Cheers Everyone

Hi everyone

This is my last message to you all this year, because as of midnight last night Dave Taylor is officially Captain. I hope you agree that it's been a great year and that you've all enjoyed it as much as I have. I can't believe it's over and honestly am really gonna miss it, but the club definitely has a bright future and it's exciting to see where it'll go next. Best of luck to Dave, Claire and the new committee who are now in charge.

I want to encourage everyone to stay involved with the club. Turn up to the runs and the sessions, and hit the socials hard. Once you leave uni you'll realise that this sort of community doesn't exist in the 'real world'. Throw yourself into it and make the most of it while you can, because the time will fly, and once you're gone you're gone.

There are quite a lot of people who deserve thanking. The committee have been top-class this year. Thanks to women's captain Natasha for leading the women to Varsity victory, and to Brucie for knowing more about the club than everyone else on the committee put together, he's always there to set us right if we're going wrong! The race organisers like Dave, Maire, Sean, Alex, Claire and Tom have saved me so much work and all did great jobs, and of course Michelle did a Stirling job organising BUCS. Sean Ledger experienced stress levels no-one deserves as THR organiser, but pulled it off to stage a highly successful race, so thanks. Heyes and Matty J successfully organised loads of socials, they are top dogs. In particular, the hours Anupam has put into the club are exceptional, and he also has been at almost every run, making sure people don't get lost, so massive thanks.

Everyone else on the committee too, great job, and also thanks to other people like Ed Nicholas at the Sports Fed and Simon Molden who are not on the committee but are always there for the club, as are sneior members like John De'Ath. The Old Gits and TH&H (Thames Hare and Hounds) are great organisations and I recommend anyone who is leaving the club this year to investigate them further. And of course, coaches Paddy and Jim Bennett - thanks for the time you've put in, it would have been very difficult for me to run the club without any additional guidance. And talking of guidance, past captains Ian, Jamie and Cheggers have been very helpful - thanks a lot.

Dan, Skouby, Clara and OUAC - good luck for Varsity, thanks for helping out in the mob matches and I hope the two clubs continue to support each other and work together closely. Thanks also to CUH&H. As far as I know they don't have anyone on this maillist (or do they?! spies...) but their club captain Robin Brown has been a top guy to deal with this year, and there's a lot of fun people over there, so we should all look forward to racing in front of them and partying with them in the future.

We couldn't function without the people who aren't on the committee but have nevertheless helped out, for example marshalling. Thanks to all of them. I know we're always asking for marshals but when we don't provide them people tend to run the wrong way(!) so thanks so much to everyone who's helped out like that. And anyone who's helped out, looking after people on runs or whatever. Thanks. Above all, thanks to everyone who has turned out for the club, racing and even just training. You are the club, you love the sport - keep running.

Chris
(CXXIV)

Teddy Hall Relays success, track Saturday 10am

Hi everyone

I wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone who helped out at THR yesterday. The event was a massive success, but couldn't have happened without all the marshals, timekeepers, results people, people helping with the lunch, people selling t shirts and so on. Thanks to anyone and everyone who lent a hand, and also to Running Across Borders and Right to Play for top-class organisation of the marshals.

A special mention needs to go to Sean Ledger, who spent countless hours making sure the event happened. He was laying the groundwork last Michaelmas, and has been doing nothing but working on THR solidly this last week. We are heavily indebted to him, so thanks a lot.

Similarly, Anupam Das, the THR Assistant, deserves a mention. He has also put a great deal of time and effort into making sure the event ran smoothly, from admin stuff back in November to undertaking the highly stressful task of getting the preliminary results out in time for the prize giving. Thanks Anupam.

Lots of other people played a major role too, for example new Captain Dave Taylor put a lot of time coordinating the marshals, and past organiser Bryn Reynolds came up to Oxford the day before so we could use his car to buy 32 loaves of bread, £300-worth of alcohol and so on for the tea and prizegiving. Cheers guys.

Tomorrow is rest day, then on Saturday we'll hit the track at 10am for 10x300m with a minute's recovery. Come and join me for the last session of my captaincy!

Good luck to those racing in the Inter-Counties on Sat.

Chris

Teddy Hall Relays this Wednesday! Training alterations this week.

Hi everyone

It's pretty much 8th week, which is crazy. As you know, the Teddy Hall
Relays are on Wednesday. Please get in touch with
david.taylor@trinity.ox.ac.uk if you can spare just an hour or so for
marshalling, between 1:15 and 4pm. We also need timekeepers, and people to
help with the refreshments afterwards, so please get in touch.

***Changed training times this week***

Because of the race on Wednesday, the reps session in Uni Parks will now be
in Monday, and we'll do an easy steady from the RadCam at 1pm on Tuesday and
a steady run on Thurs.

