Welcome to 2014 (and its still raining!!)

Greetings all, first I would like to wish each and every Green and White, your family and friends a rewarding, successful and stress free 2014. Great running everyone, and remember, you only compete with one person, yourself!

Richard Boulter sent this in, on fire Richard, going to have to nobble you if I am to get near any age awards!!!

Saturday Montacute parkrun finished 5th and broke the over 60's record with a time of 21:44 so now the holder of both the over 55's and over 60's records.

Sunday Warminster Plain Crazy 12 miler finished 14th in 1:19:04 and 1st V60.

5k Results 28th Dec: Montecute

1 Steven MARCH 00:19:14
5 Richard BOULTER 00:21:39
6 James DAY 00:21:44...
7 Cameron RAFFERTY 00:22:36
17 Mark CHEESEMAN 00:23:38
31 Brian MOUNTJOY-ROW 00:25:59
33 Kevin Arthur STENNER 00:26:01
36 Malcolm MAXTED 00:26:06
54 Andrew BROWN 00:28:42
88 Adam HAWKINS 00:36:02
91 Corinne HAWKINS 00:36:41
106 Andrew MERRICK 00:46:31

I am delighted to be racing again after 9 months, I have done 3 10km, Jill Harrison joined me and around 500 others for the Christchurch Christmas Pudding run on December 8^th, I was then joined by Pete for the Round the Lakes 10km in Poole Park on Boxing Day. Finally I had a go at the Moors Valley 10km in aid of Wessex Autism on December 29^th. Enjoyed every step of each race.

Mind you, I don’t remember the last 2km of each race being so blo*dy hard!!!

Details below of the Newport Half Marathon have come in.

Newport Half

The organisers send you this message

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our running buddies. We wish you a healthy and happy 2014.

You've probably got all your new running kit from Santa now - and we have a great event for you to train for in it over the next 10 weeks. 

The Admiral City of Newport Half Marathon.

Thanks to support from Admiral and our other sponsors, all proceeds from this event are used to help patients with life threatening illnesses. 

Just £24 to enter, T-shirt and other goodies for all finishers.  Over 800 have already registered - so you need to act pretty fast to grab your place. FFor full details, and to register, visit our website via the link above

Raising sponsorship is not compulsory - and you may support your own charity by taking part if you so wish. (although it goes without saying, we are truly grateful for every penny raised for St David's Hospice Care)

If anyone wants details of local accommodation please do contact us. 

All the very best,

Christine Vorres

Race Director

St David's Hospice Care

christine.vorres@stdavidshospicecare.org

01633 851050

The Self-Transcendence Somerset Try-a-Tri (Beginner and Youth Triathlon) will take on June 1st 2014, at Portishead Open Air Pool. Online entries are open NOW at this link

where you'll also find a link to full event information. Please pass this on to anyone you know who wants to try-a-tri! As ever there will be extensive support and advice for first-timers who enter, to help them prepare for their first Triathlon.

More info

Laura Coppard at the Stoke Stampede

Last race of 2013 done! Got a new 10k PB of 45:28, over 1 min 30 secs off! Thank you for all the clubs help and support, thanks Pete for the encouragement to really push myself today. Well done to all the other Yeovil Runners at Stoke. Looking forward to what 2014 brings!

The ‘bit wet’ Chard Flyer

Pete said ..

Well done to all YTRRC runners who took part in the Chard Flyer this morning. Congratulations to the Winning Mixed Team of Leyton Green, Orlando Brooke, Matt Driver and Laura Coppard. 

Plus the award for First Senior Female went to - guess who, yes it was her again, starting 2014 as she finished 2013 - Laura Coppard, very well done to you all.

Chard Flyer results

Results

Thursday Evening Pub Run "Lamb & Lark" Limington near Ilchester about 5 & Half miles I'm told

Thought some might like this

My friend Ian is a coach, the following was written by one of his coached athletes, Claire, Claire works hard at her sport, I know her and she is a very nice person. I found I had much in common with Claire and thought I would share it with anyone at the club who is interested.. Enjoy!

Why winning isn’t everything, but it’s not just the taking part that counts either!

As the last day of the year approaches I have been reflecting upon the past year, what I have gained and what I will try and do differently next year, who has inspired me and why

Firstly I am truly blessed that I have some wonderful people in my life that have supported me through this year and will continue to do so as I tread quietly at first into the next.

From a sporting perspective I am blessed with enough talent to be mediocre at what I do. I am grateful to have a talented coach who knows my strengths (and probably lots of my flaws!) well enough to stretch and push me just enough so that my mediocrity continues to grow. For that I am truly appreciative. Some of you will question this and ask what I mean, how can I be happy being mediocre?

I am a realist (other than when I am re-enacting scenes from kill bill in the kitchen after a particularly frustrating phone call from my sons school ), I know what I am not.

I am happy being what I am and mostly who I am because I am content with my lot. Yes, I would love to win my age group in an ironman, and maybe one day when no else shows up, or I am the sole contender in the 80+ category I might just do that! But I am happy in the skin I’m in, with what life has given me. I have a wonderful husband and family who support me and love me and that in itself is priceless.

Of course I aspire to be better than I am right now, to be the best I can be but being mediocre means there is plenty of scope for that!

I have had a brilliant year. Note the choice of words I use- I am not pertaining to be brilliant (mediocrity is brilliant for the reason I have just described as well as others), my race results are not brilliant when I compare them to less mediocre and more gifted people. But comparison is the thief of joy! And I am more than happy with my results this year because mostly I have given my best. With this has come gains in strength- physical and mental.

My race time and place does not necessarily dictate the joy that follows. My effort and suffering does. And yet it is not as simple as that. There is something more that cannot be described in a simple word, sentence or paragraph that will determine the satisfaction or lack of that follows a race.

Aristotle said “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts”

This is the only way I can describe it.

Put simply, if I do not give my best I will not be happy. For me personally, a good time is not necessarily the equivalent of me being my best. How do i actually know this? A few months ago I ran a half marathon, PBd by around 70 seconds, was 3rd in my AG, but I felt nothing. Flat, thankful for a stress free run, and of course pleased, but I lacked any elation at breaking 1:30- something I had been chasing. The reason being was that I knew I could do better. I imagine some of you are thinking “ah so you think you can go faster- it is about time!”, but no, actually, it isn’t. There was something that made me feel that I hadn’t given 100%.

Partly this was due to a lack of mental prep and partly due to my attitude on the day.

Conversely, I have run a 10 mile race at a pace slower than I should theoretically be capable of and yet i am really happy with my performance. I did everything I could ( including some ice skating down the hills – it was particular icy).

I feel particularly blessed , as stupid as it might sound, that I have found a formula that works for me. It’s not a “winning” formula in the sense that I am about to dominate the world of triathlon with my amazing results, but more in the sense that preparing my body with good nutrition – under the careful guidance of Fitnaturally, training consistently and preparing myself mentally gives me a confidence that I am doing all I can to stay with the boundaries of mediocrity.

So yes, winning would be nice, but it’s not the same as giving everything. And taking part does count, if you give your best. I am happy being average- growing up it’s all I ever wanted to be, like everyone else so I could fit in.

I know that I give more than average when I am focused, I give my best. I give everything, and there’s nothing average or mediocre about that. 

One more weekend then I am away for a couple of weeks, got to go to the Caribbean, will be running on 10 different islands, tough, but someone has to do it.

Have a good week back at work, see you all soon

And once more... Happy New Year!

Terry