Welcome to your Highwayman 'Club Hub'
Hi there... and a big welcome to your new Highwayman; we hope this will become an essential point of reference for all our members as we move to make information easier to find and more relevant to all parts of the club.
The Highwayman is designed to be a member focused 'club hub' where we will present and curate lots of information that we hope is interesting and informative - whether this be training session details, celebrating our successes, upcoming matters of club interest, news, or social information, we hope that you find it useful.
Like all things with the club, passionate volunteers and supporters make everything tick; we cannot do what we do without them. We want the Highwayman to be an extension of this spirit and act as open forum for members to contribute compelling content - got a story to tell that others would find interesting?... let us know about it.
This is your Highwayman and everyone is very welcome!
Andy Hind - Co-Chair | Haywards Heath Harriers
Did you know...
A quick round up of what's happening!
New Middy Report
Paul's latest Middy report is now available. Lots of results and team performances fromthe last few weeks - check it out below
Congratulations!
Well done to the hardy bunch of Harriers who took on the iconic Moyelman Marathon course. The weather was challenging but everyone stepped up and enjoyed the event. More details to follow.
WSFRL Fittleworth Five - Postponed
Unfortunatly this event has been postponed due to a waterlogged course! Once we have a revised date we will advise you. Entries will of course be carried over. Apologies!
Quick Navigation
Weekly Training & Events
Latest Middy Report
Meet your Coaches & Run Leaders
Club Socials and Meet Ups
Harriers Club Kit Shop
Coaches Training Updates
Keep up to date with our coaches, training sessions and key dates for your diary
Endurance Session - 19 March
There will be coached sessions and group leader runs based out of a variety of locations .
Endurance Group Tuesday Training - Coached Sessions with Martin / Marion / Ian / Graham.
PLEASE NOTE - Our winter training locations can also be found in the Group Info section of the Beetroot Announcements WhatsApp Group.
Tuesday 19 March
This will be a session led by your LiRF Group Leaders. Watch our for details circulated over Whatsapp for this week's session.
HHH Coaching Team
2024 Sussex Grand Prix Races - Fixtures
The 2024 race dates and entry info can be found here
The Sussex Grand Prix (SGP) is the county’s main road racing competition. It consists of 12 races and kicks off with the Hastings Half Marathon. The link below lists the races, their dates and links to race entry for each: -
Races « Sussex Grand Prix News
For those unfamiliar with the SGP it is a competition between Sussex clubs using the 12 listed races, mainly on-road (note the Lewes Downland 10 mile is off-road and the Bewl 15 is predominantly off-road).
Individual points are scored based on finishing position in your gender (1st, 500 points, 2nd 499 points and so on). Your best 6 scoring races form your overall individual score (and any 6 races count; there is no longer any requirement for “long” races to be included in your best-6). There are both open and age category awards in 5-year age bands for each gender from age 35 (women) and 40 (men).
There are also two team competitions: - one based on performance of the top 5 highest–scoring men and women, and another that takes into account participation levels where everyone scores, in the same way as the WSFRL.
We have had much club success in the SGP at both individual and team level in previous years, including winning the prestigious Steve Ovett trophy for best overall club.
2024 West Sussex Fun Run League - Fixtures
WSFRL - Fixture dates for 2024 can be found here
1/1/24: Hangover 5, Worthing
11/2/24: Run Your Heart Out 8k, Crawley
24/3/24: Fittleworth Flyers event, Fittleworth - Postponed - new date to be advised
1/4/24: Lewes Easter Monday Fun Run, Lewes
12/5/24: Hedgehoppers 5, Portslade
22/5/24 or 29/5/24: Trundle View, Chichester
29/6/24: Downland Dash, Burgess Hill
3/7/24: Roundhill Romp, Steyning
10/7/24: Beach Run, Littlehampton
14/7/24: Hove Stinger, Hove
21/7/24: Seven Stiles, Henfield
7/8/24: Highdown Hike, Worthing
8/9/24: Tilgate Forest 5, Crawley
6/10/24 or 13/10/24: Great Walstead 5, Haywards Heath (Home race so average points for rest of season scored for this event)
20/10/24: Windlesham House 4, Worthing
27/10/24: Steepdown Challege, Lancing
3/11/24: Gunpowder Trot, Horsham
Cross Country (XC) Fixtures
2024 fixtures will be posted here once available
Track & Field
A list of Track & Field fixtures can be accessed here
Our Races
Dates for key 2024 Harriers races will appear here:
Wakehurst Willow - details here
Great Walstead Five
The Running Calendar is an application developed by Greg Hilton
Plan your racing with Running Calendar [Beta Version]
Running Calendar is a member application that allows quick polling of interest and participation in a range of upcoming races.
