Bright start to the season – T&F League Report
The sun shone brightly in Rugby on the opening day of the 2018 Midland Senior League. I was somewhat concerned given the number of athletes missing, a combination of BUCS, Birmingham 10K and various injuries, plus several late withdrawals had weakened the team with everyone having to compete in more than one event – never ideal! However I needn’t have worried as everyone performed out of their skin on the day and as a result the BRAT team ended up in third place overall. Among the many highlights on the day were Becca Jones who competed in seven events, and Prince Ayeh, Katrina Walker, Jonny Briggs and Helen Pike who also took the ‘multi-events’ approach. Winners on the day were Mario Juez (on his debut) who won both the 400 and 800 A races, Prince also did the double with the 110 hurdles A and Pole Vault B, Dan Robinson…
Marathon Mondays: Famous last words
OK, we lulled you in safety. It wasn’t our last post, and it’s not even Monday! But we thought that this one was important and special. Now that the dust has settled and the temperatures (temporarily) dropped, we’ve asked our club place runners, Kevin Oakes and Nathan Smith, to reflect on their race and what they’ve learned about the marathon and about themselves. Here’s what they’ve had to say. Kevin Oakes 1. In 3 words, describe your marathon experience. Challenging, exciting & encouraging 2. What was the most positive thing about your marathon experience? The training up to the marathon has taught me not to be afraid to run distance and to be more flexible and less regimented with training. Also the sense of achievement, even though I did not achieve the time I aimed for, but I know it’s not impossible to achieve that time. 3. What went wrong…
BRAT National 12 Stage Road Relays – Manager’s Report
Our BRAT national team paid another visit to Sutton Park on what was a positively Spring like day, when compared to The Midland Champs Winter north of the wall. Although slightly weaker, the demand was to beat individual midland times, and conditions were right for it. This was an event dominated by the South East, particularly Kent ! We were 7th in the Midlands and 4th West Midlands, surprisingly just beaten by Worcester who are promoted to 1st division in XC, so one to look out for. Although how Coventry were allowed to be there after being disqualified at The Midlands is disappointing. Dan as usual was our lead man. The first leg at The National is a challenge, where the last man in 60th completed in 33 minutes and was way off the back! Dan was at the other end of the race, smashing his midland time by 31 seconds…
Congratulations, you’ve done the marathon! Now what?!
Congratulations! You have reached the last one of these articles… and hopefully completed your marathon too. 🙂 So, how did it go? Remember that in the hours and days immediately afterwards, emotions are high. You may be riding the crest of a wave, or are in the pits of despair. Post Race Reflections Once you have had that shower, eaten, slept, showed everyone your medal and analysed all that lovely data, what’s next? Probably the most effective use your time (with the exception of enjoying a few more of those well earned beers and pizzas) after the race is spent on reflection. Your body is battered, but hopefully not too broken, so use the time to truthfully assess your performance and how closely it matched your expectations. It may seem unimportant once the race is over, but if you ever plan to return to a similar endeavour, this opportunity…
Meet the runners: Sophie Ward
The marathon is edging ever closer. We hope you are getting your training in and are healthy and well. So far, you’ve met Kevin and Nathan. But there are a few other runners from the club tackling the marathon this spring. Today you’ll meet Sophie Ward. Tell us about yourself: I’m Sophie Ward, 25 years old. I live with my fiancé Matt and my dog Yogi :). I’m a physiotherapist. What is your sporting back ground? I’ve tried lots of different sports including; ballet, tap, horse-riding, swimming and triathlon. Finally settling on running. What is your goal for the VLM/ other spring marathon? Its my first marathon, so just getting over the finish line would be a massive achievement! However, I’d love to finish sub 3hrs. What does your weekly training look like? Sunday – Long Run Monday – Brat Run (8mile recovery run) Tuesday – Rest/Pilates Wednesday – Brat…
Marathon Mondays: Rest and Recovery
Welcome again to Marathon Mondays! We are going to focus on the third part of the performance triangle – Rest and Recovery. Find out why rest and recovery are as vital to training as the actual running itself. ‘Rest’ is often perceived as a dirty word amongst runners, with many fearing that they will lose all of their hard-earned fitness in an instant. However, rest and recovery are probably the two most underrated facets of training. Whilst the world’s best runners train very hard, they also take their recovery super seriously and are supremely lazy (no joke) when they’re not putting one foot in front of another! Just what do we mean with rest and recovery? There is a difference. To paraphrase a famous phrase of our time: “Rest means rest.” Do nothing. Nada. Zip. This effectively means you can do anything you want, except running and exercising. Recovery,…
BRAT PB Success Indoors
The final indoor meeting of the season took place at the Birmingham High Performance Centre on Saturday 17th March with a number of our athletes putting in some final preparation for the forthcoming outdoor season – although judging by the current weather, spring and summer still seem a very long away off! There were a number of BRATs competing across a variety of events and the personal bests certainly flowed; In the long jump, Maisie Scamp went over 4 metres in three of her four attempts with a best of 4.08m. Josie Williams equalled her pb with a leap of 4.09 whilst Monique Thomas did a unique double with pbs in the shot and long jump. Lily Smith also did the double with pbs in the shot and discus – the discus competition being held outside in blizzard conditions with a paramedic on standby, presumably to treat athletes for frost…