Race Recap   What a weekend of racing last week! We have not one but two race reviews this week. A massive old school garage shout out to Ellie Holloway – Big up yourself for an excellent write up of the Fred Hughes 10 plus a big up to an anonymous writer who relived the cross country delights of Epping Forest.    Big shout to all the PBs achieved at Fred Hughes. So many great achievements. No doubt thanks to the excellent cheering of Mark Lamb on the final stretch   Fred Hughes 10 – Ellie Holloway   Judging from the PBs and the smiles at the end, I don't think I'm alone in saying that Fred Hughes 10 was a great race! The conditions were perfect - cloudy and cool and dry (no danger of any heatstroke!) - and despite an 'elbows-out' start, we were away. The route took us out on country lanes, through little hamlets, and over and under motorways. Describing the course as 'undulating' was a bit of an understatement, but all those winter nights up Highgate West Hill and Primrose Hill meant we were overtaking more people than were overtaking us. Plus, what goes up most come down, and the downhills did feel particularly good!   I ran with Juliette and we locked into a really strong rhythm. She shouted out km splits and I shouted miles, all of which were too fast but we grunted an 'ok?' 'ok!' to each other and pushed on. It always really helps me to have someone else (especially another Chaser) to stick with and we really kept each other going. Special shout-out to Nick who overtook us at 7 miles asking when the hill - the massive one we struggled up at mile 6 - was coming.   Surprisingly quickly, a sign for 400m to go appeared and our sprint properly kicked in to cross the line with new PBs. The pride and elation at a PB was matched by the post-race snacks of water, banana and TWO toffee crisps really was the icing on the cake. Plus the t-shirts really lived up the expectations and were indeed very nice - and ladies fit!   Big thanks to St Albans Striders for a really great race. I'll definitely be back. And thanks always to the Chasers' coaches for great training plans and the whole club for such a supportive community of running that has helped so many of us achieve PB after PB. Very proud to wear a Chaser vest at events like this!   Cross Country – Epping Forest – Anonymous   Rumours flooded in from our very own Dave Nelson after doing a walk of the course - "Very ****ing hilly, and ****ing muddy - spikes essential!" (some artistic licence may have been used on this quote). Thankfully the weather was good, for January anyway, and the forest made for an impressive race location.     The start was preceded with a minute silence for John Owen, the president of Barnet AC who sadly died on Friday morning. The whistle to signify the end of the minute was also the start of the race - a weird and frantic start as runners battled each other and various trees and bushes for racing positions.     The race itself was a gruelling 2 lap, 8km course with an unbelievable 10,000m of elevation! Corner after corner presented fresh hills like some cruel MC Escher designed course, thick mud and puddles galore and unavoidable. Very strong performances from the 15 Chasers in attendance, experienced regulars and a couple of XC debutants.     Miraculously some Chasers were smiling on the final sprint to the finish, most donned painful, exhausted grimaces. Proper XC, tough course, would do again, 4/5 on TripAdvisor.   Beginners   Giada will be leading the January group supported by Romany starting yesterday the 25th for 8 weeks. If you’d like to volunteer click this link    Regent’s Park 10k   Spaces are still available for the Regent’s Park 10k on February 6th and March 6th. If you’d like to pace these events we’re looking for people to pace 45 minutes and 55 minutes in February. Pacers are needed for any times between 40 and 60 minutes in March. Please let Nik know if you’d like to get involved.   Track   This week’s track session is as follows:   2 (beginner) or 3-4 x {1600m (10k pace)[600m recovery jog]} Total 4800-6400m hard, 1800-2400m recovery   Please sign up via the Calendar. It looks like all the 7pm slots are taken at the time of publication but there are still some slots at 7:20.   There is an excellent training schedule available here for the Wokingham Half on 27th February.   Top Tips: Long Distance Walkers Association (LDWA) events recommended! – Andrew Disley   Last Sunday Eamon and I entered a LDWA event – the Winter Tanners.  On the basis of a not statistically significant sample of one event I would heartily recommend the LDWA particularly to those who want to get off the roads of north London.  