Welcome to your Highwayman 'Club Hub'
Hi there... and a big welcome to your new Highwayman; we hope this will become an essential point of reference for all our members as we move to make information easier to find and more relevant to all parts of the club.
The Highwayman is designed to be a member focused 'club hub' where we will present and curate lots of information that we hope is interesting and informative - whether this be training session details, celebrating our successes, upcoming matters of club interest, news, or social information, we hope that you find it useful.
Like all things with the club, passionate volunteers and supporters make everything tick; we cannot do what we do without them. We want the Highwayman to be an extension of this spirit and act as open forum for members to contribute compelling content - got a story to tell that others would find interesting?... let us know about it.
This is your Highwayman and everyone is very welcome!
Andy Hind - Committee Member| Haywards Heath Harriers
Did you know...
A quick round up of what's happening!
Training 7 May Weather Warnings
We are keeping an eye on the weather and the effect it is having on Whitemans Green track. Please check the Whatsapp Groups tomorrow for updates.
Committee members urgently needed
At our last AGM, two important roles at the club became vacant. Our Secretary and Membership committee places desperatly need to be filled. Without these roles in place, the club is placed in a precarious position. Could you help and support your club? Contact us here or via your usual Whatsapp / direct channels.
New Middy Report
Paul's latest Middy report is now available. Lots of recent results and team performances from the last few weeks - check it out below!
Quick Navigation
Weekly Training & Events
Latest Middy Report
Meet your Coaches & Run Leaders
Club Socials and Meet Ups
Harriers Club Kit Shop
Coaches Training Updates
Keep up to date with our coaches, training sessions and key dates for your diary
Endurance Session - 7 May
There will be coached sessions and group leader runs based out of a variety of locations .
Endurance Group Tuesday Training - Coached Sessions with Martin / Marion / Ian / Graham.
PLEASE NOTE - Our summer season has now commenced and we will be back at our summer training grounds on Whitemans Green.
UPDATE - 7 MAY - Please check the Whatsapp groups for training details. Due to the wet weather, our plans may change at short notice!
Meet at 7pm. Warm up and drills followed by a coached session of various intensity. Depending on availability, an off road trail run may also be on offer.
Warm down and finish by 8:15pm
See you there!
HHH Coaching Team
2024 Sussex Grand Prix Races - Fixtures
The 2024 race dates and entry info can be found here
The Sussex Grand Prix (SGP) is the county’s main road racing competition. It consists of 12 races and kicks off with the Hastings Half Marathon. The link below lists the races, their dates and links to race entry for each: -
Races « Sussex Grand Prix News
For those unfamiliar with the SGP it is a competition between Sussex clubs using the 12 listed races, mainly on-road (note the Lewes Downland 10 mile is off-road and the Bewl 15 is predominantly off-road).
Individual points are scored based on finishing position in your gender (1st, 500 points, 2nd 499 points and so on). Your best 6 scoring races form your overall individual score (and any 6 races count; there is no longer any requirement for “long” races to be included in your best-6). There are both open and age category awards in 5-year age bands for each gender from age 35 (women) and 40 (men).
There are also two team competitions: - one based on performance of the top 5 highest–scoring men and women, and another that takes into account participation levels where everyone scores, in the same way as the WSFRL.
We have had much club success in the SGP at both individual and team level in previous years, including winning the prestigious Steve Ovett trophy for best overall club.
2024 West Sussex Fun Run League - Fixtures
WSFRL - Fixture dates for 2024 can be found here
1/1/24: Hangover 5, Worthing
11/2/24: Run Your Heart Out 8k, Crawley
24/3/24: Fittleworth Flyers event, Fittleworth - Postponed - new date to be advised
1/4/24: Lewes Easter Monday Fun Run, Lewes
12/5/24: Hedgehoppers 5, Portslade
22/5/24 or 29/5/24: Trundle View, Chichester
29/6/24: Downland Dash, Burgess Hill
3/7/24: Roundhill Romp, Steyning
10/7/24: Beach Run, Littlehampton
14/7/24: Hove Stinger, Hove
21/7/24: Seven Stiles, Henfield
7/8/24: Highdown Hike, Worthing
8/9/24: Tilgate Forest 5, Crawley
6/10/24 or 13/10/24: Great Walstead 5, Haywards Heath (Home race so average points for rest of season scored for this event)
20/10/24: Windlesham House 4, Worthing
27/10/24: Steepdown Challege, Lancing
3/11/24: Gunpowder Trot, Horsham
Cross Country (XC) Fixtures
2024 fixtures will be posted here once available
Track & Field
A list of Track & Field fixtures can be accessed here
Our Races
Dates for key 2024 Harriers races will appear here:
Wakehurst Willow - details here
Great Walstead Five
The Running Calendar is an application developed by Greg Hilton
Plan your racing with Running Calendar [Beta Version]
Running Calendar is a member application that allows quick polling of interest and participation in a range of upcoming races.
