Coming soon: Crewe Déjà Vu Two Track Marathon!

Back by popular demand! Crewe's premier track marathon returns in 2012.

Race Report: Hanley Park Run 21/01/2012 *updated*

Today I marshalled the Hanley Park run even though I was suffering from a sore throat and cough. Yvonne joined Michael and I and when we got there it was good to see a few more runners than normal.  Lesley and Mel Cole from South Cheshire Harriers were also marshalling.  Tommy gave us our jobs and Lesley and I went off to the top of the park to direct runners. Michael got the lovely job of registering the times, glad I wasn’t asked as I’d need my glasses to see the small digital clock.  It was a windy day and I was glad I put

Race Report: Bushy Parkrun 18/02/2012

“Bushy Park” parkrun – 18/02/2012 

Parkrun started in 2004 with just 13 runners here at Bushy Park in south west London. Today’s race was the 398th race, a very slick and well organised event. 

Bushy Park is a fabulous 1099 acres of parkland with red and fallow deer, woodland

Race Report: Mad Dog 10k 12/02/2012

So once again it was time for the fabled mad dogs to be let loose on the sandy plain of Southport by the Knights of the Round Table. I attended the inaugural run last year and enjoyed it so much I was dead set on running it again this year. Perry Wyatt also signed up so we travelled over together in his car.

Perry wasn’t feeling 100% and couldn’t get warm, so we got a cup of tea, got our t-shirts and had a brief look around before getting ready for the run itself.

Race Report: Alsager 5 05/02/2012 #2

‘We’ve all run the Alsager 5 enough times and we all know it’s the same every year. Even Mik won’t want a race report for this one.’

Or so I thought when I entered this year. Then the evening before the race it started snowing...

Martin demonstrating the one-handed jazz hand

On the morning of the race, Sandbach was covered in at least 2 inches of snow and a blanket of freezing

Race Report: Alsager 5 05/02/2012

I woke at 8.00am to a blanket of snow and prayed to god that the Alsager 5 was cancelled. I then got a text from Evonne to say she wasn’t running. I called Ken Rushton and he told me that the race was going ahead despite the ground having some slushy white stuff. Next I texted Tom to let him know I’d pick him up. Tom called back sounding really rough with a bad cold so he had to pull out. I left home at 10am and the roads were not too bad, the main roads were clear it was the side streets that were a bit slippery.  Martin and myself ran for the Striders. Andrea was also running with one of her friends. 

On the start line I looked around and saw some really lean running machines and thought

Torchlight Run - The Cloud 30/01/2012

We’re Running Up That Hill !!!!!

Well, it was Monday night it was 6-30 and it was time for mad runners united…Like all in the club I got my email inviting me to the Monday night Torchlight run. These series of runs have proved real popular with some of the club stalwarts and it’s not hard to see why.

I myself have done about 4 or 5 now and I have to say they add a whole new dimension to running. If you’ve lost your mojo or are finding it tricky to stay motivated now the New Year’s resolution is long behind us, reply to the email and get on the run. The runs are not fast, they are well organised and really good fun. 

So back to this one. It was 6-15 when I turned up at the club which was the nominated meeting

Race Report: Central Lancs Half Marathon 04/01/2012

3^rd Central Lancashire Half Marathon

The race blurb offered a fast, flat course across central Lancashire just North of Preston with good PB potential. For me the idea of a fast, flat course right at the start of the year and something to set myself a bit of a benchmark against and gauge my fitness was the real draw – and of course a new PB always goes down well!

Race Alert! Cross Bay Challenge 12/08/2012

An important heads up about this years Cross Bay Challenge.

Clare, Danny and Catherine enjoying a cheeky paddle.

As you may know we have now chosen the Cross Bay Challenge as our summer social event - which means a  weekend (or a day trip if you're a lightweight) of beer, tents and running through sand and sea water.

Race Report: International Marathon of Marrakech 29/01/2012

40 hours in Marrakech might well be an environmentalist's nightmare, but the chance to run my first (and possibly only) African marathon was too good a chance to miss. A summer flight to Marrakech is easy to arrange, the previous summer I'd flown there from Manchester for a ridiculously low sum. A winter flight proved to be a bit trickier and the only option available to me was to fly from Gatwick, which meant a 3 hour drive either side of the 3.5 hour flight just for good measure. Still, it could be done in a weekend and on the cheap, which meant it was all systems go! We drove down to Gatwick on the Friday night as the flight was an EasyJet special, leaving at the crack of dawn. An uneventful flight saw us hit the terminal at Marrakech Menara Airport mid-morning. As we queued to get through the chaos that was the immigration queue we stared up at the bright blue sky and fantastic sun, a welcome change from the cold and damp of Cheshire.