The Island of Love and the X-Stream

You might be thinking where is Jane, so am I! It turns out she is still in Japan speeding around in a bullet train, first stop Kyoto then onto Hiroshima. So you have me back for another week! She is enjoying the food in Japan so much she has even had a cooking lesson.

To ease the burden, I’ve been lucky enough to enlist the skills of some roving reporters, our previous Chair – Andy Cook from the GVH tour to Cyprus and our current Chair – Vicky Crawley Wise from the Hardwick X-Stream.

Parkruns

Firstly though I’ll cover the Parkruns. Last week I had no time to cover them so first up Michael Linden deserves a mention for actually winning the Bedfont Lakes Parkrun on the 1st March in 19 mins 7 seconds. Surprisingly the only Parkrun he has won outside of Gadebridge. Not really a gentle shakedown for the Berko Half Marathon the next day!

This week I’ll have to start with Japan as Jane, Gary and Jack were running again! Japan was the 21st country to join the Parkrun family only back in 2019. The reports were the Sunshine Beach Parkrun is was the friendliest Parkrun ever. From the photos it has to be said Gadebridge Park had more sunshine but no beach, unless you watch After Life where there is a beach next to the Old Town.

We saw the biggest GVH turn out in Gadebridge Park, where Andy Watt made an appearance to take some sunny photos. Andy “Parkrun” Bishop, Darren, Kirstie, Megan, Emily, Sam, Kim, Antony and myself all gave the local Parkrun a go. It was a leisurely affair with most people saving their legs for some big Long Slow Run’s on Sunday, as part of the on going marathon training. We even had a rare sighting of Skip without his dog!

The Ellerby’s were out at their favorite Parkrun at Black Park. Rob Hawkes had a great run at Harrow with a 3rd place finish his highest placing in a Parkrun.

Ricky Parkrun had a couple of GVH there but most of the usual suspects were off in Cyprus! Cassiobury had a few GVHers with Russell taking his girlfriend for her first ever run, he wasn’t happy to get lapped by Guy and finish behind Mary and James with a buggy! Head Coach Ed was seen checking out Houghton Hall near Luton, maybe he was scoping out potential “Learn to Run” graduation 5km Parkrun contenders.

Tom and Jade took on the Severn Bridge Parkrun that is what it says on the tin, an out and back over the Severn Bridge which looks quite spectacular. The tag line is its three counties, two countries, all in one parkrun.

Last like the letter in the alphabet she needs is Helen Heathcote, who is taking on the Alphabet Parkrun challenge. On Saturday she completed the “Y” over in Wales and only has 1 to go to complete the alphabet challenge!

Hardwick X-Stream

Next up we have the Notes from our roving reporter Chair – Vicky Crawley Wise at the Hardwick X-Stream.

“Billed as an extreme XC event, run entirely on a farmers land, crossing ditches and the stream 4 times…. It is generally a total mud fest…..
Well the weather had a different idea & at 9 in the morning the thermometer was already rising (reaching the heady heights of 15 degrees by 11am).
The sun & lack of rain meant that all the trails had baked hard & only the entry and exits from the stream were boggy.
Jon & Andy both being old hands at this advised a hard start to get through the first gate & first stream early to stay out of trouble.
It was a glorious run, and I thoroughly enjoyed the stream crossings, but if I’m honest I would have liked more mud.
Still you can only race who is there & the conditions on the day,
Jon Roberts was first back, as 2nd M50, then Andy Wells then me.
I was absolutely thrilled to be 5th woman & 1st V45, had just gone over to have a bit of fun, will definitely go back…. But I hope next time it will be muddier 😂”

Cyprus

Cyprus is the birthplace of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and pleasure! Hence it is called The Island of Love. Of course this isn’t just a relaxing long weekend there’s a Marathon, Half Marathon, 10km, 5km Sunset Run and of course a Wine Run!

Most of the crew tackled the Half Marathon however Nick took on the Full Marathon and Lisa, Mikey and Holly opted for the 10K. Jetsetter Stu seemed to only be in Hemel for a day and he was off again in the Mediterranean, for a recovery half!

Over to our Ex Chair – Andy Cook for the his on island report

“Runner of the day was absolutely Nick who had to catch the 5:30am bus to get to a 7am marathon start. He smashed out a 3:01 time😜. Its a well organised event, lovely location and nice climate. We do a 5km ‘Wine run and vineyard tour’ Tuesday, travelling home Wednesday.”

How very civilised! Apparently the wine is the oldest in the world and is called Commandia, it dates back to 2000BC!

Nick was actually the 5th Brit over the line and an amazing 21st overall in the Marathon! That’s it again for this week, happy running…..