Good evening all. A couple of months on from my last update I thought I’d do a “little” summary of Oct/Nov! Yes, it’s that moment when you’re thinking what will help me nod off tonight?! Well let me present you with a bit of bedtime reading material and a few club updates along the way. What more could you want on a Sunday eve 😀

I will start again by mentioning some of the events we have taken part in together recently.

🏁𝗥𝗮𝗰𝗲𝘀🏁
We finished off our standard race season with the autumn events through the last couple of months. Here were a few highlights…

𝗢𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗯𝗲𝗿
We began the month with an outstanding turnout for our Captains run put on by last years Cappers Chaz n Dave.
This was followed up the following week by the unforgettable experience that was our Bournemouth away weekend. A coach full of runners headed up to take on the parkrun, the 5k, the 10k or the half. I missed this one myself but the stories and photos of the weekend looked amazing.

One week later we had another great turnout at the Harriers 5 miler where storm had more great results with some of the team walking off with age category awards.
To complete October we headed out to the Tavy 7, which is a bit of a club favourite and one we do really well at each year! Again we saw some great results and everyone seemed to really enjoy the last big race of the year.
On top of the above, we had runners taking on amazing challenges outside of the U.K.!Storm was represented over in the USA with the Boston & Chicago marathons, Over at the Sydney Marathon, at the Majorca Marathon as well as up at the Cardiff half, among many others a little closer to home!

𝗡𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿
Events for November are always very thin on the ground and we often have to make the best of the local parkruns. We have had a few doing events like but no major storm attendances. That said, one major highlight of the month was our annual Remembrance Run 😍. We had a massive response to the run and made a good few quid for RBL. Rumour has it Jimmy is still waiting for extra people to turn up for our team photo 🤪😂📸
Thanks again to Mike for his organisation, the captains for taking the lead and Shelly and Tanisha for having us back at The Two Bridges afterwards.

Well done to all who have completed events over the last couple of months. I love to see people representing the club all over the land and great to see so many smashing their goals 💪🏻⚡️💜

𝗥𝗢𝗠 – 𝗥𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗿 𝗢𝗳 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵 🏆
🏆 𝗢𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗯𝗲𝗿 Runner of the month was won by December Payne following her heroics at the City To Sea and Bournemouth Half Marathon’s!

🏆𝗡𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 saw our Queen of the mountains Helen Ambrose scoop the award for completing her amazing trek to Mount Everest Base Camp.

🍾𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗴𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 awards were given to – Neil Brownridge for setting the example in how to train for and then run a goal time when he completed Boston and Chicago marathons in unbelievable times! To Dawn Dixon for doing the hat trick at Bournemouth and capping off the return of her mojo! To Derren Wilkie for his consistency in his training and finally getting down to a 2 hour half in Bournemouth! To Clare Collings for continuing improvement in her running and always being in hand to help out the groups. And to Adrian Colwill for more ultra marathon heroics up in Scotland this time representing storm 🙌🏻🍾

𝗖𝗹𝘂𝗯 𝗥𝘂𝗻𝘀 💜
The last couple of months have seen the darker evenings and wetter weather take over. This hasn’t in any way affected our attendance, as we have had some incredibly popular club nights. I just wanted to refresh that message of signing up on the app as early as you can so that it gives us an idea on numbers early for planning sake. For instance we had an unprecedented 28 in one 6’s group recently when the registration went crazy about an hour or two before the run. With a little bit of notice we can plan accordingly and ensure a safe and enjoyable run for all. Also, please continue the bright colours and lights where necessary.

𝗖𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵’𝘀 𝗦𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 💪🏻🏃🏻‍♂️🏃🏻‍♀️
The coaches sessions are as popular as ever but we would love to see more and more Stormies getting involved. Ash and Neil’s circuits classes every other Saturday morning are indoors and provide an all round fitness experience. Bee’s condition fit up at George P&R is available every week on the night between the club runs. This again provides all over strength and conditioning session that will see you running as well. I had my first experience of this one last week and have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Both sessions are the perfect accompaniment to your running fitness so we would encourage everyone to get involved 💪🏻💜⚡️

𝗦𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 🕺🏼💃
On the social side of things, our Social Committee are busy working hard on the annual awards night.🏆🏆🏆

We have now sold as many tickets as last year, which we are very pleased about but having had a look at the list there are still many of you that I would love to see get a ticket and come along. It really isn’t the same without all of our true stormies!!

