Preamble - brief although important notices
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As per Malcolm's email to the club, with the announcement that most of Surrey is in the new Tier 4, all senior group training sessions are cancelled with immediate effect. For further information and for juniors training, please refer to Malcolm's email.
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Unfortunately the Priory Relays that were due to take place on January 16th/17th have been cancelled.
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Please let us have your nominations for the Ted Baker Award. The Ted Baker Award is given to the person who is judged to have made the biggest contribution to the culture or success of the club during the year. Current committee members are not eligible to receive the award. Please send you nominations to 
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If you were a recipient of a trophy last year please could you return them ASAP as I need to get them engraved for the 2020 winners. Please contact to make arrangements.
A message to all of our readers
We will be without a club awards social evening this year, so opportunities to wish each other our best wishes over the festive break are somewhat limited, but with this in mind for our Christmas newsletter we want to bring you a club review of 2020 taken from the newsletters through the year. We hope that this summary illustrates that the club is active, resilient and resourceful, even in the face of adversity.
Do get in touch with us if you wish to for whatever reason at 
, and here's wishing each of you a very Happy Christmas and may the New Year bring us all new horizons, new opportunities and the riddance of COVID-19.
See you soon and keep safe,
Andrew and Paul.
January
1st Under 20 James Naylor and Drew Burridge visited Lee Valley Athletics Centre, Edmonton. James clocked a personal best over 400m on his first outing to a banked indoor 200m track with a superb run of 54.82s. Drew set a club best time over the same distance of 53.51s in his first competition in the Under 20 age group.
4th Reigate Priory AC's inaugural Couch to 5K course started.
5th There were strong performances at the juniors Surrey XC Championships at Denbies with 14 runners from RPAC in the U13 girls race!
5th The seniors Surrey XC Championships were also held at Denbies. First lady for RPAC was Eloise Bull (35th) and first man was Rick Coles (79th).
5th Thirteen entries from RPAC finish the Tadworth 10. Rob Wigley finished in 1:11:06.
11th Surrey League Cross Country fixture 3 - the girls and ladies on Wimbledon Common, the boys at Beckenham and the men on Chobham Common.
12th MABAC league event at Windsor Great Park. Ian Stammars was first home for the men and Ruth Willis was first home for the ladies.
12th Lilah Unwin went to the South of England AA Indoor Championships at Lee Valley to run a new 800m PB finishing 4th in a time of 2.30.26.
18th Thirteen RPAC juniors competed in the Surrey Schools XC Championships in Priory Park. Six Priory juniors were selected to run for Surrey.
18th The Awards Evening was a great success!
25th Remember Parkrun Tourism? We went to Banstead Woods.
25th There were strong performances for the juniors at The South of England XC Championships at Parliament Hill.#
26th Usha Stevens finished a half marathon in Seville in a time of 2:15:21 smashing her PB by 14 minutes, and Ginevra Stoneley finished the Farnborough Half in 1:28:42 finishing 4th W45.
February
8th Surrey League Cross Country fixture 4 - girls and ladies at Richmond Park and the boys and men at Lloyd Park. The U13 boys secured 4th place on the day and 3rd place for the season. The U13 girls finished in 6th place on the day and 6th place for the season. For the men Francis Dunham came 5th across the four races of div 2 on the individuals leader board, and in the same leader board was the 1st V40.
15th/16th Junior athletes completed in the Surrey CAA Indoor Championships at the David Weir Leisure Centre, with 3 medals and a number of PBs.
22nd A trip to Lee Valley Indoor Athletics Arena was a trip well worth making for juniors Shakila and Lilah, both returning with PBs over 800m.
23rd Wokingham Half - our RPAC half marathon club championship. After a group of 5 Priory men ran together for the first 11 miles, George Roux managed to pull away to become the new half marathon men's club champion. Ginevra Stoneley successfully retained her champion title, finishing in 1:28:22 and the first V45 overall.
29th Park run tourism at Nonsuch cancelled due to the ravages of storms Ciara, Dennis and Jorge.