This is useful for event planning, organising lifts or just finding out who else is planning on running. It's quick and easy to use and can be accessed on mobile phones.
By logging into the application, you can access the full range of features.
This remains a work in progress so you may experience the occasional glitch. Most issues can simply be solved by reloading the page.
The application is best experienced on desktops. Mobile users will get a better experience using the button below:
The Middy Report
This weeks report is brought to you by Paul Cousins.
For the w/c 15 March 2024
Haywards Heath Harriers Spring Forth Into Action
With the end of the cross-country season followed by the start of athletics, with the indoor athletics competitions and the road racing events having already started with the Brighton Half Marathon and the West Sussex Fun Run League already in full flow, Haywards Heath Harriers are involved with a bit of everything.
West Sussex Fun Run League
The second of the West Sussex Fun Run League races of the year was held at Tilgate Forest, Crawley on 11th February. The “Eat Your Heart Out” race was a five mile trail race starting and finished on the athletics running track at the K2 sports centre.
Haywards Heath Harriers had a super thirty-five finishers from this race alone.
Marcus Kimmins led the men home in twelfth place overall and Rachael Overton was the first harrier lady finisher in seventh place in the ladies’ race and sixty-sixth overall.
Full results were as follows:
12th Marcus Kimmins 33:23; 22nd Andy Hind 33:51; 30th Will Axell 34:39; 52nd David Adams 36:01; 60th Tim Miller 36:21; 66th Rachael Overton 37:07; 71st Chris Faulkner 37:24; 76th Sam Atkin 37:56; 82nd Andy Dray 38:20; 94th James Smyth 39:17; 101st Simon Robinson 39:41; 105th David Harper 40:01; 131st Jayne Brewer 41:52; 136th Richard Caddy 42:02; 155th Ian Tomkins 42:50; 160th Glen Hedges 43:02; 163rd Rebecca Pugh 43:08; 167th Simon Fitzpatrick 43:18; 170th Clare Kenward 43:26; 185th Abigail Redd 44:24; 186th Phil Scott 44:29; 187th James Buckeridge 44:33; 247th Amanda Soper 47:47; 249th Kath Buckeridge 48:03; 254th Nick Fellows 48:23; 270th Jac Barnes 49:14; 275th Richard Jobling 49:38; 276th Emma Pryor 49:42; 281st Marion Hemsworth 50:20; 288th Graham Kenward 50:33; 296th Michael Parish 51:21; 387th Carys Hind 62:10; 392nd Tracy Adams 63:39; 394th Rupert Purchase 64:22; 410th Richard Bates 69:01.
Athletics
On Saturday and Sunday, the 9th and 10th of March was the Sussex Indoor Athletics Championships which took place at Carshalton, London. The event was combined with the Surrey Indoor Athletics Championships.
The Harriers had several athletes competing at this event.
Under 15 boy William Kean, finished in sixth place in the final of the 60 metres with 8.54 seconds and finished in third place in his heat with 8.57 seconds. Both times were personal bests.
In the senior women, Lucie Venables came third and won bronze in the 60 metres in 9.18 seconds and also won another bronze third in the Triple Jump with a jump of 8.41 metres (her best jump for two years).
Anya Cole (Under 17) competed in the High Jump and won the bronze medal for third place with 1.40 metres equalling her personal best. She also finished in sixth place in the Pole Vault also equalling her personal best with 2.40 metres.
Alice Johnston finished in third place with a bronze medal in the Pole Vault in the Under 17 with a new personal best of 2.80 metres.
Jessica Diack came seventh in the Pole Vault in the Under 15’s with 2.00 metres.
Sussex Indoor Sports Hall League
Jessie Diack and Isaac Farmer competed for Sussex in the Sports Hall League regional finals recently in the U13 girls and U11 boys’ events respectively against teams from Kent, Surrey, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Hampshire and Buckinghamshire.
Jessie Diack came thirteenth in the two lap parlauf and finished in sixth place in the vertical jump
Isaac Farmer finished in nineteenth place in the Balance test and fourteenth place in the Chest Push.
Cross Country
At the Inter Counties at Wollaton Park on Saturday 9 March, Jamie McDowell had a super run finishing in seventy-fifth position in the under twenty men’s race in a time of twenty-five minutes and thirty-two seconds.
At the South of England Cross Country Championships which was held at Beckenham (Kent) on Saturday 27 January. Jacqueline Barnes finished in 316th place in 42:54 and Sarah Hamilton finished in 338th place in 45:38. In the men Tim Hicks finished in 682nd place in 73:28 and Carl Bicknell 703rd in 78:26.
Road Running
The Brighton Half Marathon took place on Sunday 25 February in windy condition for the last 5 kilometres of the race. However, this did not stop Haywards Heath Harrier Chris Faulkner running a six-minute person best!
