HRC Newsletter – 28th February 2019

Dear Club,

Since my first newsletter we had some big events take place so I thought it was time for a round up and a look ahead.



Presentation Evening

Firstly we celebrated the achievements of 2018.

An excellent evening was organised. Charlotte was a brilliant compère and awards were presented to a great many club members picking up merit, bronze, silver and gold awards.

Some highlights included Paul Ashwood Jolley receiving Beginner of the Year. Paul had an excellent year progressing from All sorts to “Big Club”, entering cross country events and soon to be running his first marathon on his way to Ultra ambitions. Céline Guéry and Nick Moore, who have had fantastic performances and contributed so much to the club throughout 2018, picked up the Chairmans Award. Greg Pollard received the coaches award for some tremendous improvements with PB’s broken, a super marathon time and excellent improvements in Cross Country placement. Liz Aspden-Mansfield achieved the 100% award for her perfect attendance for the league LRRL races. It’s a big commitment of time and energy to be able to run and finish every race. Liz also provided many a fun car share for these events, anyone remember the journey to John Fraser 10? ? Paul Clayton received the Life Membership Award for his services to the club in previous roles, and the large amount of time he has dedicated to the club.  Leanne Byard and Simon Birch picked up Runner of the year awards with Leanne being one of only 4 ladies to have their name on the award twice.  Both are great sources of inspiration for us all as to what can be achieved with hard work and dedication. Chris Rawson scooped the Presidents Shield, thoroughly deserved having personally seen a great number of his performances at a number of races. Another important mention was Penny Masser’s Diamond Distinction. This is a huge achievement and the first time this award has been presented. Penny continues to perform at a staggeringly high level and has now been running with the club for 30 years.

Juniors
The Toucan run on 9th February featured Shawn Whilebore as a fairy. He promised to wear a tutu if he got over 50 Toucaneers (which he did) however the juniors upgraded it to full fairy. A truly frightening yet hilarious sight to see.


The juniors finished the league with runners in 6th (Josh C) , 5th (Matthew C),4th (Alex w and Chloe B) 3rd (Hannah B) and Izzy W in 1st place in their respective age categories. Shawn wanted to thank all who supported them this year it makes a huge difference to them and these runners in particular may well feed through to the main club. Continued support is greatly appreciated #3partsoneclub.

All sorts
At the new beginners group we had an amazing 61 people come along! The attendance has stayed consistently around this number in subsequent sessions. A big well done to everyone who graduated beginners to intermediates at the Leicester 5k at Victoria Park on 6th February.

“Big Club” and Cross Country round up:

Since I last wrote we have had two events with great showings by our HRC members. Some taking part in their first cross country events.  We also brought back runner of the day with James Brown and Sadie Walker winning prizes for performances at Bagworth Heath and Rob Pratt and Debbie Moore at Grace Dieu. It was also Vince Iliffe and Sue Grencocks first cross country for the club and they both put had great runs.

Leicestershire Half Marathon

Gayle Brown, Connor Smith and Matthew Knight all took part in the event at Prestwold Hall. Gayle and Connor both setting new PB times on the day with Gayle completing the course in 1:36:46 taking 7 minutes off her time from the previous year and Connor achieving a brilliant 1:50:27.

Stilton 7

The first league race of the year was this past weekend and I for one was really looking forward to this having not run the event before. We had a super turnout with 29 runners. There was some great performances at the front from Richard Whitelegg, Nick Moore and Alex Papadopoulos. It was also a number of runners first race with the club including Leanne Ashby, Steve Tampin, Paul Knight, Alex Papadopoulos and Matthew Richardson. Our runners of the day were Vince Iliffe, who took over 3 minutes of his time from last year and Gayle Brown who set another PB.

Upcoming events:

Bosworth Battlefield Cross Country

We have our own cross country event this weekend Sunday 3rd March, this is the last one of the season. Hopefully we have another great HRC turnout. If you aren’t running and can help, please volunteer as your help will be appreciated. A great deal of effort has gone into the preparation, a big thank you to those involved in what I’m sure will be a brilliant event.

Kibworth 6

At least 32 of us will be at the race to take place on 17th March. The race is now full.

Desford 5 

Race opens Monday 4th March at 8pm. Set alarms and book on fast: https://www.evententry.co.uk/desford-5-2019

Toucan Runs

The next 3 Toucan runs are 16th March, 30th March and 13th April. Get them in the diary it’s a fun event bringing the three parts of the club together.

Happy running everyone.

Si Wiggins


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