March
1st MABAC and Border League events hosted by RPAC in Priory Park. Thank you to all of our volunteers. The course was challenging and slippy. For the MABAC a team of 16 RPAC athletes produced great results, including Gavin Fox who managed to come 2nd, even after going the wrong way on the first lap! Almost 40 RPAC juniors competed across the eight Border League events. Highlights were individual medals across the four match series for Lisette Matthews, fifth in U9 Girls, James Beatty, second in U9 boys, Max Orchard, first in U11 boys and Oscar Curry, second in U15 boys. Also the U9 boys and girls both came third equal out of the fourteen Clubs.
7th Park run graduation day. Our Couch to 5K runners went to Tilgate to complete the 5Km distance, and were joined by quite a few RPAC members for support.
7th / 8th Jo Davey won the British Masters indoor title in the W45 800m, competing against some of the best Masters athletes in the country. Jo finished in a time of 2:21.86 finishing 3rd overall (with W35 and W40 also racing), and 1st W45 and British Champion.
15th England Athletics provided guidance that "all face-to-face activity such as club training sessions, events, competitions, club committee and face-to-face meetings, athlete camps, running groups and social events should be suspended until at least the end of April".
26th With great sadness we learned of the death of Greg Knott after a long illness. Greg was a much respected member of RPAC who served the club in many roles including runner, coach, committee member and Club Chair.
30th RPAC start virtual competitions.
April
6th Paul Walters edged out Paul Chandler to run the longest "lap" in Priory Park of 11.12km in an RPAC virtual competition.
13th In the early start run challenge Natalie Wilson beat everyone by a country mile by logging a run that started at 02:33! In the monthly distance challenge Kate Knight logged the longest distance this week with an incredible 141.3 km.
20th The challenge this week was to run or walk the shortest route that you could passing a church, a pub, two post boxes, an oak tree and a windmill. A great deal of effort and thought was put into this by those who took part. Max Orchard was declared the winner of this virtual event, logging 0.85km. In the monthly distance challenge Charlie Butcher logged an incredible 136.6km last week, with Kate Knight hot on his heels with 134.7km.
27th A "guess who" competition was declared with four photos of long standing RPAC members from their youth. I was actually one of the four of these pictures showing when I won my village road race out in the sticks in Devon at the age of approximately 14, but most people thought I was female when viewing the pic!
May
1st The YMCA Virtual Fun Run starts.
4th Results of the Strava Art competition were as above. The winners were from the juniors section Will John-Cox who submitted the Union Jack, and Christian Froggatt who submitted the rabbit.
4th The competition for the week was to run or walk the shortest distance taking in the following - a bus stop, a school, a grave or memorial, a silver birch tree, a pedestrian crossing, a barber's shop or hairdresser's and a children's playground. Sophia Bryant logged 0.3 miles (which I think works out as 0.48km), Max Orchard logged 0.89km, but the winner this week was Adrian Bowden with 0.28 miles (or 0.45 km). Well done to you all.
4th For the Monthly Distance Challenge Leaderboard Charlie Butcher logged another 116.7km last week. Close behind him were Matt Aylott and Fran Dunham who both logged over 100 km for the week. Charlie takes the title for the month with 688.4 km, Kate Knight is in second position with 532.7 km.
11th The 5 x 1 mile relay challenge started this week.
11th In the Monthly Climbing Challenge Charlie Butcher leads with 1972 metres. Adrian Grant is in second place with 1263 metres, narrowly ahead of Fran Dunham with 1243 metres.
18th The club AGM was successfully held on Zoom.
19th In the Monthly Climbing Challenge Charlie Butcher clocked another 1962 metres of climbing last week and leads the board by some distance. Phil Withers and Chris Daniels logged 1458 and 1365 metres respectively.
24th Kate Knight completed the 100km London to Brighton course over the weekend. This was her second 100km run in two weeks
25th The challenge was to see how far you could run in 15 minutes. The following people attempted the challenge and recorded distances Sharon Miller 2.525 km (1.4 miles), Adrian Bowden 1.69 miles, Ian Edmonds 3km (1.89 miles), Stephen Smith 2.05 miles, Jake Boud 2.06 miles. Well done to all of you.
25th In the Monthly Climbing Challenge there were some different names on the leader board this week - Steve Bass with a massive 3143 metres, Tom Almond with 1295 and Paul Butler with 1289. Charlie Butcher is still ahead of the pack despite Steve's huge effort.
