It’s all change at the top of New Milton based New Forest Runners with Steve Hull and Caroline Woodford stepping down as Chair and Honorary President respectively at the expiry of their terms of office. Jim Edgar has been appointed Chair and Charles Fox has accepted the position of Honorary President. Paying tribute to Steve and Caroline, Jim Edgar commented that Steve had taken over as Chair just as the pandemic hit and had the tricky task of guiding the club through and beyond that difficult time. He leaves the club well positioned for the future. Caroline’s role as Honorary President was to ooze positivity and encouragement at every opportunity, a task that she undertook with relish participating with and cheering club members at training sessions, parkruns and races alike. Jim Edgar has been a member of the club for a number of years and joined the committee in 2023. He has benefited from the myriad training sessions the club provides regularly setting new personal bests. Jim completed his first marathon last year and is looking forward to his second marathon in April. Charles Fox has been involved in all aspects of the club from club committees to organising our active Mudlarks group to entering races and picking up personal bests and age category awards. Like Caroline before him Charles will continue to bring positive vibes and encouragement to all involved in the club. Like many New Forest Runners Jim and Charles are supporters of running in the community and regularly volunteer at Lymington Woodside and Brockenhurst parkruns. Jim Edgar commented: "I am grateful to Steve and Caroline for getting the club safely through the pandemic years. Along with my fellow committee members I am looking forward to addressing the future challenges and opportunities for this great club. New Forest Runners is a welcoming club to belong to and I hope will go from strength to strength over the coming years.”

It is with regret to announce that New Forest Runners will not be running a Junior section starting the new membership year for 2023, starting 1 st April. Even with the restructuring of the group after the pandemic, it has become even more difficult to sustain numbers, acquire adult assistance and meet the England Athletics criteria to maintain Junior Safeguarding. If, in the future, we are able to comply and implement a sustainable process, the Club will be more than happy to resurrect the Junior section, which has been a great inspiration since the Club was started.  I am sure you would like to join me and the Club in extending our sincere thanks to all that have been involved over the years and now to Nick Marshall and Gavin Hawkins, for all the commitment that has been put into running the Juniors.

THERE IS STILL TIME TO JOIN US FOR THE 35th ANNIVERSARY OF THE NEW FORESTS' MOST POPULAR RACE . . . AND News update 27th September 22. The latest good news for those looking to sign up is that we have been able to secure more printed T shirts. Consequently we are confident that we will be able to maintain our offer of both T shirt and medal for all entries close up to the deadline. The choice of shirt sizes for final entries may however be limited. Please check back for updates, and follow us on our Facebook page for the latest information. We look forward to welcoming you in October 2022 The NF10 Committee

My name is Caroline Woodford, as I am sure many of you already know. I was very honoured and surprised to be asked to represent the New Forest Runners as President. I joined the New Forest Runners around 13 years ago and since then it has become a massive part of my life, which I thoroughly enjoy. For over 30 years I enjoyed horse riding, competing in local shows and taking part in the New Forest Boxing Day point to point races, which I was fortunate to have won on three occasions. A few of my other pursuits are paddle boarding, kayaking, cycling and swimming. I enjoy competing in the CC6 and RR10 Cross Country with members of the club. The encouragement from our runners along with the club atmosphere gives me a real buzz. I travelled to New York in 2018 with a group of the New Forest Runners to compete in my first ever marathon; which was a truly amazing experience. For many years I worked on the markets as a trader, there I enjoyed meeting lots of people and loved the banter with my fellow traders. Until recently I have along with my brother and daughter been a director of the local newspaper; which had been owned by my late father Charles Curry. Since retiring from the markets running has allowed me to continue meeting people and making new friends. I would like to take this opportunity in thanking Mike McCabe for doing a fantastic job as President; I know it will be a hard act to follow. Thank you again. Let’s hope we will all be able to meet up and run together again very soon. Best wishes to you all. Caroline

