November 2023 marked the tenth anniversary of my tenure as club chairman and in that time we have come far as a club. In 2013 the club had 50 members, but only a handful turned up for club runs which had no structure or organisation – we simply met outside the Swan Pool, had a brief chat about where to run and set off. With so few runners, there were no pace groups and we soon got strung out and had to re-group quite often to ensure we didn’t lose anyone – which did happen occasionally on darker nights! Club fees were £40 for new members and included membership of England Athletics and a club vest. There was no club constitution, club competitions or Standards, no weekly schedule, qualified coaches, functioning website, sponsorship, cross country team, Facebook page or Awards Evening. So you can see, in the past 10 years, with the help of various dedicated committee and club members, we have come a long way – even winning Bucks Sports Club of the Year in 2016. Year on year we have grown in size and now have over 230 members on roll.
One thing that was far from our minds back then was the thought of organising a half marathon, but thanks to the enthusiasm and commitment of many members, 2023 saw the 5 th event taking place and in the process we raised over £3000 for our chosen charities, St Marks Meals and Bucks Young Carers. Not as much as we had hoped due to a lower than usual turn out and so we have decided to keep them as the beneficiaries for 2024. However, there are encouraging signs that race entries across the country are now getting back to pre-pandemic numbers and we hope to see an upturn next year. Thanks to Race Director Laura Penny, Wendy Cissell and Pete Reynolds who together with myself, organised the 2023 event, and thanks also to the 80+ club members that helped out with numerous tasks, from marshalling to making cakes. Please try to keep the date free as we’ll need you once again for our 6 th half marathon on Sunday 12 th May 2024.
Quite apart from raising money for charity through our half marathon, we aim to support the local community in whatever way we can and this year Steve Thomson organised a litter-pick prior to the event in which many members cleared litter and a significant amount of debris along the planned route. We also made our usual Christmas collection for the Buckingham Foodbank and, following a request from the Florence Nightingale Hospice, we helped with the organisation of their Santa Dash round Bourton Park by planning the route and providing a number of marshals.
Our cross country teams excelled themselves this year by topping Division Two of the Chiltern League and thereby gaining promotion to Division One. The top division comprises many athletic clubs who have junior teams that we don’t have, earning them extra points and thus making it more difficult to compete on a level playing field. That said, at the time of writing we are holding our own, mainly thanks to the women’s team who rank 5th out of 16, and we are optimistic that we can retain our top flight status, but need to keep turning out full teams (10 men and 6 women) each month. Thanks go to team captains, Debbie Morris and Robby Taylor for galvanising and motivating their respective teams and a special mention to Tanya Cronin who did a great job as the club’s mandatory marshal at Campbell Park.
In a similar vein, many folk took part in the East Midlands Grand Prix series this summer – 8 evening races of 5 or 6 miles in places as far apart as Rugby and Banbury. Competing against top clubs in this large area, we excelled in coming 3 rd in the Senior Women (out of 20); 3 rd in the Senior Men (out of 29); 3 rd in the Masters Men (out of 22) and winning the Masters Women competition outright. As with the cross country, there was a great camaraderie and team spirit at all races, with members of all abilities taking part.
The year saw some truly remarkable performances from many club members and I would love to list them all here, but not only would it increase the length of this report two- or three-fold but I would probably fail to mention someone. That said, the men’s team won the Brackley 10k trophy, 10 club members completed the Manchester Marathon and a further 13 ran the London Marathon a couple of weeks later, and our ultra runners continue to amaze us with their feats of endurance. Our triathletes, too, are still going strong, thanks to Dan Carpenter and Yuichi Yoshinaga organising swim sets at the Swan Pool on Wednesday nights and Tim Smith, in the main, organising Sunday cycle rides. Tim also organised a series of cycle maintenance workshops which were well attended. Eight dedicated cyclists took part in the Ride London 100 mile event in May and 3 of them also entered the Swim Serpentine race, as well as the London Marathon, completing the coveted the London Classics in the process. Indeed, club members have participated in events from Berlin to Boston and even Honolulu!
