The next AGM will take place on the evening of Thursday 18th March 2021. Please put this in your diary, and we’ll confirm nearer the date the time and location depending on current Government guidance
The AGM will be your opportunity to speak to the team, stand for committee positions and much more!
QRC Race Committee would like to present the first of a series of virtual runs to raise money for charity.
You can run either a 5k or a 10k this December as part of the QRC Christmas Cracker, and all entrants will receive a special medal. (Ooooh!)
All profits will be donated to the Trussell Trust (charity number – England & Wales (1110522) and Scotland (SC044246).
To take part in the QRC Christmas Cracker, you must:
You need to sign up for the 5k or 10k before 5pm on Monday 30th November.
To take part please visit our Eventbrite page. Entries will open on Saturday 21st November at 12noon.
All those eligible to run will have been sent the password either by e-mail, WhatsApp or in the members group, but if you’ve received it please e-mail queensburyrc@gmail.com.
Medals will be delivered following the Friday 8th January cut off.
About the Trussell Trust
The Trussell Trust support a nationwide network of food banks and together we provide emergency food and support to people locked in poverty, and campaign for change to end the need for food banks in the UK. https://www.trusselltrust.org
From Nicola, our welfare officer:
As expected, England Athletics confirmed that there was no exemption for club running to the lockdown rules. We now cannot meet as a club until the current rules are lifted on the 2nd December. We will keep you informed as the guidelines change. Remember that we are only allowed to meet for exercise with one other person during this second lockdown.
Stay safe everyone and see you in December .
The Yorkshire Veterans’ Athletics Association are offering members of clubs affiliated to YVAA a chance to take part in an age-graded virtual 5k and 10k competition taking place in October, November to December.
If successful this will hopefully continue in 2021. The “event” is free to enter and there will be no prizes, just the satisfaction of running against your peers and your own times, plus having a reason for putting in a couple of race pace runs each month.
Get those shoes ready, dig out that hi-vis and check the batteries in your running watch – it’s time to sign up for one of our Thursday runs!
We have a range of groups for all paces, distances and abilities with a running leader supporting each of our groups, so there’s something for everyone whether you’re a regular runner or if you’ve never done it before.
We meet at various times and locations due to the current COVID guidance, and runs are free for members and for non-members the first week is also free, and just £2 afterwards (or you can also become a member!)
Find out more about our runs on offer and book your place at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/qrc-thursday-17th-september-tickets-121020669079
After three-and-a-half months we’re happy to announce that Thursday night runs are to resume, with some changes and restrictions due to the current guidance to running clubs.
Booking your place on our weekly runs
Due to current COVID-19 guidelines we require members wanting to run as part of our Thursday night groups to pre-register due to limited spaces. The process for booking on is explained below.
How to book on
Notes
This process is new to us so if you have any issues or feedback for improvement, please e-mail queensburyrc@gmail.com
The members of Queensbury Running Club have run, climbed and powered upwards to complete their May challenge of climbing the equivalent of 10 Everests, smashing through the initial goal, and the extended milestone, to complete 23.9 mountainous climbs over 31 days.
The Running Club, which proudly boasts that it’s “the highest running club in England, probably” certainly had plenty of opportunity to tackle the height with many challenging hills within Queensbury and the local areas.
With ninety-five members contributing to the incredible achievement, 694,278 feet of elevation were completed in May and saw three members – Andy Smith, Julie Hepworth and Matt Fielding – climbing their own personal Everests, with Andy coming out on top with an impressive solo climb of 43,020feet, or almost 1.5 climbs of the world’s highest mountain.
There was even support from family members in raising money. Sam Hipwell, son of two QRC members, also completed his own marathon during the time, which though not included in the members-only elevation figure, helped bring in some extra charity funds.
There were further statistics pulled out of the data by club member and chief statistician Rob Glover, with four members climbing higher than Kilimanjaro during the month of May; three mastering the equivalent of Mont Blanc; and a further three ruling over Mount Rainier. Drawing on his personal love of all things space, currently a hot topic, Rob worked out that the expended energy of the Queensbury Running Club over the month was the equivalent of being able to accelerate a human up to Mach 6, or enough to send a 2kg sack of potatoes to the moon!
The challenge, which comes as the running club has had to postpone its regular Thursday night meetings, away parkruns and other group gatherings due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation, was set-up by members Julie Hepworth and Joanne Fortune to inspire the members in this down time and to raise money. The members were polled on who to support and they chose to help raise money for local hospice Sue Ryder Manorlands. At the time of writing the running group’s members and supporters have raised £2,785 for the charity, beating their initial target of £1000 and their extended goal of £2,500.
Julie Hepworth:
“In late April Joanne Fortune and I decided that we wanted to do something to help those affected by the Coronavirus Pandemic. Those that know me, know that I am partial to the odd hill or two during my runs!
