Monday 30 December 2013

Correction!

Please note that the New Years Day run on Moel Famau will be at 11.00 (not midday as in previous blog)

The aim is for approximately one hour sociable run.

Rob

Saturday 28 December 2013

January Update

Club runs
We have had two excellent club runs on the Clwydians so far over the break. The next one will be on New Years Day at Midday - meet at the first car park at Moel Famau for a chance to work off the excesses or to advance your training programme!!!! 

Other events: -
  • Pub night is on Tuesday 7th January at Running Hare
  • Race 4 of NWCC at Lilleshall on 18th January
  • NW CC Championships 25th January at Glyndwr University, Northop
  • Borders League Race 3 is at Abergele (Pensarn) on 2nd February. Postcode for this venue is LL22 7PP. Route can be found on http://gb.mapometer.com/running/route_3750009 
  • Race 5 (final) NWCC at Oswestry on Saturday 8th February 
  • Wrexham Half Sunday 16th February (you need to pre-enter) for details http://www.wrexhamroadrunners.org.uk/
  • Helena Tipping 10 KM on Sunday 30th March at 11.00 http://www.wrexhamroadrunners.org.uk/ 
Future events
I try to include as many local and interesting races as I can. I trawl through the year-books to find them but it is very time-consuming and not always effective - I miss a lot. It would help me and the rest of the readers a great deal if you could email the details of relevant 2014 events. (preferred - Event, venue, type of race, date/time and an website link)
And if there is an upcoming event you want to remind people about please send details. 
That can be races or training events!
Communications
The use of the BR Gmail account is working well. I think I have shared the calendar with everyone on the list who has a gmail account (you will have received a notification).  It means that if you wish the Buckley Runners calendar events can show up automatically on your calendar. If you have a gmail account and I have missed you off, or if you have an account that is compatible with gmail calendars, or if you you have another account that is gmail based (e.g. all email for the organisation I work for are gmail accounts event though they don't show it in address) please let me know.

Sent by Rob Mackey (Chairman)
Buckley Runners
Road, Multi-terrain, Cross Country, Fell Running
Meeting at Buckley Sport Centre in North Wales
Meet 7.00 for 7.15 start on Tuesdays and Thursdays
You can follow us on Twitter @buckleyrunners or find us on Facebook

Sunday 15 December 2013

BL at Wigg Island and Dates for your diary

Congratulations everybody on a splendid turn-out and some really great performances at Wigg Island today. Good to see Andy and Hayley at their first BL Race, hope they both enjoyed it. Looking forward to seeing the results.

I thought it was an excellent course; good to run in a traffic free environment, with a bit of everything. Helsby worked very hard to get everything in place for it having struggled recently to find a suitable course, well done Helsby! The course will not be available for a couple of years while they build the new Runcorn Bridge, but hopefully we can run there again.

Pre-Christmas Runs
John Morris is organizing two runs before Christmas: 
Friday 20th (6.00 I think) a head-torch run on Moel Famau
Sunday 22nd social run on Moel Famau starting the first car park at 9.00
Contact John for more info.

Post Christmas Fun in the Hills Run
Saturady 28th December - meet first car park at 9.30 aiming to set off at 9.45 being back for tea and bikkies at 11.00. Everyone welcome - including friends, family, dog walkers and hangover sufferers who can join us at 11.00.
Contact Jane or Rob for more info.

Rob

Sent by Rob Mackey (Chairman)
Buckley Runners
Road, Multi-terrain, Cross Country, Fell Running
Meeting at Buckley Sport Centre in North Wales
Meet 7.00 for 7.15 start on Tuesdays and Thursdays
You can follow us on Twitter @buckleyrunners or find us on Facebook

Wednesday 11 December 2013

Just a reminder - the next Borders League races is on Sunday at Wigg Island (near Runcorn). Superb turn-out for the first race. Lets keep it up.
Start is at 11.00, there are very clear directions on the BL website. http://www.bordersleague.org.uk/ 
Les has organised lift sharing, leaving Buckley Sports Centre at 9.00. 

