Captain's Corner

Your Captains here! To bring you up to speed with all things EGRC. It’s been over two months since our last addition and a lot has been going on since then.

Over the past couple of months it’s been great to see that Club has been gradually ‘opening up’ once again. Club sessions started again in August in the new COVID-secure format. Even though we cannot all meet up at once, and not as regularly as we may like, it’s great to at least have the opportunity to get out to a training session once a week and see some of our fellow members. A huge thanks must go to the fabulous run leaders for putting on these sessions as without them – they simply would not happen. We appreciate that not everyone will be in a position to be able to attend training sessions as yet but we hope that you’re still managing to get out for a run either solo or with a few others if not. We’re keen to ensure that there are still opportunities for you to get out and about even if you’re not attending training sessions.

That leads nicely onto the Club Champs! Since we last ‘spoke’ we’ve been keeping the Champs alive along with the opportunity for you to run a ‘race’ or just to go for a trot somewhere new. Our solo race replacements have been proving popular! We’ve had the Bitton 5k, Doynton Cotswold Way 10k, Frenchay 9k and Sarah Mac’s Mach 9.2. They’ve attracted 40-50 members each time which is fabulous!

The latest edition of the Club Champs to happen was the big one – The EGRC Marathon! – where members can run any 26.2 miles as a virtual marathon between the 2nd to the 11th October.  Members were also encouraged to do either their own route on the morning of Sunday the 4th October (the same day as the Virtual London Marathon) or a route carved out by our very own Jack Pitcher involving a 3 ‘loop’ route along the cycle path starting and finishing at the famous Emersons Green landmark – Anne’s Poo Bin. Members were also encouraged to come along to support where possible …..and boy did they not disappoint! Despite the stormy conditions (some of the course was more swimmable than runnable!) a couple of dozen runners turned out to run the route (or part thereof) for their marathon and several more did their own marathon route elsewhere. There were also a lot of other marathon runners running along the cycle path as part of the Virtual London Marathon. It was fantastic to see so many EGRC supporters come along as well! Some to huddle under the EGRC Gazebo to help cheer the runners on and hand out drinks as they passed by 7 times each, others to pop up along the route either to cheer or even to run a few miles alongside. We can certainly say (as we had both angles covered!) that it was truly heart-warming to cheer on the EGRC runners – or to be cheered on by the fabulous EGRC supporters. So well done to each and every one of you! Whether you came along to cheer, or offered words of support at any point, or ran the thing. It all added to an amazing experience. There are lots of lovely pics / videos on the #TeamEGRC Facebook page as well:

https://www.facebook.com/events/680127939518657/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/teamegrc

 As ever in these crazy times – the Club Champ race list is subject to change so keep an eye out for emails from us (EGRC Captains emails) and we will let you know if they do: https://www.emersonsgreenrunningclub.co.uk/championships/

But it looks like the Bore will be a replacement solo, the Keynsham is going ahead as a virtual (details tbc) and the Westonbirt is still planned to go ahead!  

Take care, stay safe & Happy Virtual Running all!

Graham & Wendy