Stopsley Striders Newsletter – December 2021

The newsletter will be made up of recent/key content we post on Facebook and any other messages we need to share.

Most exciting news first:

We are back meeting in Inspire on Mondays and Thursdays and from 6th January we will be meeting in Studio 1, which is on the right at the top of the stairs. We have the room from 6:30pm-7pm.

Yes that’s right – we now have our own room – just a different room to what we were used to!

We will be holding notices at 6:50pm and be out running by 7pm. First Club night of 2022 is 6th January.

Bag storage will be in the ground floor lockers – don’t forget your 20p. You can also use the changing facilities.

Mondays will continue to be social runs, & Thursdays we will continue to offer a coached session.

We also encourage members to take a Lateral Flow Test (whilst they remain free and you can get hold of them) and to wear a mask whilst indoors to help keep all our members and community safe at this time.

*Club Payments for Inspire*

The committee have been looking into ways to finance these club nights moving forward.

We have agreed as a committee that we will no longer be accepting cash on club nights and have been investigating alternatives.

Currently we do not have an alternative that is logistically and administratively viable, therefore we will continue to offer club nights at Inspire at NO cost to members until April.

The question of how club nights will be funded after April will be discussed at the next committee meeting on Jan 10th.

*Track*

Track will return after the Festive Season on 4th Jan.

Session starts at 19:30 – £3 per session, pre booked via Spond.

We are continuing to use Spond so that we can monitor attendance and take payments where needed. If you don’t have access to Spond you can be added to the Spond list on Inspire club nights – we are using it just like Helen’s register.

Race Suggestions (Club Championship Races & Races suggested by members)

Don’t forget to record your race results: https://www.stopsleystriders.org.uk/record-your-race/

2022 Club Awards Night

Please ensure you have recorded all of your race results from 2021 (using the above link) by 9th Jan as the coaches and committee are meeting on 24th Jan to discuss Award Winners in preparation for the return of our annual awards.

We are planning on holding this at Crawley Green Social Club at the end of Feb/early March (Date TBC).

If members wish to be considered for a age/distance award please visit Award Scheme – Stopsley Striders for details and then email Charles our men’s club captain on menscaptain@stopsleystriders.org.uk by the end of January.

ATW Events Club Discount

The Club have negotiated the benefit for all club members to receive a 10% discount to all ATW events.

Please visit Active Training World Events – Active Training World for a list of their upcoming events.

Charity & Social

  • 9/1/2021 (Sunday) Introduction of Sunday Long Runday
    • Following the success of the Boxing Day run we encourage Striders to run down the cycle path for their long run.
    • Organise your run on Spond
    • Aim that everyone finishes their run at 11am and meets at Starbucks (Luton Retail Park, Gipsy Lane) for a coffee and cake
  • 17/1/2022 (Monday) – Post run drinks at The Barrells after our 8km and 5km led runs!
    • Meeting from 20:00. There will be a Spond event for numbers, or message one of the committee the week before.
    • For the earlier club run on this evening we will be offering a 5K and 8K run in a similar format to the Christmas Lights Run with a run leader and tail runner

This year’s charity is Hospice at Home Home | Hospice at Home Volunteers and the Club Rep for the charity is Hilary Blessing.

So far the events held for the charity have been a 12 days of Christmas Challenge and the December Club Social which saw an auction for Gill McLaren’s Christmas Cake, a Gin Sling plus some other fundraising. The Social raised £134 so thank you to all that have contributed to the charity so far.

The committee are currently hard at work in organising the Awards Night for late February/Early March and a Club 40th Anniversary Bash for June 2022. Look out for more information regarding these events soon!

Some December Highlights

Boxing Day Run

19 Striders ran for an hour down the Cycle Path to Harpenden and then drank coffee in Starbucks after.

Christmas Day Parkrun

A good number turned out at Luton Wardown Parkrun to make some space for the Turkey and Spuds!

Christmas Lights Run

We had Mulled Wine at the Disney House on Old Bedford Rd and met Santa on Fallowfield!

Cross Country

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Well done to the 28 Striders who ran against Dunstable Road Runners on a very Misty Sunday morning on December 19th. Thank you so much to Kate Neale for organising, Maria Petts for scoring and the other Striders who gave up their time to marshal, time keep and support on such a dull, cold morning.

We did superbly against them, scoring more points as both Men and Ladies Teams. Well done to all runners!

Striders Men: 64

Dunstable Men: 148

Striders Ladies: 89

Dunstable Ladies: 103

Dunstable RR will be inviting us back for a Cross Country Run or Social run soon and we will be inviting them back to run our trails when it is a little warmer and dryer!

Charles and Ruth will be representing the Club at the 3 Counties Cross Country Meeting on 17th Jan in planning for the 2022/3 Season.

Survey

Thank you to all the members who took the time to participate in this survey. The committee have considered all of the results and the details of the analysis and considerations are attached to the email sent to all members.

Coaches

Thank you to all members who have volunteered to be coaches. We welcome more applications by 4th January to either Thom or Maria. This will then be discussed at our next Committee Meeting on 10th January.

That’s all folks…

We would like to wish you all a happy new year and look forward to seeing you at a club event in the near future.

Good luck to our runners running at the County Cross Country Championships in Milton Keynes on January 8th. If you have any questions or comments please contact a member of the committee.