A Plea from Vickie O'Leary

Along with some of my equally mad work colleagues I am competing in the 3 peaks challenge on 7/8 June 2008.  This envolves climbing the UK's 3 highest peaks (Snowdon, Scafell Pike and Ben Nevis) in 24 hours, yes just 24 hours!  This is a fairly huge challenge for a team of not particularly fit people, some of whom are worn out after walking up the stairs, however is for an extremley good cause, raising money for Tenovus the cancer charity.

Tenovus is a charitable organisation committed to the control of cancer through: quality research, prevention/education, counselling and patient care.  World leading cancer vaccine and antibody research is currently being carried out at the Tenovus Cancer Research Laboratory in the grounds of Southampton General Hospital.

Please help us reach our target of £1,500 and make all the blisters, aches and pains I'm sure we'll get worthwhile by sponsoring us online at http://www.justgiving.com/snowhopers

Thank you for your support and I'll let you know how we got on with our challenge of a lifetime (for some of us!).

Vickie O'Leary

The Test Way Relay - Saturday 30th August 2008

This event may still be some months away, but its not too soon to start the planning, especially as we missed the boat in 2007 and didn't put in a team. It's a great day out that sees most of the local clubs in abundance. If you don't know this event, the idea is very simple...to run the length of the ancient path known as the Test Way in a relay event made up of nine legs. The Test Way starts at Inkpen Beacon, and weaves its way down the Test valley, finishing in Ealing. The nine legs that make up the relay range between 6km and 10km in length and run over a wide range of terrain. Although the Test Way is marked, it is certainly possible to take a wrong turn, and this makes it vitally important to get out and recce the route in advance of the day. Running a couple of the legs makes a great Sunday run, as we get familiar with the routes. Clubs can put in men's, women's and mixed teams. Although this event is a lot of fun, there is a great deal of competitive spirit on the day with all categories keenly contested. In the men's and women's events many clubs bring out their 'big-guns' on the day to take the honours.

If we at Lordshill want to be competitive, it may make more sense to concentrate on the mixed event - a few years ago we were definitely in the running for the top place! SO, we are proposing we aim to raise A and B mixed teams, but that can be open to debate...and will depend on who is interested. In the meantime we would like to gauge the level of interest, so if you would like to know more and possibly take part, please contact Jim or Sioux on 02380 735094.

The Grizzly - Sunday March 9th 2008. Grizzly. Seaton, Devon.

Nineteen miles of hell. Why do we go back year after year? Because we love the shingle, steep hills, wet grassy slopes and of course the lovely oozing mud. The rain of the previous night made sure that the grassy slopes were nice and slippery and the mud just that little bit oozier. March 9th saw the lull before the big storm of the 10th so apart from a hail shower during the race it was a great day for taking in the wonderful views of south Devon.  Sadly, one of our number, chairman Mike Dukes,  took a heavy fall resulting in cuts and bruises which meant he had to be ambulanced back to the finish but the rest of the Lordshill contingent managed to make it to the finish on Seaton’s promenade where the local fire brigade were on hand to hose off the mud that runners had collected on the way round. The winning time of 2.24.24 proves that the course is not as tough as some of us think it is.

Mike Letheren	3.30.59	Aurelio Bello	4.14.54
Angela Lee	3.48.00	Derek Goodchild	4.24.00
Patrick Joseph	3.49.50	Roger Bradley	5.04.48