📰 September News📰 

September marks the start of the autumn race season and this month we saw TRC represented at two major London races in the running calendar – The Big Half Marathon and Vitality 10K. For the Big Half, over 30 TRC members ran the 21.1K whilst other members set up a cheer squad and gave our runners the boost they needed at the 6K mark and again at 20.5K. A further 15 TRC members also completed the Vitality 10K! Our runners continue to organise meet-ups for other race events, now helped by our new “Race, Events & Gatherings” WhatsApp group to help members never miss another invite!

This new group was also used to organise a trip to Bushy Park parkrun – the home and heart of parkrun. 9 club members made the trip across London to tick off the “Where It All Started” parkrun challenge. Other members are also wanting to tour to Bushy so please keep your eyes peeled for the next parkrun tour there!

In other parkrun news, Will completed his goal of a 52 tourist streak with touring to Torbay Velopark, Chelmsford and Royal Tunbridge Wells, with Tony joining him for the latter to celebrate Will finishing the Gar-DONE of Kent challenge in memory of a very loved member of the club, Dave. Elsewhere Danny toured to Preston Park; Gem2 and Paul to Amager Strandpark; Sarah2 to Ally Pally; Yat to Swanley; Rachel to Dartford; Patty to Sutcliffe; Richard to Foots Cray; Jean to Avery Hill; and Ana to Vandeleur, Ireland. Another parkrun milestone was also celebrated this month with Alex completing his 100th parkrun at Burgess.

Travelling on holiday with no parkrun nearby? Not a problem! Kevin represented TRC in his yellow tee whilst running 5K around Calais and James did the same running 5K around Akatsuka Park, Tokyo.

Also this month our second Beginners Course of the year commenced on 20th September. The course has had a brilliant turnout of over 15 non-members joining the 12-week programme. Well done everyone!

🍂 Autumn Challenge🍂

At TRC we normally have a monthly friendly challenge for members to take part in. However, this time Gemma has set an autumn challenge to get us through to 1st December. It encompasses 3 mini challenges to help everyone get involved. She’s crunched the stats for September and so far the leaderboard is looking like this...

CHALLENGE 1: For best improved 5K time...

1st - Rachel with 4.98% improvement

2nd – Sarah2 with 4.15%

3rd - Jean with 3.87%

CHALLENGE 2: For most parkruns ran/walked...

1st Yat with 4

2nd Tony with 3

CHALLENGE 3: For the most volunteers at parkruns…

There is Yat, Christos, Kerry and Gemma all sitting on 2 volunteers each!

Keep adding each month and we will update again at the end of October... remember there is the little extra incentive of a prize for first place at the end of the challenge 🙃

‼ Health and Safety‼

With the darker evenings drawing in, TRC’s committee want to remind runners of key principles of how to keep themselves safe over the winter months –

• Inform someone of your run plans.
• Run with others or a dog.
• Avoid running alone at night/early morning.
• Stay aware of your surroundings.
• Wear bright clothing/lights.
• Use bone-conducting headphones.
• Use safety apps like What3Words.

‼ Dates for your diary ‼

🎉 Our clubs next AGM is Saturday 4th October, now at an earlier time of 2pm start. This is a yearly gathering that all club members are encouraged to attend; we will review the past year and share what’s instore for the next year!

🗓  Our annual Santa Dash 5K has been booked for Sunday 21st December at 10am. Join us for a 5K run or walk along the Thames Path dressed as Santa whilst raising money for Greenwich and Bexley Community Hospice (£10 donation includes a free Santa outfit!). This is a tradition that Dave started a few years ago and something our club is committed to continuing in his memory. Find out more at: https://www.justgiving.com/page/thamesmead-running-club?utm_medium=FR&utm_source=CL or email Sarah on thamesmeadrunningclub@gmail.com.

🏃‍**Save the Date** - Our annual club race has also been booked for 29th March 2026. More information to follow shortly; if you would like to get involved with organising the race or would like to volunteer on the day please speak with Yat or Patty.

🎉 September things to celebrate🎉

We said hello to our Beginners Group plus Marco joining on a 4-week free trial👋

Lizzie got third place in a Kayaking race🏅

Dee, Gem2 and Paul ran the Copenhagen Half Marathon🏅

Dee achieved a Half Marathon PB🎉

Diana ran the Maramures Half Marathon and achieved 6th female and 2nd in her age category🏅

Patty ran the Tonbridge 10K and achieved 2nd place in her age category 🏅

Deniz achieved a 10K PB 🎉

Andrew celebrated his 300th run with the club 🎉

Various PB’s were celebrated with the Big Half and Vitality 10K! 🎉

Kevin and Patty both completed their LiRF training and await their licences as TRC’s newest Run Leaders 🏃‍

Will ran the Betteshanger Country Park 10K 🏅

The club was represented in France, Denmark, Japan and Ireland this month 🌍

⭐️Runner of the Month ⭐️

This was a tough decision this month with many achievements that were worthy of Runner of the Month status. However, they were blown out the water when Christos went and completed his first ever ultramarathon – the 102K Thames Path Ultra. Christos is in the middle of training for his first official marathon and as part of his training decided to sign up for this ultra challenge to see if he could do it. Not only did he do it, he really enjoyed it and wants to return next year! What a great achievement Christos, well done!! 😀👏