We run on Wednesday nights at 7.00pm, again usually departing from Tiddenfoot.

 

The emphasis of the night is on social running and sharing advice and experiences. We encourage all abilities to attend this night and try to keep everyone fairly together using the looping method, so there will always be someone around to keep you company!

Our Wednesday Club Runs are billed as a “Social Run” allowing people to do around an hour of running at a comfortable pace whilst catching up with their fellow club mates. Of course, we all have different paces, different training schedules and different targets but the beauty of the Wednesday run is that as long as you can run approx. 10k you can come along and not be left alone.

However, please note that the first Wednesday of the month between October and April is set aside for the Stag Trophy which starts at 7.30pm. Everybody is welcome and more information can be found at the Stag Trophy page.

Looping

 

Looping is very simple and has a number of benefits:

1. Looping back keeps everybody safe, especially during the winter as it keeps us all in a tight group.
2. Looping back helps us work together as a team and creates the supportive group community that runners, especially new ones, thrive on
3. Just waiting at the top of a hill or corner is not on and isn’t fair. It’s no help to the slower runner who  has to work extra hard to catch up while the faster runners take a cheeky breather then gallop off as soon as they arrive.
4. You make Wednesdays what you want it to be. If you want a thrash then you can really go for it and can keep looping back to gain the extra mileage or recover from you segment effort, but on the other hand if you want a quiet jog around catching up with others, you can lose yourself in the middle of the group.
5. It shows respect for your fellow runner. We all had to start somewhere and we’ve all had to come back from injury or regain our fitness and know how demoralising it is to see people disappear off ahead of you not knowing if they’ll come back. When a speedy runner loops back to encourage a back marker, it shows you recognise a fellow runner and we’re all in it together

From fastest to slowest, we are all part of the family of running and we are there to enjoy ourselves together as part of LBAC.

 

Now that’s all well and good, but what exactly is looping? It’s really very simple and in theory, the back marker should be the only person who doesn’t need to loop during a run.

• Let’s say we have 4 runners: A, B, C and D. They set off on their run from Tiddenfoot, heading north up the canal. By the time A reaches Tescos they have become a bit separated with B 200m behind and C and D another 100m behind that.
• A turns and in seeing this, B also turns and they both head back the way they came. C and D, as the back markers continue running as they were. A and B must both run past C and D for about 100m before turning again. If A is ahead again, then B must turn as soon as A does.
• Now C and D are at the front with A and B chasing them, A should be at the back. When they are all together again, the process starts again.

 

When they reach the Globe, A does not just stand there and admire the view and catch his breath, he turns around and completes another loop until all runners are running together again. This may happen several times on a Wednesday run.

 

It can be difficult to know when to loop when you’re at the front and this will differ depending on the run, but a general rule would be to get to a suitable point where you may think about waiting, such as an end of a field or a turning in a road and then loop. If you have been running for quite a while and know you’re at the front, have a peak behind you and if you can’t see the back it may be an idea to turn!

 

To help, those at the front could call out that they are turning and the back markers can let them know when they pass that they are at the back.

 

Happy Looping!