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Almost Athletes is a members only closed group
New members - Click here
(Renewing members please wait for further instructions.)
Almost Athletes is a members only closed group
Once again, members of Almost Athletes have continued to find inspirational and imaginative ways to keep running and to keep both themselves, and others, motivated in these difficult times.
The biggest Club event during the past two weeks has been the 5km Lockdown Virtual Relay, organised and coordinated by Michelle Balchin who deserves a big round of applause from everyone involved for generating such a sense of togetherness.
An amazing 138 runners in 6 virtual teams took part in the event, each completing a solo 5km run around a pre-defined route in Cheltenham which amounted to a total of 690 km of running overall. Each team had a captain who designed the routes and kept everyone taking part informed and motivated.
During the event there were five new PBs recorded from Laura Smith (35 mins 40 secs), Natalie Greening (25:12), Sharmila Door (25:24), Penny Lewis (32:27) and Kevin Balchin (26:39). The fastest leg was recorded on the Gotherington to Bishops Cleeve route, although there was a variety of difficulty in the routes so they were not totally comparable.
Everyone who took part put in 100% effort, but the winning team overall was the 23 members of ‘Almost Ran Out of Loo Paper’ who collectively ran a total of 115km. Their times were as follows:
Matt Polson 17 mins 57 secs; Finlay Willicott 21:31; Alison Hume 25:32; Malc Allen 23:06; Thomas Wood 21:50; Mike Line 30:03; Glenda Gill 28:45; Nat Stow 27:33; Neil Tring 22:10; Chris McMahon 22:24; Matt Hickman 19:21; Martin Foster 19:34; Patricia Dendy 21:57; Stacey Osmond 22:35; Rachel O’Bryan 23:05; Kev Fairs 26:00; Kev Dendy 29:05; Jane Russell 27:43; Rachel Farger 25:32; Ross Greening 22:27; Rachel Nolan 36:39; Julie Schofield 24:35; and Emma Hall 23:59.
Apart from the relay, individual Club members managed to devise numerous other ways to encourage themselves to keep going out and running.
One of the most creative postings was from John Bailey who took part in his own inaugural Tredington to Tewkesbury super sprint duathlon, consisting of a 4 mile run followed by an 11 mile cycle ride and finishing with a further 2 mile run. Not only did he come first overall with a time of 1 hr 40 mins, but he was also the first Almost Athlete to complete the event and first in his age category! He asked for a special mention for the organiser who presented him with an awesome trophy for his efforts!
Several Almosts continued to enjoy the street name challenge during the week whilst others took part in the post box challenge that began a few weeks ago. Hamish Adamson and Cheryl Rodham joined in the event whilst Mike Line eventually found all of the boxes in and around Bishops Cleeve.
The fastest leg was Gotherington to BC although all legs did fantastic and with a variety of difficulty in the each legs it’s not particularly comparable.
The winning team however was the Amazing ALMOST RAN OUT OF LOO PAPER
Matt Polson, Finley Willicott, Alison Hume, Malc Allen, Thomas Wood, Mike Line, Glenda Gill, Nat Stow, Neil Tring, Chris McMahon, Matthew Hickman, Martin Foster, Patricia Dendy, Stacey Amber, Rachael Nolan, Rachel Fargher, Rachel O’Bryan, Kev Fairs, Kev Dendy, Jane Russell, Ross Greening, Julie Scourfield and Emma Hall
With 23 legs, the total distance per team was a whopping 115k. The total difference between 1st and 6th place was a mere 64 minutes which over 115 Kilometres is very minimal.
Overall 138 runners took part, that’s 690 Kilometres ran!
And you were all incredible!
For the coming week, Forrest Wheeler has suggested a new challenge of looking for unusual or old lampposts, and began by posting an image of himself with a Dragon and Onion streetlamp from circa 1897.
Saturday 18th April was also the 3rd anniversary of Forrest Wheeler’s first ever parkrun in Pittville Park at which he suffered a cardiac arrest. Thankfully, he has now made a full recovery and was able to run around Pittville Park again on Saturday to reflect upon all the people who have helped him back to fitness. Thanks to all their efforts he has been able to enjoy his family, welcome two new grandchildren to the world, travel extensively and meet individual and collectively inspirational people on a daily basis.
Also on Saturday, Dave Nelson completed a 10 mile run in beautiful sunshine around his home town of Motherwell, Scotland.
On Monday, Katie Coleman should have been in Brighton, running her first ever Marathon to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Society. Although the event was cancelled, she nevertheless donned her Alzheimer’s teeshirt and ran a few miles for her mother and everyone else suffering from Alzheimer’s and dementia.
