Essex Athletics Championships 23/24 May

The annual Essex Athletics the Championships take place this weekend with athletes heading to Chelmsford's Sport & Athletics Centre to pit themselves against the County's best.

The track and field timetable can be viewed HERE

Good luck to everyone competing!

RunSouthend

Perfect conditions for Great Bentley Half Marathon

The sun was out today at the annual Great Bentley Running Club Half Marathon as runners from across the South in search of a PB.

First over the line was Chris Sellens of Colchester Harriers in 1:12:45 with Team mate Sarah Stradling the first female home in 1:18:58.

From a local prospective the first Southend Athletics Club male finisher was Ty Farrer (22nd overall & 3rd M40-44 in 1:19:31). The first Leigh on Sea Strider male finisher was Neil Spicer (10th overall in 1:16:37) with Tracy English the first female home for the club (94th overall & 1st F35-39 in 1:28:14).

Well done to everyone that took part.

Full results can be found HERE

Adam Hickey's 2015 Run England Training Sessions

Great Britain International Runner & Run Coach Adam Hickey will be leading the following Run England accredited run coaching sessions around the Southend area during the January & February school term time 2015.

Tuesday: 9:45am meet at Leigh Train Station

Thursday: 9:15am meet at Chalkwell Park

Both sessions are open to all abilities, cost just £3 each and are a great way to improve your fitness in a fun and friendly environment! Training sessions include a mixture of running on paths, grass, beach, flat and hilly ground with each person working at their own level so there's no need to feel nervous about coming along!

Feel free to head down to a session or contact Adam via email: adamhickeycoaching@hotmail.com or via his coaching Facebook page by searching Adam Hickey Sports Coaching

Eddy Cooper's latest blog for RunSouthend.com - October '14

Hello readers! 

Well it's been an interesting and enjoyable few months since we last spoke, I've started my AS levels (year 12) at SHSG (Southend High School for Girls - the 6th form is mixed!), competed in the Southend 10k and began the cross country leagues! After track season finished, and my emotionally traumatising first few weeks at SHSG had drawn to a close, the cross country relays approached on the 27th of September. I was due to run the 2nd leg of our team in the U17's race with my friends Michael Williams and James Hiscock. I had a really good run and was ranked in the top 15 of all the runners' individual legs. Michael and james followed that up with decent runs and we did pretty well to finish in the top 7. I was pretty pleased with that performance as it put me within around 10seconds of some elite runners (like George Elliot).

On the back of this performance, I wanted to do a good time (sub 37minutes) in the Southend 10k (5th October) after running 37:49 last year. I felt good leading up to the race and had my new brooks racers, courtesy of Runner's Edge, to compete in and I had a good feeling about the day. Mum was there with some of the Fittology crew (her beginners' group, back in 2012, and now intermediate group!) that were looking to set good times for themselves, some running the distance for the first time so a big well done to all of them! I set off pretty quickly (and when I say pretty I mean far too quickly!) and completed the first mile in 5:38 :') dooming myself from the start! But I did go on to run consistent miles just over the 6 minute mark and the final mile was a brisk 5:51 so I was very pleased with my performance, mainly because I'd run (on average) lower than 6 minute miling, but a little disappointed because I was just outside of that sub 37 minute time; finishing in 37:06. So a sucker punch to be so close, but onwards and upwards and besides, a PB is still a PB! :D

Finally, yesterday (the 18th) I competed in the first cross country league at one tree hill. Without a shadow of a doubt the HARDEST cross country I have ever competed in!!! Oh jeez... there was literally no flat bit apart from the first 20 metres of the race... (and even that had a camber!). So a tough one, but our team, considering it was injury laden and minus one of our fastest runners (Adam Foster - hope he recovers quickly from his hip injury after he was hit by a car whilst on a bike ride during the Summer! He has been back training, but he feels as though it's too early to race) performed decently. I had a solid run, albeit with growing pains (I kid you not, I am actually beginning to grow), and finished, outside my aim of top 15, but a good run nonetheless; in 17th, James (even with a back injury) finished in 21st, Michael (again with knee problems) finished 37th and Ryan (who fell over, threw up and did just about everything else!) still managed to finish the race. So something to improve on for us all, but decent performances.

I'm looking forward to competing in the Chelmsford 10k at the start of November and also the subsequent cross country league events, that occur all over Essex. Cheers for reading guys!

Keep reading and running!
Eddy     
P.S: Yes I really did sprint to the front of the 10k to get my photo in the paper :') not really, just a very brisk start! As mentioned, too brisk! :')