A week of two halves !

Louise Stewart It's been a relatively quiet week this week. We had a couple of runners in each of two half marathons taking place in Oxfordshire - The Maverick Inov8 Oxfordshire Half Marathon and the Oxford Half Marathon. There was a sextet of members competing in the Green Leek Run and a quartet of lady members competed in the latest Draycote Water 10k, mainly graduates of the club's Couch to 5k initiative. Finally, the club's international race walker Paul Hawkins, took advantage of the cancelled first fixture of this season's junior XC league, to take part in and win the first of this season's Midland Winter Racewalk League fixtures. I'm looking forward to seeing many of you at the Club Awards on Saturday - please see below. Be there or be square ! Best Wishes David Jones. STRATFORD UPON AVON AC AWARDS PRESENTATION EVENING 19 October 2019 At Stratford School (in the main school hall) As a reminder, the Awards start at 6.00pm. As we have a lot to get through we need to make a prompt start. Therefore, we are asking people to arrive from 5.45pm.....not before please. We are getting on for a full house with upwards of 250 people attending and to make things move along more smoothly, as normal, we will seat the juniors together at the front with their friends, so they don't have to "pinball" their way through the tables to the stage. The evening is free and there will be goody bags for the youngsters at the interval and some snacks on the tables. However, there isn’t a bar and so we are encouraging you to take your own refreshments. We are providing glasses i.e. wine, pints and half pints and plates if you take your own snacks. As with previous years we will be running a raffle that will be drawn in the interval. We make up hampers from the generous donations of goodies from everyone so please bring something suitable along on the night. We hope you have a very enjoyable evening. Regards Paul Bearman Matt Sims. Maverick Inov8 Oxfordshire Half Marathon. Report - Phil Brennan.   Matt Sims, having completed the Marathon des Sables earlier in the year, was using this race as part of his preparation for his next major challenge, the Javelina 100k race in Arizona, later in the month. He finished in 65th place with a time of 2:01.43, something he should be well pleased with considering the wet and muddy conditions Louise Stewart has built her strength and fitness this season to become one of the club’s hardiest trail runners. This week was her greatest challenge to date, a half marathon through the depths of the Chilterns woods and hills, with deep and sticky mud slides being a memorable feature to match the spectacular views. Despite feeling the effects of a virus, she finished in a very creditable 2:33:38, but will never feel the same about mud again. The race was won by James Philips in…