Some Club members have been carrying out their running activities at home. Since receiving his new treadmill, Rob Rennell has run for at least nine consecutive days and clocked up a total of 43km, whilst almost equalling his own PB of sub 35 minutes for a 5km run. Melvyn Harris has been regularly completing 4 mile runs on his treadmill. He has created a new hash tag: #TruelyRewardingExtremelyAthleticallyDemandingMoraleImprovingLockdownLiberating!
Away from actual running events, there have been a number of other challenges that members have been involved in.
Vikki Waring has been returning to fitness by working out in her garden, whilst Dave Chittock has been challenged to nominate ten music albums that influenced him the most. Others have been challenging each other to post on Facebook older photos that boost the positive side of running.
This coming week there are going to be a number of other running challenges for members to participate in.
Mark Stojanov has been encouraging others to take part in the 3.7 mile #finishformatt event. So far he has 33 runners signed up with any donations going to the Captain Tom Moore NHS Justgiving page.
Wednesday 22nd April was planned to be a run and talk night to mark Stress Awareness Month with general chatting and running followed by eating cakes and drinking a beverage.
However, as the coronavirus has put a stop to this, the Club’s mental health champions have hijacked the week commencing Wednesday 22nd April for a MOVE and POST Week. They would like Club members to MOVE as much or as little as they wish, then afterwards to POST a picture that meets any of the following criteria:
5 Ways of Wellbeing: Connect, Give, Keep Learning, Take Notice, or Be Active.
They ask that people post something that has made them smile in their day-to-day life, or whilst they are moving.
Members are invited to share how they have been coping with the new routines and any tips for keeping motivated, whilst ensuring that all Social Distancing Guidelines are adhered to.
Keep safe and keep running everyone.
Once again, members of Almost Athletes have continued to find inspirational and imaginative ways to keep running and to keep both themselves, and others, motivated in these difficult times.
The biggest Club event during the past two weeks has been the 5km Lockdown Virtual Relay, organised and coordinated by Michelle Balchin who deserves a big round of applause from everyone involved for generating such a sense of togetherness.
An amazing 138 runners in 6 virtual teams took part in the event, each completing a solo 5km run around a pre-defined route in Cheltenham which amounted to a total of 690 km of running overall. Each team had a captain who designed the routes and kept everyone taking part informed and motivated.
During the event there were five new PBs recorded from Laura Smith (35 mins 40 secs), Natalie Greening (25:12), Sharmila Door (25:24), Penny Lewis (32:27) and Kevin Balchin (26:39). The fastest leg was recorded on the Gotherington to Bishops Cleeve route, although there was a variety of difficulty in the routes so they were not totally comparable.
Everyone who took part put in 100% effort, but the winning team overall was the 23 members of ‘Almost Ran Out of Loo Paper’ who collectively ran a total of 115km. Their times were as follows:
Matt Polson 17 mins 57 secs; Finlay Willicott 21:31; Alison Hume 25:32; Malc Allen 23:06; Thomas Wood 21:50; Mike Line 30:03; Glenda Gill 28:45; Nat Stow 27:33; Neil Tring 22:10; Chris McMahon 22:24; Matt Hickman 19:21; Martin Foster 19:34; Patricia Dendy 21:57; Stacey Osmond 22:35; Rachel O’Bryan 23:05; Kev Fairs 26:00; Kev Dendy 29:05; Jane Russell 27:43; Rachel Farger 25:32; Ross Greening 22:27; Rachel Nolan 36:39; Julie Schofield 24:35; and Emma Hall 23:59.
Apart from the relay, individual Club members managed to devise numerous other ways to encourage themselves to keep going out and running.
One of the most creative postings was from John Bailey who took part in his own inaugural Tredington to Tewkesbury super sprint duathlon, consisting of a 4 mile run followed by an 11 mile cycle ride and finishing with a further 2 mile run. Not only did he come first overall with a time of 1 hr 40 mins, but he was also the first Almost Athlete to complete the event and first in his age category! He asked for a special mention for the organiser who presented him with an awesome trophy for his efforts!
Several Almosts continued to enjoy the street name challenge during the week whilst others took part in the post box challenge that began a few weeks ago. Hamish Adamson and Cheryl Rodham joined in the event whilst Mike Line eventually found all of the boxes in and around Bishops Cleeve.
The fastest leg was Gotherington to BC although all legs did fantastic and with a variety of difficulty in the each legs it’s not particularly comparable.
