August 2024

On Saturday we offer a longer run which consists of 8 routes that rotate over 8 weeks. We try to change these in the winter and summer months. We range from a 10k run up to our longest run being 16K and all of our routes are in Weston.

We try to end our routes near a cafe so we can all enjoy a well deserved coffee/tea and piece of cake!

Our 8 week rota also sees us taking part in Weston Marine Parade parkrun, so if you want to join a Saturday run but only want to do a 5k then you can join us. Look out for our post!

During the month of August a few of our regular runners took on the Severn Bridge 10k. They were amazing.

We have had a few Saturdays that have been lovely and warm over the summer with some of our team achieving their 10K PB’s.

We were lucky enough to have a few LiRFs at our longest run (16k) in August so we could split the run to a shorter route as well (10K). We do pop this down on our post so keep a look out if you can’t quite manage the longer routes.

We have lots of regular runners who join us but recently have had some lovely new runners join.

If you can run at least 10k then we are more than happy for you to join us, we can cover any pace as we normally have a couple LiRFs here to support.

July 2024

The Thursday Social summer rota consists of four routes, over eight weeks, ending at four different pubs, The Landing Light, The Ship, The Pavilion Hutton Moor and The Captain's Cabin, where we enjoy a well deserved drink and a social chat.

During the month of July we had the pleasure of running from Birnbeck Pier to the Beach huts and back. When you live in a seaside town you have to make the most of our wonderful promenade. The first week was hot and sunny. As you can see in the photo. Our run needed to be slow and steady and hydration was paramount. The second week helped us with our stamina and endurance as we battled against a strong wind.

We have lots of regular runners who join us but recently have had the pleasure of new runners. Please do join us. We are friendly, can accommodate any pace and love to chat at the pub afterwards.

June 2024

May and June were busy months for our Youth Team.

We were invited to join North Somerset Council to promote The Knife Angel on 11th May. This was a great opportunity to interact with the community whilst highlighting the need for more youth inclusion activities in our area to support our youth to find activities that keep them safe and physically and mentally fit.

Through June, our team worked on all aspects of their running fitness by adding variety to their sessions.

The team enjoyed a circuit session to support their running strength and build their fitness. We added in an evening of hill sprints to support our endurance, this is always a tough session, but the team always work so hard to complete the sprints. We focused on our agility, balance and coordination before taking on an intense sprint session. We also took the team out for a trail run, navigating our way through a field of very inquisitive cows, a very overgrown footpath of nettles and brambles and a field of shy sheep who watched us from the shade of trees.

We have such a lovely group of teenagers who come along every week. We do have a few spaces, if you have a child aged 12 to 17, who is interested in running and would like to join us, please email us at westonwhippetsrc@gmail.com.

May 2024

May saw the start of some nicer weather and some sunny Tuesday trail sessions which were welcomed following the particularly wet year we've had so far; and with it came some fabulous views for our Tuesday Trail runners. We run at 7pm every Tuesday, we are currently on our Spring/Summer offering 8 different routes in Weston-super-Mare and surrounding areas.

During the month we made our way along the strawberry line up to Wavering Down trig point. Met at Bridewell Lane bridge to complete loops of the plantation. Had a shaded run through Weston woods and ventured from Locking to Hutton via the scenic route.

In June we will be making the most of living by the seaside with our new (for 2024) mud flats route from Uphill, taking on the 'quarry of death' in Hutton and heading to the top of Weston to circle Worlebury golf course and challenge ourselves to climb Monks' steps - hope to see you there.

April 2024

April was a busy month for DaPS sessions - short for Development and Progression.
We offer a variety of run types providing support to improve strength, stamina and speed. In April our sessions covered meet and retreat, pyramid sprints, an out and back run, a timed run and our assessment session.
Here’s a little recap of each…
Meet and retreat, led by Amy, saw our runners partnering up to run out for a steady 200m where they met their partner, high fived and then raced each other back. This is a session enjoyed by all. This time round we decided to mix it up by swapping partners half way through and changing directions. We were all thrilled to be finishing the session for the first time this year in the daylight!
Pyramids, led by Karen, saw our fabulous runners take on a pyramid sprint session in Haywood Village. This is a great session for practising speed efforts within manageable time-frames. Everyone worked hard at their own individual pace.