Running is what makes me tick - literally! Although I am limited to shorter distances and have to run more slowly nowadays, it continues to be a hugely important part of my life. Without running life feels flat - also literally! As a child I remember running around the garden lawn. At school in Lancashire, poor eyesight meant that I was never much good at field games and I enjoyed running on nearby Longridge Fell instead, though I only ever made the 2nd team. At university in Sussex I ran numerous cross-country races on the South Downs and surrounds. At one stage we had an Olympic gold medal winner (Adrian Parker) and a national record holder for the half mile (Chris Carter) on our team, so I usually felt very much an also-ran! I also ran a 1500m race against another Olympic gold medal winner (Steve Ovett) without being lapped! One year I was proud to be captain of the university team, though was usually happy to finish in the top half of any race. When I ran the National cross-country champs at Luton in 1979 I didn’t even manage that, but was very pleased to make the first thousand. I did a couple of 10 mile road races at Hampstead and Horsham, but cheap shoes and lack of proper stretching often led to injuries. Over the next 20 years, work and family took priority. I’d sometimes head off for a run in the forest with colleagues at lunchtime and managed a couple of half marathons as a New Forest Runner. By 2000 I was in my late 40s working in Portsmouth and joined a group of university staff doing the Great South Run. The buzz of doing that race made me want to improve and after a few more half marathons I did the club Wilverley Challenge to convince myself that I could complete 26.2 miles. It was at this stage that the benefits of regular training with the New Forest Runners started to kick in properly. The enthusiasm of others for running is more infectious than any virus, but I still had much to learn from other club runners. Joining a club is unquestionably the best way for runners of all ages and abilities to improve. My first London marathon entry in 2002 was disastrous and I had to withdraw with a lower back injury. My second marathon entry for the Isle of Wight was even more disastrous because I burst a blood vessel in my leg on my last long training run. I came very close to giving up marathon running. At the time I was visiting Athens for work several times a year and thought that I’d put in a third marathon entry and give it a go on the classic course. When I finished that historic race from Marathon to Athens in 3:44 I was ecstatic. Runners should never give up, however many times they fail! Running is a wonderful sport because you can do it on your own covering a few miles in the beauty of the New Forest or amongst more than 30,000 runners in a marathon and everything in between. Like so many runners, my goal now was to achieve PBs and my training became regular, varied and above all, fun! Occasionally there were prizes to add extra motivation, such as an age group win in the Great South Run when I improved my time by 20 minutes! As my marathon times approached 3 hours, I began to wonder if I could reach that goal, but it proved elusive. By the age of 56 I had run 20 marathons and my times were slowing. In a last gasp attempt, I managed to complete London 2010 in 2:58:55 and was on cloud 9 for weeks afterwards! I never managed it again, despite running another twelve, but it still gives me great pleasure to know that I did it. The New Forest Runners helped me achieve a lifetime goal and enjoy every moment of getting there. In 2015, over 40 years since I’d run my first county cross-country champs at university, I was chuffed to win my first and only ever county age group title. In the following year of 2016 my life was almost ended suddenly by a serious autoimmune condition, which left me with 20% kidney function and in a wheelchair. I thought I would never run again, but after two years of struggle gradually got back on my feet. Becoming President of the New Forest Runners on the same night that President Trump was inaugurated in 2017 might have been inauspicious. In reality, it helped me recover from illness and motivated me to encourage and cheer on club runners more vociferously. Above all it was a huge honour amongst a club of so many wonderfully friendly and motivated people. These days I run with the Mudlarks, a happy bunch of NFR oldies. Parkruns have become my new marathon distance and a 10k has became my ultra distance! As my limited recovery progressed I was delighted with a Parkrun under 30 minutes. Perhaps I can do it again post-lockdown and reach 50 ... maybe 100 Parkruns ... and keep going! For inspiration I need look no further than the extraordinary New Forest Runner Bruce Davidson, who reached his final finishing line last year aged 98 and was still running events at 95. The word “legend” is overused, but Bruce truly deserves it! I owe a great deal to New Forest Runners not just for helping me to achieve my running dreams, but for all your friendship and encouragement over the years, especially through recent illness. Huge thanks! Whether you are new to the club or a seasoned veteran, keep on running through our present troubles! Wishing you all a lifetime of happy running amongst friends Michael McCabe ps The picture above shows me (right) with Club Chairman Steve Hull, just before we took on the Bransgore 10K.