Dear all
Happy New Year
On behalf of the committee, we would like to wish you all a very happy and healthy New Year.
Firstly as a club we would like to thank Jane for all her hard work and dedication over the past few years as outgoing chairwoman, as you know Jane has put an awful lot of work into helping in all aspects of the club at races and behind the scenes. We would like to wish Jane all the best and hope to see her at many races and training sessions.
Secondly I would now like to introduce myself – John Willis as the new chairman. Many of you know me already, but for those of you who don’t I’m very approachable and I love to have a laugh, and I am always willing to listen to anything you want to tell me. I have just renewed my LIRF license and am looking forward to helping if needed in our Thursday training sessions. I’m a great believer in all inclusivity within the club. Hopefully I will get to meet those of you I don’t already know over the coming year.
Congratulations to all those who ran the internal Club Championship Gold Hill 10K race last Sunday morning, with 20 runners braving the freezing mist. Well done Rich White and Emma Mogridge as 1st male/female respectively. Also, a big thank you to Ines and Martin for organising the race, marking the route, and time keeping. Full results are on the club website.
Congratulations to all those who managed to get to and run the Broadstone Quarter race on 1st January – you all ran very well, and this is an amazing start to our DRRL campaign. Well done especially to Emma Mogridge for 4th lady overall with a spectacular time of 42.55.
To keep up to date with all recent results, please visit the Main Results section of the club website.
Christmas Party
Thank you to everyone who came to the Christmas Party, fun was had by many and again it was a brilliant event, we hope you all enjoyed it. A huge thanks to all involved in getting the party organised.
Club draw for London Marathon place
Congratulations to Angela Jamieson who won our club’s EA place in the 2025 London Marathon. We wish her all the very best in her training and in the run up to this fantastic marathon. Good Luck Angela.
Penselwood 10k
This year’s Penselwood 10k is on Sunday April 13th. This is a Club Championship Race. Unfortunately, this will be the final year this event will be running, so you need to enter asap as this will be your last opportunity to race this very scenic and friendly race.
Club Championship Races
The Club Champs races for 2025 are as follows. Our list again includes the very popular Studland Stampede on the 5th of October and the Beast @30. These races do sell out very quickly, they might seem a long way off but if you’d like to enter, do so as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.
Dorset Road Race League, DRRL
Fixtures for 2025 are listed on the DRRL website (and shown below) so please put these races in your diaries and support your club in our DRRL campaign. You might think only faster runners are needed, but this really is a team league where every runner can contribute to the team’s overall score. Even if you’re not going to score in the top 3 at a race, you can still contribute to the team’s overall position by staying ahead of the third or fourth scoring runner for another club – you could make all the difference from the back of the pack. It’s also good fun and great to be part of the Doddler team at any race.
January 01 – Broadstone Quarter Marathon
February 09 – Lytchett 10
May 04 – NDVM
May 18 – May 5
June 8 – Puddletown Plod
June 13 – Purbeck 10k
July 06 – Round The Rock 10k
August 03 – Stur Half Marathon
September 14 – Marnhull 12k TBC
October 19 – Weymouth 10
November 16 – Wimborne 10
November 23 – Boscombe 10k
Food Bank Run
Following another success of our Food Bank Run, we will be repeating this event for 2025 on Saturday 22nd February. Keep an eye out on the club Facebook page for more details, but initial plans are to meet at the new location of The Vale Family Hub to run, jog or walk 1 mile, 3 miles or 4 miles. This event is open to all – family and friends are very welcome. Please don’t forget to bring your food/or cash donations. The idea is to donate food, but the Pantry has said they can get 4 times as much food with cash donations, but any donation, however small, will be welcomed and will make such a difference.
Defibrillator training
We have the opportunity for 11 people to have defibrilator training. Not only could you help save a life within the club, but this is a skill you will be able to use wherever you may be. If you would be interesed in this opportunity please let one of the coaches or myself know asap so we can get this booked in. Once we have numbers of interest then we can organise a date and time which will hopefully suit all.
Parkrun
If you are registered with Parkrun, please make sure that you are in the Parkrun Dorset Doddler Group so that we can find your results. If you go to your parkrun profile, then select groups, you will be able to add Doddlers there.
STRAVA
And don’t forget to join the Dorset Doddlers club group on Strava. It’s not essential but it’s a good way to see what fellow club members are up to, you’ll be ranked in the leader boards and can see how you fare on segments frequently run by members.
Shaftesbury Hills on Tuesday evenings
This is a very versatile session that can be adapted to your own speed and level of fitness.
Meet in the top car park by the Kings Arms SP7 8JX at 18:45 for an 18:50 start. Paul Russell or Shams Wahab will be leading these sessions, and they usually post details on FB each week, so please comment on FB or contact Paul directly if you have any questions about this session.
Thursday Club Training from Sturfit, Sturminster Newton
Meeting at 18:45 for a 19:00 start. These coached sessions are led by Ian, Paul, or Shams, and include a variety of focused training sessions to improve your running technique and fitness. These sessions are suitable for all levels from the novice runner to the grizzled veteran, whether you’re running at a steady pace or setting speed records. Come along and benefit from the vast experience of our coaching team, or just to catch up with your running buddies (no-one will mind if you just fancy an easy run at the back). Changing facilities and showers are available in Sturfit until 20:45.
Please see more details of our training sessions on the club website.
Summer Runs
Starting once the clocks change to summertime, you might think it’s a bit early in the year to think about summer runs, but it would be great to get a full list of dates booked in, organised by lots of different members. The basis for these runs is to show off your very favourite run to the club. So, if you have that special go to run, perhaps somewhere we’ve not run as a club before, somewhere stunning, somewhere with the perfect picnic spot or perhaps a lovely pub, flat or hilly, but mostly on trail, then please let Lynda know. If you’ve not organised one before, Lynda will help you. You don’t necessarily need to mark the route as we run together in groups.
Club Updates
Please keep an eye on our website for club updates, especially over the coming few months as events and other news will be posted here, in addition to our club Facebook page. You don’t have to be an active member of Facebook, but it is worth checking the club page for notifications, reminders, and posts from our members.
Committee
Please ask any member of the committee if you have any questions and they’ll be happy to answer or at least point you in the right direction.
Our next committee meeting is due to take place on Thursday 13th February at 8:45pm. If you would like to raise any points to discuss or if you’d like to join us for a meeting, please let us know so we can arrange. If you don’t want to sit through the entire meeting, please ask and we can put you early on the agenda.
We look forward to seeing you all soon. Keep running and look after each other!
John Willis (Chairman)
Click on the link above to see our previous updates.