The winning team however was the Amazing ALMOST RAN OUT OF LOO PAPER
Matt Polson, Finley Willicott, Alison Hume, Malc Allen, Thomas Wood, Mike Line, Glenda Gill, Nat Stow, Neil Tring, Chris McMahon, Matthew Hickman, Martin Foster, Patricia Dendy, Stacey Amber, Rachael Nolan, Rachel Fargher, Rachel O’Bryan, Kev Fairs, Kev Dendy, Jane Russell, Ross Greening, Julie Scourfield and Emma Hall
With 23 legs, the total distance per team was a whopping 115k. The total difference between 1st and 6th place was a mere 64 minutes which over 115 Kilometres is very minimal.
Overall 138 runners took part, that’s 690 Kilometres ran!
And you were all incredible!
For the coming week, Forrest Wheeler has suggested a new challenge of looking for unusual or old lampposts, and began by posting an image of himself with a Dragon and Onion streetlamp from circa 1897.
Saturday 18th April was also the 3rd anniversary of Forrest Wheeler’s first ever parkrun in Pittville Park at which he suffered a cardiac arrest. Thankfully, he has now made a full recovery and was able to run around Pittville Park again on Saturday to reflect upon all the people who have helped him back to fitness. Thanks to all their efforts he has been able to enjoy his family, welcome two new grandchildren to the world, travel extensively and meet individual and collectively inspirational people on a daily basis.
Also on Saturday, Dave Nelson completed a 10 mile run in beautiful sunshine around his home town of Motherwell, Scotland.
On Monday, Katie Coleman should have been in Brighton, running her first ever Marathon to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Society. Although the event was cancelled, she nevertheless donned her Alzheimer’s teeshirt and ran a few miles for her mother and everyone else suffering from Alzheimer’s and dementia.
Some Club members have been carrying out their running activities at home. Since receiving his new treadmill, Rob Rennell has run for at least nine consecutive days and clocked up a total of 43km, whilst almost equalling his own PB of sub 35 minutes for a 5km run. Melvyn Harris has been regularly completing 4 mile runs on his treadmill. He has created a new hash tag: #TruelyRewardingExtremelyAthleticallyDemandingMoraleImprovingLockdownLiberating!
Away from actual running events, there have been a number of other challenges that members have been involved in.
Vikki Waring has been returning to fitness by working out in her garden, whilst Dave Chittock has been challenged to nominate ten music albums that influenced him the most. Others have been challenging each other to post on Facebook older photos that boost the positive side of running.
This coming week there are going to be a number of other running challenges for members to participate in.
Mark Stojanov has been encouraging others to take part in the 3.7 mile #finishformatt event. So far he has 33 runners signed up with any donations going to the Captain Tom Moore NHS Justgiving page.
Wednesday 22nd April was planned to be a run and talk night to mark Stress Awareness Month with general chatting and running followed by eating cakes and drinking a beverage.
However, as the coronavirus has put a stop to this, the Club’s mental health champions have hijacked the week commencing Wednesday 22nd April for a MOVE and POST Week. They would like Club members to MOVE as much or as little as they wish, then afterwards to POST a picture that meets any of the following criteria:
5 Ways of Wellbeing: Connect, Give, Keep Learning, Take Notice, or Be Active.
They ask that people post something that has made them smile in their day-to-day life, or whilst they are moving.
Members are invited to share how they have been coping with the new routines and any tips for keeping motivated, whilst ensuring that all Social Distancing Guidelines are adhered to.
Keep safe and keep running everyone.
Two major challenges have kept many of you busy throughout the month of July, both of which have now been completed.
The Baton Relay certainly proved extremely popular and many thanks are due to both Jason Hulance and Prash Sripathi for providing such detailed summaries and statistics of the distances covered. 90 club members carried the baton for the whole distance from John O’Groats to Land’s End (and then some!), with a massive final total of 895 miles run.
Some of the many runners who took part in the final stages of the relay included Matt Proome, Jayne Adams, Graeme Stopp (several times!), Jayne Murphy, Michelle Balchin, Pete Mitchener, Prash Sripathi, Duncan Mansour, Lorraine Taylor, Jane Russell, Sue Monaghan, and Frances Ferguson.
The grand finale took place at Pittville Pump Rooms at 5pm on Friday 31st with Frances Ferguson carrying the baton home to a welcoming crowd of club members.