Jane and I are organising the annual Christmas Fun in the Hills Run, probably Saturday 28th December (might be Friday 27th), a steady 5 miler on the trails followed by tea and cakes and chat in the car park. Details to follow.

Other events coming up
Boxing Day - Chester Round the Walls Race
Sunday 29th Jubilee Plunge (Moel Famau)
Tuesday 7th Pub Night (Running Hare at 8.30)
Saturday 18th CC Race 4 at Lilleshall
Saturday 25th NWCC Championships at Northop
Sunday 2nd BL at Abergele
Saturday 8th final CC League Race at Oswestry
Sent by Rob Mackey (Chairman)
Buckley Runners
Road, Multi-terrain, Cross Country, Fell Running
Meeting at Buckley Sport Centre in North Wales
Meet 7.00 for 7.15 start on Tuesdays and Thursdays
You can follow us on Twitter @buckleyrunners or find us on Facebook

Friday 22 November 2013

Update for November/Decemebr

Just a reminder that tomorrow (Saturday 23rd) is the third round of the cross country season at Wrexham. Ladies and MV70 race starts at 2.00, senior men and vets starts at 2.45. 

Hope we can get a really good turnout again this week and regain a little bit of lost ground after round 2. Its a good course at Wrexham, very different to the previous two races, flat, mown grass although parts of it can get a bit wet and slippery. Weather forecast is set fair.

Thanks to everybody who has paid subs - note to self - they are due in April!

Thanks also to the members who contacted me after my last blog, but just a reminder - if you are not receiving regular emails and would like to please email me on buckley.runners@gmail.com so I can add you to the list (Some address are out of date and some got lost in the transfer to the gmail account) - mail always goes out as BCC.

Forthcoming events

Good luck to everybody running one of the half marathons on Sunday.
Happy birthday to John Morris
Next Borders League is Sunday 15th December at Helsby (New course down by river near Runcorn)

Pub night December 3rd 8.30 in Running Hare 
Sorry I won't be there - dress rehearsal for Panto - Aladdin in Northop Village Hall, Thursday 5th at 7.30, Friday 6th at 7.30 and Saturday 7th at 2.00 and 7.30. Tickets only £5.00 from me. 


Sent by Rob Mackey (Chairman)
Buckley Runners
Road, Multi-terrain, Cross Country, Fell Running
Meeting at Buckley Sport Centre in North Wales
Meet 7.00 for 7.15 start on Tuesdays and Thursdays
Contact us on buckley.runners@gmail.com
You can follow us on Twitter @buckleyrunners or find us on Facebook

Sunday 17 November 2013

Borders League Race 1 and Cross Country

What an excellent day! For the first Borders League race at Tattenhall we had 25 runners out - 5 ladies and 20 men. And we had two strong teams out too with some excellent performances. But it was tough going with a big, high-class field. But an excellent result in both ladies and men's race. Solid performance from the ladies and an excellent 10 finishers in 101 places for the men. Particularly important is that with such a strong team we had a lot of runners just outside the scoring places. Very important because they push the other teams back, giving them a higher score. 

Great to see Allen Smith enjoying his first race in the league, and Margaret back from injury. Provisional results are below.

Just a reminder that the next Cross country is next Saturday 23rd November. It is at Wrexham - not Northop. It has been changed because the North Wales Championship in January has been moved to Northop. 

