In memoriam:
We were very sad to hear of David Morris’ passing earlier this year. David lost his battle with cancer after putting up a brave fight. Many of us witnessed his determination to make the most of his last days and were most impressed with his efforts to keep running and swimming. He steadfastly refused to accept the inevitable and not only won last year’s club handicap competition, but also won the respect of all our members – so much so, that they voted David Runner of the Year for 2023.
Following his diagnosis, he challenged his fellow triathletes to complete the 11-mile swim end-to-end across Lake Windermere and trained with them for as long as he was able. Unfortunately it was not to be, but Dan Carpenter and Yuichi Yoshinaga and two of his other swim buddies still went ahead and completed the swim in his honour last August.
We were very proud to have known David and to have had him as a highly respected club member. He will be greatly missed by many of us.
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Let me begin the main body of this report by thanking our committee members who have done a superb job of keeping the club going smoothly over the past year. Membership numbers stand at over 220 and we continue to attract new people from the local community and beyond. As you’ll discover at the AGM our finances remain healthy.
Our social secretary, Pete Reynolds, ably supported by his wife, Lorna (or should that be the other way around?), have done a great job in organising several get-togethers. We had our first quiz night in years; another entertaining evening of bowls at the West End club, liaising with our own Steve Cornell; our annual family BBQ; a couple of Friday runs to the Blackpit Brewery; a Christmas night out at the Granary Bar in town; and some club parkrun outings.
On that latter note, having expressed an interest in doing a ‘Z’ parkrun abroad, a number of us flew to The Hague in Holland for the Zuiderpark parkrun in July. It was a lovely weekend meeting up for meals on the Friday and Saturday and touring the city in between times. We hope to repeat the experience next year and hope more of you will come along.
Similarly, it is good to see that members are getting together and organising their own trips to various running events, with some doing the Edinburgh marathon and others flying off to sunny Spain for the Valencia half. This is just another advantage of being a member of the club.
We continue to support the community in any way we can and this year lent our gazebos to Lace Hill for Buckingham Day, Buckingham Primary for their Family Fun Day and to the unfortunate people whose house was struck by lightning in September’s storm. We also collected numerous items for the Buckingham Foodbank before Christmas and helped The Florence Nightingale Trust with their Santa Dash.
We also raised £4500 for local charities, St Marks Meals and Bucks Young Carers from our 6 th half marathon event. Once again, thanks to race director, Laura Penny, and our wonderful club members volunteering, this was a great success. In addition, we put on our first ever junior races which saw 47 children taking part. And thanks also, to the lovely people who sponsored this year’s event, viz., The House Inspector (Pete Reynolds); See Me GP (Nic Stewart); Russell and Butler (Nick and Sara Butler); Sheryne SR (Sheryne Shillingford-Reed); and MWealth (Emma and Paul Wildman). Our 7 th Half Marathon takes place on Sunday 11 th May, when we’ll need around 80 volunteers – so keep the date free! Next year, you, the members, have voted to donate all profits to Forever Colours – a hospice for children.
I’m pleased to report that the club fared well in the East Midlands Grand Prix Series with both the Senior Women’s and Senior Men’s teams coming 4 th (out of 28 clubs), whilst the Masters Women and Men both came 2 nd overall, and there were many fine individual performances, too.
As far as the Chiltern Cross Country competition went, we managed to narrowly maintain our place in the top league. Unlike the EMGP, our club age profile goes against us as we don’t have any juniors or many under-20s that score points for the many athletics clubs against whom we compete! With two more meetings to go, we’ll need everyone to turn up to ensure we stay in Division One. Thanks, as usual, to our team captains, Debbie Morris and Robby Taylor.
As for our in-club competitions, after several years without one, we held a duathlon in October which was greatly enjoyed by all who took part – so much so, that there is talk of doing more than just the one next year! Then there was the chance for all members to run the half marathon route and gain a medal in the process (despite one or two getting lost!); compete in the handicap series; gain a Club Standard medal; and take part in the many Club Championship races. Our thanks to Dan Carter for his superb work in organising the handicap and championship events, not to mention his impressive use of spreadsheets and statistics.
Having responsibility for our social media, Michael Hancock has done a great job in developing our Facebook and Instagram posts. He has many ideas in the pipeline, but we still want to hear from you if you have other suggestions, and we really do like to know what you have been getting up to so we can share your exploits with all our readers. It is worth pointing out that we now have over 1000 followers of our Facebook page!
A special mention must be made of our group leaders. Their importance cannot be overestimated – they quite literally keep the club running. Following a survey earlier in the year, it appears that some believe we have a group of people whose responsibility it is to lead runs on club nights. This is not the case. Group leaders are simply club members who volunteer on an ad hoc basis in order that the rest of us can enjoy a stress free evening of running. Although some have the Leader in Running Fitness qualification, the majority are just confident, community-minded folk who like to support the club. In fact over 50 people have led a group at some time or other over the past 24 months, with many doing so on more than 25 occasions – earning themselves free membership for 2025. On that note, we must highlight Graham Conquest, who has volunteered to lead a group on more than 50 occasions over the year. Our small group of regulars apart, despite having over 200 members, we continue to struggle to get enough folk to commit in advance to lead runs. This, in turn, results in some people not turning up on a club night because they think, as there is no group leader assigned, the run will not go ahead. This is not always the case, as someone will inevitably step up on the night. And even if no-one does, there is bound to be someone else to run with – and you don’t have to follow any specific route, just go where you want. This applies usually to the 11-12 minute milers and to overcome such reticence, we have set up a WhatsApp group so you can find out if anyone else is coming along on a club night before setting off.
Nor must we forget our sponsors, Rainscourt Family Law Solicitors MK. Their continued support is greatly appreciated and 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.
Finally, after 12 years as chairman of the club, I have decided that, if re-elected at the AGM, this will be my last year in the post. Therefore, to ensure there is a smooth transition for the future, the committee have agreed that we appoint a vice-chair for 2025, with a view to that person taking on the role of chair in 2026. Of course, it doesn’t mean they will definitely be elected – that is down to you, the members to decide. But it will give them the opportunity to show they are up to the task. If you are interested in becoming vice-chair, please email in! More details of the election of officers will be forthcoming in the next week or so.
Please note that the AGM and Awards Evening will be held at the Buckingham Athletic Clubhouse on Friday 31 st January.
In the meantime, have a great Christmas and I hope you fulfil all your running goals in 2025.
Chris – December 2024