Lockdown Activities

Friendship and Support Last Saturday the Pridhams and Spriggs/Osbornes got together (they are a bubble) to go out and take part in the February Shakespeare Race. Becks plotted the route, it was decided on an out and back, giving us the opportunity to support each other and hopefully not lose anyone! As not everyone would be up to the distance or want to run, we had Georgia and Toby on bikes and what fantastic support they gave us. We staggered the set off. It was freezing cold, even though Maisie-Joy was feeling warm and wearing just a crop top and shorts! Becks and Hannah ran as quick as they could for fear of the pitter patter and fly by of Caleb & MJ's quick feet. Kate dug deep and gave it her all, coming back to more run training in recent weeks, this was a fast effort for her and she was well supported coming in to finish. I think we are all conscious of the fact that the length of this current lockdown is causing all ages a considerable amount of stress. While not undermining the difficulties faced by older age groups and parents, would it be fair to say that our younger members, those who are in education, are finding this lockdown particularly difficult to cope with both mentally and physically ? This being the case and with apologies to the senior members of the club, this newsletter is almost exclusively geared to acknowledging the difficulties faced by our juniors and attempting to enthuse and motivate them by suggesting programmes and challenges for them to take part in. This suite of programmes has been a collective effort by many of the club's volunteer age groups leaders and coaches with the hope that many of our junior members will take part, meaning that they will be fit and ready when normal training/competing resumes. While putting these initiatives together there was an awareness of the difficulties faced by parents with children home schooling and hopefully, the various activities listed are not too complicated and children will be able to act largely on their own initiative, while following all of the safety messages included and fully complying with all of the relative Covid restrictions. It is hoped that these activities will help both the mental and physical health of our junior members and, really importantly, that they will have a lot of fun taking part. Hannah Spriggs sent me a couple of wonderful photos and a bit of copy on what she, her children and the Pridham's have been up to, for which I am most grateful. I know lots of you are taking part in various activities, virtual challenges, virtual races etc. If you are, please send me details. I realise many of you post details on WhatsApp and Facebook etc but I'm sure many of your activities would be on interest to the 800+ subscribers of the newsletter. Finally, Becks Pridham has sent me this link to a BBC…