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RaceTeam
Newsletter Issue 01
January 2017

CONTENTS
- Welcome
- Musings from the Chair
- The Big Six
- Parkrunning the world
- News
- 2016 and me…

Welcome Welcome Welcome!
What an honour and a pleasure it is to send out
the first ever GoodGym RaceTeam Newsletter!
On the behalf of everyone in the committee and
RaceTeam I would like to say a huge hello and
welcome to those who have joined us since the
committee came together 6 months ago.
The Newsletter is a wonderful opportunity to
celebrate our amazing racers and keep
members up to date with upcoming events.
GoodGym RaceTeam is here to help people set
and smash their own personal challenges. We’re
all about racing happy, cheering loudly and of
course #redthunder….
Bring it on!
Lucy Jeczalik
RaceTeam Media Officer

Musings from the Chair
When we were first elected, I drew up three priorities:
I. Get the basics right
II. Make sure the focus is nation-wide
III. Be a force for good whilst racing
Our focus has been on the first element, as I believe much like your running technique: if you get the key parts correct,
you can then go a long way. However much like my race times I know there is still room for improvement
Here are a few of our key achievements so far:
- We have got the RaceTeam and UKA membership process slicker and well organised; and you have joined to
increase our membership numbers.
- We have chosen six diverse races for this year; and you have signed up to come and race with us.
- We have supported GG taskforces in organising races, pacing and time trials locally, and you have all raced & paced
across the country and world!
- We have a web presence and GG members and the running community now know GoodGym has a RaceTeam that’s
also promoting Getting Fit & Doing Good.
The thanks for these successes should go to my committee, and the team at GoodGym HQ for helping us.
What next? We intend to keep going forward, the rest of this newsletter outlines a few of the awesome opportunities that
we have lined up for you, with more to announce soon, if you have any comments or suggestions I would love to discuss
them with you.
Matt Garnett
RaceTeam Chair

THE BIG SIX
There are six races the RaceTeam will be attending en masse this year. We will (for the most part) be arranging
accommodation and transport for these races. RaceTeam activities are by no means limited to the below but these are our
big’uns for the year. Keep an eye on our Facebook and the GoodGym website for more RaceTeam events.
March
11th & 12th: Larmer Tree
Races
Location: Dorset, England
Distances: 10 Miles, Half
Mara, 20 Miles, Mara
Terrain: Hills and mud!
July
9th: Bath Two Tunnels
Location: Bath, England
Distances: 5km, 10km, Half,
Mara, 50km
Terrain: Tarmac, footpaths,
road
September
10th: New Forest Running
Festival
Location: New Forest,
England
Distances: 5km, 10km, Half,
Mara
May
13th &14th: Riga Running
Festival
Location: Riga, Latvia
Distances: 6km, 10km, Half,
Mara
Terrain: Road, flat
August
19th: Race the Train
Location: Tywyn, Wales
Distances: 3.5 miles, 5.5
miles, 10km, 14miles
Terrain: Hills and mud!
October
8th: Oxford Half Marathon
Location: Oxford, England
Distances: Half

Parkrunning the world
GoodGym announced their partnership with Parkrun in September last year. It was all over the running world news
and the RaceTeam were quick to jump on the opportunity to help Parkrun an dour own lovely racers by offering to
pace at different Parkrun events. Parkrun event directors are now coming to us to ask for pacing! Now isn’t that
neat!
Pacing is a brilliant opportunity to support our wonderful partners, help park runners achieve their goals and get
your own pacing down to a fine art. It’s not easy to get pacing right, and we think it’s a skill that can develop your
technique and confidence whilst giving something back to the running community - what’s not to like!
“I managed in bang on 20 mins and checking the website afterwards saw that one person ahead
of me took a few seconds off their PB - I like to think I had a hand in that!”
Andy Lulham 20 mins @ Hilly Fields Parkrun
-Andy’s pro-tip: “Give yourself 2-3 mins in hand [on a
recent 5km time], just to be sure!”
-Check out the course in advance! As our runners
discovered at Hilly Fields in Lewisham - if the course
is hilly, pacing strategy can quickly get complicated!
-Get stuck in! Whatever time you’re running there
will be people using you as their marker for progress
- go out there and show them what red thunder is all
about!

The luck of the draw…
Cross Country Champs! (sort of…)
The RaceTeam have been bringing their own brand of noisy
cheering and enthusiastic racing to the Cross Country scene.
Cross Country gives you that lung-busting,quad-testing thrill
you’ve been waiting for. Come and join us as we roar our team
mates around the course!
News!
Congratulations to Aidan Padfield who won the
RaceTeam ballot to run the London Marathon in
April this year. Here he is in the London
Marathon shop realising just what he’s got
himself into!
Stay tuned for more updates from Aidan and to
find out how you can support him on the day.
Good luck Aidan! With #redthunder behind you
you can’t go wrong!
GoodGym is growing! And with it so
will the RaceTeam!
Taking over the world!
We ’re i n c re d i bl y exc i t e d t o
welcome more members from all
over the country in the coming
year. We know they’ll bring with
them opportunities to run some
more utterly bonkers but totally
brilliant races.
If you would like to suggest a race
in your area, get in touch on
Facebook or Twitter.

2016 and me
Over the next few Newsletters we will be bringing you stories from the
RaceTeam
I.
Gary Jordan - GoodGym Bristol
2016 was my second year of entering races. My plan was to have some fun
new experiences and break my PBs from last year. By having the extra
fitness this year compared to last it allowed me to enter more adventurous
races.
There were so many great race experiences but all for different reasons.
- Man v Horse was bonkers.
- Gower Coastal trail Marathon was epic.
- Florence Marathon was my best performance in a race.
My advice would be always plan your training and don’t overdo it. You
don’t need to only take on one discipline, try
long and short distance on and off road. I love
adventure on the trails but also love putting in
a speedy effort on the tarmac.
I plan to reduce the number of races I enter
this year so I have some energy left for other
activities (surfing/climbing/socialising), but I
have entered the Giants Head Marathon and a
6 hour race in Dover to test my endurance and
for some new experiences.
“My nemesis this year
is Race the Train. I
was not able to beat
the train two years
ago so this year it’s
time to get on track
and steam past that
chuffing thing!”
Gary and Matt bringing #redthunder to the
Florence Marathon

We want your stories!
To feature in the next RaceTeam
Newsletter get in touch via
Facebook, Twitter or good old
fashioned email: lucyj@goodgym.org