Epsom Oddballs Newsletter
December 2003
Chairman’s Letter
We would all like to wish Robin and Sara Peters and their daughter Isabel all the best with their move from Epsom to Reading in the New Year. When Robin started running with us he represented a group of younger runners that brought some new blood into the club. This trend has continued and we now have sufficient non-veterans that we can at last field a genuine competitive senior team at race events. As well as being a regular for the Oddballs in the relay races Robin has been one of the stalwarts of the Tuesday evening training run on the Downs, always ready to push the pace on the more hilly sessions. We trust that you’ll keep in touch Robin and make it to some of the local races, or even up to the Downs one Tuesday.
Incidentally the number of members in the club is fast approaching one hundred, taking into account family and junior members, so we must be doing most things right. However we have noticed a decline in the attendance at Thursday night’s training run. If you have any views on this please let a committee member know, and we may try a different venue or format. Conversely Tuesday’s coaching session sees a very strong turnout, whatever the weather, and whatever Dave Huck’s plans are for pushing us to the limit that night. We must like the punishment – no pain – no gain!
Planning for the 2004 Perch Race on 18th January is now well under way and more details will be inside this newsletter. I would ask all club members to make it their number one priority to help with the organisation of the event, either by marshalling or helping out with the numerous other tasks on the day. Please contact Graeme Brown or the other members of the Race Committee, Chris Williams and Mike Pollard, to indicate your availability on 18th January 2004. If we can get a firm idea of those available to help and allocate jobs well in advance of the race it will leave that much less to do on the day.
We have to apologise for the clash between this year’s cross country and the Hog’s Back Road Race. The organisers of the latter event were very late in confirming details and we got to the point where we needed to fix the cross-country date. According to the usual laws of the universe just two days after we had done this the Hog’s Back date was confirmed. The cross country will now also qualify for the Bob Neville award.
Finally I would like to wish you and your families a Happy Christmas and New Year. Don’t forget that we have several events over the holiday period. After the last Surrey Classic 10K Race on 21st December we will gather at the Amato in Chalk Lane for a Lunchtime Drink. On Christmas Eve I will be organising a training run from the Rubbing House starting at 11:00 a.m. and on New Year’s Eve Neil is arranging a Predict-a-Time Trial from the Cock Horse Pub in Headley.
Season’s Greetings
Gareth Pemberton
Rain jackets –David Jackson
The cold/damp days and evenings are here; time to think of winter clothing!
We now have available for you to purchase, a lightweight rain jacket, navy blue with the club name in yellow.
The sizes we have are medium and large. The price is a very competitive £15.00 each.
I shall have stock available with me at the Club cross country on 14th December but if you can’t wait until then either see me at training or give me a call on 0208 399 8838.
Letter from Devon - Nick Thorpe
After reading Rob’s first effort as editor, and a very good effort at that, DAMN, I thought I ought to respond to his appeal for more contributions to the next newsletter. With this in mind I decided that an irregular update on life in Devon, in the style of Alistair Cooke, was just what you good folks would enjoy reading.
Now this is probably not true and you are just wondering whether to read any more of this crap and just go forward to the ‘Results’ section. Well let me tell you this has never bothered me in the past and I’m not going to let it spoil my enjoyment now.
As many of you will be aware, we moved down to near Honiton at the end of August. Sandra had already been in touch with Honiton Running Club and our attendance at the club run on the Wednesday evening was arranged. A very friendly bunch greeted us at the leisure centre and we set off on our run. Now at this stage I must warn you that I am about to impart some shocking news and I would suggest you read this sitting down. Yes, HRC not only comprises male members, but WOMEN as well. If this wasn’t bad enough, the fastest runner in the club is also a woman. Mindful of this situation I decided to hold myself back in this first run, after all I didn’t want to upset the status quo just yet.
With a few more runs under our belts, Sandra and I felt comfortable enough with the local terrain to enter the club’s annual 12k race. We were promised a flat, fast course, well for this area it was relatively flat. Sandra and I decided to run the race together and enjoy the countryside, well that’s the best excuse I can think of for the time you can see on the ‘Results’ page. We came in together, hand in hand, to be greeted by the lady Mayor and presented with our medals. Although this has been our only race to date as we always seem to be busy at weekends, we have taken the opportunity of entering the Grizzly in March.
