Nov 2011

First the Admin stuff – Annual Membership for 2011/12

Membership subscriptions for 2011 / 2012 (Oct-Sep) are now due and a membership form can be downloaded from the Harmeny website (www.harmenyac.org.uk) . We are been handing paper copies out at training.

We have increases the junior fees by £3 to £25 this year as this now includes a £5 fee for membership of Scottish Athletics. We will forward this to Scottish Athletics to ensure that all junior members are eligible to compete for the club. We have asked Scottish athletics to forward all membership renewals to us directly so we can co-ordinate this centrally.

There are a couple of exceptions:

• Children who will still be 8 years old at 30 April 2012: As juniors must be 9 years old before they can compete we will only require £20 if they are still 8 on 30 April 2012.
• Any members who are first claim for another club.

Please send in as soon as possible as chasing up latepayers is a bit of a chore! (Thanks to those who’ve already paid in the last couple of weeks).

Members can get a 10% discount on running gear at Edinburgh’s specialist running shop – “Run & Become” on Dalry Rd, “Run-4-It” on Lothian Rd.

Training cancelled at BHS on Wed 9 Nov:  Balerno High School are holding a Parent’s Open evening on 9 Nov and have cancelled our use of the facilities. As the road and car park will be very busy we have decided not to attempt an outdoor training night for safety reasons.

Anyone from the Wed group who would like to try a training session at Saughton track the following night is welcome to come along. We meet at the cash desk in the wee pavilion at 6.40 for a 6.45-7.45 track based training session.

The parent helper rota has been updated to the end of this term and is included t the end of this newsletter.

Outdoor training last week November (28 / 30) and first week December 5 / 7): Early warning! Due to the prelims we don’t have use of the Gym or the Games Hall on these nights. We will go ahead with training, but it will be outside, so anyone attending must be prepared for an outdoor running session. We won’t rota any parents to help these nights, but any who are competent runners who would like to assist will be most welcome.

(…… unless the snow falls like it did last year and nearly everything was cancelled.)

East District Cross Country League: Match 1, Stirling 15 Oct.

Results

Leading Team places after first match

U11 Boys

U11 Girls

U13 Boys

An interesting result in the U11’s with the boys one place ahead of the girls, but the girls are well placed to challenge the clubs just in front of them! The boys could have finished slightly higher if all trainers had stayed on feet when they went through the muddy bit of the course. We’ll do a “trainer check” before the next race. And hopefully none of our runners will be tripped at the start – Alastair must have lost about 30 metres on the field before travelling 10 metres.

The next match is on Sunday 20 November, and with no school holidays in the way we’d like to see a bigger team across all the age groups. As with the first match we’ll send out a chaser email the week before to everyone selected.

Dates & Venues - reminders

Directions to the venues are at the league web-site:  http://www.eastleague.co.uk/index.htm 

With people arriving for the later races, parking can get very busy by the time the first race starts. The closer to race time you arrive, the further away you will be parking, so allow plenty of time. Arriving early allows time to check the layout of the course.

Race Times

Under11 Girls and Boys                                                     1.00pm

Under13 Girls and Boys                                                     1.15pm

Senior/Junior/Master Women and U17 Men                  1.35pm

Under 15 Girls and Boys and U17 Women                     2.10pm

Senior/Junior/Master Men                                                 2.30pm

Age groups as are for the summer track season just finished. Race distances increase for older runners.

                                Born Between                                       Approximate Race Distance

U11                         1/9/00 – 31/8/02                                                  1.6 km (1 mile)                     

U13                         1/9/98 – 31/8/00                                                  3 km     (under 2 miles)

U15                         1/9/96 – 31/8/98                                                  4.5 km  (under 3 miles)

U17                         1/9/94 – 31/8/96                                                  6 km      (3.5 miles)

BUPA Fun Run, Sun 2 October

There were several members who did the junior fun run. Results that I’m aware of are:

Alastair Forman                                    11:54

Beth Campbell                                     12:01

Amy Birrell                                           12:02

Ellie Stewart                                          12:05

Callum Campbell                                12:08

Lara Byers                                             12:42

Amy Mcgaff                                        13:45

The eagle-eyed might have spotted Beth’s picture in “Scotland on Sunday”.  She was a member of a group of young athletes who met and trained with some of the elite runners who were competing in the 10k race.

Currie & Balerno News Picture

And speaking of pictures in newspapers, the pictures that we took at training on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday back in early September were all published in the October edition of the Currie & Balerno News. We hope you all spotted yourself (smiling of course). There might still be few a copies in the local newsagents.

Saturday Morning Park Runs

A few more club members are trying the Parkruns which take place every Saturday down at the promenade by Silverknowes. The distance is 5 kilometres and entry is free, but anyone aiming to participate should register in advance to get their own personal bar-code. Register at http://www.parkrun.org.uk/edinburgh/home

Best times for our young runners are:

                                                Best Time               No of Runs

Samuel MACNAB              18:34                      2    

Alison BROADHURST      21:28                      10 

Alex BATES                         21:42                      19 

Zoe BATES                          21:43                      19 

Lucas JOHNSTON              23:59                      9 (plus one in Belfast)  

Beth WEDGWOOD             24:24                      10 

Ellie STEWART                   26:43                      3    

Club Vests

We’re putting in another order for club vests to cater for the size of our teams at competitions. There might be a handful that have been borrowed over the last couple of years lying at the bottom of drawers. They’re red, so are easy to spot. If you do find one, we’d be pleased to return it to the kit box. Junior members are not expected to buy club vest as we don’t compete in many inter-club competitions, but those who do compete  at various open events or at championships should consider getting one.

Updated Parent Helper Rota (to end of term)

These can also be seen at http://www.harmenyac.org.uk/parents/rotas.htm

Mondays

* On 28 Nov and 5 Dec the prelims are on and we don’t have any indoor facilities. So only those who are prepared to run outside should come along.

** As 19 Dec is the last week before Christmas, it will be more of a games evening, with “confectionary prizes” for all.  All parents welcome.

Wednesdays

* On 30 Nov and 7 Dec the prelims are on and we don’t have any indoor facilities. So only those who are prepared to run outside should come along.

** As 21 Dec is the last week before Christmas, it will be more of a games evening, with “confectionary prizes” for all.  All parents welcome.