Weekend Round Up 9th 10th April

What an amazing weekend of Tuff activities. There is so much to report that the Round Up has been split with the action at the Brighton Marathon Weekend shown separately. All this and we still had good attendance at the Saturday morning run, Afternoon Swim and people out cycling – what a club

PORTSMOUTH DUATHLON 3

It was good to see James Mapley back in action after injury had curtailed his training and racing. James certainly announced he is back as whilst he modestly says in his report below he did the 5-5 option to ‘get back into it’, the field finished quite close together. Well that’s apart from James who stormed home ahead of second position by a whooping 17 minutes 48 seconds – very impressive.

“They offered two distances; a 10km run, 28km bike and 5k run, or 5km run, 28km bike and 5km run. I thought I’d ought to do the 5-5 option to get back into it. It was significantly less popular than the 10k option but I was pleased to finish it first for Tuff Fitty. Looking forward to some more coming up.”

James

SOUTH DOWNS WAY 50

The SDW50 is a 50 mile race along the South Downs Way. Beginning in Worthing and Finishing at Eastbourne, yet upon completion at Eastbourne competitors have to finish by putting in a lap of the running track! Banner photo is from along the South Downs way. Two Terrific Tuffs ran Jay Mccardle & Ian Moore across the 1,770m+ ascent route. Jay finished in 9 hours 5 minutes with Ian an hour later. Good Tuff support along the way from Wendy Kane & Sue Pinky Jay reports:-

” The route also covers the last half of the SDW 100 which I’m building towards in June. This was my 7th time doing the SDW50 ( I’ve run it four times, and been course sweeper for it 3 times ) Beautiful day to run along the SDW and just missed my PB on course by 10 mins so will take that as I’m getting older !!!”

Jay

TUFF FITTY CHARITY KIT SALE

A big thank you to everyone who supported our Bring and Buy charity kit sale. The evening was a great success and credit goes to three of our amazing Tuffs for the following. Nicole Patterson-Lett advised:- :-

“Thanks so much to all the Tuff’s who supported the Kit Sale. especially, Helen Bull & her employer Serco Leisure, Nina Tully, Shelley Babbage, Stew Smith and Tom Goddard in particular”.

“We’ve since put the remaining items on E-Bay and look forward to a grand total soon, which will be split between Tania Pascoe’s cancer charities of choice.  Some great bargains had, and a lot of wonderful (and often amusing) Joe memories shared.” 

Nic

Running alongside was a chance to try, buy, and place orders for club kit & our brilliant Kit supremo, Shelley Babbage stated:-

“Thank you to everyone that came and supported the sale. I had a lot of members asking for kit which makes me very happy. We sold some in stock items on the night and do have another kit order open. So if anyone would like to order please do let me know. If you have any questions please do ask! Thank you”

Shelley 

Our thanks also go to Nina Tully who sourced an expensive pair of Headshokz headphones to raffle :-

“I have sent the raffle money to St Barnabas and the grand total is £125.00 

Thank you all for your kind donations through the Shokz headphone raffle, like many of us, St Barnabas and the work they do for patients and families is incredibly close to home.  Thank you for your support,

Nina

GRAND NATIONAL 10K

A trail run organised as a charity event for Findon School organised by Raw Energy. We have a great report from our own thoroughbred Catharine Western. However the light hearted tone shouldn’t mask the fact it was a course Aintree would have been proud of as it followed the lane up to Cissbury Ring and onwards towards Steyning Bostal. Catharine (who modestly omitted to say she was third filly overall) reports:-

“A quartet of Tuffs trotted to the start line of the Findon Grand National 10k. These thoroughbreds were Andy Crawford & Max (Centaured to the Middle Max), Graham Liddell (Gee Gee), Janet Shepherd (Mercades) and Catharine Western (Western Super Mare). There were no false starts, although Mick from Raw Energy almost disqualified Andy due to the indecent nature of his short shorts. Bets were placed, the starters gun went, and they were off! As is usual on Grand National weekend, some inevitable drama occurred straight away when two actual racehorses attempted to join the pack, taking out a gate and almost a marshal in the process…”

“The course conditions were ideal and there was no horsing around for Centaured to the Middle Max as they jockeyed into a good position with the front runners. They held off the pack and thundered down the home stretch to take 4th overall and pole position in the canicross. Gee Gee held steady and saw off the competition to secure a top 10 placing. Western Super Mare jostled for position in the final furlong, neck and neck with a rival steed, but a late sprint to the line saw her take the place by a length. Mercades secured the Tuff field with a solid win in her class”

Catharine

THE NEW FOREST CLASSIC SPORTIVE

Held on the Saturday, The New Forest Classic commenced from Gang Warily, the other side of Southampton Water in the New Forest. Nikki Gatland, Ross Court & Alice Gatland were our intrepid trio who elected to ride the middle distance 95km route including 749m of ascent. Great riding from them as Ross takes up the tale.

“Nikki and Alice Gatland and myself headed out on an untrained sportive and we’re going to take it easy until a 2nd group thought they would hang on to our tails They then stuck with us for the next 50 miles pushing the forward drive up a gear.

“Good strong ride from everyone but Nikki beat us to the finish. Stunning route with bright sun and great company “

Ross

THE BEDGEBURY 5K

So where is Bedgebury is probably the first question – Goudhurst in Kent at the Bedgebury National Pinetum and Forest. There was a choice of 10km or 5km at this ‘rolling hills’ trail run and pleasing to report Sue Pinky was flying the Tuff flag in the canicross section, and Sue reports:_

Saturday I took part in the Bedgebury 5k canicross with Kylo and Ren. Kylo tends to go off like a steamtrain and training to stop this is ongoing, the more he pulls, the slower I go, really pulls on my calves for some reason.  The boys are still learning the “with me” command for downhills and as it had been raining it was slippery, this meant more walking with them than I’d have liked.  We finished in a respectable time of 35:08 and we weren’t last! Beautiful course, astounding event put on by nice works, looking forward to racing there again next canicross season.

Sue

PARKRUN ROUND UP

With several races on the number at park runs was down, but definitely a quality list of participants :- ‘

Littlehampton parkrun saw Emily Moore continue her rapid form attaining yet another ‘first female home‘ mention crossing the line in 19:41. The good new continued with a great result from Steve Fryer gaining a new PB over the Littlehampton course crossing 9th overall in 19:53. Keeping the good results going Richard Budd was next for his 169th in 23:50. Kev Pearson was the next Tuff home and then Alistair Evans. Nick Hartfied was on the organising team

Worthing parkrun saw Ed Lay as first club member across the line despite being on pacing duties. Elaine Rousseau notched up her 122nd parkrun