I feel like I’ve put a bit of pressure on myself. Committing to a weekly blog and trying to find an interesting way on reporting what the team have been up to.

But then it dawned on me. So awesome are you guys, I don’t need to be clever. You’re providing the content with your hard work and excellent results across a variety of events, and that proved the case this week too.

We had a strong representation at the Heathfield 10K. 16 took on this challenge, one I have swerved to date, but I’m definitely keen to give it a try now having experienced the atmosphere and excellent organisation.

With 220 metres of elevation, the majority of which come in the 2nd half of the route, it’s a not a course you would expect to produce PBs. But it did. Two for the Team. Martin, he of the incredible sprint finish 7 days earlier at the Weald Challenge, powered his way up the final hill to clock 53:47.

One our newest members Xiulan displayed her talent with a fantastic time of 56:44, a new personal best for 10K, a time I expect will be beaten in the next few months on flatter routes.

We had two age category wins. Victoria (49:52) won the FV55 category and was the first female Hastings Runner to cross the line, bagging herself a bonus 200 Club Championship points. Sarah (1:08:23) ran a strategic race to claim the FV75 category, almost dancing her way past us on the hill.

Some of the team who tackled this race last year made big improvements on their time, Lou W (55:12), smashed 12 minutes off her time from 2025. Chrissie (1:15:19) almost 6 minutes faster than last year, Sue M (1:07:44) and Maria (1:03:44) both improved by 5 minutes, Ben (49:24) & Karl (51:39) produced course PBs as well.

Also representing the team we had Shain (39:35), his second fastest 10k, Patrick (46:30), Steve (48:46), Jan (59:53), Lou H (1:00:33), Mark (1:04:47) and Lou M (1:07:46). A brilliant effort by all on that challenging course.

Much earlier in the week, Andy took on the Blaydon Race. A 5.9 mile route based on the lyrics to the 1862 song by George “Geordie” Ridley, titled “The Blaydon Races”. Andy ran a strong time of 54:14 to continue his good recent progress.

Whilst the majority of the team were tackling 10ks, Laura took on a completely different challenge at the Run Sandringham event. A 24 hour trail race where runners can do as many laps as possible before their time runs out.

Laura didn’t tackle this challenge on her own, she joined a group of running friends who took turns to run the 5 mile lap around the famous Estate. At around 3:30pm Saturday afternoon Laura set off on her first leg. Perhaps a little faster than first planned, passing the baton to her team mate after a 39:59 first lap.

Around 3 and a half hours later, now 8pm in the evening, it was time for Lap 2. A tad more conservative on this occasion, finishing in 41:34.

This is where the event gets challenging, with little time for sleep, as Laura started her third lap at 12:45 am, Sunday morning. With her headtorch guiding her around the route, Laura came back 43 minutes later, another strong lap.

4 hours past and the sun had risen by the time Laura clocked lap 4 in 43:28, starting at 5:30 in the morning. And her work was done when she completed leg 5 in 41:33, putting her team into 3rd place briefly after yet another impressive lap.

25 miles done!!! A whole bagful of bonus training points and the need for some sleep, but impressive all the same. Great work Laura. See I told you the team would make these posts interesting.

As for me, I enjoyed my weekend off, high fiving runners as they came up that final hill at Heathfield. I know every little bit of support helps so I do try and get out to races when the opportunity is there.

Until next week. Thanks for reading.