Men
1 Mat Rose 16th
2 Jez Brown 22nd
3 Simon Roberts 24th
4 Dave Gilbert 59th
5 Jeff Gifford 62nd
6 Eddie Davies 72nd
7 Paul Stinton 84th
8 Mike Jones 93rd
9 Dan Hollingsworth 97th
10 Mike Austin 101st (Last counter for senior men)
11 Les Coathup 104th
12 Steve Bellis 106th
13 Ian Bayliss 109th
14 Dave Boothroyd 125th
15 Pete Roberts 167th
16 Paul Donoghue 176th
17 Alan Smith 197th
18 John Morris 241st 
19 Jack Thomas 301st 
20 Rob Mackey 309th

1 Margaret Ludden
2 Dawn Urquhart
3 Lane Lindley
4 Fenn Higgins
5 Lisa Gittins

Sent by Rob Mackey (Chairman)
Buckley Runners
Road, Multi-terrain, Cross Country, Fell Running
Meeting at Buckley Sport Centre in North Wales
Meet 7.00 for 7.15 start on Tuesdays and Thursdays
You can follow us on Twitter @buckleyrunners or find us on Facebook

Thursday 14 November 2013

club contact email addresses

Are you getting emails from the club?

I am aware that many people are not getting regular emails from the club. Email is the quickest way of making sure that messages get to club members, especially now that so many people can pick up their emails on their phones.

I have recently set up a bespoke email address for the club on a Google account. There has been a problem transposing some addresses from my email account to the gmail account, and some of the addresses we have are no longer current, and I simply don't have email addresses for other people.

If you are not receiving emails from the club for any reason, and wish to do so, please contact me on buckley.runners@gmail.com and I will add you to the list

Many thanks

Rob

Borders League and WA Registration

The Borders League is back. First race is at Tattenhall on Sunday 17th. Start is at 11.00.

The first race is always a good one, lots of excitement at the prospect of a new season, a chance to meet up with friends from the other clubs. And Tattenhall is an excellent venue and an excellent course.

We need a good turnout from both the men and the ladies to get our season off to a good start. Hope to see you there on Sunday.

Thanks to everybody who has now paid up their BR and WA (or other region) subs, there are very few who haven't now. Just a reminder that you must be paid up to run in either Borders League or Cross Country, or to enter a race as a "Buckley Runner"

Unfortunately this week we have again been notified by Welsh Athletics that people have entered Conwy Half as Buckley Runners who are not paid up or registered with WA. One was a lapsed member who has not paid for a couple of years. The other appears never to have been a member. WA have been informed that they are not members and they will not be allowed to run as such.

I find it extremely annoying that people are abusing the system and the club, just to save a couple of quid or to wrongly enter a championship event. It is not fair on all the genuine members and runners who join up properly (it is not exactly expensive!) or who pay the surcharge and do not enter the championship. And I fail to see why Paul Brooks and myself and Jack should have to spend out time dealing with is. PLease can spread the word thta this form of cheating will not be tolerated.

Many thanks

Sent by Rob Mackey (Chairman)
Buckley Runners
Road, Multi-terrain, Cross Country, Fell Running
Meeting at Buckley Sport Centre in North Wales
Meet 7.00 for 7.15 start on Tuesdays and Thursdays
You can follow us on Twitter @buckleyrunners or find us on Facebook

Monday 4 November 2013

Clwydian hills race

Fantastic performances from Buckley throughout. Well done all!
2. Jez Brown
6. Simon Edwards
46. Paul Stinton
48. Huw Lewis
51. Dave Boothroyd
60. Peter Roberts
64. John Morris

Abergele 5

As ever, a well organised race over a challenging 5 mile course with some sharp hills. The North Wales championships are incorporated into the race. Smaller numbers than usual from Buckley this year.

