From Berlin to Loch Ness, this weekend it was Sarah Marzaioli’s turn to complete a marathon. She’s long since passed the 100 tally, and she didn’t even start running until she turned 50.

I’m full of admiration for Sarah who recently retired at the age of 75 😲 and we should all be inspired by her achievements. A busy schedule and a nasty fall meant training was disrupted in the build up to this race but it didn’t stop Sarah completing the picturesque route in 5 hours and 15 minutes.

We had a decent representation at the Hastings Seafront 10K. New team members Adrian Barratt and Paul Lambert were both in action. Jacqueline Scott, Su Sparkes and Sue Mann all tackled the familiar route, some enjoying it more than others.

We shouldn’t always get bogged down in times, especially as this wasn’t a goal race for any of the team. Celebrating participation is equally as important.

I think what we probably don’t do enough as runners is celebrate our achievements in weekly training. That leads on nicely to Kate.

She told me after the conclusion of her 2nd training plan that she had entered her first ever Ultra. I was keen and excited to help out. That was until Kate mentioned two holidays spanning 5 of the next 7 weeks. Yikes.

But we’ve made it work and at the weekend Kate completed her peak training week for the Beachy Head Ultra, running for 3 hours on Saturday morning and then 3 and a half hours on Sunday. Just the small issue of a 4 hour run to complete this weekend and Kate will be pretty much ready to smash her first ultra.

Another Team member with a huge goal is Alison who’s training for New York Marathon. She’s reaching her peak weeks and covered the distance over two runs this weekend, joining Kate for much of her long run on Sunday morning.

We were blessed with great weather at the weekend and Louise took full advantage to run her best parkrun time since March! Followed up with a 2 and a half hour run on Sunday.

The Team continues to grow with Marie Appleton set to join this week as she hopes to improve her 5k time. I’m hoping there will be 2 new faces joining us on Tuesday evening and I shall introduce you to them before the session.

Keep spreading the word, keep working hard and keep enjoying your running. I’m loving being your coach.