June
1st The RPAC Summer 10K was cancelled.
1st In the Monthly Climbing Challenge Charlie Butcher topped the leaderboard last week with a huge 1962 metres of climbing. Adrian Grant was in second place with 1273 metres and Tom Almond was hard on his heels with 1247. Final positions for May are Charlie Butcher, Tom Almond and Adrian Grant.
7th A small group of RPAC athletes ran round the Dorking 10 course whilst maintaining social distance. (The event was due to take place on this day).
8th The final standings of the 5 x 1 Mile Relay virtual competition.
| Team 1 |
Team 2 |
Team 3 |
Team 4 |
Team 5 |
Team 6 |
Team 7 |
| Adrian Grant |
Tom Almond |
Jake Boud |
Christian Froggatt |
Malcolm Woodman |
Adam Parkin |
Steve Cheesman |
| Jas Dhanda |
Andrew Bamford |
Ken Packer |
Gillian O'Regan |
George Roux |
Ginevra Stonley |
Freddie Roux |
| Euan Willis |
Max Orchard |
Robert Duncton |
Will John-Cox |
George Duncton |
Ian Edmonds |
Jack Finn |
| Jamilla Ncayiyana |
Usha Stevens |
Nat Wilson |
Adriana Collins |
Frank O'Regan |
Fran Afonso |
Kate Knight |
| Duncan Mallison |
Chris Wigley |
Ruth Willis |
Adrian Bowden |
Stephen Smith |
Antony Collins |
Rob Wigley |
Team result totals were as follows Team 1 (2:11:42), Team 3 (2:18:43) , Team 2 (2:18:56), Team 5 (2:22:47), Team 6 (2:23:17), Team 7 (2:29:43)
The fastest men were George Roux (20:27), Duncan Mallison (22:47), Freddie Roux (22:54), Tom Almond (23:02) and Jas Dhanda (24:49). The fastest individual mile was 4:41 from George Roux.
The fastest ladies were Jamilla Ncayiyana (24:33), Ginevra Stoneley (24:51), Nat Wilson (25:03), Ruth Willis (27:16) and Gillian O'Regan (27:47). The fastest individual mile was 5:50 from Ginevra Stoneley.
The fastest junior runners were Max Orchard (23:28), Will John-Cox (23:45), Euan Willis(26:33), Robert Duncton (28:24) and George Duncton (30:40). The fastest individual mile was 5:47 from Max Orchard.
8th The challenge of the week was to submit a photo of your favourite view taken when out running or walking. There were some superb photos.
15th An aged graded 1Km competition attracted quite a lot of interest. There were some very speedy performances with Tom Almond recording the quickest kilometre time of 3:11. It was the juniors however, who won the day in the age grading with Max Orchard and Herbie Smith taking first and second place closely followed in third place by Nat Wilson.
15th For the strangest outfit Adrian Grant submitted a picture of himself dressed to run Reigate Priory Parkrun at Halloween - terrifying! Adrian also told us that he had previously set a Parkrun PB running dressed as Santa!
15th For the wackiest race Mike Pocock reminisced about a unique run along the M25 in 1985 "Wackiest local event for me has to be the one-off and never to be repeated, M25 10 mile race. It took place in 1985 on the finished motorway just prior to being opened. The start was on the carriageway by J9, it headed off towards Reigate Hill, crossed the central reservation and then returned on the other side. It was a well attended event, plus also with a very large number of spectators who fancied a walk with a difference. I got the medal, regretfully I can't remember my time, so was it obviously slow!"..That must have been quite something!
16th A limited return to coached training happened for some groups.
29th For juniors Ellis ran some taster sessions for you to try javelin and/or hurdles.
30th Kate Knight completed running the total distance between Lands End and John O'Groats (1083 miles) which she ran over the previous couple of months to raise money for the Surrey and Sussex Healthcare Trust Charity SASH.
July
6th This week's event was a 300 metre time trial. The fastest man was Shane Dowell (10:45.8) and the fastest lady was Jo Davey (11:01.3)
13th The finish of the 5 x 1 mile handicap relay - week 4 of 4.
