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DRC Grand Prix 2018 Update – Finally!

After a busy summer, we’re long overdue (sorry!) a DRC Grand Prix series update. In this update are points from Wotton parkrun in June, 10k races at Thornbury and Westonbirt House, plus the Woodchester Park race earler this month.

Click here for the latest league tables >>

Congratulations to Alice Lewis who has successfully defended her title with another maximum points total! Alice is followed by Annette Heylings who is the 2nd of the ladies to complete all the required races this year and looks a sure bet for 2nd place.  Eileen Hieron and Julie Froggatt look like they will be contesting the 3rd place on the podium.

Tony Woolridge is getting ever closer to defending his title but still needs one more race result to ensure top spot. Andrew Probert is lurking in a solid 2nd place if Tony slips up. Matt Read and Pete Chaffer have only 1 point separating 3rd and 4th  place, but with Matt only needing one more result to qualify and Pete needing 3, Matt is in the driving seat to secure some silverware.

There are just 2 more qualifying races left in this series, both Half Marathons at Bristol (Road) and the Forest of Dean (Trail) later this month. As this year series approaches the final straight, a couple of reminders…

Marathon results must be submitted using this form for this years series. You have until the end of September to fill in a result for it to count towards the series.

Due to the inclusion of the Forest of Dean Autumn Half when the Spring Half was rearranged, the awards for this year will not be presented at the AGM, instead they will be presented at a Tuesday social night, or the Christmas Party. More details to follow…

As always, please feel free to get in touch with Mike Crompton or Tony Freer if you have any questions on the Grand Prix, either individually or using the email address grandprix@durslingrunningclub.org.uk

Finally, look out for an announcement on here soon regarding the race list for the 2019 series.

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2018 ‘Try Out Tri’ Junior Triathlon Event Success

The first ever DRC Junior Triathlon event was a huge success, wow, just wow! Over 50 athletes competed, giving their best and showing us their swimming, cycling and running skills. Well done to each and every athlete who completed the race. Full results here >>

Winners of the 8-10 years category were:

  • 1st Benjamin Howse
  • 2nd Stanley White
  • 3rd Billy Smith

Winners of the 11-13 years category were:

  • 1st Lucy Holdsworth
  • 2nd Luke Davies
  • 3rd Jacob Brounger

Winners of the 14+ years category were:

  • 1st Aneurin Earle
  • 2nd James Durden

This event could not have happened without the huge support of all those who  planned, organised and delivered the event, so a huge thank you to everyone who helped. A few specific call outs to Martin Bragg, Tara Truman and Annette Keevil (our area leads) and our sponsors; The Pulse (thanks to Ange and team for the swimming, pool, spin room and help on the day), Emsea (our amazing medals and trophies supplier) and Sainsbury’s (the snacks).

This event was so successful we may even do it again next year!

Caroline Jones

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2018 Junior Triathlon Event ‘Try Out Tri’

Those who have registered will have been sent an email, but just in case it doesn’t arrive, and for those who are curious about how the event will run, some details before the day:

  • The race will begin in the pool at the Pulse Dursley, athletes will need to be in appropriate swimwear ready for the safety brief and instructions at 3.45pm, we recommend arriving by 3.30pm. (Parents/guardians please supervise changing as required). Please ensure you let reception know you have arrived.
  • We will number each athlete by writing a number on the athlete’s arm with a marker pen (please advise us if this is a problem – it is our easiest way of identifying athletes).
  • After the swim, athletes will ‘transition’ e.g. take off goggles and swim hat and then put T-shirt, socks and trainers on, and then line up (when in the line we will stop the stopwatch). We will then walk athletes through to the spin room where athletes will then start the race again. After the cycle athletes will run to the recreational ground and complete their run distances. The finish line is on the recreational ground. Athletes will have two times that will then be added together to provide a final result.
  • There are three age groups for this competition and athletes will swim, cycle and run distances dependent upon age;
    • Age 8-10 will swim 50m, cycle 2k and run 800m
    • Age 11-13 will swim 100m, cycle 3k and run 1200m
    • Age 14+ will swim 200m, cycle 4k and run 1600m
  • Parents/guardians you will be able to watch from the reception observation area and out on the recreational ground, but sorry there will not be space pool side or in the spin room. We will still go ahead in rainy weather provided it is not a complete thunderstorm, so be prepared to stand in the rain on the recreational ground to cheer our athletes through the finish line.
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Weekly Round Up

Mini athletics continues, this week it was too windy to play our planned game, so we had some target practice throwing bean bags. Still all good fun, just one week to go.

