Aint no mountain high enough Tuesday, March 09, 2010 Congrats to our intrepid explorers who all returned from their tip up Kilimanjaro in one piece. The full story will be featured in the next newsletter. Mandy Loves her new 10K PB time Tuesday, March 09, 2010 Encouraged by a colleague at work who doesn't want to run marathons (!) Mandy signed up for the Love Run in Battersea Park. A 10k race in aid of a muscular dystrophy charity. The day was very cold but Mandy made it to the park in good time for the 11 o' clock start and stood shivering waiting for the start. The course was flat, a four lap affair with instructions to "make sure you pass the bandstand 4 times". Mandy lined up not too far from the front as it wasn't an enormous field but as a nice touch there was chip timing so the 45 seconds it took her to cross the line didn't matter. It took a few hundred yards to find running space but once she had she felt good. There was 1 water stop on each lap but it was so cold Mandy didnt actually want any and felt she was running well enough without. At the 5k marker her watch read 22.11 which stunned her somewhat and actually must have slowed a bit after that since as her official 10k time was 46.52. However that is a 10k PB by just over 2 minutes so Mandy was delighted by that! A nice friendly race, Mandy would do it again   Tough Guy 2010 - The coldest on record! Tuesday, February 16, 2010 Bill Smith, Roy Bentley and Jo Riley travelled the 160 miles up to Wolverhampton to compete in the coldest Tough Guy on record. They arrived to be greeted by sub-zero temperatures, snow and inch thick ice. After signing the Death Warrants and questioning their sanity they took a walk round the frozen course before making their way to the start line. A slide down a steep, slippery, muddy bank marked the start of the gruelling eight mile cross country course including the slalom, a series of tight twisting zigzags up and down an impossibly steep hill before tackling a series of tough, daunting obstacles including cargo nets, barbed wire, log walls, electric fences, walls of fire and numerous water obstacles featuring mud filled ditches, diving boards and under water tunnels. Finally they made it to the finish line exhausted, frozen and suffering from mild to severe hypothermia. After warming up and regaining the feeling in their bodies Bill and Jo have decided to enter the Nettle Warrior on 25th July and Tough Guy 2011, anyone else man enough to accept the challenge?? Kilimanjaro Tuesday, February 16, 2010 4 of the Dagenham 88 runners are attempting to climb up Kilimanjaro over the next 10 days. We wish Bob Abrey, Alan Potter, Rob Rant and Paul Davis every success with their trip. Have a great tiime lads and look forward to your safe return (God help Tanzania)   PB's smashed as Great Bentley proves no match for the 88's Thursday, February 11, 2010 The Great Bentley Half Marathon must be one of the flattest courses in the country and as it was selected to be an Essex Championship race the field promised to be fast. The weather was pretty much ideal - a little on the cold side but virtually no wind. There were some great performances from Dagenham 88 with Nigel Swinburne, Caroline Tuck & Jenny Akroyd all taking big chunks off their previous personal bests. The race was won by James Connor in 1 hour 8 minutes and the ladies winner was Sarah Stradling of Colchester Harriers AC in 1 hour 16. Dagenham’s finishers were: Nigel Swinburne (1:21, 46th place), Roy Bentley (1:31, 157th), Caroline Tuck (1:35, 215th), Jenny Akroyd (1:44, 379th), Bob Rant (1:56, 575th), Steve Ray (1:57, 596th) and Jo Riley (2:01, 648th). Thursday, February 11, 2010 It was a dull, damp, early start for the three Dagenham 88 runners taking part in this biannual event organised by Springfield Striders, fortunately we started off early as Bill's map reading whilst driving has put a Tom-Tom high on his list of things to buy. We all arrived with minutes to spare, clambered aboard the coaches that took us and 80 other runners to the start in Hertfordshire, then set off following route descriptions back to where we had parked the car in Essex. The winner led from start to finish and took 3 hours and 22 minutes to complete the 26.2 mile course Jason, in his first ever attempt at this distance wisely decided to run most of the way with Bill & Amanda (completing her 25th marathon) the course was muddy, muddy & muddier, but we had a laugh most of the way round, the checkpoints with tea & cake only slowing us down a little (well maybe a lot), Amanda's phonecalls everytime we hit mud on a hill were illuminating, Jason managed to sprint off for the last few