Hi there, Road Runners!

There were no official Club races this weekend, but there was still plenty of running action. It made me think that achievement is a very individual thing. Several members took part in the Spitfire Scramble, putting in fantastic performances. Rob and Dennis were in HM action at Dorney Lake. Some of us completed the Billericay 10k. And, of course, lots of us were at parkrun, including Denise and Doug completing their 100 milestones and Darren knocking 18 seconds off his previous parkrun PB, set back in 2022. Different distances and different paces, but everyone showing what can be achieved if you work consistently and put in effort and hard work. All the details in Greg’s race report.

Club Kit – order deadline

A reminder to put in your order for club vests and t-shirts by Monday 14 July. You can see the size charts on the club website here: https://www.barkingroadrunners.org.uk/club-kit

Free Biomechanical Assessments

You may remember Jess posting information about the opportunity to book free biomechanical assessments. Th assessments are being provided by upLYFT, a London-based start-up developing advanced compression leggings that monitor key movement biomarkers outside the lab. Their wearable tech helps runners profile performance and injury risk by tracking: Asymmetries and movement irregularities, power production, joint loading, running efficiency. This summer, they're launching Project APEX — a global initiative partnering with running organisations (like ours) to offer free biomechanical assessments to runners. Participants can experience the technology first-hand, and analyse their movement.

Assessment slots for East London clubs are available 29-31 August. Booking is via this link: https://www.uplyftwearables.com/projectapex . The access code is: PROJECT_APEX_EAST_LONDON

Winter Competitions

We may be in the middle of summer, but it’s time to look ahead to our winter competitions: the Chingford League and South Essex Cross Country League (SECCL). Participating in these competitions will not only give you a chance of winning a Club trophy, but will also earn you points towards being in the running for one of our three guaranteed places in the 2027 London Marathon. And, of course, you will also help the Club to compete against our rivals!

Chingford League

The Chingford League AGM took place last Tuesday. The proposed fixtures for the 2025/26 season (hosting clubs and the clubs supposed to provide marshals in brackets) are as follows:

Tues 7th October - Hog Hill (LO with support from WG)
Sat 1st Nov - Eastbrookend (BR with support from IL, DA, ET, HW, WG)
Sat 22nd or 29th November - Trent Park (F/Cup collab) (BA with support from TP, MC, ED, TL, LH)
Weds 10th December - Velopark EE and EM
Sat 17th January- Chingford (OH with support from EC, WG)
Sat 31st January – Victoria Park (VP with support from SO)
Sat 7th March Relays – Wanstead Flats (EL with support from “all clubs”)

November 1st at Eastbrookend Country Park is the race that we organise. We have decided to use the Dagenham 88 ELVIS course this year, as it is quite straightforward and uses less volunteers than we have needed previously.

It has been decided that U15/U17 boys will run with the men rather than the women at the Velopark race this year. It seems some of the faster women experienced problems last year.

At this year’s relays, some shorter people (including me!) missed their handover because they couldn’t see through the crowd of taller runners in front of them. To address this, at next year’s relays there will be separate handover pens for U11/U13s, older women, and older men.

SECCL

The fixtures that have been provisionally agreed for the cross-country competition are as follows. All dates are Sundays:

2nd November - Benfleet at Hadleigh
30th November - Rochford @ Hockley Woods
28th December - LOSS @ Hadleigh
25th January - Nuclear Striders @ Kelvedon
1st February - Pitsea @ One Tree Hill

The reserve date will either be the 8th or 15th February, subject to the availability of Gloucester Park to host.

Diamond League

Beatrice Chebet after setting the new 5000m world record

The Diamond League competition reached Eugene in Oregan, USA this weekend for the 50th Prefontaine Classic.

The standout performance was from Beatrice Chebet, who became the first woman in history to beat 14 minutes for 5000m, finishing in 13:58.06. Her performance was more spectacular when you consider she was off the pace with just 400 metres to go.

In the metric mile (1500m), Faith Kipyegon managed to beat her own mark of 3:49.04 from the Paris Olympics to set a new World Record of 3:48.68. Would you bet against her breaking the 4-minute mile sometime?

The best performance from a Brit was from Matthew Hudson-Smith who won the men’s 400m in 44.11. Zharnel Hughes came second in the men’s 100m with 9.91. Dina Asher-Smith could only manage sixth place in the women’s race, finishing in 11.14, faster than any of us could manage but probably a disappointment for her.

