Mornington Chasers Newsletter
11 January 2025
Welcome Back, Chasers!
Welcome back to the first full week of Chasers! It's fantastic to see both returning and new faces. We hope you had a great start to the year and are ready for some exciting runs ahead.
A big thank you to our volunteers and pacers
A huge thank you to all the volunteers and pacers who braved the rain on Sunday to help out at the Regents Park 10k. It was so wet, we almost needed flippers instead of running shoes to get through the puddles! Your dedication and support are truly appreciated. Don't forget to ask Tony for your free code to use in February or March.
Mark your calendars for the next Regents Park 10k on Sunday, February 2nd, which will also be our Club 10k Champs!
Volunteer February winter series Sunday 2nd Febuary Regents Park 10k here
Run February winter series Regents Park 10k (club champs) here
Volunteer March winter series Sunday 2nd March Regents Park 10k here
Last few Chaser hats in stock, get them quick!
We have a limited stock of Chaser hats left, and they're hot property! If you want one, make sure to place your order ASAP. Click here to order your hat. Rumor has it, they give you extra speed, you'll have to buy one to find out ๐.
Volunteers to help our future runners
We're looking for volunteers to help out with the beginners course. If you're interested, please sign up using this link. Your support makes a big difference to help our future runners. Any further details, please reach out to Romany.
Changes at Talacre
Exciting changes are coming to Talacre, our meeting point on Tuesdays. On February 14th, parts of Talacre will be closed for a big refurbishment, and the plans look amazing! During this time, we'll have a temporary meeting space where the soft play tables and chairs are. We'll keep you updated with more information as we get it. For now, we know there will be new lockers post-refurb, so if you have any tokens, please bring them on a Tuesday so we can share them out.
Tea Rota Volunteers Needed!
We need volunteers to help with the tea rota until the refurbishment is complete. The first Tuesday of the month is pub night, but on the weeks in between, it's great to have someone prep juices, tea, and biscuits to help bring some joy post -3 degrees Tuesday runs. Your help is greatly appreciated! To help out, click here.
Upcoming Cross Country fixtures
Why not start the new year with a new challenge? Join us for some cross country fun and get involved in the upcoming fixtures. It's a great way to try something new and embrace the mud! Who knows, you might even find that running through the mud is more fun than you thought. Let's make this year one to remember! Click here to view the calendar to see the upcoming dates.
Well Done Andrew!
Before Christmas, Andrew Disley completed the Centurion Winter Downs 200. A 200 mile unmarked loop with 6,800m of elevation and a time limit of 96 hours. Andrew has kindly written a race report to help inspire others and share his experience.
The race started on Wednesday 11 December 08:00 at the foot of Box Hill in Surrey with an immediate ascent. I finished back at the start, after a second ascent of Box Hill, just before 05:00 on the Sunday 15 December with a time of 92 hours 57 minutes. (The cut off was 96 hours.) I was 45th out of 47 finishers. In addition 24 starters dropped out. Interestingly nobody dropped in the latter part of the race. If you made it through the first half or so of the race you finished.
The circular course initially followed the North Downs Way east, then south down the Vanguard Way, west along the South Downs Way, northish up the Wayfarer’s Walk and St Swithiun’s Way and finally east again back along the North Downs Way. Total official mileage was 204 miles although more once navigation errors are added in. I used GPX for route finding which I usually argue is pretty idiot proof. By the end I had to keep concentrating hard as my inner idiot was constantly leading me astray!
Total ascent was approx. 22,000 feet so equivalent to an extra 40 miles or so than had it been along the flat. None of the climbs were long, the largest was around 500 feet, but there were lots of them.
The quality of the paths varied. The North and South Downs were very good going and well drained. The Vanguard Way and the Wayfarer’s Walk less so with lots of very muddy fields to slide and trudge through and a few places where wading through knee deep water was required.
The temperature dropped at night to down to near zero and foot care management was very important. Running with wet feet for long periods would have been very unpleasant and possibly dangerous. I ran in knee length waterproof socks together with inner merino socks to absorb the perspiration.
