Club news

2017 Review of the Year, Ben Munns

December 29, 2017 by Martin Lawrence
Frontpage Article, Headlines, News Specials

Another winter had passed with no running and I had signed up for the Festival of Running Half Marathon, my first race at this distance. I wasn’t a member of the running club at this point nor had much exposure to it as I was only running 50miles or so a year. It’s a race I won’t ever forget, my last one before joining the club and one with many mistakes. I remember the flooded underpass at mile 1, wearing too many layers, the heavy wind, poor pacing, seeing Nev cheering at the Redway station and being so surprised at the amount of cheers going to all of their runners despite the horrible weather and then the 2hr pace setter overtook me near the finish. I finished a broken man in 2hr 2mins and enough was enough – I was running with Redway Runners the very next week.

Ben Munns 1

 

With the motivation of the wedding coming up everything changed and I was hooked. With two months of running with the club I met lots of new faces and soon got into a routine of running. I signed up for the MK Half which was on the 1st of May with a goal of just setting a new best time. It was such a great experience and well supported half. I quickly found myself running in a group with the 1h 45min pacesetter and it felt tough as we approached the centre of Milton Keynes. I found my rhythm and even managed to pull away from the pacesetter as we approached the halfway point.

The great support continued and with it being my first race in the club colours I soon began to understand what a family it is and what a difference having your name on the top really makes. ‘Come on Munns, ‘Come on Redway’ it was awesome and really push me through the middle phase with some quick splits. As I approached mile 10 I began to struggle with the pace slipping back to 8minute miles but still ahead on the 1m 45 pacer and now on the homestretch. I remember running into the stadium for the finish like it was only yesterday, such a fun way to finish the half. James Fuller one of the club runners was there with his family and cheered me on to finish strong, I found some more speed and overtook a few runners near the line and finish in just under 1h 43mins, the best feeling ever.

Ben Munns 2

One of the toughest moments of the year was near the finish at the Bedford Half, which was the first weekend after the honeymoon. I’d stopped for the third time at 12.5 miles, the PB was no longer in sight and I was broken. Like a ray of light out of nowhere Julie from the club appeared and gave me a simple ‘come on Ben, jog it home’ She was taking it easy as part of her Marathon training for New York and the Chester Metric but it was such a massive help to get me over the line – Thanks again Julie!

Joining the Chiltern cross country league on Neville’s recommendation was another great experience, it’s a great way to keep running over the winter and it’s just so different to any other form of running. The best thing about cross country is the support we get from the Redway women who always hang around to give us encouragement.

Ben Munns 3

In 2017 I received the fantastic news that I had been given the opportunity to run in the London Marathon 2018 on behalf of Cats Protection and progress one of my life goals. I was in complete shock to get the good news, such a scary proposition to run 26.2 miles especially after only recently joining a running club and having such a tough time managing only half the distance

Anyone who knows me will be aware that I adore cats and the Milton Keynes branch is all run by volunteers in their spare time and own homes. All your kind donations will go towards helping cats who are desperately in need of your support.

Please, please, please be so kind and sponsor me if you can! Every donation, no matter how big or small, will go a long way in helping me to achieve my fundraising target.

As an extra bit of fun anyone who donates £30 can choose ANY song for me to listen to on my run. I will pop round to see you so can add this my marathon playlist (Please be kind) and I won’t look at it before the big day!

If you would like to sponsor me, I have a Just Giving page here:

www.justgiving.com/BenMunns

Ben Munns 4On the 6th on November it became Facebook official, I had been selected as a sponsored athlete for 2018 with The Treatment Lab and Clean Coach Katie. It felt great to get this good news and it gave me such a boost knowing that Rudi and Katie will be invested there time in me and my marathon journey. The prize consisted of monthly treatments with Rudi with more nearer the marathon, PT sessions with Katie and access to the weekly classes. Having this support is great especially with me having the added pressure of fundraising for the marathon. As part of the sponsored athlete programme it advised we should make a blog to diarise our progress but since starting this I have actually really enjoyed recapping my year so if anyone wants to hear more of my rambling visit my blog at the http://thegreenrunner.co.uk/ it’s still very much a work in progress but it’d be great to get anyone’s thoughts.