This is useful for event planning, organising lifts or just finding out who else is planning on running. It's quick and easy to use and can be accessed on mobile phones.
By logging into the application, you can access the full range of features.
This remains a work in progress so you may experience the occasional glitch. Most issues can simply be solved by reloading the page.
The application is best experienced on desktops. Mobile users will get a better experience using the button below:
The Middy Report
This weeks report is brought to you by Paul Cousins.
For the w/c 29 April 2024
Emma Smiles with Pride!
Road Running:
Emma Pryor at the London Marathon.
In the London Marathon on Sunday 21st April, saw the largest number of finishers with over fifty thousand finishers.
The Harriers had seven runners taking part. First home for the club was Ben Gibson in a super quick time of 2 hours and 37 minutes. Siobhan Amer also ran a super marathon a week after running in the South Downs Way Fifty Mile race and Emma Pryor running a new marathon best time.
Harrier results were:
Ben Gibson 2:37.31; Tim Stannard 3:12.50, Siobhan Amer 3:51.34; Victoria Free 3:57.58, Gemma Morgan 4:02.40, Emma Pryor 4:43.17 (pb).
Ian Kenton, who is in great form, unfortunately did not manage to finish due to an injury not long after the start.
Other Harrier results:
Manchester Marathon - On 14th April, Chris Turner ran a super personal best time of 2 hours and 49 minutes and 6 seconds finishing in 286th place overall out of 22,299 finishers.
At the Fleet Half Marathon on 24 March, Tim Stannard finished in seventeenth place in a time of one hour twenty-four minutes and fourteen seconds.
Sam Atkin ran in the Hastings half Marathon in a time of one hour and forty-five minutes and thirty seconds.
West Sussex Fun Run League:
By Michael Parish
Harriers at the Lewes 10k.
On 1st April Monday, Bank Holiday Monday, saw Lewes Athletics Club open their doors to the third run of the season with the West Sussex Fun Run League (WSFRL). This was a 10km trails race around Lewes taking in Iford village, with 17 athletics clubs gathering at Lewes Leisure Centre athletics track.
The race started well with half lap of the track and into Ham Lane, following that around and under the A27 before hitting the trails. At around 4km the chalk footpaths had a build-up in water from the rain creating sticky white mud. Athletes battled on through the slippery surface heading for the village of Iford and back towards Lewes.
Coming out of the fields we were greeted by the Kingston Road, turning past Lewes RFC and Lewes Priory Cricket Club, before re-entering Ham Lane and heading for the final half lap of the athletics track.
There was great running from Haywards Heath Harriers with Andy Hind, 41:32; Gary Salmon, 41:57; Matt King, 42:06; Rachael Overton 46:07; Simon Robinson, 49:32; James Smyth, 51:27; Abigail Redd, 51:51; Gemma Morgan, 52:00; Richard Caddy, 54:02; Chris Rowe, 54:27; James Buckeridge, 54:30; Lucy Anderson, 54:52; Philip Scott, 54:58; Kath Buckeridge, 58:13; Marion Hemsworth, 01:03:41; Sarah Hamilton, 01:05:33; Michael Parish, 01:05:41; Tracy Adams, 01:21:27 and Rupert Purchase, 01:21:35.
With the third race of the season completed Haywards Heath Harriers are in a good position with 1st Horsham Joggers (346 pts), 2nd Lancing Eagles (339 pts) and 3rd Haywards Heath Harriers (332 pts). This is on the back of the Worthing Gazelles Hangover 5 on New Year’s Day, Crawley Run Crew’s Run Your Heart Out at Tilgate, unfortunately, Fittleworth Flyers had to cancel due to a heavily waterlogged course.
This is a great result for Haywards Heath Harrier James Smyth who took on the WSFRL fixtures for the club, arranging all the entries and drumming up support ensuring the club has a good level of attendance and propelling them up the league table.
Lewes One Mile Race
Ben Ledger-Catton finished a superb sixth place in the one mile event at Lewes in a time of 6 minutes and 37 seconds.
Ultra Racing:
Carl Bicknell.
An ultra runner is generally a runner that is competing in a distance event of more than the standard marathon distance of twenty six miles three hundred and eighty five yards.
One of the Harrier’s ultra runners is Carl Bicknell, who over the weekend of 13/14th April I took part in the Crawley 24 hour track Challenge.
In Carl’s word he commented:
“It started 12 noon on Saturday at Crawley's K2 Athletics track, and the challenge is quite simply to see what distance you can complete in 24 hours.”
