Our first Annual General Meeting will take place next Wednesday (Wednesday 13th March) after the club run. We will be formalising the club and membership & governance arrangements. Come down and join us. You can find details here.
Brighton Half Marathon Race Report
By Claire Alleguen
What a beautiful day for a run! The Brighton Half was my first half marathon and first long distance race running with the Frontrunners. It was a corker!
When I signed up for it, the longest I had run was 10 miles, and although knackering, I didn’t think that the progression to that elusive half marathon distance would be that problematic. It more was challenging that I had initially thought and not to be considered lightly.
I work in London and have a long commute, and so my long-distance training runs were all in the dark over the winter period. We have had some awful storms and windy weather since Christmas, and it was hard to keep the momentum going. But I persevered adding a bit of distance to my weekly long runs.
In the week before the half marathon, I went snowboarding in Andorra. I am still very much learning, if you have ever tried to learn to snowboard you will know that it is brutal! I managed to break my wrist and bruise my knees quite badly. It didn’t deter me off running in a cast though.
Due to the experience of my training runs, I was most worried about windy weather as I find it exhausting to run against. In the week leading up to the race, I looked at the weather reports daily… as the week progressed, it was looking more and more positive. When race day arrived, you couldn’t have hoped for a nicer day. It was like a summer’s day – the sun shone brightly with just a little breeze and supporters came out in the hundreds.
There were four Brighton & Hove Frontrunners racing in total, James Barron, Sarah Rochford, Sonia Tester-Allen and myself all headed to the start line along with thousands of other participants. The atmosphere was amazing. Smiles from the racers and supporters.
Throughout the race, I was genuinely surprised with the numbers of people who had come out to support, offering water and sweets around the course. I loved the kids offering high fives and the inventive and inspirational posters. Prizes have to be given to ‘there’s a hot guy in front of you’ and ‘a creepy guy behind you’. And of course, the personalised effort made by my girlfriend ‘a roast dinner awaits’
Fellow Frontrunners Paul and Jen also came out to support and were spotted around the course. Jen gets special extra points for her handmade Brighton & Hove Frontrunners flat which I spotted going around.
All in all, I thought the atmosphere was incredible and I would recommend the Brighton Half to anyone thinking of running that kind of distance. The difficulties of trying to run with a broken arm and other injuries were soon forgotten.
When’s the next one?
AGM and Committee Election
As Brighton & Hove FrontRunners grows and evolves, it is important that we have an organisation that reflects the original club aims from the founding members. We are at a point where we would like to formally incorporate the club, agree a constitution and elect committee members to help us grow the club, help us fundraise to support activities, and support current and new members to getting the most out of being a FrontRunner.
We will be doing this at our first Annual General Meeting. Committee posts to be elected include:
– Co-chairs
– Treasurer
– Club Secretary
– Race Secretary
– Social Secretary
– Communications Secretary
– Welfare Secretary
Whether you’d like to run for a position or just find out more come to our AGM on Wednesday 13th March at 8pm (after the club run) at the Sussex pub, BN3 2RH.
Draft copies of the proposed constitution is available below.
Nominations for positions will be taken on the night. Outline of responsibilities and roles are also below. If you are unable to attend you can also nominate yourself by emailing us in advance of the AGM. We are always looking for volunteers – so even if you don’t want a formal role we would love to hear from you and help out on an ad-hoc basis.
Our Next parkrun Tourism Stop: 16th February
Once a month, we meet for a Saturday morning parkrun and coffee. Having now completed all five parkruns in Brighton & Hove, we are now going further afield.
Our February stop is a week yearly than normal due to the Brighton Half Marathon being an BHFR road race. So on Saturday 16th February we will be taking on Worthing parkrun – a straight forward out and back along the promenade with some personal best potential for those seeking to improve their 5km times. We will be organising transport via our Facebook page and WhatsApp group.
BHFR Gain Another Run Leader
Congratulations to our very own Paul Howard, who completed his Leader in Running Fitness (LiRF) qualification with England Athletics this week.
We now have two England Athletics qualified Run Leaders in the club to support training and running sessions on Wednesday nights.
You can see Paul put his LiRF training in action as he leads this week’s interval training.
Introducing Interval Training
To add to our regular social run, we have introduced intervals on a Wednesday night for those FrontRunners that want to become quicker runners, or those that just want a change from a regular run.
A number of FrontRunners are hoping to get quicker Parkrun times this year, intervals are a great way to help you work on those personal bests!
For those that don’t want to take part in interval training, there will still be a Run Leader taking out our usual social run. We will all set off at the same time, so if you’re unsure which run to do, you can always make your mind up on the night after our group warm up. We will all come back together for our cool down.
Haven’t been before? You find out when and here to meet us here.
Our Next Parkrun Tourism Stop 26th January
The last Saturday of every month, Brighton & Hove FrontRunners meet at a local Parkrun for some Parkrun Tourism. Our Parkrun tour takes us to East Brighton Park next on Saturday 26th January. East Brighton is a new Parkrun, meaning we now have 5 Parkrun within the city. The run takes place completely on grass and we have already had a FrontRunner take podium place there in the last few weeks.
We will again go for a postrun coffee after the run for a chance to catch up. You can join our Facebook event here
January Beginner’s Group Now Full!
Our beginner’s programme starting in January is now full and we are operating a waiting list. You can join our waiting list here to be informed of when our next course opens.
Members – Add us to your Parkrun profile
Brighton & Hove FrontRunners have now been recognised by Parkrun, so you can now add us to your running profile and follow how other BH FrontRunners get on at Parkrun every week.
It’s really simple to do, sign in to your Parkrun profile.
Once you are logged in, click “Update” to update your details.
Under “Running Club (Optional)” select Brighton & Hove FrontRunners from the drop down.
Click “Save Changes” at the bottom of the page.
Now when you get your weekly results you will see Brighton & Hove FrontRunners listed next to your name. You can click this to see who else from the club has ran and get the latest Parkrun updates.
We’re back for 2019
It’s the first Wednesday of the year and our regular club run is back after a short Christmas break.
We will be meeting at our usual location at the beach shelter nearest to the entrance to the King Alfred Leisure Centre car park at 7pm.
Tomorrow’s run will be an out and back. We will match similar runners together to run as a group and there will always be a back marker to ensure you don’t come last.
New to us? Come along 5 minutes early so we can you registered with us.