Hello everyone! Welcome to the club’s September newsletter – a lot going on this month, as below! It was great to see lots of DPR members helping out at beginners yesterday. And good luck for those racing the Big Half – I’m sure you’ll smash it!
The Big Half
We are doing a couple of social things to celebrate all our finishers:
If you’re not participating, you can spectate at the course, with runners starting between 8.25 – 10.00 am from Tower Bridge, and finishing at Greenwich. Or you can watch it live on the BBC to catch a glimpse of all our DPR runners, as well as some bloke called Mo Farah.
Big Half Subsidy
As a reminder from our July newsletter, for those of you who don’t have a community place and take part in the Big Half race on Sunday, the club is offering a subsidy from club funds.
Suffolk Weekend Away – 27-29 October
Thank you to those who have expressed interest in this weekend – we’re pleased to confirm we’re going ahead. More details below!
Where will we stay?
DPR has exclusive use of Blaxhall YHA for the nights of 27 and 28 October. The hostel sleeps up to 43 people across 9 bedrooms, with four bathrooms and a large kitchen and living / dining area. All bedding is provided.
How will we get there?
By train: Blaxhall YHA is roughly four and a half (flat!) miles from both Saxmundham and Wickham Market stations. The train to either is from London Liverpool Street with a change at Ipswich. Return adult fare is approx £50 (as at 2 Sept) but maybe cheaper with group save if bookings are for three plus.
By car: some club members may choose to drive and be able to offer lifts. Journey time is approx 2hrs 45mins. Petrol / car costs to be shared amongst those travelling together.
Where will we run?
We’ll take part in the Maverick Suffolk run at Wantisden Hall, about 5 miles from the hostel. We’ll travel by a combination of bikes, cars, or taxis.
There are a choice of distances: 9km, 24km and 27km.
Everyone will set off together, with options to turn off for the shorter distances along the way. If you’re not sure a good tip for Maverick races is to aim for the furthest you might run and drop down mid race if needed. A few club members have run this one before and it’s beautiful and gentle. Start time is 10am.
You can book your race entry on the Maverick website and use the following code to obtain a 20% discount: DULWICHPARK20
What will we eat?
The hostel has good catering facilities, so we’ll organise food in advance for Friday evening and for breakfast on Saturday and Sunday. We’ll book space in a pub for after the run on the Saturday.
What else could we do?
There is beautiful countryside nearby and we are also near the coast with places like Aldeburgh in easy reach.
How much will it cost?
We’ll confirm very shortly. The price will cover the accommodation and the food for Friday evening and the two breakfasts. It will be very good value.
Watch this space and the Whatsapp chat for further details
It’s going to be a great weekend, do come along!
Dulwich Dash – 12 September
As above, for those running on Tuesday 5 September it is the usual club run – the Dash will return on 12 September.
Last month’s results are below – well done to Kit for being first across the line.
5 mile championships – 17 September
Later this month we have our 5 mile club championships in Dulwich Park on the morning of Sunday 17 September. It’s a great chance to lay claim to one of those club medals, so we hope to have lots of you running…but we do also need a couple of volunteers to help organise the race. Please email James at comms@dulwichparkrunners.co.uk if you’re able to volunteer.
Survey & Mid-Year Club Forum – 19 September
A big thank you to everyone who participated in the club survey – we’ll be presenting the results ahead of our inaugural mid-year club forum on Tuesday 19 September. Venue, timings and agenda for the forum will be circulated closer to the time.
Countryside Trip – 1 October
We’ll be doing a run out in the beautiful Sussex countryside on 1 October, hosted by long distance members Tim and Linda. More details and timings to follow!
Beginners
The Autumn beginners course started this weekend, with an eager group starting their beginners and 5k-5 mile courses. As usual we will welcome your support as running buddies – if you can help please respond to Facebook posts, or email beginners@dulwichparkrunners.
Thursday improvers
The Thursday improvers group are still on Dulwich College Track for September and October starting to work on speed over longer distance. These speed sessions are not progressive, but by committing to both months you can plan to run the October sessions at a faster pace than September.
As usual you need to have been regularly running 10+ miles/16k a week to take part in the Thursday sessions. If you are keen to join or would like to know more, or if you’re not quite there and would like to chat about a plan to progress your running so you can be ready for future sessions, or to prepare for a race, please get in touch with Susan.
Summer League
Finally, a brief look back at a very successful Summer League campaign for the club. Overall, we finished in 6th place – only just ahead of 7th, so well done to everyone who ran this year to help push us up the leaderboard.
The penultimate race of the season took place at Regent’s Park, with a strong DPR contingent, led home by first finishers Nat Lowis and Alicky Sussman. We had a full complement of relay teams, with the highlight being a bronze medal for the Men’s A team of David Mullany, Mo Razmjooei, Tim Murray and Nat Lowis.
In the last race at Battersea we had an even better turnout, with more than 25 DPR runners. The flat course meant 10k PBs aplenty, with Zach Bredemear and Amanda Larrington leading us across the line. And another full set of relay teams!
Our highest ranking performers across the season as a whole were David Mullany (1st in M65 category), Rosemary Harris and Susan Smith (2nd and 3rd in F65), Zach Bredemear (3rd in M50), Di Suter (4th in F60 category), Tim Murray (4th in M45), and John O’Brien (5th in M55).
Well done everyone!