Hi Chasers,  Hope everyone has had a good week. Track closure  Sadly Thursday was the final track session as the improvement works at the Athletics Track will commence on Monday 12th June and the track will be closed until September 2023 (exact date TBC). The works include replacement of the entire track and also improvements to the floodlights. You can find out more here: Improvement works at the Athletics Track - City of London. Tuesday pub night  Thanks to everyone who turned up to Camden Hells Brewery for a drink on Tuesday, there was a great Chaser turn out!  Summer League Make sure to sign up to Summer League - you can find all fixtures in the calendar below. In the wise words of Nick Johnson, It really is a great way to participate in a club event, get to know fellow Chasers and people from other clubs as well as a great way to help your running. 10K and 5 miles are the distances for the main races with shorter relays to finish. Best of all, there is always a picnic with a very high standard of home baking! Chasers, let's show up strong, race hard and most of all...have some fun!! Please sign up as soon as you can Nick can get the coach locked down asap. For anyone who is new to the Chasers or Summer League and wants to find out more, please drop us a line or catch Nick or any of the other committee members on a Tuesday or Thursday at Talacre.  Improvers Course Our Women's Welfare Officer and Beginners Leader, Laurie is taking over the Improvers course. This course is for newly graduated beginners to help our new members build running confidence in eventually speed and distance. Laurie led our Beginners courses for 3 years so has lots of experience. However, she would love to hear from anyone who has previously taken part in one of our Chaser's improvers courses for any insight and ideas about how to best help our Beginners make the transition.   Previous iterations of the Improvers course have used the back-loop method, effectively getting people running in a circle. Laurie is most likely to employ a different method that is more akin with Beginners, real races and the main club runs, but she's keen to hear your thoughts. You can contact Laurie via beginners@chaser.me  Amanda & Janet's Windsor Trail Run 10k  Huge congratulations to Amanda and Janet who ran the Windsor Trail Run on 21st May 2023. They both finished in the top 3 of the V50 female category, Amanda Taylor with a time of 55.39 and Janet Kidd 55.56.    Sarah’s Suffolk Backyard Ultra race report Another big congratulations to Sarah who took part in the Suffolk Backyard Ultra on Saturday 3rd June! A really incredible achievement and another great race report below.  Suffolk Backyard Ultra: 4.167 miles on the hour, every hour until... If you were expecting this to be a serialized race report that lasted through the end of the year, you may be disappointed, or you may be relieved. For my own sanity, I needed to get this race recap out of my system in one go. It’s still a long one, though, so here is Part 1 of 2. Part 1: I'll begin with how I started the morning of Saturday, June 3rd, which pretty much sums up how the eventual 28 hours of my run would go. I was a bit tired, nervous, very scared, and easily moved to tears or laughter. At 8:30am with a 2-hour drive to Knettishall Hall Nature Reserve still ahead of me, I was already in tears. Was it day 2 of my period talking? Was it the fact I was worried that all of my crap would never fit in Sean's car? Who knows. But I eventually got back into a realm of somewhat calm and collected. We arrived at Knettishall Hall around 10:30am. It felt like everyone else had arrived hours ago as there wasn't much space left for tents and chairs. Sean and I found my friend Dom, who would also be running and was with a large group of other runners, and his wife Christina, who would be crewing him. Sean and Christina got to work setting up my tent that I would never use, and I went to register and change into my gear that I figured I would wear for most of the day. At 11:30am, all 161 starters (out of the original 202 registrants) gathered for the race briefing. The infamous Andy Day (see Crawley 12 Hour race report) was not amongst the starters; he was still recovering from winning a 100-mile race in the Florida Keys 2 weeks prior. I had my eyes set on other strong players, though, as I had naively high and cocky ambitions. The race briefing was uneventful. Not much more to say than make sure you have your timing bracelet and start on the hour...every hour. If you decided not to continue, you would have to ring a bell and cross your own name off the start list. No excuses for getting caught up in the portaloos, which were located just after the start line. At noon, we were off. It was the most anti-climactic race start I have ever experienced. I didn't know whether to start off with a slow plod or walk. I think it was a bit of both. This first loop would be the most exciting because it was one of discovery. Even though I had watched a video of the 4.167-mile trail loop, it is hard to really get a sense of it until you are there. The first mile was narrow and exposed over bumpy and grassy trail. With so many people, it was tedious, and would become my nemesis soon enough. Mile 2 started in a nice, wooded trail; this is when I noticed people walking after having jogged most of the first mile. "Oh, is this a 'hill'? OK, we're walking then'. You then cross a road and enter another exposed sandy dirt trail. There was a very slight incline here and walking seemed to be the way to get through at least half of this bit. Then you made a left turn back into the shady woods to complete mile 2. Mile 3 was lovely and shaded with slight inclines now and again suited for walking. Then you get to the one big "heartbreak hill" of the course. Because this hill was to be walked every time, it was one of the best parts. It never broke my heart. Right after the uphill was a gentle downhill to finish mile 3. This was a fun descent the first time but would eventually become a quad destroyer. The most notable parts of miles 3 to 4 were the tree roots to avoid and the 50-meter stretch of paved road that felt fun and bouncy in my Hoka Tecton X's before going back onto trails. There was also a sharp up and down bit that I was told to always walk to save my quads. With one more road crossing, you were back onto uneven grassy trail to head back to the start. Now, I just needed to do that again and again and again... The first 8 hours passed relatively uneventfully. I did my best to eat when and what I was told. Gnocchi, bananas, nut mix, more pasta, Maurten, Tailwind, a McChicken sandwich and bite of apple pie for “dinner”. With a full stomach, I got into a rhythm of which parts of the course I would walk and which ones I would jog. Whenever I caught myself getting towards a 10min/mile pace, I would start walking to slow myself down to average out at ~11:30min/mile. I began to notice which runners had similar run/walk strategies as some folks I would encounter and chat with again and again and some I never saw. There were a few bell rings to indicate that runners were DNFing and calling it quits, but it seemed like most wanted to make it into the night. I personally, was really scared of what it would be like once night fell. At 8pm, it was time for us to put on our headtorches. Many were also changing into warmer clothes now that it had cooled considerably from the daytime temps, but I was still pretty warm. It took a few loops for me to actually put on a jacket and even when I did, it felt balmy. But, the warmth would quickly fade and turn into shivers as soon as I was in my chair for my 12-14 minutes of “rest”. I can’t pinpoint exactly what it was about the night loops, but I was miserable. Going into the event I had hopes of making it to 48 hours, maybe even beyond, but I was slowly but surely becoming hardened that there was no way I was going to go through a second night. Others I chatted with along the way agreed. The saving grace was the huge red moon that was in full view as we crossed the sandy bit between miles 1 and 2. Although I had begun to loathe this part of the loop during the first 8 hours, it was a beautiful sight at night. As one runner put it, “You know what they say, Red Moon at night…one more loop”.  Have a great weekend. It's due to get to high 20s so stay hydrated and suncreamed up if you're out running!  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. 18/06/2023 Athletics - SAL Match 2 - Hemel Hempstead Sign up to take part - deadline 2023-06-15 18/06/2023 Summer League - Headstone Manor, Harrow Get bus (12 of 29 left) - deadline 2023-06-17 02/07/2023 Summer League 5M - Perivale Park, Greenford Get the bus (43 of 50 left) - deadline 2023-06-11 13/06/2023 Beginners volunteering week 7 20/06/2023 Beginners volunteering week 8 volunteer (2 of 5 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. Essar Chester Half Marathon (Chester), 21/05/2023 HM Lauren Longhurst 85:42 (85:40), 146 (20, 7) [76.87%] Hackney Half Marathon (Hackney), 21/05/2023 HM Tom Hill 01:33:15 (01:33:15), 1337 (436) [62.61%] NEW PB The One in The Park (London Regents Park), 21/05/2023 10K Rahul Mohindra 39:05 (39:04), 4 (1) [68.39%]   Tommaso Valletti 40:13 (40:13), 6 (4) [77.29%] NEW PB Edinburgh Marathon Festival - Half Marathon (Edinburgh), 28/05/2023 HM Nick Herbert 2:09:19 (2:00:19), 4928 [48.52%] NEW PB Edinburgh Marathon Festival - Marathon (Edinburgh), 28/05/2023 Mar Bronwyn Mathews 4:19:42 (4:12:45), 3271 (709, -) [53.58%] NEW PB Parkrun 03/06/2023 Bath Skyline Emily Martyn 24:53, 90 [59.48%] Bushy Park Christopher Leslie 17:22, 14 (1) [74.76%] NEW PB Canons Park Alex Renton 22:22, 13 [63.56%] Cardiff Andy Davies 36:09, 668 [36.01%] Chippenham Lydia Thomson 23:03, 44 (1, 1) [64.14%] Church Mead Alina Williamson 31:57, 56 [47.00%] Clacton Seafront Paul Matthews 29:57, 95 (1) [69.23%] Finsbury Park Liam Moroney 18:34, 10 [69.93%]   Marcos Cuevas-Nunez 20:41, 40 [71.31%]   Rahul Mohindra 22:39, 87 [57.40%]   Eleanor Childs 27:07, 273 [54.46%]   Sophie Fenner 30:25, 406 [48.60%] Gladstone Abdul Salam 26:57, 102 [53.49%] Hampstead Heath Keith Jordan 22:26, 65 [67.83%]   Sarah McGaw 23:27, 82 [62.97%] NEW PB   Emily Morgan 26:25, 164 [55.90%]   Paul Dickens 26:39, 168 [50.72%]   Amanda Taylor 29:31, 255 [62.06%] NEW PB   Janet Kidd 30:52, 305 [57.29%] Highbury Fields John Armstrong 18:49, 8 (1) [78.39%]   Gaby Anderson 22:30, 84 [65.63%] NEW PB   Ellie Holloway 22:31, 85 [65.58%]   Hattie Lowe 23:14, 106 [63.56%]   Nick Herbert 29:21, 317 [44.24%] Lordship Recreation Ground Lizzy Muggeridge 32:21, 109 [50.54%] Prospect Daniel Berry 21:42, 15 (1) [73.58%] Salcey Forest Daisy Wooller 32:34, 102 [45.34%] Southampton Phil Batchelor 23:57, 193 [68.96%] NEW PB Southwark Steve Satchell 31:10, 342 [202.89%] Thames Path David Nelson 24:08, 105 [56.42%] Tooting Common Myles Preston BA (Hons), CIMA (Cert), GDL, LPC, PGCE, MA, MSc, A* A Level in Government and Politics 18:33, 6 (1) [72.33%] Wormwood Scrubs John H Grigg 39:14, 113 (1) [67.84%] The Tracksmith Amateur Mile (Tooting Bec), 03/06/2023 Mile Simon Fitzmaurice 5:29.18, 11 [68.72%]   Nicola Payne 5:29.49, 9 [76.45%] NEW PB   Daniel Lewis 6:18.13, 16 [64.70%]   Collette Farnol 6:51.59, 2 [61.90%] NEW PB Race The Neighbours 10K (East Finchley), 04/06/2023 10K Russ Hall 38:42 (38:38), 5 (1) [71.74%]   Alina Williamson 60:32 (59:51), 207 (45, -) [51.63%] Links Send your stories to newsletter@chaser.me.uk. 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