On Easter Monday, we joined forces with the Whitchurch Track Project to put on an event at the Whitchurch athletics track that is under threat of being demolished. This event was a way to raise awareness of the campaign and raise funds to support the bid to save the track. It was a very enjoyable event and well supported by many local runners and clubs. A big thank you to everyone who attended!
It was a perfect day for it. The sun was shining and we had a strong turnout in our bid to save the track. For those who don't know, the track is under threat of closure and being demolished for housing. It is disappointing as this is the only track in the south Bristol area and could be a great sporting facility for the surrounding communities.
This event hopefully is a step closer to saving the track. We raised funds on the day to help in the fight to revive and regenerate this historic track. The local news was present and there was even a feature about the track and the event on ITV news that evening.
As part of the event we organised a team interval run. We collaborated with Karhu, one of the running shoe brands we stock, who inspired the event by tapping into their heritage and celebrating Finland's legendary distance runner Paavo Nurmi. In 1928, Nurmi set the (then) World record 1-hour run when he covered 19.21km in 60 minutes.
Our competition involved participants entering in teams of two (could be mixed gender) to see how many laps of the track they could collectively cover in an hour. It was a tag team event so only one runner was running at a time while the other rested. They could divide the laps however they wanted to. The only rule was only one runner from a team could be running at a time. This is where tactics came into play and teams had to adapt during the hour depending on how they were feeling.
To record how many laps each team covered, we gave each runner a number to fix to their chest and there was a "counting zone" at the 400m point. At the end of each 400m lap every runner had to enter the zone and receive a dot on their number. At the end of the hour every runner on the track stopped where they were and we measured how far round the lap they were and recorded this on their number. Everyone returned their numbers to us and we tallied up the results.
While we were counting everyone's laps there was a short talk by John Pearce, the man behind the Whitchurch Track Project, Carole Williamson, Ali Hurford and other local voices to emphasise the importance of saving the track. After this we had a presentation to recognise everyone's efforts and reward the winning team with new running Karhu running shoes. We also had a raffle where another lucky team won new pairs of Karhu running shoes.
In total we had 26 teams take part (52 runners). The winning team was Bona Vacantia (Callum Moore & Marcus Kropacsy) who collectively covered 17563 meters. In second place was Team Jelly (Kelly Dicks & John Cox) who covered 17545 meters and in third place was Yassos Reborn (Dave Withers & Phil Crashe) who covered 17273 meters.
Team Interval Run Results
- Bona Vacantia - Callum Moore & Marcus Kropacsy - 17563 meters
- Team Jelly - Kelly Dicks & John Cox - 17545 meters
- Yassos Reborn - Dave Withers & Phil Crashe - 17273 meters
- From One Brother to Another - Joe Gillet & Will Gillet - 17021 meters
- In the Bin - David Thurlbeck & Elliot Smith - 16767 meters
- Team Bush - Andy Bush & Charlie Bush - 16478 meters
- The Welsh Connection - Owen Farr & Shaman Asghar - 16170 meters
- Big Track Energy - Dean Hopkins & Tom Christmas - 15639 meters
- The Fillingham Flyers - Jack Fillingham & Katie Fillingham - 15400 meters
- Team IDC - William Krelle & Jess Scott - 14788 meters
- Alvin & the Chipmunk - Noah Halliday & Jackson Rumball - 14788 meters
- The Cat and the Bat - Catherine Wickham + Kev Brewer - 14581 meters
- Vic and Jake - Victoria Povey & Jake Salkeld - 14373 meters
- Grove Lane 1 - Chuk Ebenezer & Ros Bullard - 14175 meters
- Team Irish - Andy Irish & Sam Irish - 13112 meters
- Bitton Pace Setter and Regretter - Richard Kershaw & Dave Britton - 12990 meters
- Wheelnuts - Nick Wheeler & Abbey Nutt - 12978 meters
- QSRC - Charlotte Hogan & Nathan Taylor - 12738 meters
- The Dragger and the Bragger - James Wade & Glenda Powell - 12382 meters
- Project Life Choices - Aweis Rashid & Gemma Portis - 12343 meters
- Team Salmon - Sam Russe & Simon Baillie - 12087 meters
- Injured Anonymous - Aaron Varshney & Mark Watts - 11600 meters
- Atoz - Zahara Ali & Adam Jefferies - 10602 meters
- Hurforuns - Alison Hurford & Jonathan Hurford - 10528 meters
- Team Till - Darren Till & Adrienne Till - 10254 meters
- Sheppard's - Lucy Sheppard & Jason Sheppard - 10096 meters
There are many people to thank for making this a special event.
Firstly, a big thank you to the Karhu team but specifically Michael who gave up his Easter Monday to come and support the event. He brought along a Karhu shoe demo where participants had the opportunity to test out the Mestari 2.0, Ikoni 3.5 and Ikoni ATR. Karhu also kindly donated two pairs of trainers to give to the winning team as well as a free pair of Balega running socks to anyone who ran the event in Karhu trainers.
Secondly, a big thank you to Jack's Coffee Van who supported the event and kept everyone fuelled and hydrated on what was one of the hottest days of the year so far. They have kindly donated 15% of all profits towards the fight to save the track.
And finally, a big thank you to everyone who took part. It was great to receive so much support from local clubs including Bristol & West AC, Southville RC, Bitton Road Runners, Emersons Green RC, Great Western Runners, Queen Square Run Club and more!