“It is very different from traditional endurance events. Logistically it is very simple: you do not have to carry anything, and you are never more than 400 metres away from the aid station or your kit bag.”
“Timing chips record your laps and a leader board is updated hourly. But the repetition and non-changing scenery is psychologically challenging. Just as with marathons you have to start off at a steady pace, otherwise you will pay the price later!”
“Despite a few low points during the night, I was pleased to complete ninety-two miles and finish fourteenth out of thirty-three measured by distance, in a field that included elite runners, some who achieved age category records and team GB Ultra standard qualification.”
Athletics:
At the Crawley Open Meeting on 1 April at the K2 Sports Centre a group of Harriers took part in this seasonal opener event where athletes were getting themselves warmed up before the first of the athletic league races that start in April for the youngsters and in May for the adults and also for the Sussex County Championships.
Results:
Jesse Diack: 100m 15.41 secs (pb); Long Jump 3.67m.
William Kean: 100m 13.96 secs (pb).
Marcos Selby: 800m 3:02.78.
Russ Mullen: 3000m 10:16.53.
Alice Johnston competed in the Blackheath & Bromley Harriers AC Spring Open which was held on 7 April. Competing in the Pole Vault she vaulted 2.52 metres for 3rd place in the women's event.
Get to know your Coaches and Group Run Leaders
This talented bunch of volunteers are all EA qualified coaches or Leaders in Running Fitness (LiRF's) and give their time week in week out supporting the club!
Coaches
Helen Diack
Head Coach
Marion Hemsworth
Endurance Coach
Ian Dumbrell
Endurance Coach
Mike Bale
Coach (Throws)
Graham Kenward
Endurance Coach
Christian Lambert
Intermediates Coach
Leaders in Running Fitness (LiRF)
Endurance Run Leaders
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Ben Gibson
Group 1 - LiRF
James Moffat
Group 1 - LiRF
Matt King
Group 1 - LiRF
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Andy Hind
Group 2 - LiRF
Greg Hilton
Group 2 - LiRF
Julian Boyer
Group 2 - LiRF
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Andy Dray
Group 3 - LiRF
Ian Dumbrell
Group 3 - LiRF
Rachel Overton
Group 3- LiRF
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Mark Sykes
Group 4A - LiRF
Liz Earley
Group 4A - LiRF
Hannah Gibson
Group 4A - LiRF
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TIm Hicks
Group 4B- LiRF
Carl Bicknell
Group 4B - LiRF
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Michael Parish
Group 5- LiRF
Marion Hemsworth
Group 5 - LiRF
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Paul Cousins
Under 18's - LiRF
Interested in helping the club with coaching? Check out our 'Get Into Coaching' promotion
Welcome to Group Runs
This is the area of the hub where you can find out who has similar interests and targets to you. Or just decide that you want to run with someone else over a different distance at a slower or faster pace than you usually do. You can join a group for a regular training run – to keep yourself honest to your plans – or just dip in and out as you wish!
How to join a Group Run
To help you decide, we’ve organised this under three headings
- Group Leader Offers – general training runs just cos it’s fun to run with someone else, usually Thursdays and weekends, in different locations winter and summer
- Target race and distance – group leaders organise training runs for specific times, races or distances.
- Club Impact – coached and or led sessions targeting such things as XC, SDW or even parkrun tourism, a monthly outing to a specific parkrun event.
We’d also like to hear news of what races you’re aiming for. Other Harriers might have entered too and it would be a pity not to share the experience with someone else, even if its just a lift!
So, have you entered a run you’ d like to share with others here? If there’s enough interest perhaps we can get one of our esteemed Group Leaders to set up a group!
ACCESS GROUP RUNS -
The Longer Read... The Oli Farr Marathon Story
Words by Oli Farr
Our resident marathon man, Oli Farr talks about his journey and motivations to become a full member of the 100 marathon club.
On the 21st May I ran my 100th marathon earning me the Blue & Yellow vest of the 100 Marathon club. This has been on the back of an epic journey that was seeded as an idea initially to run the London marathon In a Gym in Crowborough when I was seventeen.
After a gap (due to fitness and personal challenges) the idea came to me again when I recovered my fitness in my mid-twenties and it’s with this, I entered for the London Marathon’s 2015 race. Also, I entered and completed my first marathon at Portsmouth in 2014 and found out that I had secured a place into London the week after and also entering the Edinburgh marathon in the same year. The next few years saw me running a few marathons each year. It was at the Andover trail marathon that I first saw someone with the 100 Marathon club vest on and this led to the thought that I could I run one hundred marathons.