6. Simon Roberts, 28.58
22. David Gilbert, 30.44
29. Jeff Gifford, 31.36
72. Dawn Urquhart, 36.24
121. Lisa Gittins, 40.23
140. Jack Thomas, 42.46

Monday 21 October 2013

British Fell Relays

A grand day out in Llanberis for the British Fell Relays, the third time in recent years that we've managed (just) to get a team out. A good dose of proper North Wales weather greeted 200 teams from across the UK, including the cream of British mountain running talent (and us). The HQ quickly turned into a gazebo graveyard as some of the bigger clubs saw their best laid organisation plans shredded by the wind: but our more modest 3ft high tent stayed intact! John M acted as team captain and mr motivator, with unhelpful suggestions from Simon R, and Jeff - recovering from illness - providing crucial extra moral support. Rest of the team included Eddie, Simon E, Huw, Dave, Pete - cracking performances all round, in often appalling weather against a top quality field. Watching the final leg runners plunge into waist deep mud topped the day off.
Roll of Honour:
Eddie Davies, Leg 1 (flat out 8k uphill sprint with 300m climbing up towards Bwlch y Groes - Eddie's first ever fell race!)
Simon E and Simon R, Leg 2 (15k, 1000m over 4 peaks including Moel Eilio, 70mph winds on the ridge)
Huw and Dave B, Leg 3 (by all accounts, one of the toughest navigation legs of recent years - energy sapping bog throughout)
Pete, Leg 4 (700m+ of climbing straight up the steep side of Moel Eilio and back through acres of churned mud)
These pics capture some of the glamour of the day.


Monday 14 October 2013

Flintshire 10km and other races on Sunday

A good turn-out and excellent result at Mold yesterday for Flintshire 10km. Only six runners on the results showing as BR but plenty of Buckleyites around.
Good runs by Simon Roberts (7th overall, 1st MV40, Eddie (17th 2nd MV45), Mike (33rd) and Steve (41st 2nd MV55) secured the team first prize.
Rob was 297th and 2nd MV65, James Huggins made a sneaky appearance, both in Buckley colours. Dawn was a late entry with a fine run in 61st overall, Sue Brierley was 339th. Leighton making a rare weekend visit back from Leeds was 271st, and Kathryn was 251st.
And of the others; good to see Steve and Jane Tideswell back at the races! Steve 102nd and Jane 207th, Carol (Jane’s sister) had a good run at 465th, Kevin Burns was 137th.
Big thanks to all the supporters who were out on the course cheering and getting cold and wet.
Everybody found that times were down. It is a tough new course, mostly on closed roads, with around 600 feet of climbing, made up of a long drag up to Nercwys then charging down slippery narrow lanes to follow the Borders League course and back to the sports centre. Weather was cold and wet, especially as the time went on, late finishers got very wet. A well organised event raising money for Nightingale House, well done everybody.
Meanwhile Jason was back in action, clocking 2.11 for Wirral Half Marathon.
And at the Breidden Hills race Jez was 7th, Simon Edwards was 12th and John Morris was 89th, winning the MV65 prize.
A good weekend at the races!

Posted by Rob Mackey
Chairman, Buckley Runners
You can follow us on Twitter @buckleyrunners or find us on Facebook

Wednesday 25 September 2013

UK fell race relays, Llanberis 20 Oct

We have entered a team for this year's fell race relays. They are in Llanberis (Sunday 20th October) this year, so we felt we should make an effort to get a team out (as the event is held once a year and can be anywhere hilly in the UK). We did quite well last year in difficult circumstances (ie not enough runners!) when the event took place in the Shropshire Hills above Church Stretton - and we also did well when in our only other appearance to date, when it came to the Clwydians (Llangynhafal) a few years ago.

In previous years (including last year) we struggled to get a team out, so it would be great if we could get some names together as soon as possible. We need 6 runners, and ideally some substitutes. There are four legs - two short 7-10k romps up the likes of Moel Eilio for solo runners, and two long legs for pairs (normally around 10 miles, one involving navigation). Please contact John Morris or Simon Roberts (via this blog or by phone/email: simongwyn@gmail.com) if you can join us.

Tuesday 27 August 2013

RTT, Cilcain and diary update.