Hit or Myth?

There is a long-held belief that lower body misalignment or asymmetry will result in eventual injury. This often leads to runners questioning their running form, prompting modifications to technique, footwear, and more. However, a 2022 meta-analysis demonstrated that many biomechanical factors – including knee alignment, overpronation, and joint mobility–have no significant correlation with running-related injury risk in non-elite runners. The body is actually very good at adapting to different structural variations. What’s more likely to be problematic are sudden changes to these factors, such as trying to dramatically modify your running form to correct perceived issues with alignment or technique. If your current biomechanics aren’t causing you any issues, don’t make any significant modifications. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t follow tried and tested advice on good running form, like keeping your head up, or your arms at right angles by your side.

It’s all Going Downhill

For most runners, ‘hill work’ means running uphill in short, or longer, bursts. But downhill sprints can also be beneficial for toughening up your legs and improving skill and confidence in descending. As an added bonus, downhill training running engages your leg muscles in a similar way to performing leg extensions in the gym and can make you faster and more economical on the flat. So, don’t forget to add some downhill running into your training plan.

When running downhill, engage your core and lean forward slightly from the ankles. Shortening your stride and quickening your cadence will help you take lighter steps and land more on your midfoot instead of using your heel as a brake. Try and keep your gaze 10 to 15 metres in front of you and your posture upright. And keep a slight bend in your landing leg to avoid absorbing all the impact in your knee. I actually followed this advice at Billericay and it made a difference.

Here are some downhill running sessions, courtesy of Runner’s World. Don’t get too hung up about the gradients but try and avoid very steep slopes. Extreme gradients increase the impact too much, which risks knee, hip, and ankle injury.

Constant Pace Hill Repeats

Find a hill with a 6 to 8% gradient.

5-minute warm-up
Start running up and down the hill, keeping your pace as steady as possible (if you are struggling to keep up the pace, walk an uphill section – remember, you are doing downhill sprints!)
Repeats will depend on the length of the hill, e.g. you can begin with eight times up/down a 100-metre hill.
On subsequent workouts, increase the number of repeats
5-minute easy cool-down

Downhill Fartleks

Find a running route that has a mixture of terrain, including a few hills at a 3 to 6% gradient. You may need to use a loop if you can’t find many hills.

5-minute warm-up on flat terrain at 4 or 5 effort out of 10.

Continue to run easily uphill, the pick up the pace for the downhill, increasing effort to between a 7 and 9 out of 10
Recover for 2 to 3 minutes at an easy pace
Repeat the downhills 6 to 8 times
5-minute cool-down

Downhill Speed Intervals

Find a hill with a 3 to 5% gradient.

15-minute or 2k very easy warm-up
Run uphill at easy, conversational pace
Run downhill at 5K pace
3-minute recovery
Repeat eight to 12 times
10-minute or 1.5k cool-down

Greg’s Race Report

Barking Road Runners’ 5k handicap Race No 04 was won by guest runner Lee Parker, with BRR’s own Ron Vialls 2nd and Mark New in 3rd place. Only the first two finishers beat their handicap times and will have harder times in the next round. Barry Rowell leads the overall competition at the halfway stage with 387 points, 2nd is Ron Vialls 383 points, and 3rd Darren Graham 363 points.

Several BRR members took part in the Spitfire Scramble 24-hour race at Ingrebourne Country Park in various solo and team events. Rosie Fforde finished 1st in the solo female event covering 16 laps of the 5-mile course in the allotted 24 hours. Other BRR runners included Paul Withyman, Owen Wainhouse, James Lowndes, Kevin Wotton and Jonathan Furlong.

Paul Withyman and Owen with Ladies Solo winner Rosie

Owen Wainhouse and Paul Withyman with 1st place lady Rosie Fforde at the Spitfire scramble

Six BRR members travelled to Billericay to run the 10k race at the weekend. First finisher for BRR was Martin Page 46:36 followed by Ron Vialls 53:36, Alison Fryatt 1:10:03, Nabeel Akram 1:16:21, Zahra Akram 1:37:29 and Nick Gorman 1:37:29.

Dennis Spencer-Perkins and Rob Courtier ran in the Windsor Half Marathon at Dorney Lake finishing in times of 2:24:06 and 2:25:52 respectively.