I must confess that the running has been suffering a bit since we moved down, what with an early meet time, 6.30pm, for runs and busy weekends, our running schedule has suffered. But we are determined to put this right, after all, we have both entered The Perch and don’t want to let the side down.
Although we are still in rented accommodation, we have now moved to a nice little cottage near to the village of Upottery. So if any of you feel the urge for a weekend in the country we would be delighted to see you. I’m sure we can find a local race on or perhaps a bracing walk. One thing for certain is that we can guarantee a good local pub with great beer.
Hope to see you soon.
Our New Address is: Otter Cottage, Upottery, Honiton, Devon. EX14 9PF
Phone: 01404 861139
Oddballs Perch V– Graeme Brown
This is a polite plea to all club members, your partners, wives and children to support us on Sunday 18th January 2004 at our annual race being held on Epsom Downs.
From 8.00am to noon we require people for marking out the course, marshalling, handing out drinks and t-shirts and various jobs around the H.Q.
Please ring or let me know if you are available (01372 372655) or speak to one of the committee members.
Let’s make our race a complete success
Oddball of the Month– Rob Donkin
On this occasion my nomination for the Oddball of the Month award is Roy Giddis, who has just completed what must have been a real ‘labour of love’. Roy has archived all the newsletters he produced during his tenure as General Secretary of the Club by scanning them from their original printed sheet format on to one CD-Rom. This comprises some 35 newsletters he edited over the period 1989-98 and a short summary of the events leading up to the formation of the club and its affiliation to the S.C.A.A. in 1989. Anyone wanting to take a trip down memory lane is welcome to borrow the disc from me.
Note from the Ed. If you have any future nominations for this accolade do let me know.
A look back at the Epsom 10K – Mike Scales
Recently I have been trying to catch up with my job as unofficial club statistician and was ploughing through some old results. The Epsom 10K of 22nd June caught my eye. Not only because there were some very interesting performances but because the race went unreported in our newsletter at the time.
This race doubles up as our club 10K championship and I note that Richard Turner had a splendid run to secure the title beating, amongst others, five previous winners. Just seven seconds behind in second place was Neil, who had won the title four times in the previous five years, with Paul Hart a strong third. In addition to being our club championship, we also award the Roy Giddis Trophy to the best age-graded performance in this race. Once again this went to Neil who achieved a fine 77.94.
I have often commented on how club championship events seem to bring out the best from us and on how they are a good way to judge the progress of the club in general. Here are a few facts from this year’s race. I’ll leave you to assess the strength and progress of the club.
Four Oddballs ran sub 40 minutes. Indeed it was almost five as Tony missed out by just four seconds. We have never had five under 40minutes in one race!
Six Oddballs achieved an age grading of over 70.
Our Chairman, who has twice one this trophy, was only the seventh Oddball in spite of a creditable time of 41.17
Thirty Oddballs finished the race. Around 8% of the field.
Of the thirty, ten were seniors or juniors. Gone are the days when we were an old mans club.
Seven finishers in the first fifty (14%) and ten in the first hundred demonstrated strength in depth.
Remarkably, the above was achieved with several of our regulars missing and others taking it easy as they were recovering from injury.
Club places for The London Marathon 2004 – Rob Donkin
Although this article appeared in the last newsletter, I thought it would do no harm to give a last minute reminder of the rules covering the allocation of the two club places.
You must have been rejected in the ballot and have given your rejection slip to Graeme Brown by 21st December. Places will be allocated in club membership order within the following priorities:
1)1st claim members with at least a year’s membership who have not run London previously.
2)1st claim members with a year’s membership who have run London previously but have not had a club place.
3)Members who have had a club place previously.
4)1st claim members with less than 1 year’s membership.
5)Others.
In all cases the final allocation will be approved by the committee, whose decision will be final.
The award of club places will be announced on 24th December at the traditional Christmas Eve run on the Downs.
Remember to pass your rejection slip to Graeme by 21st December if you wish to be considered for a London Marathon 2004 club place.
Horton Park 10k on 21st December– Rob Donkin
David Denton has kindly agreed to donate some money to Club funds if we can assist with the marshalling of his race. Obviously, a number of us will be running in the race itself. However, if you or any members of your family are willing to help out please get in touch with Graeme Brown.