The format of the race was not the usual Centurion 100 mile format x 2. The 100 milers do not allow sleeping and have aid stations every eight miles or so. The Winter Downs 200 only had three main and one minor support stations throughout the whole race. The first three main support stations were 45 or so miles apart with “stay limits” of 4-6 hours. Full meals and sleeping facilities, including actual beds and sheets, were available. It was then 67 miles to the finish with only a one hour stop allowed at the fourth aid station.
In total I think I spent in total 10 hours in aid stations including seven hours of sleep.. The other 83 hours were spent moving. At various points I do recall thinking that I hadn’t quite bargained for how hard the challenge was when signing up.
There were two classes of runners in the event – the supported and unsupported. The supported runners had crews who they were allowed to meet up with at designated support points every 10 miles or so, to provide food, drink, clothing, sleep opportunities etc. (The best crew were those who came with a van!) I was unsupported which didn’t feel like a great disadvantage. The only issue that the uncrewed had was that you needed to load yourself up with food, water, clothing etc for the full stage so you were carrying more than you otherwise would have. The dedication of some of the crews mostly sitting alone in cars in the dark over four days was positively heroic.
We were very lucky with weather. Although Storm Darragh had blown through a week before the event it hardly rained at all during the four days and there was no wind to speak of. We did get a bit of fog at night which makes running with a head torch tricky. I suspect that if we had consistent cold rain for any length of time the DNF quotient would have increased considerably.
Storm Darragh did mean there was more boggy ground and flooding that would otherwise have been the case. There were also dozens of downed trees that needed to be circumvented during the event.
Sixteen hours of darkness each night was a significant challenge. I felt an almost primeval sense of relief when it got light in the mornings Having run out of batteries at night before I ran with two spare head torches and at least a dozen spare 3A batteries to ensure no repeats. I struggled with sleep deprivation on night two meandering all over the place. Fortunately a kindly crew gave me a cup of coffee which had an amazing, and almost instantaneous effect. I made sure I had caffeine gels for later in the race.
I did a lot of walking – well over half the course. I never ran up any hills and by the end I was only running down hills at what was pretty close to walking speed anyway
The staff and volunteers were wonderful throughout the event particularly as many were semi sleep deprived themselves. My ability to scatter mud though out the aid stations wherever I went didn’t seem to faze anybody. Some of the food was very good.
My last “day” started at 22:30 on the Friday, went through all of Saturday, and eventually finished at just before 05:00 on the Sunday, so over 30 hours to cover 67 mile, with a dash into M&S Food in Alton, a trip to a coffee shop in Farnham and half an hour at Puttenham. The second ascent of Box Hill felt like an unwarranted bonus. At the end all I wanted to do was sleep!
Have a great weekend Chasers and good luck to anyone racing this weekend. Happy running, everyone! ๐‍โ๏ธ๐‍โ๏ธ
Em & Jas
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.
02/02/2025 Mornington Chasers Regent's Park 10k marshalling
Volunteer (4 of 12 left) - deadline 2025-01-31
18/01/2025 Chingford League- Epping Forest Cross Country race
01/02/2025 Chingford League- Victoria Park race
Sign up to run - deadline 2025-01-28
08/02/2025 Met League XC - Fixture 5 - Trent Park
Sign up to join - deadline 2025-02-07
25/01/2025 SEEA XC Main Champs - Beckenham
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 04/01/2025
Aldenham
Keith Jordan 30:00, 43 [51.50%]
Barking
Dylan Wright 24:12, 19 [61.91%]
Dulwich
