Night of the 10,000 PB’s – The Royal Ascot of Running A great night was had watching some speedy folk run round and round Parliament Hill Track (the heart of Planet Chaser). The atmosphere was great, the fireworks were fantastic and Spiky Will was spiky. Well done to everyone who participated and special shout out to the volunteers especially our own Simon Fitzmaurice. Big Half GOOD NEWS! For those looking for a autumn half marathon target, we have received 30 community entries (discounted entry of £10 vs the usual price) for the Big Half on September 4th. We will receive an entry console later this month, where you will be invited to enter. Looking forward to having a big group take part! Track update Track session for tonight is 4x (beginner) or 6-8x {400m (5k pace) [2 min recovery] - very last 400m rep is 'faster'}. Total 1600-3200m hard. A quick reminder that we are still trialling something new this week where we only provide guided warm-ups and drills for the 7:00pm session. So if you're signed up to this 7pm session and think you're going to be late and miss the warm-up, please go ahead and switch your spot to 7:20pm. Athletics The first Athletics meet will be held at Lee Valley (N9 OAR) on May 22nd. We'll add more details closer to the day. Typically you'll need to sign up and declare which events you'd like to do on the Thursday before. Summer League The first fixture is one month away on the 19th June at Headstone Manor which will be a 5 mile run followed by team relays and most importantly a decent picnic. Extra kudos for chasers who run relays after cake Sri Chimnoy 5k A few Chasers will be running the 5k race on the 14th of June. Sign up here  Beginners Graduation Parkrun Beginners Graduation Parkrun is on Saturda 28th May at Hampstead Heath.  Come run and cheer our incredible beginners on the completion of the 8 week course. Mornington Chasers AGM The AGM will be held at 7.00 pm on Monday 30 May, upstairs in The Pineapple, 51 Leverton Street, NW5 2NX. All paid-up members are warmly invited to attend and stay for the free Thai buffet (with vegan options) afterwards. Below is the finalised Agenda for the meeting: 1.Welcome and apologies for absence 2. Minutes of the AGM 15 November 2021     Corrections: •             31 March instead of 31 May as new end of financial year under Amendments to Constitution •             Rebecca Taylor is also a Club Captain under Committee Changes 3. Matters arising 4. Annual Report by the Chair    5. Amendments to Club Constitution •             End of financial year to be 31 March, not 31 May (6a, 8a, 15) •             Annual report to be delivered by the Chair, not the Secretary (6bi) •             Club subscription rates to be decided by the Committee, not the AGM (4a) 6. Treasurer’s report 7. Subscription rate for the coming year 8. Appointment of Officers, Club Captains, and Committee members 9. Appointments to lifetime membership 10. AOB Bay to Breakers – Nicky Payne Being in the States for a friend’s wedding (and a bit of a pre wedding road trip) I was keen to find a race that would fit into my Travel itinerary. Without much research, and with Rachel’s encouragement, I ended up signing up to run Bay to Breakers in San Francisco. My lack of research (and knowledge of the US) meant that I was oblivious to the hills of the city, however with some more research of the race and seeing the race profile I tried to convince myself that it couldn’t be much worse than North London, right? Besides this certainly wasn’t an ‘A’ race, it was just a bit of fun. With that in mind my Nike race shoes didn’t make the edit and I had just decided to have fun. I arrived in the city around 15 hours before the race, my priority was finding pizza and trying to stay awake. Driving through the city I got a sneak peak of some of the undulations however thought I’d save the joy for the following day. The race started 8, which usually I’d hate (lazy at heart) however with mild jet lag I woke up before my alarm at 5am. With little planning I talked the other half into driving me to the race start, there was no bag drop so I needed to show up ready to run and with my phone in my bra. Poor race prep meant I was eating a gel for breakfast with horrible instant coffee, but I had to remember that I did sign up to do this and it is meant to be fun.  We got as close to the start as we could and I hopped out the car and said bye to the boyfriend. I started to see a few runners, some nice costumes, some interesting costumes and a few naked men. I did a warm up and found my starting Pen. The starting pen was an indication of how this race was going to be, a strong smell of cannabis over took the usual smell of deep heat. Loud music, Beach balls and randomly taco tortillas being thrown like frisbees. It got to 8.10 so my wave went forward, lined up next to people dressed as cows, trolls, forest gump and some other non identifiable costumes. Everyone went off quick but soon people started to walk / dance / jog, the first mile was mostly dodging weird obstacles of people in costumes through a completely unknown city. This was weird, I just keep going I told myself, make some time up on the flat before we get to Hays Hill. Just before mile 2 was over we started to climb, okay this wasn’t an awful hill but it was long, like a mile long, the worst thing being you could see the hill… all of it. I checked my watch a few times and realised I was running slow, really slow, but you know what I was still moving and overtaking (even if it was teams of centipedes dressed as ninja turtles carrying a boom box blasting out the spice girls). The hill soon was over and I told myself now for some down hill. The down hill wasn’t enough compared to what I had just ran up, but I continued to try and overtake. With words of encouragement in true American style; “go get it” shouted a troll as I overtook him, “looking strong, get after it” another centipede group shouted. I couldn’t help saying “thank you so much”, I’ve never had encouragement while overtaking before - this was really nice. The race stretched on through golden gate park where I got a strong smell of the impressive pine trees and glanced at my watch to try and remember how long 12km actually was in miles. I got to the final stretch and I could see the beach and tried to open my stride for a faster finish. Did I race it? of course I did, but most importantly it was fun. Where else can you run alongside a man dressed up as brave heart screaming with spectators shouting “BRAVEHEARRRRT”.   Jamaica Pond and Danehy parkruns (Boston, USA) – Juliette Westbrook Jamaica Pond parkrun is a picturesque two lap course, randomly with one lap clockwise and one lap anti-clockwise round Jamaica Pond. It’s mainly flat, with some gentle inclines and an uphill finish. What they didn’t have in fancy parkrun signs they made up for with views, support and the ability to finally do a parkrun starting with the letter J. Danehy parkrun was a classic park in a city parkrun, and consisted of, well, I don’t actually know how many laps - because I ended up doing an extra one after I took a wrong turn. The course circles the park past astro turf ‘soccer’ and lacrosse pitches, and a track - it’s also mainly flat with some gradual undulation. Arguably a better homemade sign in the shape of a pretzel, if visiting, I’d recommend actually attending the first timers briefing - being a smaller parkrun, the tactic of following the person in front of you clearly didn’t work - and bring lots of water - as the 26 degree heat and lack of water fountains made conditions challenging. Both parkruns were small, but very friendly and had finish funnels decorated with colourful flags.  If visiting, you need to be prepared to run or drive to these events as they’re not as easily accessible by public transport, compared the ones we are used to! Calendar Here's whats happening over the next few weeks other than our usual Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday runs. You can find our full calendar on the website. 22/05/2022 Athletics Fixture 1 Join - deadline 2022-05-19 12/06/2022 Athletics Fixture 2 - Parliament Hill! Join - deadline 2022-06-09 30/05/2022 Annual General Meeting 24/05/2022 Spring Beginners Week 8 VOLUNTEERING Results If you want to upload a photo or your results are missing, log in to our website and update your picture and Power of 10 ID. Vitality Westminster Mile (London), 01/05/2022 1M Donal Moran 4:54, 31 (2) NEW PB   Christiana Akingbola 6:15, 138 (20, 4)   David Nelson 6:38, 159 (27) Vitality London 10,000 (London), 02/05/2022 10K Rachel Rosenthal 41:52, 1097 (110, -) [72.77%] NEW PB Parkrun 07/05/2022 Finsbury Park Collette Farnol 00:28:18 (00:28:17), 271 (-, 9) [52.45%] Lisbon Half Marathon (Lisbon, Portugal), 08/05/2022 HM Amin Adan 01:35:47 (01:34:55), 553 (111) [63.69%] NEW PB The Tracksmith Night of Miles (London (CT)), 12/05/2022 Mile Rachel Rosenthal 5:45.94, 6 [73.35%] NEW PB Parkrun 14/05/2022 Ally Pally Pete Calvert-Barr 21:19, 21 [61.61%]   Paul Dickens 25:00, 75 [53.33%] Antrim Kevin Gormley 20:15, 18 [66.26%] Barking Dawn Curtis 38:43, 101 [40.25%] Beckton Fiona Carr 24:02, 17 (2, 1) [61.86%] Black Park Aimery de Malet Roquefort 24:47, 100 [57.77%] Bury Field Daisy Wooller 32:58, 65 [44.79%] Canons Park Daniele Biagi 17:49, 1 (1) [74.84%] Danehy Park, USA Juliette Westbrook 25:56, 17 [56.94%] Dishley, Loughborough Elizabeth Aryeetey 26:44, 102 (-, 1) [70.20%] Finsbury Park Rahul Mohindra 19:21, 16 [67.10%] NEW PB   Marcos Cuevas-Nunez 20:13, 28 (1) [72.38%]   Simon Fitzmaurice 23:17, 127 [56.69%]   Gaby Anderson 26:51, 260 [55.00%]   Nick Herbert 27:46, 284 [46.76%] NEW PB   Rafaele Lamour 29:19, 338 [56.34%] Gladstone Abdul Salam 25:34, 72 [56.00%] Hackney Marshes Collette Farnol 00:25:37 (00:25:36), 144 (-, 13) [57.94%] Hampstead Heath Thomas Goodey 20:11, 15 [64.33%]   Daniel Berry 22:12, 48 [71.32%]   Hattie Lowe 24:48, 96 [59.54%]   Alex Renton 24:49, 97 [56.82%]   Yan (Patrick) Li 25:45, 123 [58.19%]   Lydia Thomson 27:49, 173 [53.09%]   Rachel Rosenthal 28:33, 194 [51.96%]   Rebecca Taylor 28:37, 196 [55.91%]   Emily Morgan 32:29, 283 [45.46%]   Rosie Dougherty 32:30, 284 [45.44%]   Chloe Bazlen 32:56, 292 [44.84%]   Alice Sullivan 34:10, 306 [47.32%]   Alina Williamson 47:59, 354 [31.19%] Highbury Fields David Renton 21:18, 58 [68.70%]   Philip Rutnam 22:29, 84 [68.72%] NEW PB   Fiona Russell 22:36, 86 (-, 1) [75.59%] Riddlesdown Christopher Leslie 19:26, 5 [66.81%] Valentines Andy Davies 19:49, 3 (1) [65.60%] Walmer and Deal Seafront Johnny Chapman 24:05, 50 [53.98%] Wormwood Scrubs John H Grigg 45:03, 98 (1) [54.75%] RunThrough Battersea Park Half Marathon (Battersea Park), 14/05/2022 HM michele griffiths 2:13:04 (2:11:27), 428 (147, 5) [61.56%] European Master Athletics Championships Non Stadia - 5K (Grossetto, ITA), 14/05/2022 5K Bethany Thompson 18:33, 12 (-, 4) [82.21%] NEW PB Links Send your stories to newsletter@chaser.me.uk. 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