DPR Feb Newsletter

DPR Newsletter Feb 2025

February, the month of loving running! Loads of ideas below for races to sign up for, and then show your love for DPR by getting involved in our AGM, yay! 

Huge congrats to everyone who got out and about in January, including Darren Cheek who ran the Canterbury 10 mile, Amanda Larrington who ran the Vicky Park Half, Ib who ran the Newcastle Winter Warmer and Helen Branch and Ellen Gleeson who ran the Crystal Palace 10k! And loads of us who had beautiful days out in Oxshott and Beckenham at cross country fixtures, pic below of the Oxshott crew. 

If you’ve been thinking all year you wanted to experience cross country but have been putting it off, we have one final Surrey League fixture to improve our final table position this Saturday 8th February! It’s at Lloyd Park Croydon, really easy to get to with the Ladies running at 1pm and Men at 2pm. We’re helping run the event so we also need marshals, if you want to get involved let Alan know!

2025 Club Championships

We hope training is going well for the 47 members entered for the Paddock Wood Half on 9th March.  Join the Whatsapp group to chat about training or travel arrangements nearer the time. The one mile champs is on Tuesday 20th May in Dulwich Park and our 10k event will be at the Battersea Park Summer League on 10th August. And a reminder that, new for this year, we have a Marathon Club Championship category open to anyone who is running a certified marathon length course in this calendar year.  Please let Lucy Ross (lucy.ross@gmail.com or via Whatsapp) know which marathon(s) you are running. Some of the marathons already entered by our members include Newport, Edinburgh, Paris, Boston – both USA and Lincolnshire, Brighton and London. Other dates for club champs to follow.

Other Upcoming Races

Sunday 9 February – Dash for the Splash  – a fabulous all-terrain race on Wimbledon Common with a sticky toffee pudding for all finishers https://www.dashforthesplash.com/

Sunday 2nd March – Mornington Chasers Regents Park 10k  https://www.regentsparkraces.co.uk/

Sunday 23rd March – Wokingham Half Marathon  https://wokinghamhalfmarathon.com/

And if you needed any more inspiration to enter a race or two, check out the amazing home improvements you could be making with the medals you earn! David W’s beautiful fridge below.

 

If you’ve entered a race, our informal and relaxed DPR Sunday Social runs are a great way to get some training miles in. We meet at Dulwich Park Café each Sunday at 9.30am, with an invitation for coffee after. We have a rota of 8k – 10k route suggestions, and whatever route we choose each week, shorter or longer versions are also always available. All speeds and levels of fitness are catered for / equally welcome – nobody runs on their own!

Sunday February 16 sees our 2nd monthly DPR Sunday Social member-led slot, where a member of DPR, designs and leads their choice of run. This time Mark Schofield will design and lead a route that (knowing Mark) will no doubt head towards Greenwich taking in the waterway and more along the way! Details, as ever, will be posted in advance on the WhatsApp group.

And in other Sunday news our ‘out of town’ Sunday trail style route, will now take place on Sunday March 23 – in and around Knole Park, and its beautiful surrounding areas. More details to follow soon, so do ensure you are on the DPR Sunday Social Runs WhatsApp group, and do also let us know if you would like to design / lead a DPR Sunday Social run. Below is a pic of some of us this weekend.

Our brilliant coaches can also help you with your training plans. Coaches Surgery will be back on Tuesday 1st April after the Dash, but in the meantime if you have any questions on training, or if you would like advice on your marathon or half marathon training plans, please get in touch with our coaches Susan and Tom, and run leaders Katia and Zach. Email any of them via coach@dulwichparkrunners.co.uk, they can also give you the info on nutrition supplements from Ronnie’s rave talk last month.

Improvers are still on the track for Thursdays in February working on endurance speedwork, useful for anyone training for Paddock Wood or a spring Marathon as well as those looking to improve their pace generally. You need to have been running at least 10 miles a week over the last few months, and be willing to commit to the training in order to get the most of the sessions. But it’s free to club members! If you are interested and would like more information, or have specific questions, please email coach@dulwichparkrunners.co.uk  By the way, the Improvers WhattsApp is used just for last minute communication between current members, so if that’s not you, please don’t request to join 🙂 

Spring 2025 Beginners Courses – applications are open with courses beginning Saturday 8th March for both Beginners (8 weeks) and 5k-5miles (5 weeks) Courses. Start times are 8am, 9am, and 10am on consecutive Saturdays in Dulwich Park. We couldn’t run these courses that get such great feedback from participants without you so please think about helping out. You don’t need to run at every session, or every Saturday. If you’d like to let us know, or would like more info on helping please email beginners@dulwichparkrunners.com and mark your message ‘helper’. Full information is on our website https://www.dulwichparkrunners.co.uk/beginners-course/ Please spread the work to family, friends, neighbours, work colleagues! 

As you know DPR loves a social nearly as much as a run. Our Annual Dinner is on 15th March with tickets now on sale here. Awards, medals, dancing and a three course dinner and welcome drink for just £29.50! Some of the awards we will be presenting are the Attendance Shield (for overall attendance at Club events), the Dash Trophy and the Winter parkrun Ladder Shield.  We will also be presenting the Special Achievement Award for which any member can nominate – please submit to David. 

Theatre Trips

We are such a talented bunch that we have theatre trips to support members planned for both February and March!  On Wednesday 26 February we are going to Forest Hill (Canvas&Cream), to see Darren Cheek in Time After Time – a new play by multi award winning writer Brendan Murray. We already have quite a crowd going and you can get tickets here. The show is also on Thursday 27 February. And on Wednesday 26th March we are going to see DPR’s very own Club Captain, Lucy Ross in ‘The Pain and the Itch’! The show runs from 25th to 29th for those that can’t do the Wednesday and you can buy tickets here.

Your Club Needs You!

And it’s our AGM on Tuesday 25 February at 8pm at the Crown and Greyhound after a slightly earlier (6.45pm) social run. On the night we will be electing our new committee as well as announcing our next Club Charity. Thanks to those who sent in nominations and voting is now open! Vote here by Love Day, 14th February and we’ll announce the winner at the AGM.

Please consider putting yourself forward for a committee role. The club particularly needs a new Chair, Deputy/Vice Chair, Welfare Officer and Social Secretary but competition for all positions would be welcome. The club is in a very healthy state and has an exciting future. Membership of the committee puts you at the heart of the club and provides a satisfying way to contribute further.

Committee posts:

Chair, Deputy Chair, Treasurer, Secretary, Social Secretary, Club Captain, Membership Officer, Club Kit Officer, Welfare Officer, Communications Officer.

There are also a number of non-committee roles such as club coaches; cross country captains, social media officer, communications officer, summer league organisers, Dulwich dash organiser, parkrun ladder organiser, website manager, IT adviser, beginners course organisers/helpers.

The formal notice of the AGM is here – AGM notice 2025. Have a love-ly month!

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