As the name suggests the LDWA was initially formed primarily for walkers but runners are now very welcome.  One of the big advantages is that the cut off times cater for walkers and are very generous – many people finish without running a single step.  A very well organised event and dirt cheap - £28 (or £10 with LDWA membership).  Directions and gpx files are supplied with food and drink at three checkpoints and the finish.    Last week’s event was a 31 mile circular route starting in Leatherhead going over the North Downs and then Leith Hill.  Weather and views were glorious (see above).  List of LDWA challenge events here. 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. 05/02/2022 Chingford League Race 6- Victoria Park Sign Up To Run - deadline 2022-02-01 19/02/2022 Met League - Fixture 5 - Trent Park 29/01/2022 SEAA Cross Country Main Champs (Beckenham) Please sign-up (no entry on the day) - Deadline 23/12 06/02/2022 Mornington Chasers Regent's Park 10k marshalling 21/02/2022 Committee meeting 01/02/2022 Beginners Week 2 - Volunteering Volunteer (2 of 4 left) 08/02/2022 Beginners Week 3 - Volunteering Volunteer (2 of 4 left) 15/02/2022 Beginners Week 4 - Volunteering Volunteer (2 of 4 left) 22/02/2022 Beginners Week 5 - Volunteering Volunteer (2 of 4 left) 27/01/2022 Track Thursday (19:00) Sign Up here 19:20 (7 of 25 left) We are also currently taking names for the following events. 26/02/2022 National Cross Country Champs - Parliament Hill Please sign-up (no entry on the day) 06/03/2022 Mornington Chasers Regent's Park 10k marshalling 01/03/2022 Beginners Week 6 - Volunteering Volunteer (2 of 4 left) 08/03/2022 Beginners Week 7 - Volunteering Volunteer (2 of 4 left) 15/03/2022 Beginners Week 8 - Volunteering Volunteer (2 of 4 left) 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. Parkrun 08/01/2022 Hampstead Heath Paul Dickens 26:11, 104 [50.92%] Parkrun 15/01/2022 Hampstead Heath Paul Dickens 25:58, 107 [51.35%] LDWA Winter Tanners 30 mile (Leather head, Surrey), 16/01/2022 Other Andrew Disley 8:28 (8:28) Parkrun 22/01/2022 Ally Pally Stephanie Mercier 26:37, 105 [55.85%] Antrim Kevin Gormley 20:27, 6 [65.61%] Burgess Stephen West 26:19, 267 [54.78%] Bushy Park Daisy Wooller 30:29, 843 [48.44%] Canons Park Meryl Walker 36:58, 114 [49.55%] Dishley, Loughborough Elizabeth Aryeetey 27:52, 86 [66.51%] Finsbury Park Vincent Murray 20:32, 40 [64.29%]   Rebecca Taylor 25:58, 245 [61.62%]   Rachel Rosenthal 26:00, 249 [57.05%]   Lydia Thomson 27:18, 313 [54.09%]   Sarah Funderburk 27:40, 325 [54.52%]   Johnny Chapman 29:22, 401 [44.27%] Gladstone Rendy Prakoso 18:37, 4 [70.28%]   Liam Moroney 19:43, 9 (1) [65.85%]   Alex Renton 23:22, 42 [59.91%]   Abdul Salam 25:12, 70 [56.81%] Hampstead Heath Emily Morgan 24:46, 93 [59.62%]   Finlay Brown 24:48, 96 [52.35%]   Paul Dickens 25:12, 104 [52.91%] Highbury Fields Lizzy Muggeridge 35:54, 364 [44.57%] Oak Hill Phil West 28:34, 178 (1) [61.14%]   Diane Morrison 28:36, 179 [61.07%]   Dawn Curtis 36:58, 285 [42.16%] Portobello Fiona Carr 26:27, 145 [56.08%] Roding Valley Paul Matthews 26:40, 34 (1) [76.00%] Southwark Juliette Westbrook 30:33, 271 [48.34%] Victoria Patrick Kyle 18:59, 19 (1) [68.48%] RunThrough Olympic Park 10K (London Olympic Park), 22/01/2022 10K Diletta Samoggia 61:04 (60:01), 263 [50.68%] NEW PB Fred Hughes 10 (St Albans), 23/01/2022 10M Donal Moran 59:09 (59:02), 22 (5) [81.31%]   Andy Davies 62:55 (62:47), 59 [70.08%] NEW PB   Paul Sant 65:31 (65:22), 83 (21) [71.65%] NEW PB   David Stark 01:09:11 (01:08:58), 111 (56) [63.92%]   Alex Renton 71:42 (71:20), 156 (52) [65.12%] NEW PB   Danielle Smreczak 71:42 (71:25), 157 (8) [73.07%] NEW PB   Rebecca Taylor 72:03 (71:45), 164 (9) [75.54%] NEW PB   Rachel Rosenthal 72:54 (72:34), 179 [68.49%]   Nelson Goh 74:15 (72:36), 203 [61.46%] NEW PB   Fiona Russell 74:05 (73:45), 200 (12) [78.94%]   Hattie Lowe 74:23 (74:01), 208 [66.67%] NEW PB   Jodie Pearlman 74:25 (74:05), 209 [66.61%] NEW PB   Rosie Young 74:29 (74:09), 210 [66.55%] NEW PB   Daniel Lewis 75:29 (75:10), 223 (67) [62.82%] NEW PB   Nick Johnson 75:56 (75:29), 230 (69) [62.04%] NEW PB   Daisy Wooller 76:23 (75:55), 240 [65.03%] NEW PB   Juliette Westbrook 77:02 (76:40), 249 [64.37%] NEW PB   Ellie Holloway 77:03 (76:41), 250 [64.36%] NEW PB   David Nelson 83:17 (82:48), 358 [54.15%]   Yan (Patrick) Li 83:21 (82:55), 359 (59) [59.90%] NEW PB   Lara Gilman 87:05 (86:28), 441 (55) [59.04%] NEW PB   Jennifer Moore 89:40 (89:11), 492 [55.47%] Links Send your stories to newsletter@chaser.me.uk. 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