29/06/2009 by Dick.

Fresh from our triumphs in the Cotswolds, we start the week with the third in the Leisure Ctre League summer series on Tuesday at Risca Leis Ctre, 7.30 start. This is the one that’s largely along the canal path and is a really pleasant run for a Summer’s eve. Meet at Chep LC 6.30 with your race number. If it’s your first LCL or you’ve forgotten your number you’ll need to grab Syd for it. Remember - all welcome, no entry fee, just turn up and win points for your Club and for yourself in the individual categories.

On Thursday you have the choice of a nice run along the Gloucester Way, returning via Offa’s Dyke, with opportunities for short cuts, OR a fitness-winning pyramid session on the track with distances ranging from 100 - 1,600 metres.

Saturday sees one of the year’s highlights - the Charmouth Trip. A nice charabanc ride to the Dorset coast, a race along the coast path or a fun run, a picnic and fun and games by the beach. All for £15, Children £5. This is always a great family treat and we’ve got Juniors and Mums & Dads this year. We need names now for travel/catering purposes so see Ian or Niki ASAP, and enter your names on the Bulletin Board in the meantime (Social Whirlwind/Won’t We Have a Lovely Time the Day We Go to Charmouth?).

Lastly in this packed week, you can still join in Bill’s pre Magor Marsh recce/training sessions. Meet at Undy FC 9.15am Sunday. And this week is close-off date for entries. 

Posted in Club News | No Comments »

28/06/2009 by Ivan.

You have seen the write up in Club Champs section of the bulletin board ( http://chepstowharriers.org.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=528 ) as well as the other blog posting regarding the course record of the event.

Results following the 3rd race can be found at http://www.chepstowharriers.org.uk/events.htm

So no need to add more about therace itself, apart to say it was a good introduction to fell running – the steep up and down without a mountain in sight! The turnout has increased the numbers in the Fell Series – let’s hope some of these are converts and will come to more fell races. With the scoring system you are fighting against everybody, no matter their age or sex. Note that in July you can do any medium race classified as a fell race. If in doubt contact Sue Ashton and once you have done it then let Sue or Gerry know your time and those of the top 5 runners. The obvious ones are Guto Nyth Bran, Fan y Big, Waun Fach, Charmouth and the Kymin Dash (a mainly tarmac fell race!).”

Posted in Fell Running, Club News | No Comments »

27/06/2009 by Lou.

Well done to all Harriers who ran in the hot Cotswold Way Relay today - all our runners ran very well. 

A Huge thanks to the team captains; Ivan, Gill, Dick and Andy Bray who put in a lot of time and effort to get their teams together. 

The Strikers once again won the first mixed team so congratulations to the team: Matt, Ivan, Marianne, Steve Caldwell, Steve Harris, Matthew Lawson, Liz Francis, James, Kath and Rich Matthews.

The star of the day has to be Marianne who must be feeling light headed by now after winning a bottle of champagne for first female on her leg, and another bottle for breaking the course record!  The only runner to break a course record today.  Well done Marianne we are very proud of you.

Striguil Striders were 5th mixed team in 14:30 - congratulations to Mark English, Ed Green, Esther, Paul Lidgett, Jem, Nick Bttersby, Helen, Luke, Andy Ost and Gill Stott.

Striguil Strivers were just an hour behind in 9th place (15:35) with the team of Jakob, Neil, Stuart Akers, Andy Stott, Colin, Jan, Dick, Berta, Lou

Striguil Strivers came in 25th in 18:03 with Geoff Bayliss, Rob Brown, Vanessa, Chris Rees, Debbie (just made it!) Scroggs, Jane Bayliss, Elisabeta, Geoff Cram, John Thomas, Andy Bray.

Thanks you to the non – running supporters  - Syd, Gill, Colin, Sian, Caroline and others. 

Also thanks very much to those who came in or changed their legs at the last minute. 

Rich Matthews agreed to run leg 10 for the Strikers yesterday – no time for a recce but directed by his team captain and members he came 10^th. 

Stuart Akers stepped  in to cover Andy Creber’s leg 3 without a recce.

Chris Rees very kindly agreed to run leg 4  and John Thomas leg 9 - thanks both hope you enjoyed it?

Gill Stott changed her leg to cover Lorna and recced leg 10 on Wednesday. 

Andy Stott volunteered to run leg 4 this morning!!  On the way there; he changed in the car and had a great run.  Andy stepped in for Nick who was held up on his way back from Washington but then ran leg 6. 

Dick changed his leg numerous times to fit in with the team changes.

 It was this flexibility that enabled us to have four full teams running today.

Full report to follow plus details of post race celebration.

Results: http://www.cotswoldwayrelay.co.uk/2009Results/2009Results.htm

Posted in Races | No Comments »

27/06/2009 by Dick.

Just to add to Lou’s excellent report, and the great news about Marianne’s performance, we have just received an email from the organiser of Tuesday’s Beacon Batch Fell Race that said:

I must apologise but I have just realised that Marianne beat the female course record on Tuesday evening.  As I have only just taken over the race I will speak to our club comittee to determine extra prize.  Very sorry about not picking this up on Tuesday.  Congratulations to Marianne for beating a 14 year old record.
I would also like to thank all Chepstow Harriers who made the long trip to take part in our race, I hope you all enjoyed the evening and if you have any comments about how I can improve the evening please pass on comments.
Many thanks
Rob Skeen

Can I also add a very big thanks to Syd, Gill Ellis & daughter Charlotte, and Colin Parry for manning the Leg 9 drinks station and the dangerous A46 road crossing.

