Captain's Corner

Hello EGRC!

It’s your Captains here! To bring you our monthly round-up of all that’s been occurring in our wonderful Club. We do so with a lump in our throats and a tear in our eyes because this is in fact our last Captain's Corner! (I know!) After two years of being your captains, we step down after the AGM in January to make way for some fresh talent and no doubt some fresher legs! 😊  It’s been our honour and privilege to serve as your captains these past two years. We’ve loved the experience of being ambassadors for the Club and organising the various events and all the other weird and wonderful things we partake in as a club. It’s also been great to see and be a part of the amazing work that the EGRC Committee do throughout the year behind the scenes to keep our Club ticking along. Not to mention all the many things both large and small that members do for the Club. For this and so many more reasons we’re proud to have been your captains, and we couldn’t hope to meet a more friendly, inspiring, supportive and wonderfully crazy bunch of people! Thankfully for us, we’re only stepping down as captains, not as club members (heaven forbid!) so we’ll continue to play an active part in the Club and see you all loads we hope.  

What a crazy crazy year it has been! Since our last Caps Corner, the general decimation of our Club Champs races continued and the last few races fell like the proverbial ninepins. Thankfully our stubbornness to not give up on our Club Champs also continued! Hence the Rodway 8, the Doynton Dozen and the Tinsel Time Trial arose from the ashes like fiery, muddy, hilly (or both) phoenixes (and yes – we did have to google the plural of phoenix! 😊). We trust they kept you suitably entertained / exhausted 😊  The one most fresh in the mind is the Tinsel Time Trial (TTT). A crackin’ little 10k around Emerson's Green brought to you by our very own Jack Pitcher. It was fantastic to do a solo race with an actual racey feel to it, thanks to Jack who started us all off in small (covid-secure!) groups starting at 5 mins intervals, from under the bridge near the iconic, monumental, if somewhat fresh-smelling EGRC landmark – Anne’s poo bin. It was great to see so many of you (33!) come along to run and to cheer on their fellow members from a safe distance on what was the final Club Champs race of the year! We’re proud to have been able to keep the Champs alive and bring you a near full set of races despite the pandemical madness. It’s been fantastic to see so many of you take part in these runs, especially those that have done so for the first time. We’re so pleased that the solo replacement runs have encouraged some members that wouldn’t otherwise do a race to go along and have a go. Whilst for some, the Club Champs can be a chance to compete with themselves or others and get as high up the table as possible, for others they can be a chance to just get out and do a run they have never done before with other club members and see somewhere new. We hope we’ve provided the opportunity to do either or indeed both.

And now, (drumroll) ….. Ladies and gentlemen, the results have been counted and verified, and without further a-do, we can announce that this years men’s and ladies Club Champions of 2020 are …. (See you after the break! just kidding….) …. Jack Pitcher and Yvonne Cox! Congratulations to both of you! You both make it look so effortless but we’re sure it isn’t so well done to you both for an amazing effort and well done also to everyone else who took part. Whether you did one of the races or a whole bunch of them, we are very proud of each and every one of you for participating and for doing it with a smile (or was it a grimace? Hard to tell 😊) on your face!

As ever, despite the ongoing pandemic, it’s been lovely to see that we’re all continuing to run together in spirit if not in person, as we have done throughout, in the absence of our usual Club sessions. The EGRC Club challenges continue to motivate and it’s been fun to see everyone efforts! The Advent Photo Challenge is going down very well with lots of members getting into the Christmas spirit! It’s not all about the running either! We’ve b’in going mad (eh!) without our regular instalment of Burgey Bingo! Aka #TeamEGRC Bingo night! So it was great to see our two little ducks make a return to spread some more bingo magic.

Finally, don’t forget to clear a space in your diary for the Virtual EGRC AGM in January! It will be lovely to come together as a club and reflect on our achievements over this past crazy year (just getting out for a run is an achievement!) and to see each other virtually, if not in 3D. This will be our final act as your captains so we’ll hopefully see you there!

Take care, stay safe over the Christmas period & for the final time ….. Happy Running all!

Graham & Wendy Xx