Out and back, led by Amy, saw us running out at a steady pace for fifteen minutes and then turning back and aiming to beat our times back to the start point. Everyone ran well and managed to achieve this target despite the wind direction not being in our favour on the retreat!

Timed run, led by Karen, offered distances of a 6k or 10k run with the aim of trying to beat the time that you last ran the route in. Two of our runners were new to this session in April so it was their benchmark run. We really hope they join us for the 8 week daps programme and are able to see their own progression the next time they run these routes. It is so lovely to see new members joining us and we wish you so much luck.

Our final session was led by our coaches Leanne and Julie and was our assessment session. We were joined by the Monday 5k group and was a great opportunity to view and assess our runner’s efficiency, agility, balance and control. We want to ensure that we are all coordinated to get our arms and legs working effectively together, and having the balance and agility to negotiate different terrain and obstacles whilst out on our runs. All runners were given individual feedback at the session and received tips on what they can do to improve their own running form. We hope everyone found it a useful session and look forward to seeing our member’s improvements the next time they attend our assessment session.

DaPs meets every Monday at 7.30pm in various locations.

March 2024

New runs added to the rota!

From 18th March 2024 we were really excited to be able to offer our members an additional club session.

The session is a Monday 5k ‘as you feel’ run. Exactly as it says on the tin! You might fancy a nice slow run or set out to get a personal best.

It’s entirely up to you, the choice is yours.

Our first session was our Hutton Moor route meeting at Haywood Village Academy. We had a lovely chatty run with a great mix of paces.

Our most recent run was along the seafront. We met at Bluebell wood, Uphill and had a gorgeous run along the seafront to the Winter Gardens and back.

We are very lucky to have a nice seafront to run along, although the weather can be brutal.

The weather was definitely on our side this week.

February 2024

Charity Runners

The Pavilion at Hutton Moor, Radio Wing at Locking Parklands, The Bristol House on Milton Road and The Landing Light on Beaufighter Road have been our meeting locations through the Winter months.

Despite a very wet start to 2024 and a super wet February, our wonderful runners have continued to attend our sessions. We have welcomed back past runners and have introduced new runners too. We cater for all runners regardless of pace.

February saw the team host their first loose change fancy dress run of the year. With all proceeds going towards the clubs Charity of the Year - Wallace and Gromits The Grand Appeal.

Our Social Team meets every Thursday at 7pm in various locations around Weston. If you'd like to join them for a run please contact the team at mailto:westonwhippetsrc@gmail.com

January 2024

A brilliant start to the year!

Some of our members started their new year by running to the chimes of the new year bell... and lots of fireworks! Char, David and Shelley (along with little Lottie) started their annual challenge in style as part of their 2024 fundraiser for Wallace and Gromit's Grand Appeal. They are being supported by their club members in an attempt to raise £2024 for such a brilliant charity.

We celebrated our amazing 10k team, who completed their 10k course in January. They worked extremely hard in all the elements, rain, wind and snow to get to the end of the course and achieve their 10k goal. Congratulations!

Our Youth Team visited a local Frisbee Golf centre as a late Christmas get together. They all had a great deal of fun, with the boys being super competitive, as always. The afternoon ended with everyone enjoying a hot chocolate or cold drink whilst watching the skiing.

December 2023

A super festive month with lots of festive fun!

December saw the whole club preparing for our fun and festive runs. We saw lots of the club taking on local races in their brilliant costumes.

Our fabulous Social Team organised a fundraiser festive run to build our donations for our Charity of the Year 2023, RNLI. Lots of our runners attended in festive and not so festive gear and members of our committee awarded every runner with a mince pie.

We also had a new member to the club for December, a little elf joined many of our runners on their runs. He got into a little bit of mischief!

November 2023

A month of rain means great trail runs!

