restart organised group training on Tuesday 30 March 2021. Participation in group training sessions will be on a pre-booked basis only and all the restrictions that applied to our training sessions regarding social distancing during the summer of 2020 will again apply. Group leaders will doubtless be posting details via the established social media channels and all members wanting to take part in organised sessions are encouraged to look out for these details and to contact the group leaders directly if necessary. We are also planning to resume track training at Osterley Park on Thursday, 1 April. Further information will be made available once the details are sorted out. You are also reminded that unorganised training (uncoached in a non-Covid secure environment) may also resume from 29 March 2021, which means members can run in small groups of up to 6 runners at any time. NATIONAL VIRTUAL ROAD RELAY This national virtual relay was a great success with some 128 clubs taking part in the qualifying round held in early January. The top 50 clubs qualified for the national round in February. Teams of eight – four women and four men – ran five miles / 8km routes and the result was calculated using cumulative times. Windsor, Slough, Eton and Hounslow AC won the qualifying round with a net time of 3:41.47. In the national round they were over two minutes slower with 3:34.25 and allowed Wirral AC (3:32.39), City of Norwich AC (3:33.00) and Aldershot Farnham & District AC (3 :33.39) to slip past them into the top three places. Ranelagh showed commendable consistency with 3:59.09 in the qualifying round and 3:59.47 in the national. Nick Impey led our team on both occasions, improving from 26.34 to 25.47. After Nick there was a complete change of personnel for the three remaining men. Gary Armstrong, Nick Twomey and Pat Wright it was who followed Nick. In the women’s section Suzy Whatmough was again fastest for Ranelagh with 31.12 as against her qualifying round performance of 31.11. Sarah Palmer, Emma Harris and Rebecca Bissell completed the scoring four, all having also run in the qualifiers, though in Rebecca’s case outside the scoring four. We placed 33rd as a team, five places lower than in the qualifiers. The event was certainly a success but let's hope it wo'tt be necessary to hold another one! 1 P Norman (WG&EL) 23.02 75 Nick Impey 25.47 133 Gary Armstrong 26.42 143 Nick Twomey 26.53 148 M Irwin (G&G) 26.56 (1st woman) 172 Pat Wright 27.15 179 Ed Perry 27.23 186 Jonny Smith 27.26 195 James Riley 27.31 218 James Whistler 27.46 262 David Ready 28.19 296 Mark Herbert 28.36 400 David Lawley 29.50 500 Suzy Whatmough 31.12 573 Sarah Palmer 32.02 647 Neil Rae 32.53 699 Emma Harris 33.30 862 Rebecca Bissell 36.26 1022 finished parkrun If all goes according to plan the junior parkruns will recommence on 11th April for under 11s only. The main parkruns open to all will start up again on Saturday 5th June. INTERMEDIATE 2 TRAINING GROUP John Herriott writes: Intermediate 2 are looking for help on a Tuesday evening when training restarts at the end of the month. At the moment one of our coaches, Anna, is unable to assist as she has a long term back injury. Martin and I are looking for volunteers to help do the warm ups 2 or 3 times a month. You don't have to be UK Athletics qualified to do warm ups. All you need is some experience in doing stretching exercises and an enthusiastic personality! If you do have a UK Athletics Licence as a Leader or Coach and would like to help take a session every 2 to 3 weeks then please also get in touch via ranelagh.hon.secretary@gmail.com. Thank you. FIXTURES SECRETARY Were still looking for someone to take over the role of Fixtures Secretary. It's not an arduous job, most of the work being carried out in the Spring. The essential duty is the creation and maintenance of the club fixture list each year: the key races for the club including mob matches, club handicaps, Surrey League XC, and other local races of interest to members. It does NOT involve organising any of the races yourself! Could members interested in taking on this role or wanting further information please contact Gordon Whitson, Hon Secretary, in the first instance via email at ranelagh.hon.secretary@gmail.com Note that we are also without a social secretary or secretaries. We normally organise half a dozen or so social events per year and these could be handled by one person or by a small team. Please get in touch if interested. EDDIE COCHRAN Do you remember / have you heard of Eddie Cochran? He was one of the early rock and rollers but tragically died in a traffic accident in April 1960 at the age of 21. He was being driven to Heathrow to fly home to the States after a successful tour of the UK when the accident occurred. Eddie wrote most of his own songs including this: CUT ACROSS SHORTY A country boy called Shorty and a city boy named Dan Had to prove who could run the fastest to win Miss Lucy's hand. Now Dan had all the money and he also had the looks But Shorty must have had something, boy, that can't be found in books. "Cut across Shorty, cut across," that's what Miss Lucy said, "across Shorty, cut across, it's you I want to wed." Now, Dan had been in training a week before the race. He made up his mind that Shorty would end in second place, And Dan with his long legs a-flying left Shorty far behind And Shorty heard him holler out “Miss Lucy will soon be mine!†"Cut across Shorty, cut across," that's what Miss Lucy said, "Cut across Shorty, cut across, it's you I want to wed." But Shorty wasn't worried, there was a smile upon his face. He knew that he was going to win because Lucy had fixed the race, And just like that old story about the turtle and the hare, When Dan crossed over the finish line he found Shorty waiting there. "Cut across Shorty, cut across," that;s what Miss Lucy said, "Cut across Shorty, cut across, it's you I want to wed." Poor Dan! 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 When Kiwi miler Nick Willis clocked 3:58.63 for the mile at the Orange Winter Classic track meeting in Florida on January 16th he set a new world record. It was the 19th consecutive calendar year that the double Olympic medallist had run a mile in under 4 minutes. TO STOP RECEIVING the Ranelagh Harriers e-news, please reply with the word UNSUBSCRIBE