It was great to see many from the club getting new personal best times for the half marathon at this early in the season road race.
The Harriers results were:
Michael Priest 76:48 (pb); Jamie McDowell 78:17 (pb); Jamie Gibson 82:17; Marcus Kimmins 83:06; Matt King 83:25; James Moffat 84:09 (pb); Tim Stannard 84:40; Matt Cook 85:31; Mark Green 91:14; James Bennett 91:54; Chris Faulkner 93:17 (pb); Simeon Wishlade 98:16; Oliver Fyfe 98:37; Greg Broad 1:40.36; Gray Wilkinson 1:45.00 (pb); Mark Davies 1:45.05 (pb); Jayne Brewer 1:46.23 (pb); Richard Caddy 1:47.08 (pb); Phil Scott 1:48.30; Emma Pryor 2:03.36; Sarah Hamilton 2:11.38 (pb).
Other Harrier Results:
At the Paddock Wood Half Marathon on 3rd March, Harrier Ben Gibson, ran a very speedy personal best time of 71.57 for 25th place in this very competitive local race. He was accompanied by Ian Kenton who finished in 77:46.
At the Eastbourne Half Marathon on 3rd March, Pete Francis finished in 1 hour 29 minutes and 22 seconds.
Sam Ridley ran in the Seville Half Marathon on 28th January and finished in a time of one hour 37 minutes and 2 seconds.
Get to know your Coaches and Group Run Leaders
This talented bunch of volunteers are all EA qualified coaches or Leaders in Running Fitness (LiRF's) and give their time week in week out supporting the club!
Coaches
Helen Diack
Head Coach
Marion Hemsworth
Endurance Coach
Ian Dumbrell
Endurance Coach
Mike Bale
Coach (Throws)
Graham Kenward
Endurance Coach
Christian Lambert
Intermediates Coach
Leaders in Running Fitness (LiRF)
Endurance Run Leaders
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Ben Gibson
Group 1 - LiRF
James Moffat
Group 1 - LiRF
Matt King
Group 1 - LiRF
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Andy Hind
Group 2 - LiRF
Greg Hilton
Group 2 - LiRF
Julian Boyer
Group 2 - LiRF
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Andy Dray
Group 3 - LiRF
Ian Dumbrell
Group 3 - LiRF
Rachel Overton
Group 3- LiRF
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Mark Sykes
Group 4A - LiRF
Liz Earley
Group 4A - LiRF
Hannah Gibson
Group 4A - LiRF
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TIm Hicks
Group 4B- LiRF
Carl Bicknell
Group 4B - LiRF
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Michael Parish
Group 5- LiRF
Marion Hemsworth
Group 5 - LiRF
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Paul Cousins
Under 18's - LiRF
Interested in helping the club with coaching? Check out our 'Get Into Coaching' promotion
Welcome to Group Runs
This is the area of the hub where you can find out who has similar interests and targets to you. Or just decide that you want to run with someone else over a different distance at a slower or faster pace than you usually do. You can join a group for a regular training run – to keep yourself honest to your plans – or just dip in and out as you wish!
How to join a Group Run
To help you decide, we’ve organised this under three headings
- Group Leader Offers – general training runs just cos it’s fun to run with someone else, usually Thursdays and weekends, in different locations winter and summer
- Target race and distance – group leaders organise training runs for specific times, races or distances.
- Club Impact – coached and or led sessions targeting such things as XC, SDW or even parkrun tourism, a monthly outing to a specific parkrun event.
We’d also like to hear news of what races you’re aiming for. Other Harriers might have entered too and it would be a pity not to share the experience with someone else, even if its just a lift!
So, have you entered a run you’ d like to share with others here? If there’s enough interest perhaps we can get one of our esteemed Group Leaders to set up a group!
ACCESS GROUP RUNS -
The Longer Read... The Oli Farr Marathon Story
Words by Oli Farr
Our resident marathon man, Oli Farr talks about his journey and motivations to become a full member of the 100 marathon club.
On the 21st May I ran my 100th marathon earning me the Blue & Yellow vest of the 100 Marathon club. This has been on the back of an epic journey that was seeded as an idea initially to run the London marathon In a Gym in Crowborough when I was seventeen.
After a gap (due to fitness and personal challenges) the idea came to me again when I recovered my fitness in my mid-twenties and it’s with this, I entered for the London Marathon’s 2015 race. Also, I entered and completed my first marathon at Portsmouth in 2014 and found out that I had secured a place into London the week after and also entering the Edinburgh marathon in the same year. The next few years saw me running a few marathons each year. It was at the Andover trail marathon that I first saw someone with the 100 Marathon club vest on and this led to the thought that I could I run one hundred marathons.
