Hello Black Pear Joggers,

Thanks for reading this month’s update.

March started off with the sad news that Stuart Wild passed away. He will be sadly missed by all of us. Stuart was a true inspiration, supporting hundreds of members over the years with his Sunday morning marathon training.

The club will be paying respect to Stuart in many ways over the coming time. On 4th March, scores of BPJs took part in a walk around the Fernhill Heath four mile route that Stuart loved so much, stopping at the White Hart for a drink in respect of him.

I have to give a big thanks to someone who I will miss a lot on the committee.  April Turner will be stepping down from her role as membership secretary. April has done a lot of work over the past few years with sorting out memberships and also with the administration for our club race at Croome Park.  She will be missed! Thanks April.

For the committee this leaves us with a small gap to fill, so I would like to ask anyone who would like to get involved with the club to speak to myself or a member of the committee. April is more than happy to show you the ropes.

I would like to point out to all member that we are all volunteers on the committee and we try to do what we think is best for the club.  We are happy for member to run other events under the Black Pear Joggers umbrella, but would ask you to bring your ideas to a committee meeting before advertising the event.  This will avoid any misunderstandings which could happen, thanks.

As running is the main reason why we are here, the club is happy to announce its new GRAND SLAM league.  This is a selection of local runs where prizes will be given at the beginning of next year at the club’s ‘Winter Do’.  As well as fastest woman/man, most races finished etc.. There will also be prizes for best improved runner and a few spot prices (best fall/finish/shortest shorts etc…)

The races are as followed;

More details to come soon.

We are also looking for a BPJ support team to go to these events with the club banners and gazebo.  I would like to think that we can get a small group of people to help us in this task. If you and your family/friends would like to do this for one of the races please let me know. The idea of having the gazebo is so that we have a place to meet before and after the race and a dry place for kit and supporters.  It would be nice to get a good mix of people to share this task; running should be fun so let’s make it!

I hope for all of you doing a marathon in April you are still enjoying the training. March is always a good month to see how things are going with running a half marathon.

Enjoy

Mike

Mike Lane