BRR Blog – 7 April 2025
The BRR team at the St. Clare 10k
Hello Road Runners!
It was a fantastic weekend of weather and a fantastic weekend of racing for BRR. It was not so fantastic for those of us who suffer from hayfever caused by tree pollen. I was fine for the St. Clare 10k, and for sitting in the garden of a nice country pub with a sandwich and drink afterwards, but by the evening my nose was doing a good impression of a fountain. Summer? Bah humbug!
Congratulations and Jubilations
Our new Coaching Assistant, Zahra.
A massive “well done” to Zahra Akram, who is now an England Athletics qualified Coaching Assistant. You may remember that, as part of her qualification, Zahra had to be filmed taking two of our track sessions, which everyone agreed she did very well. Zahra will make a great addition to our fantastic coaching team at Barking Road Runners, until she goes off to Uni!
A Good Heart
Giving CPR, from the RevivR web training
A study has shown that the risk of death due to cardiac arrest whilst running a marathon or half marathon is reducing – in the US at least!
Analysis from the Race Associated Cardiac Event Registry (RACER) looked at cardiac arrests that occurred during US marathons and half-marathons between 2010 and 2023. Over the period it found that there were only 176 documented cardiac arrests among more than 29 million finishers – that’s just one in every 166,667 runners. Of those, 117 individuals survived, resulting in a 66% survival rate. This marks a dramatic improvement from the 29% survival rate reported in the previous RACER study (2000–2009). The improvement is thought to be due to better emergency preparedness, particularly the availability of defibrillators, and people being more willing to provide CPR.
There doesn’t seem to be a comparable study for the UK, but cardiac deaths during races are exceptionally low and, with increased availability of defibs, there is no reason to think that the outcomes for our runners would be any less favourable than for our friends in the US (if they are still our friends, after the tariffs!). But it does emphasise the importance of CPR training, and people being willing to give it a go. You can find free training on the British Heart Foundation website RevivR – please have a look. You can’t make someone anyone worse by giving them CPR and you may save their life.
Tip of the Week
Have you got a stairwell at work or where you live? A study in the journal ‘Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise’ found that short bouts of high-intensity stair climbing improved fitness as effectively as sprint training on flat ground. This is probably because climbing stairs improves your strength. So, say hello to the stairs and wave goodbye to the lift for a few weeks, and you could be on the way to a new PB.
Tracksmith 100 Days to London – week 13
Sunday 13th April 2025 sees week 13 of Tracksmith’s free marathon training programme. Those running London should now be in their taper period, and Tracksmith has on offer options of 10k (6 miles) and 20k (12 miles) through central London, starting at 9.30am sharp at their base at London Trackhouse, 25 Chiltern Street, London, W1U 7PW.
For more details and sign-up see https://ti.to/tracksmith/100-days-to-london-2025
Bank Holiday Bonanza
We have a plethora of bank holidays over April and May, and there are plenty of local races to do, if you don’t mind alienating your non-running family and friends.
18 April (Good Friday) - Pitsea RC Crown to Crown (more details in the BRR Diary, below).
Monday 5 May (May Day) – Witham May Day 10 (miles). Starting and finishing at Witham Rugby Club. An Essex Championship race this year. https://www.withamrc.org.uk/races/may-day-10/
25 May - Thameside 5k and 10k - Thameside Nature Discovery Centre, in Mucking. A lovely run alongside the Thames estuary, with a fantastic medal. Enter now for an early bird discount. https://www.entrycentral.com/Thameside10512025Races
26 May (Spring Bank Holiday – Hatfield Broad Oak 10k. Coincides with the village fair. https://www.atwevents.co.uk/e/hatfield-broad-oak-10k-9088
May the 4th Be with You
If you don’t fancy the Witham 10-miler on 5 May, on 4 May there is an opportunity to participate in an unusual challenge.
The Wings for Life World Run is a global charity race held in May every year. The motto is to run for those who can’t, with 100% of entry fees (£22) going to the not-for-profit organization Wings for Life which is helping to find a cure for spinal cord injury.
With Wings for Life, thousands of people across the world take part at exactly the same time – either running at a Flagship Run or connected with the App.
The London event is taking place on a 2.5k course at the Olympic Park. But there is no set distance; instead, a moving virtual finish line called Catcher Car pursues you at an increasing speed! The run starts at 12 noon with the virtual car beginning its pursuit at 11.30am, When the car catches you, your race is over. You can use the Goal Calculator to see how far you might be able to get before the car catches you. More information about the London event can be found here: London – App Run Event
Greg’s Race Report
A plea on behalf of Greg – please remember to register as Barking Road Runners when you enter a race. Otherwise, Greg must scrutinise team photos trying to figure out who participated, and I’m sure he has better things to do with his Sunday evening than play detective.
Round 2 of the Grand Prix series for Barking Road Runners was the St. Clare Hospice 10k race at Hastingwood, near Harlow in Essex. The team enjoyed some pleasant, sunny weather which made up for the undulating course.
First finisher for BRR was Martin Page in a time of 45:55. He was followed by Ron Vialls 53:05, Mick Davison 58:13, Barry Rowell 58:25, Dennis Spencer Perkins 59:48, Rob Courtier 1:01:05, Alison Fryatt 1:02:48, Les Jay 1:15:28 and Dawn Curtis 1:16:18.
BRR members also took part in other events at the weekend with Paul Withyman taking part in the London landmarks half marathon finishing in a time of 1:23:48. Trevor Parkin also participated.