Just got back from race the Train. Excellent events (the 30th!) and a record field of well over 900. Paul Stinton did 1.46 and beat the train. Jane did 2.05 taking 10 minutes off last years time and I did 2.31 taking 5 minutes off last year. Weather was appalling; wet with a strong headwind coming back down the valley. But it cleared up and we were able to have an excellent BBQ afterwards.

Good turn-out of Buckley Runners at Cilcain on Monday for the Moel Famau Mountain Race. Tough going in hot, humid conditions; made even this fairly short race hard going "felt like I was dragging a tyre up the hill" were the words of one club member. Me - I just finished - not felt so drained at the end of a race for along time. Results will be on http://www.cilcainshow.org.uk
Please see below my latest effort at a diary of events. It includes Cross Country and Borders League dates plus I have added links to races where I can. Please note the change of date for Helena Tipping (From 1st December to a provisional date of March 30th.
Next pub night is September 3rd (8.30 in Running Hare)
Can I just remind anybody who has not paid their subs that it would be a really good idea to do it soon. Cross Country and Borders League seasons start soon and you can’t run in them if you haven’t paid. (two cheques to Jack please, £10 payable to Buckley Runners and £15 payable to Welsh Athletics)
Just a reminder – we have a Twitter account (@buckleyrunners), you can find us on Facebook
Rob
  
Events Events programme prepared by Rob Mackey August 2013
Please check details prior to races (they can change or I can be wrong)
Please note that letters in 5th column (In bold) indicate if the race is part of Buckley Runners Championship.
R = Road, MT = Multi-terrain, F = Fell, BL = Borders League, CC = Cross Country, E = Extreme
Buckley Runners Pub Night is 1st Tuesday every month in Running Hare at 8.30 http://www.runningharepub.co.uk/

September 2013
1
Caernarfon 10K
Caernarfon
11.00

6
Deestriders Off Road 4
Shotton
7.00
MT
15
Vyrnwy Half
Lake Vyrnwy
1.00

15
Sutton 10Km *FULL!!!
Guilden Sutton
11.00
R
21
King John’s Castle
Llanarmon
11.00
MT
28
Ras Llyn Brenig
Pentrefoelas
1.00

29
Sandstone Trail
Duckington
10.0011.00
E
October 2013
5
CC Race 1 (Eryri)
Bangor
2.00
CC
6
Chester Marathon
Chester
9.00
E
13
Flintshire 10KM
Mold
12.00
R
19
CC Race 2 (Colwyn Bay)
Llandudno
2.00
CC
20
British Fell Relays
Llanberis


26
Snowdonia Marathon
Llanberis
10.30
E
November 2013
3
Clwydian Hills
Cilcain
11.00
F
3
Abergele 5
Abergele


16
Pen Fell Race
Dwygyfylchi
10.30

16
B+I Masters CC
Colwyn Bay



17
BL Race 1 (Tattenhall)
Tattenhall
11.00
BL
23
CC Race 3 (Deeside)
Northop?
2.00
CC
24
Conwy Half
Conwy
12.00

December 2013





  
14
Inter-reg CC + Masters
Builth Wells



15
BL Race 2 (Wallasey)
Wallasey
11.00
BL
26
Round the Walls
Chester
11.00

29
Jubilee Plunge
Llangynhafal
2.00

January 2014
18
CC Race 4 (Telford)
Lilleshall
2.00
CC
25?
NW CC Champs
Rhug, Corwen
12.00
CC
February 2014
2
BL Race 3 (Abergele)
Pensarn?
11.00
BL
8
CC Race 5 (Oswestry)
Oswestry
2.00
CC
March 2014
2
BL Race 4 (Deeside)
Deeside?
11.00
BL
23
BL Race 5 (Helsby)
TBA
11.00
BL
30
Helena Tipping
Wrexham


April 2014
6
BL Race 6 (Wirral)
TBA
11.00

23
BL Race 7 (Deestriders)
Shotton
7.00
BL
August 2014
16
31st Race the Train
Tywyn
2.05