‘Try Out Tri’ planning is coming along nicely, just a reminder this is on the 8th Sep, and is set to be a great event. We still need more marshal to help out on the day, so please let me know if you’re available to help, it’s a great way to help out and see the action up close.

Normal Saturday Juniors sessions will start up on the week after Try Out Tri, on the 15th September.

Some good news for the winter running programme for our older junior athletes; we’ve been awarded a £550 grant towards coach training and equipment, so we will be looking to see how we can make best use of that.

That’s it from me this week, have a great week.

Caroline

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DRC Juniors Weekly Round Up

Mini Athletics had a great start, despite the wind and slightly colder weather we had a good turn out and as always the game of Sinking Ships resulted in a group of cheerful children, who unbeknownst to them were practicing their sprint start and agility skills.

‘Try Out Tri’ registration has opened and planning for this continues. DRC members have been given the first chance to sign up, this goes out to the general public for registration soon, so sign up quick; we have more than 20 registered already.

We are struggling to organise our celebratory event for the summer hols as so many places are booked up so we might need to do this in September. This does have the advantage that fewer of you will be on holiday. Our Junior athletes have done so well this year though so we’re keen to get something organised.

We have a couple of positions on the Junior committee we would like to fill; membership secretary and social officer. Membership secretary would help look after the membership admin – checking people have paid and completed the membership forms, completing the EA membership when required. The social officer will work with the main club social committee and DRFC social committee this is a new role and will hopefully help us to secure our bookings. So if you have time you can give to support the Junior section and you think you could do one of these roles, or any other role, please let me know.

Have a great week.

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DRC Juniors Weekly Round Up

A bit late again sorry, lots of organising underway 

Well clearly the highlight of this week was the DRC Juniors 2018 Summer Athletics Championship. I saw some great running, hurdles, long jump, speed bounce and javelin and I saw some juniors trying out some events that were new to them. There were slightly fewer adults competing this year (will have to work on that for next year!). And to finish off the BBQ was very welcome.

So as I said at the time, these events do not happen without the support from the coaches and parents. So to everyone that helped and supported the event a HUGE thank you.

So looking forward:

  • Mini Athletics – registration now closed.
  • Advanced Athletics – cancelled (but Dave has organised one final Wednesday session (01/08) for our older junior athletes).
  • Celebratory event (Cotswold Water Park/Go Ape etc.) date to be confirmed – planning in progress.

Normal athletics programmes are expected to resume in September (Wednesdays 6.15 for yr7+, Thursdays 6.30 for all and Saturdays time tbc for all).

The DRC Juniors committee will be meeting soon, if you would like to get more involved please let me know, we could always do with more help from coaching, to looking after some of our admin (e.g. membership details), to organising events.

Keep cool in this hot weather and enjoy the start of the holidays.

Caroline

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DRC Juniors Weekly Round Up

Another fairly quiet week with some great performances at the Midsummer Open, although owing to the football perhaps, lower attendance this week than the week before. Thursday athletics included some less well practised events; discus and triple jump to mention a couple.

Mini Athletics is well subscribed and we have plans for delivery of that. We think we will need some more adult help though, so if you are available to help at any of these sessions please let me know.

Advanced Athletics looks like it may move, as a few have stated a preference for Sundays. Dave is liaising directly on this programme though so please speak to Dave if you have thoughts on this.

Meanwhile I have been busy planning ahead; 21st July for summer championship. 8th Sep Try Out Tri. Autumn (Kickstart) Athletics programme to start in Sep. Indoor Athletics hopefully in January, and more Yate sessions (on their new track) for the summer of 2019!

Just a reminder if you need dates, location or registration details for any of our events or programmes I keep our website calendar updated and links to our various forms are here too.

Have a great week!