The best way to keep abreast of these feats is to read the messages on our WhatsApp group or Facebook pages – even then so many of you are modest about your achievements that we don’t hear about them – so please keep us informed and if you’re too shy to tell us, get someone to do it on your behalf! You could be missing out at the Awards Evening – or even Runner of the Month! Speaking of which, this was one of a number of new initiatives, as we began selecting a Runner of the Month for a club member that has achieved something special – they get a framed certificate as well as the kudos of appearing on our Facebook page! Each month the committee has had a difficult job choosing precisely who should be awarded the accolade as there have been so very many outstanding performances.
It’s not only great feats of running that are considered each month. Those of you who go above and beyond what is expected, to help and support fellow club members, are greatly appreciated by us all. And that includes our Run/Group Leaders, without whom the club cannot operate. They are so important that we introduced a second initiative intended to reward them with free membership once they have volunteered to lead on 25 occasions. More than 30 members have, at one time or another, volunteered to lead a group, but special mention must be made to Pete Reynolds who has volunteered on more than 50 occasions throughout the past 12 months. It’s people like Pete and his peers that keep the club nights running effectively, and It is worth emphasising that anyone can volunteer to lead a group on a club night. There is no prerequisite other than a confidence to support and keep the group together – you don’t even have to follow the prescribed route! If you’d like to give it a go, simply email in and we’ll give you more details. Eventually, if you are interested, we’d send you on the England Athletics Leadership in Running Fitness course, like we did with Charlotte Davis this year. Indeed, Charlotte went one better and went on to complete the Coach in Running Fitness course and is now our 5th fully qualified coach.
Tony Allen has continued his good work getting more and more people to take up running by offering a number of couch-to-5k courses over the year, and this has resulted in many of them completing their first parkrun and subsequently deciding to join the club. In the past few months, one of these new members, Anji Flynn, has also played a big part in supporting Tony and has taken the lead in many such sessions, ably assisted by Sara Butler, Hazel Allen and Emma Wildman. But as I say every year, our aim is not to increase membership, it is far more important to ensure all members have a good experience and that is down to all of us to look out for and encourage each other on club nights and at race events.
If you want to get more involved in the operational side of the club, there is always something to do, Sheryne Shillingford-Reed, for example, has done a great job taking on the administration of Club Standards and Dan ‘Statman’ Carter has done wonders with the Championship and Handicap competitions, churning out results tables almost as soon as I’ve got home and showered, adding some interesting snippets of information to go with it. Thanks largely to his efforts, we have seen an impressive upturn in numbers entering Club Championship races this year.
Our third initiative of 2023 was the improvement of our website. With the help – both financial and technical – from member Melanie Comerford, I spent some weeks developing a new website which, I hope you’ll agree, presents a much more professional, vibrant picture of the club. It is accessible to the public – especially for those interested in joining us – but has a great deal of information for members, such as details of all club competitions, our various policy statements, easy access to the weekly schedule, an honours board listing past winners of club awards and trophies, detailed advice about training for an event such as a marathon, and much more.
Over the year, Debbie Morris and Simon Hull have worked hard on designing and ordering new kit for both the club triathletes and runners. The former came on sale in May and the latter should be available very soon.
We had a number of social events in 2023: another bowls night, hosted by Steve Cornell and the West End Bowls Club (whose members demonstrated great patience as they showed us how it should be done); a summer barbecue at Buckingham Athletic FC clubhouse; and several pub meets. If you have any ideas for social get-togethers for 2024, let Fern Parker know and she’ll work with you to get them off the ground.
Ever since 2014 we have been fortunate to be sponsored by Rainscourt Family Law MK and we were very pleased to renew a 5-year sponsorship agreement with them in July. Their support enables us to keep membership fees low and contributes towards such things as the hire of the Stowe track, subsidized kit and venue hire, so we have much to thank them for.
Whilst we should again be proud of what we have all achieved this year, we shouldn’t rest on our laurels. The committee are always keen to hear ideas from our members. So please come along and have your say at the AGM, when we’ll also be celebrating the wonderful achievements of so many of you at the Awards Evening immediately afterwards. As with any organisation, a club is only as good as its members and I trust you will continue to motivate and inspire each other. Once again I look forward to seeing every one of you achieving something inspirational in 2024 that you can be proud of.
A Happy New Year to you all!
Chris Usher – Club Chairman – December 2023