📰 November News📰 

This month, Run Leader and Social Events Organiser, Caroline organised our first monthly walking group. This was an opportunity for club members to meet to socialise, connect and get some active recovery in. Walking makes it available to all members irrelevant of running goals or if they are currently injured. The first walk took place on 9th November from Woolwich Works to the O2 and back, with a stop of at the pub for refreshments at the halfway point. In total the group walked an impressive 10K! Please keep an eye out on WhatsApp for the next walking group date.

Club members have also been exploring new places to run with a midweek night trail run in Dartford, a track session at Sutcliffe and a 25K Sunday trail run along the River Darent from Sevenoaks! Thank you to Andrew and Patty for organising.

Speaking of Patty… we can formally announce Patty as our newest Run Leader for the club after receiving her licence through! We look forward to joining one of your runs soon. And we also hope Kevin will have his licence through shortly as well, meaning we will have two wonderful new leaders to join as volunteers for the club.

Parkrun has once again been a feature in our diaries this month. With the help of Kevin’s analysis of this month’s updates, we can update that the club has been represented at 18 different parkrun locations, including in Singapore and Australia. They were: Hillsborough; Thames Path; Victoria Dock; South Woodham Ferrers; Bexley; Charlton; Southwark; Mote Park; Bay East Garden; Avery Hill; Burgess; Castle Park; Sutcliffe; Albert Melbourne; Crystal Palace; Sale Water; Whitecliffe; and Greenwich Peninsula.

On 8th November, Yat also celebrated his 100th parkrun at Charlton with many TRC members going along to celebrate with him! Yat brought banana cakes whilst Sarah(2) brought masks with Yat’s face on to run with – that’s what running friends are for, right?

🍂 Autumn Challenge🍂

Today marks the end of our 3-month challenge! Thank you to everyone who has taken part, I hope it has helped keep you motivated as days get darker and colder.

It can finally be announced the winners of each of the 3 mini challenges are:

1. Best improved 5K time goes to Sarah(2) with an impressive 11.52% improvement! You have won the top prize of a free Runthrough race entry 😊
2. Most parkrun’s ran or walked goes to Yat with scoring the maximum available of 14 parkruns! You have won the parkrun prize of a black ‘parkwrap’ (neck warmer).
3. Most parkrun’s volunteered at goes to Kerry with volunteering 7 times at junior parkrun! You have also won the parkrun prize of a black ‘parkwrap’.

A special mention goes to Rachel and Will who improved their 5K times by 9.63% and 6.39% respectively. Plus, Will ran 13 parkruns and Christos ran 9. Several club members also volunteered at parkrun 4 times – Kevin, Yat and Christos. Well done everyone.

Now to pass onto one of you to set December’s challenge!

‼ Dates for your diary ‼

🗓  Our annual Santa Dash 5K is on Sunday 21st December at 10am. Join us for a 5K run or walk along the Thames Path dressed as Santa followed by a post-run social at Bouldr Bar. Bouldr Bar are supporting our fundraiser, including offering every participant a FREE drink. This event is all in aid of raising money for Greenwich and Bexley Community Hospice. This is a tradition that Dave started a few years ago and something our club is committed to continuing in his memory. To enter, just donate £10, which includes a free Santa outfit; 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 for 2026 will be 29th March. 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.

🎉 November things to celebrate🎉

We welcomed Linda and Paul as new members of TRC 👋

Will ran the Chatham 10K 🏅

Kathryn ran Victoria Park 5K and achieved her fasted 5K time this year! 🏅

Lara made her running comeback at Bexley parkrun 🎉

Sarah(2) ran up Bostal Hill for the first time 🎉

Emma completed the Benidorm 10K 🏅

Tony, Rebecca and Lydia ran the LondonTen race 🏅

Liam became a father again 👶

Deb and Lara achieved 5K parkrun PB’s 🎉

Ana, Shelley and Aoibheann competed in the Hybrid games 🏅

Patty completed the Salt Settlers Six 28K 🏅

Leanne completed her first 5K post-partum 🎉

Leanne brought the youngest member of the club along on TRC’s first club walk to the O2 🎉

The club was represented in Singapore and Australia 🌍

🏅It’s Another Marathon Special Edition… 🏅

We have had another club member take on a marathon race for the first time this month – Christos. Christos ran his first marathon earlier this month in Athens which he completed with his son. Christos has been achieving some impressive times and distances in recent months (remember him being Septembers RofM for completing an ultramarathon?) but there really is nothing like an official road marathon. Of course, Christos absolutely smashed it, well done!! 🎉

⭐️Runner of the Month ⭐️

Now I have been waiting patiently to announce this Runner of the Month for quite some time but the time finally has come to congratulate Will on his absolutely huge parkrun achievements. Will has been up early nearly every Saturday to travel to Kent and the Southeast to various parkruns in the region, all in memory of a very much loved and missed club member, Dave. It was a challenge Will and Dave had previously set themselves together and one that Will promised he would finish. And now he has. Will has completed GarDONE of England and Complete Kent++ parkrun challenges. Well done Will, and , as you said, “gone but never forgotten”.