Midpackers – March 2008

Please contact shaun.billing1@btinternet.com if you want to make a contribution.

Hastings Half Marathon 16th March 2008

Great conditions, cool and drizzly with a gentle south westerly breeze that veered north during the race easing the run back along the front. The race was a triumph for the mid-packers of the the club, all performing very well; Dave Whittle, Cathy Ulliot and Evie Cicha were all delighted with their performances. To add to the never ending discussions about the decline in standards (while not mentioning that the fastest Brighton runner was nigh on 81 minutes, which is ok for the individual concerned but not great for the sussex champs, whoops) has anyone considered the interesting pavement architecture used by councils these days, funny ridges and pokey dots that disturb the rhythm, especially at the latter end of a race? If nothing else another excuse to add to the armory.
Oh, before mid-packers hq receives a vitriolic facebook posting, Andy Mitch was pacing someone around so he could easily have been a couple of minutes faster…

London Marathon Volunteers Needed

Message from Richard Carter (rich_the_runner@hotmail.com)… Leaving sunday morning 5.45am for Blackheath NO COST! work for 7.30ish to 10am when trucks leave for finish. Then off to watch the race. Coach back from South Bank 4.30ish Could you put it out on Mid Packers- need 45 have about 25 so far If we do well – get invited back AND get a couple of free places as well!!!!! Think about offering a place as a BHTT Xmas raffle prize!! Rich

Eastbourne Half Marathon 2nd March 2008

Windy, with a nasty hill at 3-4 miles. Results.

Sussex Beacon Half Marathon 17th February 2008

A beautiful day, with only a slight easterly breeze to provide any sort of feeble excuse for poor performance. Tracy Harris has recently been staging a welcome comeback to the running scene, and thanks to his fish eating regime (probably amongst other things such as training hard and stuff) was a very good third. Andrew tweaked a hamstring and had to slow down but still got first under 21 prize. Elaine was delighted to get under 1.30 for only the second time, Dave Whittle posted his best time for some time, and Nikki Hooper got a pb on her watch, but for some reason her chip time has not been recorded. The only gripe was the marshalling by the Terraces Bar; a coach pulled up and disgorged some senior citizens, who nearly took out some of the leading runners.

Copenhagen Marathon 18th May 2008

A group are going over to have a bit of a go at the Copenhagen Marathon.
If anyone fancies it Kader tours sidihadda@ntlworld.com is on the case and he will hopefully find a reasonably priced and well positioned hotel. Entry is online from the website, and they don’t take your hard earned until registration because of some odd Danish law.

Sussex Grand Prix 2008

Tom Ulliot writes…They are still having problems with their web-site so below is a provisional list of events they have sent out for 2008. The formatting isn’t great but you will see that it shows the date the event was held in 2007 and the date (where known) for 2008. In some cases the event has been cancelled entirely for 2008 (not just dropped from the SGP) so please try to manage your disappointment over the likes of the Worthing 20 and the Hailsham 10 :o)
Not on this list but I’m sure was agreed at the last meeting is the Bewl Water 15m on 06/07/08. For those of you that haven’t done it it’s a very scenic 15m (Ed, more like 14), almost entirely off-road (circa 75%) undulating loop around Bewl Water.
Best wishes and see you soon.

Sussex Grand Prix 2007

Tome Ulliot writes… Louis Taub, Shaun Billing and Hugh Foord have won trophies in the individual categories. Louis being 4th senior man, Shaun 2nd V1 and 3rd overall vet and Hugh 1st in the V8 category.
With the ladies we had Laura Burton winning the league outright – great stuff Laura!! and Elaine Everill coming 4th overall.
Well done to you all.
Unfortunately the team results were very poor this year with the senior men and vets teams coming 9th in each of those categories and the ladies finishing 8th in the seniors and 15th in the Vets. This in no way reflects the potential at the club so let’s really go for it this year and see if we can win all 4 categories along with the overall club trophy (which is a solid silver cup donated by Steve Ovett a number of years ago after he himself won it at some foreign track meeting when he was in his prime!!)
PS – anyone who has one a perpetual trophy has to give full contact details (home address, phone and email) to Ron and Joyce from the SGP so they can track them down and recover them in good time to be engraved for the subsequent presentation the following year.