Remember the Colams - Geoff Kinlen
A recent broadcast of the BBC 2 programme, Working Lunch, featured Cath & Barry Colam being interviewed regarding their support for the reintroduction of railway services between Keswick and Penrith. The web site for their guest house is If you travel to them by train you get 10% discount.
Saturday Morning Social Run – Mike Pollard
Starting in the New Year, I will be organising a slow paced run on Saturday mornings. At the last committee meeting I proposed organising a social run for Saturday mornings to give members the choice of doing the usual Training run (which covers various routes) or to do a shorter run which will use the same route each week. The run is aimed at anyone who just fancies an easy run. They could be returning from, say, an injury or a holiday. They could be racing the day after or just want to stretch their legs.
It will start just after 8:30am from the usual meeting place in the bottom car park of Court Recreation Ground in Epsom. It will follow the same course each week of around 4½ miles with 2 stops on route to regroup. The route will take us on to parts of Epsom Common returning via the Stew Ponds.
So if you fancy a gentle run I will see you in the New Year.
Note from the Ed. Please see the article immediately below
Checking the Perch V course– Rob Donkin
As in previous years, we will start our training runs from the Rubbing House on the two Saturdays prior to the Perch race. On Saturday 10th January we will run the Perch course slowly with the idea of determining where marshalling points are needed. Don’t worry if you don’t wish to run the whole route. On the Saturday immediately before the race, 17th January, we will run the whole route, just to check that all is ok. Again this will be run at an easy pace.
New member
Welcome to the Oddballs, David Davies. We look forward to you running with us.
David’s address is: 1 Lindsay Close, Epsom, KT19 8JJ Telephone number: 01372 728383
Hair today, gone tomorrow– Rob Donkin
Looks like Chris Williams has finally graduated from the ‘Status Quo’ school of fashion this year with the departure of his distinctive pony tail. Let’s just hope the decision doesn’t affect this modern day Samson’s running performance.....!!
Will he now make Tom Jones’ ‘Delilah’ the opening track on his DJ sets?
The Coaching Corner -Dave Huck
I thought it would be nice to try and introduce a coaching corner in your newsletter, where I can review the past and give some insight into future plans.
Firstly, I must say how welcome I’ve been made to feel and I should also say it’s your enthusiasm which has made the coaching a success. Back in March when you approached me, I don’t think any of us knew how it would work, not only the committee but me as well. Yes, I’m a UK coach but I had never worked with a whole club and with average attendance on training nights being in the twenties that’s a large percentage of the club.
So off we started on those lovely evenings (most weeks) in Horton Park. We started gently but over the weeks you grew stronger both physically and mentally. This applies to everyone because everyone is trying their best to achieve their own goal in running. We’ve had some poor sessions when it hasn’t looked right but overall I think we keep a happy balance with variety, venues etc.
As we approached autumn people did comment on how they were feeling stronger in races, especially coming to the finish. This mental toughness does have an advantage at the end of a race when you start overtaking. Yes! I do mean overtaking people; you feel that edge over your opponents. I think it was best shown when we recently ran the Lara 10K at Nonsuch Park, when most people came in with a good result and an even bigger smile. Another aspect that has come to the fore is a genuine team spirit. Everyone supports everyone else on the Tuesday evening session. This was clearly evident in two races, the Aldershot relays and River relays with the club achieving a fantastic result in both.
I would be grateful for any comments you have, be they good or bad so that I can give you the support you deserve. It’s your club and like you I want the best for you.
Moving on, in the New Year, I hope those that have a marathon place are looking forward to the hard work! 0ne thing I will try and do is accommodate everybody. With the sessions aimed as a foundation base for the spring, January and February will see more longer rep. sessions i.e. 1 mile, ¾ mile, ½ mile rather than shorter ones i.e 600, 400 & 200m. However, the shorter ones are just as important.
Perhaps with the New Year coming a resolution you could be thinking about is how best to train and not strain. One thing you could be thinking about is doing a slightly longer run on a Thursday. Even if the club run is only 5, you can always run to the start and run home. On Saturday’s, don’t worry too much in January and February about mileage, it’s more about time on your feet. If you are doing the marathon you should be able to be on your legs for 2 ½ - 2 ¾ hours by the end of February. You should consider a 20 mile race in February and 20 miles in March i.e Bramley 20 and Cranleigh 21. Even if you are not doing the marathon these will give you an excellent summer of running.