We had so much rain in November and this had a huge impact on some of our runs. We cancelled a couple of sessions, but our hardcore trail runners made the most of the wet and muddy conditions and headed for the hills. They had some great runs (or paddles) throughout the month. Muddy runs are always great runs - If you fancy joining us, send us an email, we love to welcome new members to the team. This month we welcomed some of our 5k graduates and some of our Youth team to our Sunday trail runs.

October 8th 2023

Burnham Half Marathon

Weston Whippets saw a strong team run this brilliant event on the weekend. Sixteen of our members supported this local event, with the hopes of running a great race. We had a number of first time Half Marathoners taking part.

Great work for all of them. Special mention to Tim and Lynne for taking on their 2 half marathons within weeks. Both of their first races were very hilly trail half marathons. They definitely deserve a rest now.

Thanks to Burnham on Sea Harriers for arranging a great race.

September 23rd 2023

Weston Whippets Club AGM

Weston Whippets met for their AGM and Awards ceremony on 23rd of September.

The club handed out a variety of awards to current members from all sections of the club.

Adult Member of the Year - Claire Sunshine

Under 8 Member of the Year - Francisco

Over 8 Member of the Year - Edith

Youth Members of the Year - Ben and Peter

Volunteer of the Year - Shelley Adams-Bordon

The Lu Smith Award - Ruth Harper

Congratulations to all of you on your achievements within the club.

Thank you to our committee, coaches and leads for supporting all of our members to keep running.

August 26th 2023

Funetics Sports Day

Our funetics athletes brought their families along for a fun filled sports day at Haywood Academy. We saw very competitive races from all the dads and great fun was had by everyone.

Medals and stickers were handed out to everyone to celebrate their hard work.

We are now planning an even better Sports Day for 2024!

Huge thanks to the funetics team for delivering such a lovely morning, and for arranging such beautiful weather!

May 6th 2023

To celebrate the Coronation of King Charles and Queen Camilla our runners had a Royally great run! They dressed in their own interpretation of the King and Royalty and went for a run around Weston's Coronation estate on 2 separate occasions.

The team showed off some amazing outfits, including King Kong, Elvis - The King, King Charles and we had a bit of Geri Spice going on too! One thing that our club embraces is a good old fancy dress fun run!

A huge thank you to our wonderful Social team led by Sarah for planning and delivering both Coronation runs for our members.

If you'd like to come and enjoy a run with our Social team, please do get in touch. You can contact us for info at mailto:westonwhippetsrc@gmail.com

23 April 2023

TCS London Marathon

Weston Whippets were extremely proud to follow 2 of our members through this years London Marathon. Amy secured a ballot place and ran to raise money for Cancer Research in memory of a loved one. Carly secured the club's ballot place and ran for the club. Leanne ran the Marathon virtually with support from club members, family and friends.

Massive congratulations to Amy who raised a massive £1325.00 - Well done Amy!

March 25th 2023

Youth Team Food Prep Session

Some members of our Youth Team came along to a brilliant food preparation session at Banwell YCC.

During the session, the team followed instructions to make their own "No Bake Energy Bars" using a recipe from The Body Coach.

Everyone did a great job and went home with a full tray of bars to pop in the fridge for after their next runs.

We include a nutrition module to our Youth Team sessions because, as coaches, we feel that all athletes should have a good knowledge of how good nutrition supports their exercise. It also supports healthy eating.

This session was delivered by Club Coach Russell.

February 5th 2023

Weston Whippets 5th Birthday!

On Sunday 5th February, Weston Whippets celebrated it's 5th birthday in style.

Our members and their families took part in a 12 hour relay with the celebrations starting at 5am. Every 15 minutes saw 2 new runners taking on a 2k (or 15 minute run) before passing on the birthday baton to the next pair of runners.

Our first runners of the day were our Club Chair and Co Chair, Shelley and Julie, who formed a brilliant tag team with mother and daughter team Chris and Karen. Between the 4 of them the first hour of running was covered before other members of the club came to join in the relay with their families.

Almost 85 of our members came and took part in the celebrations for their club and we enjoyed cake and prosecco throughout the day.