So training for the last week of term is:

Sun 10am - long run from Rad Cam as usual
*Mon 1pm - grass reps, Uni Parks
*Tues 1pm - steady run from Rad Cam
*Weds - THR, race starts at 1:30pm
*Weds pm - Annual Dinner, Four Pillars Hotel
*Thurs 1pm - steady run from Rad Cam
*Sat am - tbc

On Saturday a lot of people will be moving out of college, or doing the
Inter Counties, or both. I am thinking of doing a track session, seeing as
we haven't been having any on Thursdays and the summer is drawing nearer.
The more civilised end-of-term special time of 11am sounds appealing. I'll
email later to confirm.

Great, I think that is everything for the timebeing. HELP OUT AT TEDDY
HALL!!! Please.

See you all soon, should be a great week.

Chris

7th week - one week until Teddy Hall Relays

Hello everyone

It's 7th week, and many of the big events of the term have now passed. But some veeeery important ones still remain:

- AGM: Wednesday this week, 7:15pm in the Moser Theatre in Wadham College (come to Wadham College lodge and people should be there, otherwise ask the porters for directions). Should be attended by all paid-up members, and you can all stand for a position and vote.

- T E D D Y H A L L R E L A Y S (and annual dinner): Wednesday 8th week. Teddy Hall is our showpeice, a major road relay event that we host off our own back, is attended by over 800 runners and is known throughout the country (teams from Manchester, Southampton, London and elsewhere all compete). The closing date for entries is Friday this week, please sort a team(s) from your college/department and run in it, the more teams we have, the more successful it will be. Don't forget there are prizes on offer too! Also, please volunteer to help with marshalling/timekeeping etc. I know this is always asked, but this is the last time. If you do nothing else for the club, please just do this. The event can't function without volunteers.

In this email:

1. National Cross Country resutls
2. Training this week

1. National Cross Country

A number of OUCCC athletes competed at the National Cross Country Championships in Leeds yesterday. Well done to all for making the trip, running well and surviving the infamous 'hill 60', the 60-degree hill that we had to run *down*. It was scary. Well done to all who competed, especially Claire, Andy, Luke and Jake for making the top 50 in their respective junior races, with Andy hitting the top 15, and Rach and Dave for the major acheivement of top 50 in the senior nationals.

I've included people who were in the minibus and people that I just heard had ran. Sorry to any OUCCC athletes not listed below.

Junior Women (91 competitors)
46th - Claire Baudouin

Junior Men (204 competitors)
11th - Andy Heyes
21st - Luke Caldwell
31st - Jake Shelley
87th - Alan Cherry
191st - Mark McLeod

Senior Women (543 competitors)
47th - Rachel Deegan

Senior Men (1428 competitors)
37th - Dave Bruce
77th - Joe Mercer
134th - Chris Palmer
363rd - Chris McGurk

also, members that have left us in the last year:

71st - Ian Kimpton
171st - Bryn Reynolds

2. Training this week

Training this week follows the normal pattern, no races or anything like that going on:

Mon 5 15pm - steady run from RadCam, 40 mins
Mon 6pm - OUAC circuits at Iffley Road
Tues 1pm - grass reps in Uni Parks
Weds 1pm - steady run from Rad Cam, 40mins
Weds 7:15pm - AGM, Wadham College
Thurs 1pm - tempo run, Uni Parks
Sat 10am - hill reps, South Parks

Great. Make sure you're all at the AGM to elect/be elected into the new committee!

Chris

Hyde Park Victory, 5th week and HT Cuppers

Hi everyone

Half way through term already! Our last big event, Teddy Hall relays, is
approaching (Weds 8th week), make sure you get some friends together and
enter a college or departmental team, as the club depends massively on funds
raised from this event.

This email:
1. Hyde Park Success
2. Training this week - and Hilary Term Cuppers on Thursday
3. Positions at the AGM

1. Well done to everyone who turned out to represent OUCCC at the Hyde Park
relays this Saturday. Our 'A' team were the overall winners of the event -
congratulations. The women ran well and placed highly despite one runner
having to run twice, massive thanks to Claire for stepping up to that
challenge! We think they were about 6th, but results aren't out yet so we
don't know for sure (I will email results when they're availble). The B team
ran well too, and beat the Cambridge A team! Well done to Oz and Anupam who
also ran multiple legs. So congratulations and thanks to all, it was a great
day.

2. Training this week

Follows the normal plan, except note Hilary Term Cuppers are on Thursday -
an email explaining these will be sent shortly, but basically it's just a 5k
(ish) road race starting in Uni Parks at 1pm on Thursday. Come along - it's
fun!