The Cotswold Way Virtual Relay was also completed on Friday 31st with members completing their respective leg of the event throughout the month. Participants competed as part of twelve teams of five and were able to run together, or in smaller groups, as long as social distancing was observed. Final results as to how the Almost teams fared against other clubs are awaited at the time of writing.
Several members also took part in the virtual Race to the Stones which took place between the 6th and 12th July. The options were to run a half, full marathon or 100km during that time, and Deb Cartlidge, Catherine Daly, Dave Chittock, Piotr Michaelski, Sharmila Door and Dave Nelson all successfully completed their chosen distance.
Jason Hulance and Zakia Hussain were delighted to complete the Tough Runner UK Trifecta at the end of the month. This consisted of 100 ‘Beast’ miles, an altitude challenge and a final 10km run on the 26th. Throughout the event they both managed more than 10,000 feet of elevation gain.
A new challenge began on Monday 3rd August which consists of four virtual 5km handicap races – one a week throughout the month of August. Each run needs to be completed during the following periods of time, and should be on a single loop:
All times should be submitted to Philip Jeyes, and the best three scores will count towards the final result.
Finally, a reminder that Ashley Stevens will be running a marathon along the Honeybourne Line on 30th August, in aid of WellChild.
The 5k Virtual Relay 2020 summary can be seen by clicking Link.
Once again, members of Almost Athletes have continued to find inspirational and imaginative ways to keep running and to keep both themselves, and others, motivated in these difficult times
Keep safe and keep running everyone.
May and June have continued at a pace for Almost Athletes’ runners and with combinations of solo and social distanced runs being undertaken, this report will be focusing on the wide variety of different places that members have been visiting, plus some excellent individual achievements. We asked for “favourite routes” as a theme and the club’s Facebook page has been awash with idyllic pictures, inspiring stories and motivational messages.
Despite the obvious lack of organised races right now, we have seen a number of club runners take on virtual challenges and Kev Fairs and Wan Hartley led the way, earning a Trimax Virtual Medal and the “Cotswold Warrior” title for their 10 mile, Cleeve Hill efforts. Ingrid Harris also did the Trimax 14, picking up the “Immortal Sinner” medal as a reward.
David Garnett completed his first ever half marathon distance at the end of May and took in a great route. He completed the distance via Charlton Kings, Colgate Farm and Cleeve Hill and braved the warm conditions for 13.1 miles. Well done David! Also taking on the hills recently was Richard Knightley – doing the “10 Mile Twister Virtual Race” – where you take a minute off your time for every 25 metres of elevation you gain. Richard managed a great net effort of 70 minutes and the intensity level was increased by the fact he ran in torrential rain.
As a club, the highlights of the last few months have included sharing ideas for places to go for a run and there has been a real sense of reconnecting with why we all love this sport so much. Claire Hawes recommended running through Hartley Farm, where the larks have been in impressive voice. Jason Hulance shared some amazing images of Cheltenham’s murals and highlighted why Pittville Park is such a fun route to run. Karen Gomm’s dogs Bradley and Geoffrey looked like they enjoyed a run up Aggs Hill and Prestbury and Adrian Courtenay evoked memories of the club’s winter routes when he walked 10 miles of the Cotswolds Way.
We have had a number of members really embrace lockdown and get out and run some super distances. In May a number of Almosts reported some fantastic totals including: Shaun Carr (amazingly running the height of Everest in the month of May – 29,029ft and 137 miles), Melvyn Harris (60 miles in May being his best total for over 5 years), Ashley Stevens (ran 125 miles and walked 100 miles!) and Sarah Carr (ran 100 miles using #raceatyourpace as motivation).
The last few weeks have, of course, seen more events cancelled, but Almost Athletes haven’t let that bother them! Well done to Kerry Knowles who was supposed to be running the Race for Life 10k on 7th June, but with the event called off, went out and completed her first sub 1 hour time over that same distance. Mark Stojanov was in a similar mood and with the Cirencester Summer Sizzler off, he marked the occasion with his longest walk of the year, to the Severn Ham in Tewkesbury.
There really have been good news stories galore of late and Rob Rennell ran his longest ever run on a treadmill in early June – an astonishing 9.5 miles! It is also good to hear that when club runs can resume in the future, Pete Mitchener will still be leading the way, he has completed some solo runs of club routes and his pacing is as on point as ever.
These reports continue to provide a small showcase into the wide range of activities that our members undertake. It is really heartening to see how everyone has carried on, undeterred by a difficult few months, and it is evident that getting out running has really helped. With 3k challenges nearly concluding, there will be plenty more to write about next time, and the stories continue to tell themselves. Do keep them coming in!