Myles Preston BA (Hons), CIMA (Cert), GDL, LPC, PGCE, MA, MSc, A* A Level in Government and Politics 18:22, 25 [73.59%]
Endcliffe
Marcos Cuevas-Nunez 22:03, 61 (1) [67.95%]
Finsbury Park
Andy Davies 23:49, 149 [54.79%]
Christopher Leslie 24:43, 198 [52.53%]
Tom Hill 24:44, 200 [52.49%]
Rebecca Taylor 25:13, 222 (-, 1) [65.50%]
Heather Marshall 25:30, 236 (-, 1) [63.40%]
Paul Davie 25:50, 254 [55.81%]
Paul Dickens 28:23, 424 [47.97%]
Rafaele Lamour 30:47, 561 [55.50%]
Krush Patel 32:55, 661 [39.54%]
Dominique Russell 33:09, 675 [44.65%]
Rosie Dougherty 33:43, 701 [43.80%]
Emily Morgan 33:43, 702 [43.80%]
Harrogate
Mabel Ellerker 34:02, 340 [43.39%]
Highbury Fields
Fiona Russell 23:56, 141 (-, 1) [73.89%]
Anna Patterson 28:01, 302 [52.71%]
Julia Shreeve 28:25, 309 [54.02%]
Stephen West 45:19, 518 [32.55%]
Hilly Fields
Daniele Biagi 19:02, 6 [71.02%]
Huddle, RSA
Lorice Mirkin 30:03, 20 [53.24%]
Lordship Recreation Ground
Rendy Prakoso 19:14, 11 (1) [68.98%]
Lytham Hall
Katrina Kelly 26:46, 65 (-, 1) [55.17%]
Morden
Gaby Anderson 30:56, 113 [47.74%]
Lizzy Muggeridge 38:24, 155 [43.01%]
Oak Hill
Juliette Westbrook 21:48, 30 (2, 1) [67.74%]
Sharpham Road Playing Fields
Alexandra Hearne 21:22, 10 (1, 1) [69.27%]
Wanstead Flats
Anthony Williams 24:24, 69 [54.10%]
Jennifer Williams 28:03, 140 [53.00%]
Winchester
Jocelyn Corner 27:09, 188 [55.31%] NEW PB
Middlesex and Hertfordshire County Championships (Trent Park), 04/01/2025
10.75KXC
Rory Clark 38:52, 32
Daniel Berry 48:58, 162
Daniel Lewis 57:09, 201
Gary Homewood 60:06, 203
7KXC
Emily Martyn 39:42, 80
Elizabeth Aryeetey 44:40, 99
Links
Send your stories to newsletter@chaser.me.uk.
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Mornington Chasers Newsletter 11th January Welcome Back, Chasers!
Welcome back to the first full week of Chasers! It's fantastic to see both returning and new faces. We hope you had a great start to the year and are ready for some exciting runs ahead.

A big thank you to our volunteers and pacers
A huge thank you to all the volunteers and pacers who braved the rain on Sunday to help out at the Regents Park 10k. It was so wet, we almost needed flippers instead of running shoes to get through the puddles! Your dedication and support are truly appreciated. Don't forget to ask Tony for your free code to use in February or March.
Mark your calendars for the next Regents Park 10k on Sunday, February 2nd, which will also be our Club 10k Champs!
- Volunteer February winter series Sunday 2nd Febuary Regents Park 10k here
- Run February winter series Regents Park 10k (club champs) here
- Volunteer March winter series Sunday 2nd March Regents Park 10k here

Last few Chaser hats in stock, get them quick!
We have a limited stock of Chaser hats left, and they're hot property! If you want one, make sure to place your order ASAP. Click here to order your hat. Rumor has it, they give you extra speed, you'll have to buy one to find out ๐.

Volunteers to help our future runners 

We're looking for volunteers to help out with the beginners course. If you're interested, please sign up using this link. Your support makes a big difference to help our future runners. Any further details, please reach out to Romany.
Changes at Talacre
Exciting changes are coming to Talacre, our meeting point on Tuesdays. On February 14th, parts of Talacre will be closed for a big refurbishment, and the plans look amazing! During this time, we'll have a temporary meeting space where the soft play tables and chairs are. We'll keep you updated with more information as we get it. For now, we know there will be new lockers post-refurb, so if you have any tokens, please bring them on a Tuesday so we can share them out.

Tea Rota Volunteers Needed!
We need volunteers to help with the tea rota until the refurbishment is complete. The first Tuesday of the month is pub night, but on the weeks in between, it's great to have someone prep juices, tea, and biscuits to help bring some joy post -3 degrees Tuesday runs. Your help is greatly appreciated! To help out, click here.