Mon 5 15pm - steady run from RadCam, 40 mins
Mon 6pm - OUAC circuits at Iffley Road
Tues 1pm - grass reps in Uni Parks
Weds 1pm - steady run from Rad Cam, 40mins
Thurs 1pm - Hilary Term Cuppers, Uni Parks
Sat 10am - hills session at South Parks

3. AGM

The Annual General Meeting will be held on the evening of Wednesday of 7th
week, so please keep this date free. Myself and the rest of this year's
committee will be stepping down at the end of this term, and this is the
meeting where the next committee are elected. Please come along and have
your say, all paid-up members of the club can vote.

I will be sending out emails this week outlining what each position of the
committee is, and what they do. Please take a good look at these and
consider whether you'd like to run for something. The club can't run without
this, so everyone is strongly encouraged to get involved, give something
back to the club and run for a position.

See you all at training!

Chris

4th Week

Hi everyone,

This weekend a crack squad of OUCCC's best (dressed) runners travelled all
the way to Scotland to compete against the best university cross country
runners in the United Kingdom. We measured up so well I decided to send a
separate BUCS email. Here's what's in this weekly maillout though:

1) Training this week
2) Hyde Park relays - still spots left if you want to run
3) Send us results from other races you've ran
4) RAB Summer Internship

1) Training this week follows the normal pattern

Mon 5 15pm - steady run from RadCam, 40 mins
Mon 6pm - OUAC circuits at Iffley Road
Tues 1pm - grass reps in Uni Parks
Weds 1pm - steady run from Rad Cam, 40mins
Thurs 1pm - tempo in Uni Parks
Sat - Hyde Park Relays or hills session, 10am at South Parks

I am aware that some people might want to start doing track sessions. There
are no official club track sessions at the moment because the best way to
train is to do two hard sessions a week plus a tempo on Thurs. As it is
still cross country season, those two sessions need to be long reps and hill
reps. We might do a Tuesday track session sometime this term, but at the
moment if you are a middle distance athlete and feel you need to start
getting some track work in (if you want to do 800m or 1500m this summer then
you need to) then get in touch with Dane (dane.austin@balliol.ox.ac.uk) who
is organising middle distance training.

Keep training - the National Cross Country Championships are in three weeks,
and you want to run well at Teddy Hall Relays too!

2) Hyde Park relays

This is this Saturday afternoon. We take the Oxford tube/express down and
run in a road relay which is 6 x 3miles for the men, and 4 x 2miles for the
women (approximately). There are still spots, so if you fancy a fun day out
let me know.

3) Send us results of other races you've ran in if you want these to go on
the results section of the website. By 'other races' I mean County
Championships and Regional (Northern/Midland/Southern) Championships mainly.

On that note, a massive congratulations is required for Hayley Munn, our
resident Midland Junior Women Cross Country Champion (as of last week) and
Andy Heyes, who took silver in the Northern Junior Men's Cross Country
Championships two weeks ago. When you remember that the country is only
split into three regions (Northern/Midland/Southern) then you realise that
medalling at one of these events is a pretty big acheivement. Well done!

4) Here is a quick message from a charity that OUCCC has links with, called
Running Across Borders

Hi all,

This summer we are going to be supporting one intern in our camp in Addis.
The attached document has all the details including the application deadline
of 15 February. The chosen candidate will need to cover airfare and a small
fee to be coached in their running (if they want to train while in
Ethiopia), but basic living expenses are covered.

Many thanks,
Garrett
garret.ash@runningacrossborders.org

BUCS - We are the best...

Hi all,

Congratulations to all who ran at BUCS at the weekend. We took a quality squad up there and people ran really well. The Men's A team were the BEST NON-LOTTERY FUNDED UNI IN THE COUNTRY - well done!!! I am proud of you guys. The women's team and men's B team both did exceptionally well too.

Men's A race team results (25 or 30 teams competed, 4 runners score)

1. St Mary's (33 points)
2. Birmingham (49 points)
3. Loughborough (80 points)
4. OXFORD (113 points)
5. Nottingham (195)
6.....

St Mary's, Birmingham and Loughborough all receive lottery funding from UK Athletics and are dedicated High Performance Centres with top class facilites, coaches, injury support and little or no work to do. We have none of this, plus hectic courses to juggle training with, and yet were very close to L'boro and head and shoulders above all the other unis in the country. Well done boys.

Men's A race individual results (228 competitors)

15 Andy Heyes
16 Dave Bruce
39 Chris Palmer
43 Luke Caldwell
45 Joe Mercer
64 Chris McGurk

Women's results

Unfornately due to injury the women did not have a complete team, but had they I am sure they would have acheived similar success to the boys. As it was, our two runners both placed highly, so well done:

47 Hayley Munn
74 Claire Baudouin
(238 competitors)

Men's B race results

The B race is a highly competitive race and our athletes ran very well:

57 Alan Cherry
65 Karim Habibi
69 Will Mycroft
113 Alex Robson
139 Richard Priseman
(217 competitors)

Team results are not online yet, so I am not sure where we came in this race, but well done all.