BRR parkrunners

Barking - Steve Philcox 18:05, Stuart Mackay 20:38, Joshua Ezissi 22:25, Mark New 25:42, Doug King 26:02, Sian Mansley 26:28, Isabel Pinedo Borobio 28:12, Jess Collett 32:58, Joe Stacey 32:59, Martin Mason 33:31, Barry Rowell 36:45, Les Jay 39:15, Darren Graham 41:24, Alan Murphy 53:17 and Denise Graham 59:50.

Doug after completing his 100th parkrun. C30, C60, C90 Go!

Denise having completed 100 parkruns and 100 volunteering stints

Bournemouth - Martin Brooks 28:06.

Chelmsford Central - Gary Harford 29:07 and Louise Chappell 31:43.

Eden Project - Joyce Golder 33:33, Nikki Cranmer 34:59 and Dawn Curtis 39:42.

Joyce, Dawn and Nicky at Eden Project parkrun

Harrow Lodge - Rory Burr 25:44.

Mile End - Alain Cooper 27:52.

Highest BRR age gradings this week were Sian Mansley 56.49% for the women and Steve Philcox 87.93% for the men.

BRR Diary – July

The highlights of the coming weeks are listed below but you can see the full diary of BRR events on the TeamUp app. Simply download the TeamUp app to your phone, then enter the calendar key: ks67p21gt8p5gzdo66 when prompted. If you don’t want another app on your phone, you can also find it under the ‘events’ tab on the Barking Road Runners website: https://www.barkingroadrunners.org.uk/calendar.

7.00pm, Tuesday 8 July - Speed Session. Jim Peter’s Stadium, Mayesbrook Park. Hopefully, it will be cooler this week. Jess will be leading the session and it looks like a good one:

Mona Farlek Variation
2x 2 min run, 2 min float
2x 90 sec run, 90 sec float
4x 60 sec run, 60 sec float
4x 30 sec run, 30 sec float
4x15 sec run, 15 sec float

The efforts are hard and the recoveries are floating jog recoveries.

7.30pm - Wednesday 9 July - Newman Hilly 5 (ELVIS 04). Hainault Forest, Fox Burrow Road, IG7 4QN. A two-lap hilly course, one big lap followed by a slightly smaller lap around the beautiful Hainault Forest. It’s on a mixture of trails, gravelly paths, and tarmac. Road shoes will be OK unless there has been heavy rain. Note that there may be car park charges, payable via the Ringo app. Online entries have closed but you can sign-up on the night.

7.00pm, Thursday 10 July – Road Run. Castle Green Centre/Jo Richardson School. Usually around 4-5 miles. May be dependent on numbers, after the ELVIS race the night before.

7.30pm, Wednesday 16 July - Valentines Park 5k (ELVIS 05). Valentines Park, Melbourne Road, IG1 4LG. Hosted by East London Runners, the course is similar to Valentines parkrun but not exactly the same. Enter at: krono:sports - Entry System & Race Timing Solutions - East London Runners - Valentines 5K

7.30pm, Thursday 24 July - Handicap 05. Barking Park, near the tennis courts. As always, let Greg know if you want to run but haven’t already taken part, so he can work out your handicap. Just a pound to enter. Could it be your turn to win the tenner? There’s only one way to find out…RUN!!!

Cracker Corner

There was a big fight at my local seafood restaurant last night. There was battered fish everywhere.

Scientists have developed a car that runs on parsley. Now they are working on trains and buses that run on thyme.

I tripped over a box of Kleenex this morning and thought I’d broken my ankle. Luckily it was just soft tissue damage.

If you like chuckling babies (and who doesn’t?), you’ll like this, courtesy of Ron: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?mibextid=wwXIfr&v=1251370613348036&rdid=7zjddVn9RakZowx2. The first baby does look disturbingly like Donald Trump. Or perhaps it’s Donald Trump who looks like a baby…

Quote of the Week

“Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.”

Chinese Proverb

(perhaps in our case it should be ‘’be not afraid of going slowly’…)

And Finally…

For a while at the Billericay 10k, I was behind a woman who was celebrating her birthday by running with a balloon. It was nice to hear people wish her a happy birthday as she went past. The downside was being bashed in the face by the balloon every now and then. Another runner complained that the balloon was annoying, which seemed a bit grumpy in the circumstances (what do you think? Would you have complained?) But I did find myself worrying that the string might tangle around my neck and I’d be strangled in a freak running accident. It is amazing what you think about to distract yourself during a race…

BRR Blog – 7 July 2025