Christmas Do

The main club Christmas 'do' will be at Moreton Village Hall on Saturday 8th December. Please come along and have a good time. There will be a real ale bar, (i don't know why this gets a special mention), excellent food (supplied by Steve Tudor's sister and helpers), live music from a recently formed super vet group and disco, and a coach picking up from Newport and dropping off to Hinstock, Newport, Norbury, and Sheriffhales. More details to follow. Get this in you diaries now. Open to all members and partners. Cost £10 per person plus coach fare (likely to be about £5).If you would like to help out with the organising and selling tickets, please let Bernie Holbrook know at mbholbrook@btinternet.com 01952 691307
Please note band and disco are different to last year.
Thanks
Helen

Isle of Man Mountain Marathon

A number of people have expresed an interest in going to the Isle of Man at Easter to take part in the Manx Mountain Marathon (31 miles ish 8,000ft of ascent) or the Half (talk to Heather about it, she did it last time we went) or the Running Festival which is a 10k Good Friday in Port Erin where we stay, a short hill race on Saturday and a 5k run along the front at Douglas on Sunday (Sandra Pattinson did this so have a chat to her for more info.) We would travel there on Good Friday and return on Easter Monday. Mountain marathon and half are on the Saturday.

We have started to look at ferries and hotel etc. Price for the ferry at the moment for a standard car plus 4 people is £214 (this is one of the dearest ferry crossings in the world). The hotel are getting back to me regarding a price for rooms, they are offering a discount because of the numbers. We have stayed at the Royal Hotel in Port Erin on previous visits. This is good because the 10k is at Port Erin on Good Friday so we can all support those running in that event and because the Half and the full mountain marathon on Easter Saturday both finish on the grass outside the hotel. Also the presentation/pasta party is in the hotel next door on the Saturday evening.

Please let Helen know if you are interested in taking part in any of these events or going just to support, so that I can get an idea how many rooms we may need. Partners and families welcome, there's a beautiful beach at Port Erin and the Isle of Man scenery is spectacular - well pretty good!

South Shropshire Sprint Traithlon

Last Sunday Mark Deighton and Ian Atkinson of Newport and District Running Club travelled to Ludlow for the South Shropshire Sprint Triathlon. After a 400m swim in the pool, the athletes mounted their bikes for a 26K ride which took them out through Diddlebury before returning over the race course and running 6.25K out and back along the by-pass before finishing back at the leisure centre.
In a large entry of almost 270 athletes Mark set off in an early wave of swimmers to complete the swim and first transition in 12m 03s. He worked quite hard on the bike to return to transition in 55m 51s and set off on the run. Nursing a calf injury he still managed to keep up a steady pace on the run to cross the line in 29m 04s and 1hr 36m 58s overall. Enough to be 142nd in the event.
Ian Atkinson showed good technique in the swim and polished off the first discipline in 8m 27s. This seemed to set him up for a good ride on the bike and he showed improved performance over his previous event by pedalling round in 54m 37s. His run time of 27m 19s gave him an overall figure of 1hr 30m 23s and 78th place of which he can be justifiably proud.

Another athlete from the club who should have been proud of his achievements was Gary Postins, who took part in the Walsall 10K. On this fine Autumn morning, over 400 runners left Walsall Arboretum towards Aldridge and then back via farm tracks and Aldridge airport and the road to finish back in the Arboretum.
Gary was pleased to achieve a personal best time of 39m 52s and 31st place in the race. Surprisingly for a runner of Gary's abilty, this was the first time that the 40 minute barrier had been broken, but now that obstacle has been overcome, Gary will no doubt lower that time even further.