Foxy Ladies Running Club

Month: March 2020

Corona Virus impacts felt throughout the running community

Due to the outbreak and now pandemic scale of Corona Virus all running clubs have been asked from 17 March to completely cease any training sessions and meetings until at least the end of April*. All races and large gatherings have been cancelled. Following government guidelines and England Athletics advice https://www.englandathletics.org/athletics-and-running/news/coronavirus-statement/ all Foxy Ladies sessions were stopped with immediate effect.

As a club our members health and well being is at the forefront of everything we do, we have been closely following and adhering to the governments guidelines at every step.

Pulling together

It is of course one of the most worrying times we have ever seen, most of us have never experienced or seen a pandemic like this before. Everything grinding to a halt, NHS pushed to the limit, schools and colleges closed, airlines and travel halted, restaurants and pubs closed and small businesses forced to close with no certainty when or if they will reopen.

Many of our members are affected in one form or another, we have many who are self employed, NHS and care workers working long or extra shifts, self isolating with medical conditions, home schooling and caring for vulnerable and the elderly.

We are all pulling together as a community, I have been touched by our members buying shopping for each other, conducting their solo runs by passing peoples house to wave through the window and bring a smile to their faces. Alternatively simply getting together virtually for interactive online calls to keep each other going .

Keeping it going

The one thing we are all clinging on to at the moment is that we are allowed out once a day to exercise, whether that’s a walk, run or cycle and for many this helps their mental and physical health and well being.

We continue to encourage our members to take their outdoor exercise whilst we are allowed, by setting virtual solo or team challenges. We are also putting on classes for strength and conditioning and injury prevention videos. Our members are enjoying live workout videos and we aim to get the whole family involved with fun challenges to keep them engaged and motivated.

*Update England Athletics have now extended this until the end of May.

March 30, 2020
A dab hand with the old brush!

A team of Foxy Lady volunteers gave up their valuable time and helped to transform the hallway landing and lift area of the Creative Heart Community Hub in December 2019.

The inspirational ladies behind the community hub, Claire and Fliss, have been working tirelessly renovating what was the old Tamarisk Centre building in Littlehampton. They took on the building in a state of disrepair, it had been left empty for many years , It had been vandalised on several occasions which meant holes in the roof and the build up of damp and mould was off the scale. This didn’t deter the ladies, they set about renovating and decorating with the help of the community. Different organisations donated time or items to help get the project going.

Fliss and Claire had a vision “Creative Heart will be a love filled, not for profit, vibrant community hub and arts café. We aim to be a safe and genuinely inclusive space that tackles loneliness, inspires creativity and improves emotional, physical and mental wellbeing”.

The hub will be funded through sales in their homemade food café and by renting rooms and spaces to businesses and organisations. Their progress has been incredible not only through their own creativity with resources and items donated but from the generosity of others. Fliss told us they have only had to buy a pot of paint and a few brushes to date. It is heart warming to see and hear about how the community has pulled together on this project.

They hope to open in April and have facilities available ready to go like a library, childrens play area and IT suite. Hot desking, community group rooms, creative arts room, and of course the wonderful café will also be available. The other areas they are working on and aim to roll out soon will include a hoist for changing disabled people, chapel and a laundry room for rough sleepers to wash clothing and bedding.

The Foxy Ladies team got involved after hearing about the project and decided they would like to try and help the scheme along a bit further. We donned our best painting overalls and brought our own rollers and brushes and got stuck in with sanding down washing and painting the upstairs hallway.

It was great to be able to make a difference and there was lots of chat and banter whilst we worked hard. We came away feeling pleased that we had helped albeit on a small scale but left with the promise to return and help further.

We had a date booked to return in March 2020, to help them clean the ground floor ready for opening but unfortunately this has had to be postponed due to the Corona Virus outbreak.

We are committed to helping this project and will return when viable. For more information please see http://creativeheart.org.uk/

March 27, 2020
Charity Clothes Swap raises money for great causes!

Leah Simms one of our new run leaders and club member for a few years, organised a charity clothes swap event for the members. The aim, to pass on and exchange preloved or new sports wear whilst raising money for good causes.

Members were invited to donate 5 clean unwanted sports items of their own either on the night or in the preceding weeks. They then paid £5 entrance fee and were allowed to take home 5 items , any additional items required were charged at 50p an item. Ladies were asked to vote where the money went, the charities that benefitted are ones close to our members hearts.

The ladies were absolutely delighted with their purchases many leaving with bag full’s and others with one of two carefully selected items. Donations included brand new sports bras, Nike trainers, Sweaty Betty leggings, Nike and Adidas shorts and running tights. Plus there were gym tops vest t-shirts running jackets, high vis attire, swimming accessories, hats, new morphs and gloves.

The evening was such a success, we raised £170 in one hour and this has been divided between the two charities voted for are Chestnut Tree House and St Barnabas. The money has been donated via sponsorship to ladies that are running marathons and trekking in their names.

Left over items will be used for another similar event later in the year.

Thank you To Sue Hart for the loan of the venue.

Leah with her clothes swap bargains

March 3, 2020