Easter weekend has been a quiet one on the racing front for the Team. An opportunity to catch our breath after the excitement of Hastings Half Marathon and what lies ahead in April.

So what does lie ahead? This weekend Joe is taking on the SDW50 on Saturday. 50 Miles, not kilometres. Sunday the team will be in 2 cities running marathons, Brighton and Paris. Andrew and Sarah are channel hopping, whilst Chris, Lucy P, Matt and Sarah J, will be pounding the pavements along the coast.

Emily, Rebecca and Victoria will be nearby, but on higher ground, and softer surfaces as they take on the first Brighton Trail Marathon, but will join the others for the last 6km of their route.

Then we have the London Landmarks Half, where Sue M and Lou H will be chasing a fast time whilst enjoying the views and soaking up the atmosphere.

Marathon training is tough, but I looked at the data this week and of the 19 members of the Team, currently training for a marathon or Ultra, I believe 18 are primed to run a strong race. Sadly just the one deferral due to a niggle, but it’s a strike rate I am really proud of and offers further evidence that the training points approach works very efficiently.

Good luck to all those mentioned above. The hard work has been done, believe in yourself, stay positive and most importantly, enjoy the occasion.

Back to the Easter Bunny, well this weekend, we did have a new parkrun PB at Hastings from Matthew, clocking 24:34. Also racing, was another new member to Team Orange, Laura. She was taking part in the Fakenham 5K, a 5 lap course, with a sneaky bit of elevation.

Laura ran a fantastic time of 22:15, claiming first place in her age category, beating her nearest rival by over a minute.

Plus a shout out for those in the picture who ran for 4 hours plus in preparation for their Ultra marathon in a months time.

As for myself, not a great deal to report, do you really want to know what I’ve been up to? I have a Brighton Marathon number, it’s sitting on the dining room table and each time I walk past to the kitchen I’m convinced I hear it whisper….. “you know you want to”.

I signed up to the London ballot last year, prior to Chester Marathon and my injury, and took the back up option of a place in Brighton. But whilst things have gone well lately I’m not ready to run a marathon so it would be foolish to attempt it. Although with no option to defer, and no refund possible I may well do my long run this weekend outside of Hastings 🤔  #whynot

I’ve entered the 5K on Wednesday, that’s the Hastings Runners Spring 5K for those who may not have registered yet. The outcome for that race will determine what I do this weekend.

But I’m excited, very excited. I can’t wait to see how the team fair this weekend in their respective races. It’s probably the most confident I’ve been as a coach given previous results and how well the training plans have gone.

So come back next week to find out how it all went. Thanks again for reading and to the team for being so awesome.