These were the teams
| Team 1 |
Team 2 |
Team 3 |
Team 4 |
Team 5 |
Team 6 |
Team 7 |
Team 8 |
| Adrian Grant |
Tom Almond |
Jake Boud |
Christian Froggatt |
Malcolm Woodman |
Adam Parkin |
Steve Cheesman |
Ian Stammars |
| Jas Dhanda |
Andrew Bamford |
Claire Humphrey |
Gillian O'Regan |
George Roux |
Ginevra Stoneley |
Freddie Roux |
Ian Martin |
| Euan Willis |
Max Orchard |
Robert Duncton |
Will John-Cox |
George Duncton |
Ian Edmonds |
Jack Finn |
Linda Rodriguez |
| Jamilla Ncayiyana |
Usha Stevens |
Nat Wilson |
Adriana Collins |
Frank O'Regan |
Julian Rowlands |
Kate Knight |
? |
| Duncan Mallison |
Jim Vince |
Ruth Willis |
Adrian Bowden |
Stephen Smith |
Antony Collins |
Rob Wigley |
? |
Here were the final results...
Team 8 39:26, Team 6 39:27, Team 4 39:29, Team 3 40:06, Team 2 40:33, Team 5 40:39, Team 1 41:47, Team 7 42:09
August
1st Training for U11s resumes on Saturday mornings.
3rd Jim Vince and Kate Knight complete the Vanguard Way Marathon
8th The Saturday Social Group starts up for 10:30AM in Priory Park.
27th Ian Martin retires from RPAC Coaching. Ian coached his final session for the RPAC Juniors. Ellis and members of the Committee were on hand to present him with a card and suitable gift.
September
~1st With most of this summer's track and field season lost to the pandemic, U15 Lilah Unwin has managed to get her entries in quick with a few meetings beginning to pop up. With numbers restricted, they fill up fast! Starting with her first competitive 300m race at the Blackheath and Bromley Open, including the Dina Asher-Smith 150m Invitational on Saturday 22 August, Lilah won her race in 44.87. A time that sees her placed 4th fastest U15 girl in the club's 300m records.
Moving up to her preferred distance of 800m a few days later, Lilah recorded a new PB, despite the torrential rain, competing at the first Harrow AC 800m and 1500m race night.
Racing in much better conditions last Sunday in Loughborough, Lilah had a big PB in the 800m with a fast time of 2.25.79.
~3rd U17 Oscar Curry entered the Herne Hill Harriers 800m / 3000m and won his 800m race with a big PB, taking his time down to 2.06.81. Oscar will take on his first 3000m track race at Harrow AC this coming Thursday evening.
5th In the U13 800m at the South London Athletics Network Open held in Tooting, Max Orchard ran a mature race to finish 1st in a very impressive time of 2.22.50 - a massive PB.
5th Eloise and Graham Bull competed in the Dorney Lake Weekend 10K at Eton Dorney, finishing in 9th and 18th place respectively (2nd and 1st in their respective age categories).
6th Tom Almond, Freddie Roux and Lee Savage competed in the Run Through Battersea Park 5K, finishing in 15th, 27th and 46th place respectively (13th, 23rd and 2nd in their respective age categories).
10th U17 Oscar Curry continued his fine form on the track with an outing in a 3000m at the Harrow AC 3000m race night Staying with the pace throughout the 7 1/2 laps, Oscar clocked an impressive 9.37.52. A time that ranks in the top 50 UK U17m.
12th At the South London an exciting race in the 1500m saw Oscar Curry record another big PB (18 seconds quicker than his best last year) in a time of 4.15.92.
13th RPAC track and field officials were back in action at K2 in Crawley, officiating at the Crawley AC Club Championships.
14th Another PB for U15 Lilah Unwin at the Blackheath and Bromley September Open Series, this time in the 600m. Lilah's time of 1.38.76 was exceptional and took some 8 seconds off the club record! It also sees Lilah currently top the UK rankings for U15G'S 600m. It was also a good night for RPAC U15 sprinters. In the boys 200m, George Evered won his race in a speedy 26.12, a new PB for George! Eva Peters doubled up with a 75m race followed by a 200m and ran a new PB in the 75m with a time of 10.87. Eva just missed out on her PB in the 200.