The plan initially was to run the one hundred marathons before I hit forty five years old but hitting the fifty marathon mark in 2020 lead me to consider what race I wanted to be my hundredth and with this in mind, I decided on the Richmond Marathon.
I then approached the One Hundred Marathon Club in February 2022 and became an associated member (at that time I was vetted to sixty-six marathons). Having decided to go for the Richmond marathon, I made the decision to achieve my target by completing the challenge in the May 2022 Richmond race. But this would have meant needing to run thirty three marathons in three months (a near impossibility), and for this reason I embarked on my toughest year by running thirty three marathons in thirteen months to meet the target, these runs weren’t enjoyable as I needed to run (for example) out and back races in winter in places like Rochester over a motorway bridge in cold and windy conditions at slower paces due to injury and energy conservation.
The last few races have been far more enjoyable as I closed in on the goal and my decision to finish in Richmond made the victory lap extra special (big thank you those who turned up to support me on the day and those who messaged me on the day and the race director and volunteers who helped to make the day even more special).
Looking back, I have learned a lot about myself and have met a lot of new people on the way, I have come to realise that there are a lot of mad runners out there who have inspired me along the way and I hope that my journey can inspire some of our club member (Haywards Heath Harriers) runners young and old to meet any challenge they set themselves.
As for the future I plan to take it a bit easier and to fall back into love with running on the trails and doing a few more park runs and Sussex Grand Prix races, I still have five marathons to complete this year and I plan to run the Manchester to Liverpool next year as well a whole bucket list of runs to keep me going for a long old time.
I hope you all have enjoyed following my story, I just need work out what the next challenge is going to be for me.😊
Do you have a story to tell? Get in touch to be featured in Longer Reads.
Looking After Yourself Coach Ian talks about...correct pacing and how to achieve the right balance in your endurance training
A regular question from many of you is what pace should I be training at to get the most from it? What level of intensity is right to maximise the physiological gains from training, let’s face it we all want those, while we minimise the risks of over-reaching, plateauing, or even worse, injuring ourselves.
Getting our paces and running workload right is not an easy thing to manage. Sometimes we all fall into the trap of running too much of our mileage at too fast a pace (I know I do!), or we run too fast a pace on our short speed intervals (I know I do!). Some of us also get the balance between steady and high intensity running askew (yep, me!).
Whatever distances we may compete at, we all need to build a strong endurance base to work from and that base comes from a significant percentage of our running mileage being done at a steady ‘conversational’ pace.
If you like what Jarne says about running 90% of your training time at LOW intensity then you may want to dip into some of the other sections that he covers.
Initial take-aways for me are:
- You have to work out, by trial and error, what YOUR correct training intensity is. “You don’t get better by following someone else’s optimal training plan.”
- It’s a good idea to use some kind of rough model of intensity zones to help you gauge your effort correctly, say a 3 or 4 paced model that uses breathing or ability to hold a conversation as a guide to effort.
- Long easy runs/comfortable threshold runs/short sharp intervals/race pace will all form part of a balanced plan and the bulk of it (c.80%) will be at easy pace.
- If you get a balance of intensity in your training you can achieve a larger training volume over an extended number of seasons – this is good news!
We will look at other sections of the article over the winter season but for now have a read of the summary and any sections that interest you. It would be good to chat about them when we get a few minutes.
Happy Running,
Coach Ian
From the archives... explore the back issues of the Highwayman
Keep up to date across our social media channels
There are many ways to keep in contact with the club.
We are represented across social media on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and there is also a Strava Haywards Heath Harriers Group that is a great way to get inspiration and show your support for your fellow team mates.
Our other channels include email and various dedicated club Whatsapp groups.
Interested in joining our social media team?
Our very own page dedicated to Haywards Heath Harriers. Reports, news and community. Give us a page like!
Bringing real time race reporting and club action. Tag us with #haywardsheathharriers #beetrootarmy
If pics are more your thing, check out the club feed. Tag us with #haywardsheathharriers #beetrootarmy
Strava
Follow and lavish kudos on your club mates with our very own Haywards Heath Harriers Strava Group.
Harriers Kit Shop
Following the closure of Kudos, our previous kit provider, we have now found a new supplier, Zeon, who can manufacture our bespoke kit on the same basis, eg: offering a pop-up online shop where members can order items individually, which are them shipped as one delivery to Haywards Heath and can then be distributed at Tuesday training or collected when convenient. This means there are no post and packaging costs.
The kit window is now CLOSED!
PLEASE NOTE - We need a minimum order of each garment type for the order to be fulfilled - if this is not reached, money will be refunded to the original payment method.
Any queries Mags Lazell (HHH) or Andy Burgin at Zeon ([email protected])