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.
It is with great sadness that the team has come to the decision not to hold the Woodbridge 10k race in 2021.
We recognise that the race is a wonderful occasion for the runners, spectators and indeed the Woodbridge community as a whole and our decision to not go ahead with this years 10k is with great reluctance.
Given the nature of the ever changing pandemic and lockdown rules as well as the several thousand people likely to be drawn to the race we feel it would not be responsible or plausible to go ahead this year.
This is likely to be as disappointing to you as it is to us as a club, and we are already thinking about how to make the 2022 Woodbridge 10k an extra special event following a 3 year hiatus.
The Woodbridge Shufflers would like to take this opportunity to thank all the runners, sponsors and of course our local community for their interest and support in the Woodbridge 10K.
A special thanks also goes out to the many volunteers who have worked tirelessly to try and make the race happen.
It is with great excitement and immense gratitude that we can reveal our new banners that we have recently received thanks to the generous funding from Helen Taber-French and the Locality Budgets Team at Suffolk County Council and the support of Councillor Caroline Page without whom it would not have been possible.
The banners will allow us to show how proud we are of our running club in Woodbridge and also act to encourage new joiners. We will use them at our annual Woodbridge 10K and our winter Cross Country event in Sutton. We will also display them to highlight our participation at other great running events.
Many thanks to Graham Bush who continues to seek out opportunities to allow our club to flourish.
We are delighted to announce, that after loads and loads of work behind the scenes, the club shop is now open. Its here you can order all of the club branded kit you could ever imagine or dare believe were possible.
Huge thanks to Rosie, Matt and Mark for all their hard work
Round The Town 10k Race may have been cancelled due to the Coronavirus outbreak – but that didn’t stop over 40 club members taking on the distance!
Usually, the event takes place over a few hours – with this year’s race originally planned for noon on Sunday 17th May. This year, the event was extended over the entire weekend, giving club members the freedom to run the 10K distance in their own time.
The first entrant, Ed Abbott, set off around 09:00 on Saturday morning, with his comrades adding times up to the deadline of 20:00 Sunday night.
As in recent years, the weekend was warm and sunny making the notorious double Drybridge Hill as testing as ever!
While many club members did stick to the tried and tested route, others got creative with their ideas, running both town and trail to log the distance.
The event was a great success, with 43 members taking part across all age categories. Club Secretary Mark Allen is to be thanked for a very professional event, which saw members running in club colours complete with running numbers.
To get on the leader board, club members had to log their efforts on Strava or their running watch. Despite the lack of cheering crowds, there were some very impressive times reported.
Particular kudos to Fastest Man, Tom Wake, with a time of 37:47, fastest female Rosie O’Neill, Simon Sinclair who logged a sub 40 minute personal best, and Ruth Acworth, going sub 50 and winning her age group despite a recent hip operation. Mum to be Sarah Smith and new mum Sarah JC Lewis also logged impressive times.
Mark Allen, Club Secretary, said: “Well done to everyone who took part – it was uplifting and inspirational to see everyone out. Some amazing achievements in the heat and without the crowd and support. Massively well done to all of you. Next year, many of us will be back to race duties as we
prepare to put on the 40th anniversary of our iconic race – and we can’t wait!”
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