Comments

19th June 2006

The Grunty Fen is my absolute favourite race of the year.  Lovely
scenery, great atmosphere, no hideous hills, and you do T shirts in my
size - most other races produce something the size of a small marquee that
could accommodate me and several friends!

All the best

Vicky

17th June 2006

Just a quick update.

 

You may remember that I mentioned back in January that I was planning to concentrate of a variety of training/coaching in preparation for Prison Service PE training.

 

I have this week attended the National Sports Centre at Lilleshall and have been successful in the initial pre-selection course, which incorporated bleep tests, volleyball, football, badminton, step class, basketball playing and refereeing, Olympic weightlifting snatch balance/ clean and jerk, class warm-ups with and without equipment, lectures and an excruciating circuit training session in very high temperatures in a massive sports hall!! - oh, and a written anatomy and physiology test.

 

I will now be able to attend the full 15 week full training course at Lilleshall early next year where I will become a PE Officer but will also gain many specific qualifications which I hope to be able to put into use outside of the Prison Service at some stage. These include:

 

B.W.L.A - instructor

Basketball coach - level 1

Volleyball coach - level 1

FA certificate coach - level 1

FA basic treatment of injury

RFU community leader

Badminton assist coach level 1

OCR gym instructor

OCR circuit instructor

and more......

 

So although I haven't been seen much at training evenings and races this year I have not just sat back - my time for the Soham half-marathon was slower than in previous years but my overall fitness and stamina has improved a great deal which showed as I was the oldest on the recent pre-selection course - and it all started when I came along to Ely Runners and an overweight ex-jogger who required guidance. Thank you for your assistance.

 

I don't know if you have erased my e-mail address as I haven't received any messages from you for a long time, but I would appreciate being kept on the mailing list as I intend to run a lot more in the later part of the year prior to commencing a training routine for the full course.

 

Once again thank you for the help and guidance offered by yourself and the rest of Ely Runners.

 

Ian Blatchford