Author Archives: Nadine Brown

What a week!

This week’s Running Somewhere Else’s Coaches Challenge saw over 50 members split into 5 teams, each captained by one of the club coaches, to encourage each other to continue running during lockdown. Challenges were set by each team to receive bonus ‘miles’, alongside the physical miles they each ran, in an attempt to accrue the most miles over the week and be crowned the winners.

Challenges included co-ordinating running attire so each team member wore a different colour of the rainbow, only running in one direction (so only left turns or right turns allowed!) and taking a variety of silly selfies, all whilst following social distancing guidelines. Members were also all challenged to take part in a home-based exercise workout, such as strength training, yoga / Pilates or the popular Jo Wicks PE session.

“A few Silly Selfie’s from members of Elaine’s team”

These challenges certainly proved popular with almost all members completing the effort session: running up a hill at least 5 times wearing RSE club colours.

It has been fantastic to hear the ongoing feedback from all involved. The challenges have certainly made the captains’ smile too as they’ve learnt new things about each of you – For example, some members don’t know the ‘correct’ colours of the rainbow, others tune in to Joe Wicks just to watch him, some members used to have a lot more hair and others really need a haircut! Other highlights include someone running 12 miles with an orange just to be able to take a selfie with it, confusing the numbers 7 and 9 resulting in the photo of the wrong house and of course Kevin’s mammoth run collecting the letters of his name! Also, two of your coaches are far more competitive than the others. I’ll let you work out which two it may be…

Elaine’s thoughts … “What a brilliant time we’ve had in Chapman’s Champs.  I’ve loved the positivity and support of the team; it’s been lovely, everyone encouraging each other. I’ve loved hearing what everyone has been up to all week. Great energy and enthusiasm and team work! The silly selfies were great fun, with Amanda copying emoji’s! Tracey has been a super trooper, falling over and still continuing to get 3 more miles and a silly selfie. Mark did a very impressive progressive 9 miler, perfect pacing! Sharon went on a date with Joe Wick. I loved that when Rachel did her efforts she ended with an audience cheering her on! The legend Kate Potter did 9 miles with Tinglesfield efforts, not once but twice! Pauline and Becca have been so enthusiastic, asking what more they can do and supporting all and came up with good challenge ideas. Phil’s smug selfie made me laugh and then smashing his half marathon PB by 8 minutes was brilliant. Finally, Charlie engaging more with running this week because she wanted to help the team was fantastic.”

Kevin’s highlights … “My personal highlight was spelling my name; loved planning it and loved running it! Overall the highlight has to be the way it’s sparked everybody into life with people running further than recent runs and brought some fun back. Finally, within my team I’ve been impressed by Kay who hasn’t run for months yet this week has pulled a 5 and 6 mile run out of the bag as well as doing a fairly substantial hill efforts session (I’ve run up the hill she used and it makes Tinglesfield look like a speed bump)”

Gareth’s team… “Gareth’s Gang have all really stepped up to the mark for this weeks team challenge. Every member completed all three runs and rose to the mini challenges picking up every bonus point on offer gaining us a stunning total of 536.22 miles! The Q challenge presented no problems thanks to the abundance of quarries, quacks, Quakers and Queens. Tuesdays colours of the rainbow challenge proved a little more tricky and prompted some discussion about what the colours actually were, especially Sarah who taught me that Australian rainbows are a different colour! Luckily the girls and particularly Ellie and Cheri had every colour imaginable to choose from meaning that Dave and I could wear standard male blue and green. Vanessa improvised by wearing her top inside out to get the required Violet. Two falls in one day did not stop Jo from completing the full 9 miles either and Caroline T got inventive doing Joe wicks with a bag of Quinoa and running with an Orange. Although Sarah and Liz should have been running in London today I hope that this weeks challenges made up for that disappointment. Lastly a special mention should go to Ellie, Caroline JC and Sandie who’s competitive spirit came through in choosing team over family in this event.”

Nadine’s notes… “I am so proud of my team, everyone has worked really hard to collectively achieve a fabulous amount of miles. Ollie ensured he ran maximum miles each run due to being at a disadvantage to achieve bonus miles as his camera doesn’t work. In contrast, Handsome Andy (as he is now affectionately known as) ‘selfied’ away and not necessarily the correct things. Ben achieved his longest run since last October and provided some great camaraderie. Jo and Zoe put in remarkable full scoring shifts and have been a delight as has Emma with her super smiley selfies. Felicity has not only been achieving these challenges but also running every day this month. Ryo provided us with live footage of his effort session on Wednesday night, although we haven’t heard from him since he was about to take on a Joe Wicks workout… (Please let us know you are okay, Ryo?!) Huge kudos to Liz who only joined the club a couple of weeks before lockdown and threw herself into this team challenge, running consistently and coming up with the ‘run an exact number of miles’ challenge for Carol’s team. Finally, it was such a joy to see Jess back in a RSE vest and out running – well done! You’ve all made me a very happy captain.”

Carol’s comments… “Loved being a captain for the week and getting to know my crew who without excepting have all gone way and above for the team effort. Although I was dreading Kevin’s  ‘One Direction’ run …. I would never have forseen running in circles for 9 miles around the fields without ever being far from home… and actually enjoying it! Everyone has worked so hard from Martin pushing the baby on his runs, Linda and Sallie coming in from long shifts to still do their bit, Steve and Kirsty running further than they have in a while, Amanda, Tom and Vicki and Sarah doing it all with a smile and Dave finding time to do a yoga session between all his mega runs! Bring on the next challenge…!”

So without further ado… results are as follows:

1^st Gareth’s Gang – 536.22

2^nd Elaine Chapman’s Champs – 492.88

3^rd Nadine’s Dream Team – 492.47

4^th Carol’s Crew – 492.38

5^th Kevin’s Crew – 453.50

Big congratulations to Gareth’s Gang , who dominated from Day 1; well done to Caroline JC, Caroline T, Cheri, Dave D, Ellie, Jo, Liz F, Sandie, Sarah R and Vanessa. Very exciting to see only half a mile separated 2^nd to 4^th place too. Now that’s good team distribution if I do say so myself!

But as one member identified, the result is somewhat immaterial (sorry Gareth!); we hope that this week’s challenge has been a good focus in difficult times. Everyone involved has impressed the captains and we are so pleased you all took part. We’ve been really impressed with many members also using this as a catalyst to get back into their running and have pulled out some notable miles and sustainable hill efforts, as well as those who have achieved personal bests. We will have a celebration evening when it is safe to do so to applaud everyone’s involvement.

Last, but by all means not least, I personally want to say a huge thank you to the Captains – Gareth, Elaine, Kevin and Carol, who have put so much work into this week’s challenge behind the scenes. We really are so lucky to have such incredible volunteers in them as their experience, fun and positivity is phenomenal as are the other coaches and committee members. Thank you to Ellie also who has produced many of the photos for this report. Simply without each of them this week would not have been the success it was.

Good luck with next week’s challenge, which will be released shortly, stay safe and keep running .

Kudos to all!

Nadine

#TeamRSE  

Note from Ellie:

On behalf of the club, we also want to give a massive thank you to Nadine, who kept us on track and motivated throughout the challenges (although I think she may have just laughed at my team while we discussed rainbow colours!). To keep track of 5 team chats as well as directing her own team must have been quite the task! Thank you for all your hard work, patience and support throughout the week. We really appreciate how much time and effort goes into the planning of the weekly tasks, and are so grateful for the distraction during current times.