Wow! What an amazing effort from so many Shufflers over the weekend. We had a total of 13 members taking part, either virtually or at the event location, in one of several marathons; London, Hundon and Loch Ness.

We are immensely proud of their amazing achievements and have enjoyed listening to their accounts of the experience. 

Well done to –

• Lisa Squirrell
• Julie Dovey
• Becca Harry
• Simon Sinclair
• Ben Solway
• Roger Ackerley
• Suzi Whymark
• James Cornish
• Matthew Hunt
• ian Coxall
• Norman Smith
• Carina Sewell
• Fran Telford

Check out this amazing video capturing our annual river crossing run! We start the run with a mud run followed by wading through the river Deben to then run 5 miles across the beautiful scenery of Woodbridge.
Come and join us next time…

The Woodbridge 10k was unable to go ahead this following the pandemic; but the Shufflers (never ones to be put off) managed to pull together a celebratory relay race around Woodbridge instead followed by an evening of celebration.

As a team we completed 40 laps around Woodbridge for 40 years of the Club.

The race was an opportunity for the club to don their Woodbridge 10k prize t-shirts, both new and old, and do a victory lap around Woodbridge in pairs.

Our own Dave Alley kindly organised the setting up of a tent (see pics!) in Elmhurst Park and the many tent-manning-volunteers and runners as well.

The relay also proved to be a wonderful way to warm up for the birthday-bash-barbecue that was held later the same day down at the Cruising Club by the river to celebrate the clubs 40^th year in action.

It’s been a difficult year for all of us; but as ever the team spirit of the Woodbridge Shufflers shone through from dusk till dawn on that glorious sunny August day.

Hi all

It’s brilliant to see so many of you out with the Woodbridge Shufflers again, after the restrictions we have endured due to Covid.

As the Government and England Athletics advice has changed recently, here’s a quick update on running with the club, and the impact of Covid on our runs. 

Covid

There are now no government restrictions on the numbers for outside gatherings, or restrictions on social distancing.But Government statistics suggest people are nervous about returning to normality.

Only 40% of people feel comfortable going to indoor gyms, leisure centres or swimming pools. Although we run in the open air, many people are still nervous about returning to group activities outside. 

To help our members feel comfortable about returning to running with our club, we have decided to keep a few minimal guidelines in place.So we’re continuing with our small groups for the moment, but we’ll do our best to put on a number of different runs each time to accommodate everyone – long, short, fast and slow, and back to running.

We’re also recommending that you maintain social distancing of 1m for our club runs and training sessions.

Spond

Using Spond to book runs has been really effective. It helps us to make sure we don’t overbook our groups – under England Athletics rules, each run leader can only take out groups of 12 people maximum. It also helps us in an emergency, as we can quickly find a runners emergency contact details, and any medical conditions that we need to know about.

We’ve therefore decided to make booking via Spond mandatory – to run with us you MUST book via Spond, and you MUST have your emergency contact details filled in.

Unfortunately anyone who has not booked via Spond will be turned away from future runs.Thank you for your understanding, and hope to see you out soon

New Around Here?

We are of course keen to welcome new members and to allow people to “try out” the club” before committing, simply drop us a mail at membership@woodbridgeshufflers.org.uk to arrange.

Your coaches and run leaders.

The Shuffler’s very own Gemma Cannon is not only a runner but a very talented swimmer.  

As part of a team of five, she has recently accomplished the incredible feat of swimming the English Channel.

Gemma and her team completed this in the impressive time of 15 hours and 58 minutes with one member of the team always in the water swimming an hour at a time.

The unexpected arrival of a force 6 storm added 8 additional miles to the distance and the team were nearly turned around because of the challenging conditions, but despite this and a bad case of sea sickness, the team managed to achieve their goal.

Planning started back in 2019, and there were doubts due to the lockdown situation, but they managed to organise a qualifying swim whereby each team member was required to swim for 2 hours in water at a temperature of under 16 degrees. 

The team have managed to raise a staggering £9,300 for The East Anglian Air Ambulance and Suffolk Mind, with donations still being made.

Gemma has come away from this experience with a feeling of great pride, but is not in a hurry to do it again and would rather run a marathon!! (We shufflers agree!)

Well done Gemma – we are also very proud of your achievement.

Sue has been running for over 30 years; both for fitness and competitively.  In 1985 she completed the London Marathon and in 2002 she competed in her second marathon race and has continued to run them irregularly since then.

She runs extraordinary distances to raise money for a cause close to her heart; the Cystic Fibrosis charity.

Sue decided to challenge herself to run 12 marathons in 12 months, which she started in January 2020. With three already completed in the freedom of the Suffolk countryside things were going well until lockdown struck in March 2020 and Sue, not one to be defeated, continued with her challenge and completed April and May’s marathons in her own garden using her dog for company and with continued support and encouragement from her husband. 

Once she was permitted to hit the streets again, June proved to be a bumper month with Sue completing a further two marathons.

Local friends kindly joined Sue during the final marathons to encourage and support her along the way.

Her fellow Shufflers generously offered encouragement but with none living locally she accepted their support from afar; this support was gratefully received and was a great motivator to continue.

She went on to complete this challenge raising an impressive £4,000.

Sue was the most recent recipient of the prestigious ‘Shuffler of the year’ award as voted for by her fellow club members and is a much admired and valued member of our club.