Full results are available on http://www.bucs.org.uk/news.asp?itemid=5054&itemTitle=BUCS+Cross+Country+results+live+from+Stirling§ion=8§ionTitle=News+from+BUCS

Once again, congratulations on being the best non-lottery funded (and the best dressed) team in the country

C.P. McGurk
CXXIV Oxford University Cross Country Club Captain

Best of luck to everyone competing at BUCS this weekend!

Oxford have two very strong teams going off to Stirling this weekend. With any luck the race won't be cancelled and we will be bringing home a medal!

Photo133

Photos from the Freshers Run at the beginning of Michaelmas 2009. There were three different pace groups doing different routes all based on Port Meadow.

via Pixelpipe

Photo131

Photos from the Freshers Run at the beginning of Michaelmas 2009. There were three different pace groups doing different routes all based on Port Meadow.

via Pixelpipe

Photo132

Photos from the Freshers Run at the beginning of Michaelmas 2009. There were three different pace groups doing different routes all based on Port Meadow.

via Pixelpipe

Photo129

Photos from the Freshers Run at the beginning of Michaelmas 2009. There were three different pace groups doing different routes all based on Port Meadow.

via Pixelpipe

Photo130

Photos from the Freshers Run at the beginning of Michaelmas 2009. There were three different pace groups doing different routes all based on Port Meadow.

via Pixelpipe

Photo128

Photos from the Freshers Run at the beginning of Michaelmas 2009. There were three different pace groups doing different routes all based on Port Meadow.

via Pixelpipe

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Photos from the Freshers Run at the beginning of Michaelmas 2009. There were three different pace groups doing different routes all based on Port Meadow.

via Pixelpipe

New Article: Post-War Running at Oxford

Yet another installment from Geoff Tudor, well worth a read: http://ouccc.objectis.net/social-media/articles/post-war-running-at-oxford

New Article: Memoirs of Peter Curry & Cross Country, http://bit.ly/duTsu0

Geoff Tudor recently wrote this memoir of his and Peter Curry's time at Oxford competing for the Cross Country Club. We thank him and our best wishes go out to Peter Curry. http://bit.ly/duTsu0

via Pixelpipe

Two weeks 'til BUCS

Hi everyone

Great to see everyone back at training, and I've been impressed with the turnouts. The snow is gone and it seems a bit warmer, so let's keep it going!

This upcoming week is the second to last week before OUCCC's biggest race this term, the British Universities Championships (BUCS). So it's the last week you can get some real quality training in. Do it!

This email:

1. Training this week
2. RAF Halton
3. Discounted tickets for OUCCC at St Hugh's Ball!

1. Training this week

Training continues to follow the standard pattern:

Mon 5:15pm - steady run from Radcliffe Camera, 40-50 mins
Mon 6pm - circuits at Iffley Road sports hall with OUAC
Tues 1pm - grass reps at Uni Parks
Weds 1pm - steady run from Rad Cam, 40 - 50 mins
Thurs 1pm - tempo run at Uni Parks
Sat 10am - hills session at South Parks (spikes advisable, it's muddy)
Sun 10 am - long run from Radcliffe Camera, 70+ mins

Hopefully all the girls in the club are on the women's mailling list (you're meant to be added automatically) but in case you're not, Claire Baudouin (claire.baudouin@pmb.ox.ac.uk) has been taking a separate slower group on Sunday mornings (followed by brunch) as some of the girls were saying the runs were too fast. So if you've found Sunday runs too fast in the past try coming along again, you might find this new group is perfect for you. Guys too - it's not exclusively for girls.

If you're a girl and haven't been receiving Claire's emails let me know and I can add you to the women's maillist.

2. RAF Halton

Well done to our representatives at the race last Wednesday hosted by the RAF and also featuring athletes from the fire service, civil service and others. Women's results (32 competitors):

17th Maire Gorman 29:37

Men's results (102 competitors)

51st Chris McGurk 43:33
55th Ed Nicholas 44:03

3. Discounted tickets for OUCCC at St Hugh's Ball!

OUCCC's very own Danny T has secured athletics and cross-country club members discounted £76.50 tickets to the St Hugh's Ball (normal price £85). It would be a great night if we could plenty of us down there...

http://www.facebook.com/#/event.php?eid=264693622098&ref=ts

Contact daniel.titheradge@st-hughs.ox.ac.uk for info/tickets.

See you all tomorrow!

Chris
07846296811