miles to lead the D88's home, Amanda & Bill finished together,after a little detour(jointly misreading the instructions with less than a mile to go) a tough course but overall a good day out. Jason - 5:57 Bill & Amanda - 6:03:59   Gloucester Marathon 24 Jan 2010 Wednesday, February 10, 2010 Mandy Heselgrave decided she wanted an early marathon to kick start the year and this looked like a good one. It didnt start until 11 so milled about at the sportshall before hand and met lots of other competitors a mix it seemed to me mainly of Fetchies, 100 Club runners and a few RW types. A proper runners marathon then! Anyway it started with a figure of 8 loop then went on to 3 longer laps, you were given 2 bands at the start and once you had given away your second one you knew you were on the way home. It wasn't completely flat, but the undulations were rolling and actually gave it some nice variety, scenery wasn't bad either. I ran with a friend and having agreed that 4.30 would be a decent enough time we actually finished in 4.04.45, having had a really pleasant run. Suprisingly for this type of event the support was good! I reckon I will go back to this one because I felt at the end I could have actually PB'd here with just a little more effort. South Essex Cross Country League – Thorndon Park Wednesday, February 10, 2010 The 4th race of the season was at Thorndon Park. The ground was frozen after an earlier dusting of snow and as most of the team had competed in the Southern Championships the day before it was going to be a tough race. The course was challenging with a mix of grass and trail with some steep, short climbs and a couple of kissing gate obstacles thrown in for good measure. Despite race weary legs the ladies team got their best ever finishing position with Jenny Akroyd coming in 22nd and the mens team were led in by Nigel Swinburne coming home in 20th, followed by Jason Baker (65th), Bill Adams (115th), John Dyer (136th), Doug Adams (144th) and Mike Linstead (148th). Sadly as we were unable to field either a full ladies or mens team Dagenham came second last in the team standings (to Castle Point Joggers who fielded a team of none!) and remain 4th overall in the league.   Steve Saunters over to Kent Wednesday, February 10, 2010 Steve Ray of Dagenham 88 Runners travelled to Kent to take part in the Canterbury 10 mile road race finishing 462nd in 85 mins 39 secs out of the 839 finishers. SOUTH OF ENGLAND CROSS-COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIP Wednesday, February 10, 2010 For the first time since 2001 Dagenham 88 Runners entered athletes for the South of England Cross-Country Championships. The usually tough muddy hilly Parliament Hill course on Hampstead heath was made more tricky by a harsh overnight frost which left some parts of the 5km lap still frozen. The senior women raced over 8km and Caroline Tuck used her strength to come home 215th in 43 mins 38 secs. Jenny Akroyd continues to show promise in her first cross-country season with the club finishing 258th with a time of 43m 57s. The 15km senior men's championship is the longest race of the domestic cross-country season and the quality field had over 1000 entrants. In form 88 Nigel Swinburne led the club squad in 417th position in 68m 58s. Next home was veteran Rob Sargent, who found conditions not to his liking, recording 83m 24s for 710th place. Following him over the line were Bill adams 784th (93m 19s) and Mike Linstead 806th (112m 57s). Doug Adams aggravated a back injury running over the frozen ground and was unable to complete the course. The Dagenham squad declared that they enjoyed their return to the championship and the tough challenging course and hope that more club members will give it a go next year so that we can score in the team contest. There is a trophy for the first Essex mens team of 12 which only one team managed this year. Can we mount a challenge?   West Ham Park 5k – 31 January 2010 Wednesday, February 10, 2010 While other club members were enduring the challenges of the cross country or Tough Guy, Caroline Tuck took the flat, mud-free option of a short run around West Ham Park. The event was part of a 5k race series designed to help runners prepare for the Newham 10k in April. Caroline was second placed woman/1st FV35, in a 5k PB of 21:54. There are two more races left in the series – 14 & 28 February. They’re free to enter and ideal for everyone including beginners. There’s also a 3k option for children. The 14 Feb race has a Valentines theme – couples are being encouraged to enter and their joint scores will count towards the prizes. http://newhamclassic10k.com/parkrun/home.htm