Upcoming Cross Country fixtures
Why not start the new year with a new challenge? Join us for some cross country fun and get involved in the upcoming fixtures. It's a great way to try something new and embrace the mud! Who knows, you might even find that running through the mud is more fun than you thought. Let's make this year one to remember! Click here to view the calendar to see the upcoming dates.

Well Done Andrew!
Before Christmas, Andrew Disley completed the Centurion Winter Downs 200. A 200 mile unmarked loop with 6,800m of elevation and a time limit of 96 hours. Andrew has kindly written a race report to help inspire others and share his experience.
The race started on Wednesday 11 December 08:00 at the foot of Box Hill in Surrey with an immediate ascent. I finished back at the start, after a second ascent of Box Hill, just before 05:00 on the Sunday 15 December with a time of 92 hours 57 minutes. (The cut off was 96 hours.) I was 45th out of 47 finishers. In addition 24 starters dropped out. Interestingly nobody dropped in the latter part of the race. If you made it through the first half or so of the race you finished.
The circular course initially followed the North Downs Way east, then south down the Vanguard Way, west along the South Downs Way, northish up the Wayfarer’s Walk and St Swithiun’s Way and finally east again back along the North Downs Way. Total official mileage was 204 miles although more once navigation errors are added in. I used GPX for route finding which I usually argue is pretty idiot proof. By the end I had to keep concentrating hard as my inner idiot was constantly leading me astray!
Total ascent was approx. 22,000 feet so equivalent to an extra 40 miles or so than had it been along the flat. None of the climbs were long, the largest was around 500 feet, but there were lots of them.
The quality of the paths varied. The North and South Downs were very good going and well drained. The Vanguard Way and the Wayfarer’s Walk less so with lots of very muddy fields to slide and trudge through and a few places where wading through knee deep water was required.
The temperature dropped at night to down to near zero and foot care management was very important. Running with wet feet for long periods would have been very unpleasant and possibly dangerous. I ran in knee length waterproof socks together with inner merino socks to absorb the perspiration.
The format of the race was not the usual Centurion 100 mile format x 2. The 100 milers do not allow sleeping and have aid stations every eight miles or so. The Winter Downs 200 only had three main and one minor support stations throughout the whole race. The first three main support stations were 45 or so miles apart with “stay limits” of 4-6 hours. Full meals and sleeping facilities, including actual beds and sheets, were available. It was then 67 miles to the finish with only a one hour stop allowed at the fourth aid station.
In total I think I spent in total 10 hours in aid stations including seven hours of sleep.. The other 83 hours were spent moving. At various points I do recall thinking that I hadn’t quite bargained for how hard the challenge was when signing up.
There were two classes of runners in the event – the supported and unsupported. The supported runners had crews who they were allowed to meet up with at designated support points every 10 miles or so, to provide food, drink, clothing, sleep opportunities etc. (The best crew were those who came with a van!) I was unsupported which didn’t feel like a great disadvantage. The only issue that the uncrewed had was that you needed to load yourself up with food, water, clothing etc for the full stage so you were carrying more than you otherwise would have. The dedication of some of the crews mostly sitting alone in cars in the dark over four days was positively heroic.
We were very lucky with weather. Although Storm Darragh had blown through a week before the event it hardly rained at all during the four days and there was no wind to speak of. We did get a bit of fog at night which makes running with a head torch tricky. I suspect that if we had consistent cold rain for any length of time the DNF quotient would have increased considerably.
Storm Darragh did mean there was more boggy ground and flooding that would otherwise have been the case. There were also dozens of downed trees that needed to be circumvented during the event.
Sixteen hours of darkness each night was a significant challenge. I felt an almost primeval sense of relief when it got light in the mornings Having run out of batteries at night before I ran with two spare head torches and at least a dozen spare 3A batteries to ensure no repeats. I struggled with sleep deprivation on night two meandering all over the place. Fortunately a kindly crew gave me a cup of coffee which had an amazing, and almost instantaneous effect. I made sure I had caffeine gels for later in the race.
I did a lot of walking – well over half the course. I never ran up any hills and by the end I was only running down hills at what was pretty close to walking speed anyway
The staff and volunteers were wonderful throughout the event particularly as many were semi sleep deprived themselves. My ability to scatter mud though out the aid stations wherever I went didn’t seem to faze anybody. Some of the food was very good.
