Rogue Run's Severn Bridge 5 miles 'night race' went ahead smoothly. Out of the 251 entrants 166 turned up. Good for the current situation.
Quite a few Harriers took part:
Niki MORGAN 32:57
Stephen OWEN 33:26
Tom ANNETTS 39:05
Becky FULLERTON 41:36
Helen DUFFIELD 42:38
Amanda RAMSHAW 44:01
Jacqui WEBB 45:31
Sonia UNSTED 46:47
On Saturday 14 Harriers in various groups during the day, did a recce of the route.
Runner of this week is Vanessa Lawson.
Vanessa on the Cribyn Fell race
My running journey
I used to row at university at quite a high level (Boat Race in 1991) and won several national races in my uni years. When I left uni and eventually moved to Chepstow in 1997 the nearest river was not quite close enough so Matthew and I started doing short runs (2-3 miles max) after work three times a week. I was never a natural runner, but after a year we joined the Harriers and I found that the club was small and everyone was very fast, so Matthew wasn’t allowed to leave me on club runs. Eventually he did and everyone was surprised how quick he was, as he had spent all his time running with me.
First race was Eastleigh 10k 1998 (Matthew’s home town). A flat and fast course. I just about broke an hour (I recall Syd congratulating me on this very point) and Matthew took 48 minutes (this became a target for me in later years).
Running speed never came easy to me, I took at least 6 gos to break 2 hours for a half marathon. I kept at it and I had a lot of support from people like Syd, Dick and Bill Bewg in the early years. Bill organised my marathon training in 2001 when I got a club place for London, and it being foot-and-mouth year the help was great. I did London in 2002 and 2003 as well, then decided I hated marathons.
Matthew and I have hillwalked a lot in our 20s so fell running was the natural thing to go and do. It is now my favourite type of running. The hills, the views, the map and the weather all make a great day out. I do mountain marathons as well which is running for two days carrying all your kit and navigating via checkpoints to a set camp. You’re in a team (although the one solo event I did was fantastic too) and you’re totally self sufficient.
When the kids came along we got into orienteering as it’s a brilliant family activity. The boys are excellent navigators now and in fact my eldest and I are tackling our first mountain marathon together this July.
By 2011/2012 I had started to run much much better but then I had a major achilles trouble around 2014 resulting in surgery in 2016 and since then I have really struggled to get back where I was pre-injury. C’est la vie, as they say.
Favourite terrain/distance? Probably 8 mile muddy but runnable trail. Not fell because although I’m a reasonable climber I’m also a rubbish descender and half the field overtakes me on the downs.
A typical training week in lockdown is a Tuesday speed session and a Thursday hill session with Matthew and the kids. Then something on Saturday (orienteering/short virtual race) and a longer run on Sundays. I do a lot of wild swimming but that’s only for fun (rather than training), a bit of cycling with the kids and I have recently started weekly yogalates. My focus now is definitely towards the whole family being running fit, as well and trying to get a little bit quicker myself.
My ‘pearls of wisdom’ would be: keep working at it as it does pay off eventually, try every sport/distance/terrain until you find what you like, and involve the family even if they resist initially (which mine did but I can bully them).
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