Committee activity
A very small committee met on Wednesday and discussed the usual club finances and membership as well as the forthcoming Gun Powder Trot (WSRFL), quiz night, winter handicap/awards night, website updates and orders, coaching and volunteering. More on some of this later. We agreed to meet again on 29th November.
Open letter from the chairman
THE CLUB IS DOING GREAT!
It’s true! Membership is at an all time high, our events are successful, we have a great new website and our runners are fab! But that is only half the story……
As we continue to grow so does the support structure required to underpin it and the fact is, we cannot continue in the current vain. There are 2 questions I would like you all to ask;
- What has your club done for you this year?
- What have you done for the club this year?
It would be good to think that the two are balanced. The club is not sustainable with just a few people doing all the work. I appreciate we all have busy lives but we need more helpers, more ideas, more enthusiasm!
Paul Aylett said earlier this year this would be his last year of being Race Director for the clubs 10K, this position is still vacant and the race is 7 months away. Also Victoria Saunders has indicated that this year will be her last year of organizing the club WSFRL fixture; The Gunpowder Trot. These are both important roles in the running of the club and they have to be filled for these events to take place. Also we are short of the 11 committee members we should have and out of 500+ members that is not good enough.
We need committed people to step up and assist the club as it moves forward. Lots of assistance and support will be given in the two race roles as both Paul and Victoria have assembled great teams of people around them. If you are interested in joining the committee why not come along to a meeting and see what it’s like? You don’t have to commit straight away!
Thank you for taking the time to read this. I hope those of you who can, will step forward.
Phil.
The result round up
Another busy few weeks for team hj so we’ve compiled this from press reports by Phil and Paul Oakley over the last five weeks. Just CLICK HERE for the latest race result roundup.
hj Challenge Trophy races
With 3 out of the 4 races completed, we are all looking forward to the final race this season which is the WSFRL Steepdown Challenge on 29th October. Awards are presented for overall male and female winners as well as 5 year age categories (from senior to V70) at our “lavish” awards evening on 12th December at Horsham Cricket Club.
Gunpowder Trot – 5th November
It’s almost time for our 4.5 mile cross-country course on the Denne Park and Chesworth Farm estates. New for 2017; we will be holding a 1 mile junior race this year too. Also new for 2017; we will be using Horsham Cricket Club as our Race HQ. We now have enough volunteers to supervise and marshal the runners and (if you haven’t already had them?) instructions will be issued volunteers in the next few days. This is our home fun run and we need to welcome our guests and show them some proper hj hospitality so please support this event.
Congratulations!
To Hannah and Jamie Carter who tied the knot on 16th September, James Munden who raised a fantastic £2700 for Chestnut Tree House by recently running a 24 hour Parkrun, John Wilcox who has completed 4 huge challenges in his 50th year and raised an incredible £5450 for Prostate Cancer UK and Emma Walters who recently completed her first ultra marathon (having never run more than a half marathon before!) and raised £2330 for CLIC Sargent. Congratulations to you all!
Annual hj quiz night – 17th November at 7pm
Question: What’s an awesome way to spend an evening? Answer: The Horsham Joggers quiz night at Horsham Cricket Club with quizzie rascal Jon Berrill! £18 per team payable on the night, maximum of six people per team (that’s just £3 per person!). Please send team entries to info@hj to reserve your place.
Social Curry Night
Our social butterfly, James Munden, has kindly agreed to organise an all you can eat curry night on 26th November at Darchini, London Road at 7pm. Please contact James directly via the Facebook event or email info@hj to reserve your place.
Winter handicap and Awards evening
This will be held on 12th December at the new home of Horsham Cricket Club and we need about 6 marshals to volunteer to help PLEEEEEASE! Runners should arrive at 6.45pm and give your average 5 or 10k time to us. We will put you in groups and if we’ve got our sums right, you will all finish together. The course will be similar to last time but will now start at the Blackbridge Lane/Worthing Road junction before taking you on two laps of Blackbridge Lane, Guildford Road and Hills Farm Lane then finishing back at the start point. Afterwards there will be sandwiches provided at the Cricket Club during the Annual Awards Presentation at 8.30pm. The bar will also be open so bring your pocket money! Parking is limited so please car share or park in other local roads then jog in as a warm up.
Gemma’s Downs Link adventure (in her own words)
2nd October was the Downslink Ultra.. 38 miles from Guildford to Shoreham. We believe it was the largest amount of Horsham Joggers entry this year with 8 entrants, Jason walker, Alan Pettitt, Matt Whyman, Emma Walters, Garry Dale, Chris Yeomans, Paul Burgess and Gemma Berrill. With the course record holder coming in 20 minutes behind his record time it shows just how tough it was on the day. With constant drizzle and tough head wind it made it a challenging race. Unfortunately Paul Burgess had to drop out, not wanting to risk injury with Amsterdam marathon just 2 weeks later (which he completed and enjoyed!). I nearly dropped out at mile 27 as the grim sweeper was in sight, but with my running buddy there to give me a hug and tell me to shift my butt I was on my way. Massive well done to first male hj home, Jason walker in 06:05:35 and to Emma Walters for completing her first ultra and first hj lady home in 7:04:55. The best thing about the event has to be the infamous homemade chilli (veggie option was available!) and well run organisation.
Dates for your diary
28th Oct – Beachy Head Marathon & 10k
29th Oct – Steepdown Challenge (WSFRL and hj challenge trophy)
29th Oct – Hove Prom 10k (SGP)
29th Oct – Crawley 10k
5th Nov – Gunpowder Trot (WSFRL)
11th Nov – Poppy Half Marathon, Bexhill
17th Nov – hj quiz night
18th Nov – Box Hill Tough 10
19th Nov – Brighton 10k
19th Nov – 10k for Kent/Surrey/Sussex Air Ambulance
26th Nov – Jigsaw Run 10k, Dunsfold
26th Nov – Greensand Way 15, Shalford
26th Nov – Curry night at Darchini
Don’t forget; if you’ve got something worthy of the newsletter please let us know! Email: info@hj