20th Jenny Barrett completed some of the Rungo virtual challenges set to the club by Jack Finn. She declared that they were "Good fun!".
20th George Roux completed a very speedy 5K (15:44) in the RunThrough Running GP at Goodwood.
21st This was the month of virtual "Run Reigate", and Kate Knight completed it in 3:01:49 which is a new PB for her on that course by 10 minutes.
21st Racing under the floodlights at Blackheath and Bromley last Monday night, Max Orchard and Lilah Unwin both recorded 800m PBs.
26th At Herne Hill Harriers, despite the cold and blustery conditions, U15s Shakila Keable and Lilah Unwin battled it out at the front of their 800m race to both record new PBs. For Shakila this was her first track race of the season and for Lilah another in a string of fast times and PBs having competed almost weekly since mid August. U17 Oscar Curry just missed out on another 800M PB, clocking an impressive 2.07.20.
26th Sonia and Mike Scott were betrothed on this day.
26th Malcolm completed his first race in nearly a year following his surgery - a very respectable 26:39 in the Run Through Lee Valley Velopark 5K. Ginevre Stoneley achieved a club record of 19:31.
26th / 27th Kate Knight completed the 50Km "Chiltern 50 Action Challenge" in a new PB beating the previous one by 1 hour 15 minutes
October
3rd Ginevra Stoneley achieved club records at Herne Hill where she set new category records for the 1 mile (5:35.48) and 3000m (10:48.90) events.
4th A number of RPAC athletes took part in the Virtual London Marathon - results above. Kate Knight completed 3 marathons in one go as she ran the Dorney Marathon yesterday but was also registered for the virtual London and Loch Ness Marathons.
4th Jim Vince completed the Isle of Wight marathon in 4:38:58. In his understated style Jim says that it was "a bit hilly" and "conditions weren't ideal".
10th at the SLH Track Meet, Jo Davey reinforced her #1 UK ranking in W45 800m. There were PB's for Oscar Curry, Max Orchard, George Roux and Ginevra Stoneley. Both Jo and Ginevra have set new W45 club records. George's time of 9:13 is rapid!
18th At the Grand Prix Bedford Autodrome Charlie Butcher set a new club record for the marathon by finishing in 2:26:42.
24th Nick Wade and Kate Knight completed the Beachy Head Marathon in what must have been truly horrendous conditions. Nick finished in 4:59:50 and Kate finished in 8:22:04.
31st Ginevra set a new club age category record by running a 5k in 19:21 at the Lee Valley Velopark. She was the second lady runner home, finishing just 1 second slower than the first placed runner. Malcolm continued his return to racing at the same event finishing in 27:10.
31st The UK Government announced a lock-down.
November
8th Jack Finn recorded a new half marathon PB, running the virtual Gatwick Half Marathon in 1:58:04.
16th With council approval, RPAC start to switch on the floodlights at Battlebridge between the hours of 6 - 9pm Monday to Thursday, for the duration of lock down.
22nd Kate Knight finishes her virtual challenge 2020th mile in the year 2020.
29th Kate completes the Centurion 100 mile trek.
30th Resumption of training announced after a period of lock-down.
December
1st YMCA Virtual Santa Run starts.
5th Frank O'Regan posted a 10K PB in the Run Through Clapham Common 10K.
5th Malcolm Woodman and Ginevra Stoneley take part in the Dorney Lake 5K.
6th Ginevra Stoneley, Mike Pocock and Kate Knight take part in the Running Grand Prix marathon at the Goodwood Motor Circuit, joined by Eloise Bull and George and Freddie Roux in the 10K, and Ian Burks who completed the half marathon. Eloise ended up with a PB, and Mike recorded the UK's fastest V65 marathon time this year. Kate was completing her 68th marathon.
13th Holly Kew took nearly 3 minutes off her 10K PB finishing in 43:54 at Dorney Lake.
19th Turkey Trot and training sessions cancelled as Reigate heads into Tier 4 restrictions.
25th Wishing you a very Happy Christmas!
Keep in touch
It's more important than ever that we keep in touch with each other at this time. Stay safe everybody. Please let us know if there is anything you'd like to see in the newsletter.
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