March 2026 Newsletter

Dear All,

The sun has shone and soon we may be brave enough to go out without even considering taking a rain jacket! There is lots more to celebrate this month too …

Here is the latest race report from Graham along with a summary of some of the local racing opportunities coming up:

Chiltern Cross Country, Stopsley Park Luton, Saturday February 7 th

 Silson gained promotion to Chiltern League Division 1, at a very muddy Stopsley Park in Luton. The club’s strong start to the cross country league season made promotion pretty much a formality at the final fixture. The challenge now needs to be maintaining the league one status.

Although there were not too many challengers who could spoil the promotion

party, some of the individual prizes were still up for grabs. Izzy Hodgson improved as the season progressed and took individual silver for the senior ladies. Another silver medallist was Helen Heley lady vet 45; Helen ran consistently well in each fixture and also won the 2^nd Lady overall in Division 2. Also having a very good winter was Rachel Prior, who took individual bronze in the lady vet 55 category.

In the men’s section, Richard Francis won Silver in the vet men’s 40, also with consistent performances in each fixture. Just missing out on a medal in that category was Chris Coghlan finishing 4th .

Although the above were individual winners, every Silson runner contributed to the club’s successful season.

Results from the final fixture: Ladies 2nd Helen Heley, 6th Izzy Hodgson, 20th Emily Kirsten, 21st Rosemary Heley, 22nd Louise Honeyball, 24th Rachel Prior, 25th Mary De Frates, 40th Sue Torrance, 47th Rachel Gardener, 54th Marina Lister, 63rd Hannah Torrance, 70th Kim Froggitt. Men 9th Richard Francis, 14th Mark Conway, 16th Chris Coghlan, 18th Simon Woodward, 30th Simon K Heavens, 34th Toby Heley, 50th Paul Holmes, 56th Levien Stevense, 62nd Richard Popiel.

Future dates for your 2026 diary (now updated with NRRL races):

Monday 6^th April - Stanwick 10km (NRRL)

Monday 4^th May - Great Western 5 Run – this year includes a team event

Wednesday 6^th May – Silverstone Grand Prix 10k, all members to volunteer please

Saturday & Sunday 9^th  / 10^th May Northamptonshire County Track and Field Championships

Friday 15^th May - Blisworth 5 (EMGP & NRRL)

Tuesday 19^th May - Banbury 5(EMGP)

Tuesday 2^nd June - Harborough 5 (EMGP)

Tuesday 16^th June - Weedon 10k (EMGP & NRRL)

Wednesday 24^th June - Corby 5 (EMGP & NRRL)

Tuesday 30^th June - Milton Keynes 10k (EMGP)

Wednesday 8^th July - Rugby 6 (EMGP)

Sunday 12^th July - Wellingborough 5 mile (NRRL)

Sunday July 26^th - Sunset 5km (Desborough) (NRRL)

Sunday 13^th September - Northampton Half Marathon (NRRL)

Sunday 27^th September - Rugby 10 mile (NRRL)

Other opportunities to run together:

-          Cotswold Hilly 100, Sunday 31^st May, team of 10 people to run 10 miles each. If you are interested in being part of the team, please contact Simon Woodward woodwardsimon@hotmail.com for further information.  

-          The Slovakia and Austria unofficial trip has 21 people signed up!

-          Parkrun adventures continue with a number of members taking a trip to Greenwich on 21^st March – 23 people confirmed to date.

-          The Farthingstone Footfest – 6^th June, local trail run, just over 26 miles or option to stop at mile 13. 26 people confirmed so far.

-          MK24 is a 24 hour event, held at Caldecotte lake, Milton Keynes, where participants run laps of 6.55 miles. Organised by Redway Runners, 20^th -21^st June.

-          The 8th Buckingham Half Marathon, Sunday 17th May 9:30am, Buckingham & Stowe Running Club.

Training

Training continues on Wednesday evenings at 6:30pm.

The final winter Saturday training session at Stowe Track has been booked for Saturday 14^th March.

For Sunday Run locations and hosting opportunities, please check the Facebook Group.

The Silson AC AGM

The Silson AC AGM will be held on Mon 13th April via Zoom at 7:30pm. The official notification will be emailed out to members soon.

Please save the date, we need members to attend in order for decisions to be made. The roles of Chairperson, Membership Secretary and Ladies Captain are all going to become vacant. As you are aware, without a Chair, the club will lose it’s affiliation to England Athletics. Please consider what you can do to help and contact myself (silsonchairperson@gmail.com), or Paul Homes (silsonsecretary@gmail.com) to volunteer for any of the roles.

Many thanks and enjoy your running!

Helen Heley

Chairperson