Although we wanted deposits in by midnight tonight, we aren’t going to just close it down, so please contact me or any of the committee if you’d still like a ticket. Do also remember that you can have a say on where you sit on the night as we will always try to get people together with friends where possible.

Personally, other than the speech 💩, I cannot wait for this year’s awards. Not only do we have so many people deserving of awards at our club but the atmosphere is always electric. The feeling in the room every year is so warm and friendly with everyone just there enjoying themselves with their club mates. Very excited to see what surprises the social squad have in store for us on the night too!!

I said this before but it needs repeating….This awards night is for absolutely everyone involved with Storm!

Voting and food choices will be along very soon so watch this space…..✅👀🍽️

🏆🕺🏼🪩💃💜⚡️

Away from the awards the team have put on a lovely coach trip up to the Bath Christmas markets as well as a cinema trip to see the new Gladiator movie which was ace! 🚌🎄🎥🎞️

Next up, see’s a meet up at the mannamead on Mutley on Friday 6th at 18:30 for those who want a Christmas get together 🍻

Well done and thank you to the social team for all their hard work 🎉🙌🏻🕺🏾💃

𝗖𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀 👨🏻‍✈️🧑🏻‍✈️
October was the final month of Chaz N Dave’s captaincy, so we gave them a big old celebration for all the graft they had put in over the year. There was a great turnout at the last storm cuppa as well as a brilliant number of runners down at coypool for their captains run! I would like to say one more thank you to you both for what you did for us all.
At Octobers ROM we announced the new captains and the end of the month Charlene and Dave passed over the baton to this year’s new captain’s Julie and Mick who have started in the very same manner. Thanks for getting involved guys and I can’t wait to see what you have in store for us going forward 🙌🏻

𝗔𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱 🚌🏇🏃‍♀️🏃🏻‍♂️
It’s early days, but as you may have seen recently, we are looking at Cheltenham in September 2025 as a very good prospect. It has a race for all with a 10k and Half marathon on offer as well as a local parkrun for Saturday morning. The race finishes in the Cheltenham Racecourse paddock providing the perfect setting to cheer everyone in! We are just confirming things with the hotel and speaking with the race organisers about a possible discount in the entry fee, so bear with us and Colin will be posting shortly with all the early details!!

𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗲 👨🏻‍💼🧑🏻‍💼👩🏻‍💼
I would like to take a quick opportunity to say thank you to our hardworking club committee. For the most part, although rewarding in other ways, it’s pretty much a thankless task and nobody really sees the effort that goes into the management of the club. I just want to say thank you for the time and effort you all give to Storm. 👏🏻

As for the committee it is important to note that ALL of the Committee roles will be up for re-election very early in the new year so get thinking on it if you have something to offer the club in one of the roles. We will post soon asking for expressions of interest and if possible there may be club votes for the positions before the club AGM in February where a new Committee will be announced. This will be for a 2 year term.

𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗺𝗮𝘀 🎄
Last thing from me is just to mention the Christmas period. We will be shutting down club nights for a couple of weeks following the Xmas ROM on the 18th December. We will start up again in the new year w/c 6th Jan.
For the Xmas period we have a couple of things on the agenda. The first of which is, our captains are going to put on a Christmas Runch on the 29th Dec as mentioned at ROM. They will post more on this closer to the time.

I will again be putting out a post to see if there is an appetite for blind parings, which were so popular during the pandemic. If you haven’t been involved before or want to know more, keep an eye out for the post which will explain more. There may be more daytime runs too, but we will post as and when with those.

At ROM, I’ve said the same thing to close proceedings at the last few now. This is just doubling down on how much of an amazing bunch you all are. We seem to be having some really popular nights in recent weeks and have seen some new faces sticking with it, integrating themselves into the club. For me, this is testament to all of you who make it such a friendly and inclusive atmosphere at the club. 🙌🏻

What a couple of months team…..keep doing what you’re all doing as you’re all flipping fantastic 💜⚡️🙌🏻

Regards
Dave Mac
Storm Chair 👨🏻‍💼💜⚡️