And well done Lou and her organising team of Mark and Dick. Roll on 26 June 2010 !!!

Just in - full results on http://www.cotswoldwayrelay.co.uk/2009Results/2009Results.htm

Our A Team were 1st Mixed (5th Overall). B Team were 5th (15th). C were 9th (27th). D were 25th (63rd).

And just spotted that Kath was a Stage Winner - well done her!!!

Posted in Club News | No Comments »

24/06/2009 by Lou.

Cotswold Way Relay Sat 27 June 2009

We need a runner for Leg 9 Please

Hope everyone has recced their legs and is happy. 

If you need assistance in organising transport for your recce or on the day your team captains will be happy to help.

Posted in Races, Uncategorized | No Comments »

22/06/2009 by Dick.

The Beacon Batch hill race in the Mendips on Tuesday is the June Club Championship and one of our Fell Race series. It’s described as a good beginner’s intro to fell racing. Meet at the Leis Ctre ready to leave at 5.45. Directions on the Club Champs page.

Our Thursday run is the Nun’s Walk, an old favourite that takes you through the little-known tunnel  under the Usk Road.

If you’re doing the Cotswold Way relay on Saturday, then you don’t need me to tell you about it BUT we’re still eager to hear from anyone who hasn’t signed up for it, and fancies being first reserve with a good chance of a run. In fact anyone who turns up stands a good chance of being snapped up by one of the other teams who are short of a runner.

And don’t forget to join Bill Bewg and the others for the next Magor Marsh recce/training session. 9.15 at Undy FC sports field.

Posted in Club News | No Comments »

21/06/2009 by Ivan.

July is going to be a busy month with some fun filled weekends.  In the middle of july we’ve got the Merthyr Mawr club training weekend - July 9-12th - please find the attached pdf file with information.

Also in july we have the charmouth trip, more information for this can be found on a previous blog article     http://blog.chepstowharriers.org.uk/2009/05/22/charmouth-trip-%e2%80%93-golden-cap-challenge-and-fun-run-saturday-4-july/

Add to this the club champs race, rose inn, tintern trot, track extraveganze - you won’t get bored 

Posted in Training, Club News | No Comments »

19/06/2009 by Dick.

What a great evening girls. Thanks from all who took part.

A lot of us got in the spirit before we even started the run, choosing the wrong lane to drive down (no flour line after 100 metres tho’) but we did get to Beacon Hill car park while it was still light Syd!

A good course with some fast downhill stretches and not as much up as I feared. Well planned girls, but I do wonder whether chopping down trees to make jumps is going a bit OTT ?

Shame that only Colin & I took the correct route along the road(!) to the finish, but the girls must have felt sorry for the navigationally challenged and awarded the prizes to Jan, James, Lou and Matthew.

And great to see the ex-Improvers joining in.

Thanks for all your hard work G & S, ably assisted by Syd. And looking forward to the next Stottie production on 9 July. 

Posted in Social, Training | No Comments »

18/06/2009 by Lou.

RESULTS NOW AVAILABLE - http://www.fodac.org.uk/documents/june09%20results.pdf  (edit by Ivan)

Thanks to Forest of Dean AC for taking over Syd’s race and doing a great job.  There was a good turnout last night especially for the 1k juniors race.  We took a mini bus of juniors and seniors from Chepstow, expertly driven by Dick.  The rain stopped and the sky cleared.

Syd got to race the course he knows so well for the first time and looked like he had a good run.  There were some great performances in the 5 mile with Rob Gordan coming in first.   Our Mark Harvey ran well and got 5^th place, with Steve Caldwell and James Blore also near the front.  The supporting from the juniors in the 5 mile was terrific!  Thanks.

Sadly there was some confusion over how long after the senior start the junior start would be – commiserations to Rhys and Jack who missed the start. 

All our juniors who made it to the start had good runs in the 1k race – well done.   Congratulations to Izzy Godfry who was first girl.

Posted in Races | No Comments »

18/06/2009 by Ivan.

Some reports are now found here on the bulletin board, in due course something may get editted together to go here on the blog.  But for unadulteraed raw reports read the bulletin board.

First and foremost a huge thankyou to Les Croupier running club for once again putting on a fantastic weekend, brilliant atmosphere, great races, sleepless nights and as ever great weather giving some impressive views!  Thankyou.

Some photo’s were takes on the way down to cardiff - in between running/shouting/hooting & climbing lamposts :

Paul Lidgett’s Pictures 

Bill Savage’s Pictures

My Pictures - (sorry only a few)

Results: 

Chepstow Harriers results - kindly extracted by Geoff Cram

Full results can be found on the Welsh Castles Relay website

If you’ve never taken part in the Welsh Castles Relay - please put it on your list of things to do, even if you are not a road runner, the experience/camaraderie/support etc are all fantastic.  And you might even get to dress up!!

Thanks again to Les Croupier, and of course thanks to the team manager/organiser/whipper Andy Ost - great job.

Posted in Races, Club News | No Comments »