3k, 5k, 8.05k, 10k & 16.1k. If you speak in Olde English, 1.86, 3.11, 5, 6.22 & 10 miles
Which ever language you use, those distances add up to a marathon (42.2k or 26.2 miles).
Those OSR’s who have run a marathon will know that it is quite a herculean task, with 4-6 months of training, culminating in the best moment being when you reach the finish line and can STOP RUNNING! An alternative way of running the distance is to break it down into 5 runs, the challenge is then to run it somewhat faster than in a single run and maybe see if you can beat your hard earned actual marathon time.
As always, there are rules;
All distances must be run in June; You can’t ‘double claim’ a run – so if you run a stonking 5 mile, it can’t count for 5 mile and 5k; Unless it is the sum of the distances, so a 5 mile run could count for 5k and 3k; Those who prefer shorter distances were allowed to split the 10 mile into 2 * 5 mile Continue reading →
OS Runners in “Lockdown”
It seems like ages since we were all able to get together for a social run, a quick Handicap, or a Mid Week training session. To try and ensure we keep up to date with each other and maybe even get some ideas to keep our running (or other activities) fun and interesting we asked different members of the club to give us an insight into their lockdown thoughts. Some faces you will recognise, and some new members which we hope to welcome more fully in the future.
If you submitted your thoughts and have not been included below, look out in future weeks!
The last time we posted an At The Finish Line… profile was at the end of 2018. So we thought we’d bring it back and start with former Desk to 5k graduate who now volunteers with Desk to 5k and has gone onto run a number of different events such as Thunder Run and the Winchester Half Marathon.
I think all of those who ran the February 2020 handicap will remember it as being pretty grim weather – which makes our thanks to Karen and Ian for timing and photographing even more heartfelt than usual.
Romsey 5 has become an annual event in the OSR calendar, it might be a bit early in the year for some of our members, but for others it presents an opportunity to have an early attempt at a PB; especially over the unusual distance of 5 miles.
Tony Mabey and Sam Martin share their experiences of the race below… Thanks to Tim Manners for the photos
Egbe looking way to relaxed and happy!
The “Runners” view from Tony Mabey
Some events just work and I think Romsey 5 is one of those. It is local, well organised and a nice route within the Broadlands estate. I crossed the starting line running with David Ball, Diane Borras and Julia Painter and quickly made a mental note to be more ambitious when queuing next year. Ian Painter was quite rightly up the front with the elite runners. No one was in the OS team colours, my own excuse is that the shirts are too short for my body shape… The route was pretty congested for the first mile but everyone was polite and the quicker runners were off in a flash. Before long the runners spread out and we had a chatty social underway. The weather was on our side, any rain on route had passed and the paths and tracks were dry. Everyone settled into a steady pace and the miles clicked away. We were lapped by the leaders and although I managed to get my left and right mixed up, the lead bike was polite enough to move me over. Lap two completed and off down the lane to the far turn. I had a bit of energy left so decided to up the tempo before crossing the line and grabbing whatever was free. Nice to see some support on the way round from the Mark and Sue Stileman and we managed to cheer in Egbe and spotted Den and Viv on route. Not a bad turn out for OS Runners. Medal in the bag…
Tony with his sprint finish
The “Plodders” view from Sam Martin
Peering out of the window on Sunday morning and first bit of the good news was that it wasn’t raining, the second was that this event in the grounds of Broadlands was one we could walk to. Walking down through the town people in running kit appeared, some running or jogging to stretch a little and some conserving their energy and just strolling to the start. By the race start time there were over a thousand runners which led to a congested start to the race, the track is quite narrow at this point. For those of us further down the field it did thin out quite quickly. The course of a number of laps on the paths and tracks of the Broadlands Estate was pretty level, the first 2 laps using the layout of the Romsey Relay Marathon course. Lap 3 headed south towards Lee before we looped around a Bentley Continental, makes a nice change from a traffic cone, and headed back towards Romsey and onto the finish. It was a good turnout from OS Runners, in addition to those that Tony has mentioned I spotted; Egbe Manners, Richard Woodling, Peter Baker, Sean OGrady, Shaun Murray-Brown (who finished in 5th) & my better half Jeannie Martin. A good event overall and another day of RED January ticked off.
Viv and Den in the Totton colours (we’ll let you off this time!)Shaun on his way (to what we think) is a new 5 mile PB – Congrats Shaun
As is now traditional, the January handicap is run on the last day of the month to give the RED (Run Every Day) participants a chance to complete their challenge by running round together. Apart from David Henderson who chose to use his RED derived fitness to speed round – this is exactly the sort of thing I would do, so big kudos to David for choosing speed over his friends