My last “day” started at 22:30 on the Friday, went through all of Saturday, and eventually finished at just before 05:00 on the Sunday, so over 30 hours to cover 67 mile, with a dash into M&S Food in Alton, a trip to a coffee shop in Farnham and half an hour at Puttenham. The second ascent of Box Hill felt like an unwarranted bonus. At the end all I wanted to do was sleep!
Have a great weekend Chasers and good luck to anyone racing this weekend. Happy running, everyone! ๐โ๏ธ๐โ๏ธ
Em & Jas
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.
02/02/2025 Mornington Chasers Regent's Park 10k marshalling
Volunteer (4 of 12 left) - deadline 2025-01-31
18/01/2025 Chingford League- Epping Forest Cross Country race
01/02/2025 Chingford League- Victoria Park race
Sign up to run - deadline 2025-01-28
08/02/2025 Met League XC - Fixture 5 - Trent Park
Sign up to join - deadline 2025-02-07
25/01/2025 SEEA XC Main Champs - Beckenham
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 04/01/2025
 |
Aldenham |
Keith Jordan 30:00, 43 [51.50%] |
 |
Barking |
Dylan Wright 24:12, 19 [61.91%] |
 |
Dulwich |
Myles Preston BA (Hons), CIMA (Cert), GDL, LPC, PGCE, MA, MSc, A* A Level in Government and Politics 18:22, 25 [73.59%] |
 |
Endcliffe |
Marcos Cuevas-Nunez 22:03, 61 (1) [67.95%] |
 |
Finsbury Park |
Andy Davies 23:49, 149 [54.79%] |
 |
|
Christopher Leslie 24:43, 198 [52.53%] |
 |
|
Tom Hill 24:44, 200 [52.49%] |
 |
|
Rebecca Taylor 25:13, 222 (-, 1) [65.50%] |
 |
|
Heather Marshall 25:30, 236 (-, 1) [63.40%] |
 |
|
Paul Davie 25:50, 254 [55.81%] |
 |
|
Paul Dickens 28:23, 424 [47.97%] |
 |
|
Rafaele Lamour 30:47, 561 [55.50%] |
 |
|
Krush Patel 32:55, 661 [39.54%] |
 |
|
Dominique Russell 33:09, 675 [44.65%] |
 |
|
Rosie Dougherty 33:43, 701 [43.80%] |
 |
|
Emily Morgan 33:43, 702 [43.80%] |
 |
Harrogate |
Mabel Ellerker 34:02, 340 [43.39%] |
 |
Highbury Fields |
Fiona Russell 23:56, 141 (-, 1) [73.89%] |
 |
|
Anna Patterson 28:01, 302 [52.71%] |
 |
|
Julia Shreeve 28:25, 309 [54.02%] |
 |
|
Stephen West 45:19, 518 [32.55%] |
 |
Hilly Fields |
Daniele Biagi 19:02, 6 [71.02%] |
 |
Huddle, RSA |
Lorice Mirkin 30:03, 20 [53.24%] |
 |
Lordship Recreation Ground |
Rendy Prakoso 19:14, 11 (1) [68.98%] |
 |
Lytham Hall |
Katrina Kelly 26:46, 65 (-, 1) [55.17%] |
 |
Morden |
Gaby Anderson 30:56, 113 [47.74%] |
 |
|
Lizzy Muggeridge 38:24, 155 [43.01%] |
 |
Oak Hill |
Juliette Westbrook 21:48, 30 (2, 1) [67.74%] |
 |
Sharpham Road Playing Fields |
Alexandra Hearne 21:22, 10 (1, 1) [69.27%] |
 |
Wanstead Flats |
Anthony Williams 24:24, 69 [54.10%] |
 |
|
Jennifer Williams 28:03, 140 [53.00%] |
 |
Winchester |
Jocelyn Corner 27:09, 188 [55.31%] NEW PB |
Middlesex and Hertfordshire County Championships (Trent Park), 04/01/2025
Links
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