Ben Munns 5It’s hard to really quantify what a difference the club has made me but in simple terms it meant I could lose weight, marry the women of my dreams and feel great on my wedding day, all down to the club and for £5 a year, wow what a bargain. As well as that I have met some fantastic people, I remember looking at Strava and it told me I’ve spent 41hours running with Maff, 27 with Jen and didn’t even know them until May. I have made some great friends in such a short space of time especially with the small but awesome Wednesday 5am group. Everyone from the club has been so supportive and invested in me, even Martin seems to know when I’m running a cross country event despite the club having over 1400 members and even made comment at the latest club run that I’ve had a good year which was fantastic to hear.

Ben Munns 6

I’ve been rambling on for ages now and not even mentioned the sub 20 parkrun or dirt half race – for those you can visit my blog but for those who like numbers here’s a statistical representation of before and after joining the club:

5k – 25:25 down to 19:48

10k – 54:32 down to 44:19

Half – 2:02:52 down to 1:36

Mileage in 2016 – 36

Mileage in 2017 – 1007

Plan for 2018? Complete my first Marathon, beat all of the above and make more friends with the club trying to give back more with parkrun’s and supporting the graduations

Ben Munns 7

Archives

2024
January 2024 (5)February 2024 (2)March 2024 (4)
2023
January 2023 (6)February 2023 (4)March 2023 (4)April 2023 (6)May 2023 (7)June 2023 (6)July 2023 (4)August 2023 (5)September 2023 (6)October 2023 (4)November 2023 (6)December 2023 (4)
2022
January 2022 (7)February 2022 (4)March 2022 (4)April 2022 (5)May 2022 (7)June 2022 (5)July 2022 (4)August 2022 (5)September 2022 (7)October 2022 (7)November 2022 (4)December 2022 (6)
2021
January 2021 (2)February 2021 (6)March 2021 (6)April 2021 (4)May 2021 (5)June 2021 (6)July 2021 (5)August 2021 (3)September 2021 (3)October 2021 (5)November 2021 (3)December 2021 (7)
2020
January 2020 (4)February 2020 (1)March 2020 (8)April 2020 (15)May 2020 (11)June 2020 (7)July 2020 (5)August 2020 (2)September 2020 (1)October 2020 (3)November 2020 (3)December 2020 (6)
2019
January 2019 (3)February 2019 (1)March 2019 (4)April 2019 (5)May 2019 (2)June 2019 (2)July 2019 (4)August 2019 (4)September 2019 (3)October 2019 (5)November 2019 (3)December 2019 (5)
2018
January 2018 (5)February 2018 (1)March 2018 (6)April 2018 (5)May 2018 (4)June 2018 (6)July 2018 (5)August 2018 (7)September 2018 (6)October 2018 (8)November 2018 (5)December 2018 (3)
2017
January 2017 (7)February 2017 (5)March 2017 (6)April 2017 (3)May 2017 (4)June 2017 (6)July 2017 (8)August 2017 (6)September 2017 (4)October 2017 (8)November 2017 (5)December 2017 (9)
2016
January 2016 (5)February 2016 (1)March 2016 (6)April 2016 (7)May 2016 (1)June 2016 (5)July 2016 (9)August 2016 (11)September 2016 (8)October 2016 (6)November 2016 (9)December 2016 (6)
2015
January 2015 (6)February 2015 (4)March 2015 (2)April 2015 (12)May 2015 (5)June 2015 (1)July 2015 (5)September 2015 (6)October 2015 (6)November 2015 (7)December 2015 (7)
2014
May 2014 (2)June 2014 (4)July 2014 (2)August 2014 (7)September 2014 (9)October 2014 (4)November 2014 (14)December 2014 (7)