Bramley Newspaper Articles

Robin Hood Half

With the Autumn marathon and half marathon season now underway it was inevitable that several members of Southwell Running Club would take part in Nottingham’s infamous Robin Hood Half one of the longest established and most popular city centre road events in the country.

The race which begins at Victoria Embankment includes a new loop inside the Nottingham University Jubilee Campus, and takes in some of the city’s favourite landmarks including Nottingham Castle, The Park Estate, Trent Bridge and Wollaton Deer Park. Club members achieved the following times in the event: Steven Rice 1:26:45 Adam Smith 1:31:30 Lourens Du Toit 1:46:09 Sune du Toit 1:46:10 Jane Matthews 1:48:49 Katie Botham 1:51:25 James Haslam 1:52:20 Bill Lee 1:55:13 Anne Stefaniak 2:05:19 Jules Eames 2:18:15.

Bill Lee came second in his V70 age category and Katie and Adam both achieved personal best times at the event. In other news congratulations go to Pam Dutton who took part in the Darley Moor Duathlon in Derbyshire winning her age group category of VF65 and achieving a European Age Group qualifying time.

Southwell Running Club continues to go from strength to strength following the difficulties of the last few years and as always we welcome new members at our weekly meetings on Tuesdays Thursdays and Saturday morning. For more details or with any queries please contact us via the website.

Ruby Runner

www.southwellrunningclub.org

Southwell Running Club Summer Successes

Over the summer a number of members have successfully competed in a variety of events.

Following the fifth and final Notts. AAA Summer League race at Teversal, SRC's Veteran Men's Team were 7th out of 17 and the SRC Women's Team were 7th out of 10.

Steven Rice, Guy Parker, Ben Parker, Lourens Du Toit, Sune Du Toit, Bill Lee and Simon Willington all participated in the very warm Newark Half Marathon with Ben coming 1st in the MV60 age category and Bill coming 2nd in the MV70.

On the same weekend, Penny Durance, Jane Matthews and Loraine Fozzard all took part in the scenic but challenging Belper Rover Fell Race where Penny and Loraine placed 1st and 2nd respectively in FV65 and Jane finished 4th in FV60. Katherine Hall recently competed in the Nottingham Castle Rock 10k coming 3rd in her FV35 age category. Earlier in July, Carol Hayward finished as second FV60 in the 100k Race to the Stones ultra-marathon along the Ridgeway.

This September the club will once again be hosting The Bramley Challenge event where several local running clubs will compete to win the Bramley Apple Trophy. The event takes place in Caythorpe but has not been run for the last few years due to the Covid pandemic. A number of club members are currently training for autumn marathons and we wish them all success in their endeavours. Prospective members are more than welcome to join us for any of our training sessions and general runs on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings.

Ruby Runner

www.southwellrunningclub.org

Summer running in our stunning countryside

Southwell Running Club have been taking advantage of the long, warm, summer evenings to get out into our glorious countryside for their training runs. The sessions, which have included short speed intervals, hill training and longer medium/strength training intervals, help runners to build both speed and endurance. We welcome all runners to join us to try these sessions, which are usually held on a Tuesday evening. Our new development group which helps new or returning runners increase their distance from 5k up to 10k has seen a number of runners become permanent participants in the training sessions.

In other news a number of members took part in the 3rd Nottinghamshire Summer league race at Wollaton Park where the undulating route followed trails throughout the park, alongside the deer pastures, around the lake and past the stunning Wollaton Hall. The Men’s Master Team came 7th out of 26 teams and the Senior Women’s Team were 11th out of 17 teams. Other recent club successes include Pam Dutton coming 3rd in her age category in the Dambuster Olympic distance triathlon at Rutland Water in just under 3 hrs and Kat Hall completing the Nice Half IronMan 70.3, in 6hrs 49 mins. Steven Rice, Ben Parker and Andrew Thorne took part in the summer Solstice 10k with Steven finishing in 42:38, Ben Parker in 46:00 and Andrew Thorne 48:18. Finally Stewart Lenton completed three of the races in the Gordon Whelbourn Running Week including achieving a new 5K PB with a time of 25:57, a great milestone for Stewart who is a relatively new member of the club.