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DRC Juniors Weekly Round Up

Wednesday saw the first of the Midsummer Open events. See post by Dave for results. Thursday was another warm evening of athletics training on the track. I was busy taking lots of photos.

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DRC July Challenge – Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better (or Boys v Girls)

NERD alert: A few years ago I analysed the results of various DRC challenges and compared the top ten men’s results against the top ten women’s results. It suggested that on average I would have to make the men run 19% further than the women in order to create a “level playing field”.

I put this to the test with the original ‘Any Way You Please’ challenge in 2016 where the women had to visit four checkpoints while the men had to visit five checkpoints which meant they had to run 19% further. This resulted in a mixed male & female podium in the individual event and a female team narrowly beating a male team if I remember correctly, so I was very happy with the result.
I have just done a similar analysis on the results of this year’s 1st club handicap; with pretty much the same outcome. The numbers suggest that a 19% distance handicap for the men is still about right. Thus the DRC July challenge was born.
So, ladies, you have to run from the golf clubhouse, down the Cotswold Way to Nibley and up to the Tyndale monument, and then back again to the golf clubhouse, a distance of 4.30 miles. Chaps, you have to start at the wooden bench at Drakestone Point, running off the end of the hill and then following the path which leads you back around the edge of the golf course through the walkers’ car park and then down to the Cotswold Way. You then follow the same route as the ladies to Nibley monument and then back again FINISHING AT THE GOLF CLUBHOUSE, a distance of 5.13 miles – a difference of c.19%. This will create two separate leader-boards which I will combine through the magic of an Excel spreadsheet.

There will be an individual podium for the top three fastest runners overall regardless of gender.

BOYS v GIRLS

I will also compare the men’s and women’s results in batches of 5. I will add up the times of the men in 1st to 5th places and compare this with the total time of the women from 1st to 5th on their respective leader-boards. I will then compare the total time of the men from 6th to 10th against the total time of the women from 6th to 10th – then 11th to 15h and 16th to 20th and so on. Every time the men beat the women they will score a point, and vica versa for each time the women are quicker. Once a side runs out of runners the other side will automatically score a point for every complete batch of 5 runners remaining, so everyone’s result will count towards the team effort and it will be important to get a good turnout. The winner of the ‘Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better’ challenge will be the gender that scores the most points. All just for fun of course and not to be taken too seriously!
Let the battle commence.

Women’s route: https://www.strava.com/routes/13669617 (4.30 miles)
Men’s route: https://www.strava.com/routes/13669689 (5.13 miles)

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DRC Juniors Weekly Round Up

So many podium paces! We have had a great week in the competitions. Check out the photos.

Of the results I can find:

  • Liam – Cheltenham U14 Championship: 1st shot put, 3rd vortex
    Holly – Cheltenham U14 Championship: 3rd speed bounce, 3rd long jump, 3rd 600m, 1st hurdles, 2nd vortex
  • Tom – Cheltenham U14 Championship: 2nd high jump, 3rd long jump
  • Jack B – Cheltenham U14 Championship: 1st high jump, 2nd 800m, 1st vortex, 1st 1500m
  • Jack – Cheltenham U14 Championship: 3rd high jump
    Harry – Cheltenham U14 Championship: 3rd long jump, 2nd vortex
  • Jake – Berkeley Castle Dash – 10k winner male under 13

So all that training has paid off on the day.

This week included the usual Wednesday and Thursday training sessions too. They were hot sessions, but we had some really good skills development on display (and some incredibly high standing hurdle jumps).

The Midsummer series starts on Wednesday this week, so for the U13 group upwards more opportunities to test out that training. For more information and to register follow this link.

Coming up:

  • Summer Championship Event 21st July at Dursley Rugby Club.
  • Mini Athletics (for 4-7 year olds) at Dursley Rugby Club; 10.00-10.30 on 28/07, 04/08, 11/08, 18/08, 25/08. Register here >>.
  • Advanced Athletics (for 14-18 year olds) at Dursley Rugby Club; 9.45-10.30 on 28/07, 04/08, 11/08, 18/08, 25/08. Register here >>.

Have a great week,

Caroline

DRC Junior Chair & Coach