“My logic was that if 50% of members ran up 5,000ft during May (plus a little bit more!), we should be OK. I never imagined that we’d be doubling our challenge only 12 days into our target.
“All of these efforts were for the wonderful local charity, Manorlands Hospice. I’ve been in awe and inspired by the personal challenges that everyone has set themselves, pushing themselves out of their comfort zones, tacking hills that they’d otherwise avoid. Watching how our membership has achieved something so magnificent has been nothing short of spectacular.”
Further support in the challenge came from Tom Collinge, who created a list of the steepest hills in Queensbury for members to tackle; and Jane Glover who managed the fundraising side.
You can find out more about Queensbury Running Club, and how to become a member, by visiting our website. You can still donate to the challenge at justgiving.com/fundraising/qrc10everests.
QRC Fundraiser for Sue Ryder Manorlands Hospice
Queensbury Running Club is (probably) the highest running club in England so it seems apt that we use our beloved hills that surround us to pull together as a club and raise some much-needed funds for the devasting impact of Coronavirus.
Mount Everest stands at 29029 feet / 8,848 metres so during the month of May, the challenge is for club members to collectively climb the equivalent of 10 Everests! That’s 290,290 feet / 88,480 metres.
UPDATE: As of 13th May we’ve hit 10 Everests – so now we’re heading for 20!
Sue Ryder, which runs Manorlands Hospice, relies on public donations to maintain its services. The Coronavirus pandemic has meant that they have had to close their shops and cancel fundraising events meaning income sources have dried up. Without immediate financial support, it will be forced to close. Club members voted overwhelmingly for Manorlands as our chosen charity for its Coronavirus fundraiser.
The Club has set up a fundraising site on Justgiving, for each member to share with their family, friends, colleagues and anyone else you can think of that may wish to support the cause. The JustGiving page can be accessed online. Please share far and wide.
Having explored the different methods available, the Club will be using the QRC Club on Strava to track our collective progress. Therefore, if you’re not already a member of Strava, please could you join Strava and then join the QRC Club. On the Strava app, go to ‘explore’, then ‘Clubs’ and type in ‘Queensbury RC’, click onto the club and then click ‘join’. Your request to join will then be reviewed and approved by an Administrator of the Strava Club and you will receive a notification when your request has been approved.
It is the Club’s intention to extract the Strava data to a separate record to enable tracking to take place in a usable format. This will help us to provide regular updates such as the number of Everests climbed and the amount of elevation we have left to climb. If you do not consent to your data being used in this way or stored for future reference related to this challenge, please let the club know by emailing Rob Glover so that we can remove your data from the challenge.
Each week as a minimum, we will provide a progress update detailing how far we’ve climbed and how far we’ve got left to go ensuring that we remain on target to achieve our goal of climbing Everest 10 times.
1. When does the challenge start and finish?
The challenge starts on 1st May and will finish at midnight on 31st May.
2. I was a fully paid up member during the 19/20 membership year but I haven’t paid my fees yet for the 20/21 membership year. Can I participate?
Yes. Everyone who was a member in the 19/20 membership year are invited to join in this challenge.
3. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to achieve much elevation as I don’t have much time for running during May, is it worth me participating?
Absolutely, every foot/metre climbed counts and helps towards the Club achieving its target of 10 Everests and raising funds for Manorlands.
4. Does my walking elevation count?
Yes, but please record your walks as runs on Strava, as this ensures we capture your activity properly.
5. Do I have to achieve a certain amount of elevation each week?
No, we are just asking members to build in as much elevation as they can sensibly and safely do, to their runs throughout May to help the Club achieve its target and raise funds for Manorlands.
6. I’m not a Strava user, do I have to join Strava to participate in the challenge?
Collating the data to monitor the Club’s progress is a big task. The QRC Club on Strava will assist hugely with reducing the amount of work required by automatically tracking and aggregating each member’s cumulative elevation throughout May. We would therefore ask that you join Strava and then join the QRC Club on Strava to make the administration of the challenge as efficient as possible. If you strongly object to joining Strava, or you record your runs via a method that does not link to Strava, you will need to inform us of your weekly elevation by emailing Rob Glover by 10pm each Sunday throughout May but we would ask that this is on an exception basis only.
It’s time for our fourth Strava Segment Challenge. Can you incorporate “Pavement on sprint” into one of your runs this week before Sunday?
Find out more at https://www.strava.com/segments/7410683
Why not aim for a cup with a personal top 3 effort?
It’s time for the Landmark Challenge over on our Facebook page. All you need to do is incorporate this into one of your runs this week, before the end of Sunday.
Don’t forget to take a selfie if it’s safe to do so!
Find out more by visiting our Facebook page and adding your photo to the post shown below. Click on the image to be taken straight to the post.