Ruby Runner www.southwell runningclub.org

The Notts Summer League continued this month, with the second enstallment hosted by Holme Pierrepont Running Club at the National Water Sports Centre. With strong performances as ever from Steven Rice, Adam Carney and returning member Ant Rosevear, SRC continue to hit above their weight in the league, with the vetererans team currently sitting 8th of 25 teams. 

 Congratulations to Bill Lee and Carol Hayward for finishing first in their age categories at the Caythorpe Dash Half Marathon and Run Rabbit Trail Festival respectively. They both claim absence of competition, but we’re hearing none of it – and I’m sure that the runners trailing in their wake would also disagree. 

 The development group for runners looking to move on from Couch-to-5K or return to training is proving a great success, welcoming new runners every Tuesday with some runners already taking the step up to the main training session. 

 Lifetime SRC member and multi-Olympic champion Richard Whitehead is organising a fundraising event called ‘Run with Rich’ on 25 June at Holme Pierrepont with the tag line: ‘Run 1km or 5km your way’. You can find out more at www.whitehead.foundation, hope to see you there! 

 The Scarlet Pimperrunner 

www.southwellrunningclub.org

Southwell Running Club hosts the return of the Summer League at Hexgreave Hall 

With much planning and excitement Southwell Running Club were delighted to host the first of the Nottinghamshire  Amateur Athletics  Association Summer League races for over two years. The evening was clear and bright with spring sunshine creating golden shadows as the event began in the beautiful grounds of Hexgreave Hall. The race route took the 500 runners out along traffic free roads, to the Southwell trail and back through the fields and paths of Hexgreave . Members from over 20 different clubs participated in the event including Mansfield Harriers, Holme Pierrepont RC, Redhill Road Runners, Beeston Athletics Club, Witham Runners, Sutton in Ashfield Harriers and of course Southwell Running Club. The first three runners home from Mansfield Harriers made their way around the 5 mile course in just over 26 minutes, hot on the tail of SRC’s Pam Dutton who took on the role of lead bike for the event. With reduced club members able to participate due to the organisation and running of the event Southwell RC Veterans A  team achieved a commendable7^th place and the B team 17^th place. Club members are looking forward to participating in the next four Summer League events which take place in the coming months. Southwell Running Club continues to run its popular improvers group on a Tuesday evening. If you are returning to running after an injury or wish to slowly increase your distance please come along and join us. Details at www.southwell runningclub.org.

Mud, mud glorious mud on the Belvoir Challenge

Back in December, signing up for the renowned Belvoir Challenge seemed like a good idea. However, following the recent weeks of wind, rain and inclement weather, the Southwell Running Club members who had registered for the event began to wonder what might be in store for them.

The Challenge, which is organised by Harby Primary School, has '26' and '15' mile routes - both of which start and finish at Harby Village Hall and follow footpaths, byways, tracks and minor roads through the beautiful Vale of Belvoir and the Belvoir Castle Estate.

The event is definitely not for the faint-hearted and not a PB route; it is exactly what it says - a challenge! Luckily, the day dawned bright and sunny with hardly a cloud in the sky. Alongside the very generous helpings of mud and hills, there were glorious views along the way which made up for the strong headwinds which seemed to somehow accompany the 750 entrants along the majority of both circular routes.

Besides the mud and hills, this event is famous for its refreshments and this year was no exception. The checkpoints, manned by parents and school children, offered an array of savoury and sweet snacks to help the runners on their way.

SRC members Penny Durance, Brendan Parkinson, Julie Stafford, Tracy Polak, Barbara Garrett, Kat Hall and Carol Hayward all completed the '26' mile route, which in reality was very close to 27 miles, whilst congratulations go to Katy Simpson for finishing first female on the 15 mile route which was also completed by Bill Lee and Pam Dutton.

In other equally muddy conditions, Ben Parker, Adam Carney, Steve Hargrave, Adam Smith, Paul Grogan, Ian Haigh, Kayne Rukas, James Stubbs, Bill Lee, Di Hopper and Pam Dutton participated in the East Midlands Cross Country League helping the club to gain a commendable sixth place out of twelve clubs.

Our Tuesday Evening Development group continues to thrve - please come along and join in if you are interested in progressing your running.

Ruby Runner