Faye Spooner ran the Brighton Marathon finishing in a time of 4:41:35 despite having struggled with an injury in the preceding month.
Faye after the Brighton Marathon
Derv Bartlett ran in the Banagher 5k as a 21:00 pacer finishing 20:56 only 4 seconds off his pace time.
Perfect pacer, Derv
BRR parkrunners
Barking - Peter Jackson 19:48, Nehal Patel 22:50, Tom Shorey 26:17, Jason Li 26:38, Isabel Pinedo Borobio 26:55, Sian Mansley 27:07, Barry Rowell 27:44, Alain Cooper 28:35, Clodagh O’callaghan 30:16, Andrew Gwilliam 32:22, Martin Mason 33:01, Les Jay 37:02, Nikki Cranmer 39:22 and Alan Murphy 53:08.
Some of the BRR members at Barking parkrun
Brentwood - Faye Spooner 33:14.
Chelmsford Central - Gary Harford 28:18 and Louise Chappell 34:29.
Harrow Lodge - Rory Burr 23:25.
Ingrebourne Hill - Mark New 24:07.
Kingsbury Water - Adrian Davison 24:15.
Maidstone River Park - Jonathan Furlong 36:44.
Marlborough Common - Rosie Fforde 25:00.
Thames Path Woolwich - Dawn Curtis 37:33.
Dawn at Thames Path parkrun
Valentines - Kevin Wotton 24:05 and John Mitchell 34:05.
Walthamstow - Ron Vialls 27:23, Stephen Colloff 29:31, Jess Collett 29:37, Paul Withyman 29:37, Darren Graham 44:29, and James Sheridan 44:30.
Some BRR members at Walthamstow parkrun
Whitstable - Belinda Riches 28:34.
Belinda at a windy Whitstable parkrun
Highest BRR age gradings this week were Belinda Riches 60.97% for the women and Peter Jackson 74.49% for the men.
BRR Diary – April
To see the full diary of BRR events on the TeamUp app. Just download the TeamUp app onto your phone, then enter the calendar key: ks67p21gt8p5gzdo66 when asked. If you don’t want another app on your phone, you can also find it under the ‘events’ tab on the Barking Road Runners website: https://www.barkingroadrunners.org.uk/calendar. If you are doing your own event, that you think other BRR members might be interested in taking part in too, please go ahead and add it.
7.00pm, Tuesday 8 April – Speed Session. Jim Peters Stadium, Mayesbrook Park. This week Jess will be taking the session, and it will be an inverted pyramid:
4 min run, 2 min recovery
3 min run, 1 min 45 secs recovery
2 min run, 1 min 15 secs recovery
90 secs run, 1 min recovery
1 min run 1 min recovery
90 secs run, 1 min recovery
2 min run, 1 min 15 secs recovery
3 min run, 1 min 45 secs recovery
4 min run, 2 min recovery
7.00pm, Thursday 10 April – Road Run. Castle Green Centre, Gale Street, Dagenham. Usually between 4-6 miles.
8.00am, Sunday 13 April - Run4life 5k and 10k. Coventry University London, Rainham Road North, Dagenham, RM10 7BN (the old Dagenham Town Hall building). Not a club race, but it’s local if you feel like giving it a go. Enter at: https://run4life.org.uk/
11.00am, Friday 18 April - Pitsea RC Crown to Crown. Westley Heights Country Park at the rear of the Miller & Carter (Crown) Public House, Langdon Hills. Mainly off-road trail race with a short stretch of tarmac near the beginning and end. A basic, old-fashioned race with no chip-timing, just £2.50 for EA members/£4.50 non-EA. Good news for regulars is that the public toilets have reopened. Entries on the day or via EntryCentral.
Cracker Corner
After a difficult discussion, my friend and her husband decided that they don’t want to have children. They’re telling them tonight.
A new restaurant has opened in Ilford called Karma. There is no menu - you get what you deserve.
Chris wasn’t happy with my impulse purchase of a revolving chair, but when he sat in it, he eventually came round.
Quote of the Week
“That’s the thing about running: your greatest runs are rarely measured by racing success. They are moments in time when running allows you to see how wonderful your life is.”
Kara Goucher
And Finally
You might never be as good-looking (if you like that sort of thing) or successful as Harry Styles, but you could try and get as physically fit as him by following his training regime.
It starts with a slow 10 to 30-minute jog, followed by a rapid one-mile run and a bodyweight challenge comprising 100 push ups, 100 sit-ups and 100 squats within eight minutes. That’s just the warm-up, which is then followed by four rounds of:
1min kettlebell swings (16kg)
1min box jumps
2min sandbag over-the-shoulder (20kg)
2min alternating dumbbell clean and press
1min rest
Enough already? No, then there are eight rounds of 30-45 sec hill sprints (16-21km/h) at a 0.5-2.5% gradient, with 90 seconds rest. That is followed by 15 minutes of “diverse core exercises including planks, one-sided farmer’s walks, side planks, and sit-up variations.”
The session concludes with 10-15 minutes of assisted stretching (where a trained professional helps you stretch muscles beyond your usual range of motion).
All of this helped him run the 2025 Tokyo Marathon on 2 March in 3:24:07. Personally, I would expect a faster time after that sort of effort. I think I might start with the stretching and take it from there…
Keep on Running
Alison
Chair, Barking Road Runners