The plan initially was to run the one hundred marathons before I hit forty five years old but hitting the fifty marathon mark in 2020 lead me to consider what race I wanted to be my hundredth and with this in mind, I decided on the Richmond Marathon.
I then approached the One Hundred Marathon Club in February 2022 and became an associated member (at that time I was vetted to sixty-six marathons). Having decided to go for the Richmond marathon, I made the decision to achieve my target by completing the challenge in the May 2022 Richmond race. But this would have meant needing to run thirty three marathons in three months (a near impossibility), and for this reason I embarked on my toughest year by running thirty three marathons in thirteen months to meet the target, these runs weren’t enjoyable as I needed to run (for example) out and back races in winter in places like Rochester over a motorway bridge in cold and windy conditions at slower paces due to injury and energy conservation.
The last few races have been far more enjoyable as I closed in on the goal and my decision to finish in Richmond made the victory lap extra special (big thank you those who turned up to support me on the day and those who messaged me on the day and the race director and volunteers who helped to make the day even more special).
Looking back, I have learned a lot about myself and have met a lot of new people on the way, I have come to realise that there are a lot of mad runners out there who have inspired me along the way and I hope that my journey can inspire some of our club member (Haywards Heath Harriers) runners young and old to meet any challenge they set themselves.
As for the future I plan to take it a bit easier and to fall back into love with running on the trails and doing a few more park runs and Sussex Grand Prix races, I still have five marathons to complete this year and I plan to run the Manchester to Liverpool next year as well a whole bucket list of runs to keep me going for a long old time.
I hope you all have enjoyed following my story, I just need work out what the next challenge is going to be for me.😊
Do you have a story to tell? Get in touch to be featured in Longer Reads.
Looking After Yourself Coach Ian talks about...correct pacing and how to achieve the right balance in your endurance training
A regular question from many of you is what pace should I be training at to get the most from it? What level of intensity is right to maximise the physiological gains from training, let’s face it we all want those, while we minimise the risks of over-reaching, plateauing, or even worse, injuring ourselves.
Getting our paces and running workload right is not an easy thing to manage. Sometimes we all fall into the trap of running too much of our mileage at too fast a pace (I know I do!), or we run too fast a pace on our short speed intervals (I know I do!). Some of us also get the balance between steady and high intensity running askew (yep, me!).
Whatever distances we may compete at, we all need to build a strong endurance base to work from and that base comes from a significant percentage of our running mileage being done at a steady ‘conversational’ pace.
If you like what Jarne says about running 90% of your training time at LOW intensity then you may want to dip into some of the other sections that he covers.
Initial take-aways for me are:
- You have to work out, by trial and error, what YOUR correct training intensity is. “You don’t get better by following someone else’s optimal training plan.”
- It’s a good idea to use some kind of rough model of intensity zones to help you gauge your effort correctly, say a 3 or 4 paced model that uses breathing or ability to hold a conversation as a guide to effort.
- Long easy runs/comfortable threshold runs/short sharp intervals/race pace will all form part of a balanced plan and the bulk of it (c.80%) will be at easy pace.
- If you get a balance of intensity in your training you can achieve a larger training volume over an extended number of seasons – this is good news!
We will look at other sections of the article over the winter season but for now have a read of the summary and any sections that interest you. It would be good to chat about them when we get a few minutes.
Happy Running,
Coach Ian
From the archives... explore the back issues of the Highwayman
Keep up to date across our social media channels
There are many ways to keep in contact with the club.
We are represented across social media on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and there is also a Strava Haywards Heath Harriers Group that is a great way to get inspiration and show your support for your fellow team mates.
Our other channels include email and various dedicated club Whatsapp groups.
Interested in joining our social media team?
Our very own page dedicated to Haywards Heath Harriers. Reports, news and community. Give us a page like!
Bringing real time race reporting and club action. Tag us with #haywardsheathharriers #beetrootarmy
If pics are more your thing, check out the club feed. Tag us with #haywardsheathharriers #beetrootarmy
Strava
Follow and lavish kudos on your club mates with our very own Haywards Heath Harriers Strava Group.
Harriers Kit Shop
Following the closure of Kudos, our previous kit provider, we have now found a new supplier, Zeon, who can manufacture our bespoke kit on the same basis, eg: offering a pop-up online shop where members can order items individually, which are them shipped as one delivery to Haywards Heath and can then be distributed at Tuesday training or collected when convenient. This means there are no post and packaging costs.
The kit window is now CLOSED!
PLEASE NOTE - We need a minimum order of each garment type for the order to be fulfilled - if this is not reached, money will be refunded to the original payment method.
Any queries Mags Lazell (HHH) or Andy Burgin at Zeon ([email protected])