Member profile - Andy Muir

Member profile alert 🚨

This week the team green spot light falls upon A group regular Andy Muir.

1. Please Briefly introduce yourself.

My name is Andy Muir, I was a relatively late starter to running and didn’t take it up until my 30s, I’m I my 40s now. I wasn’t a bad runner but struggled to improve my pace. I joined Brentwood Running Club roughly 2 years ago and haven’t looked back. I’m currently running with A Group.

I was apprehensive joining a running club as I was worried it might be a bit cliquey and a bit elitist, but nothing could be further from the truth; you couldn’t want to meet a more friendly and inclusive group of people. My running has really come on and I’ve made some great friends with it.

2. What events if any do you have coming up?

I was supposed to be doing the Chelmsford Half back in March but that was postponed to October. As Covid restrictions start to ease I need to get some races in my calendar, I do love a 10K!

3. What does running mean to you?

Health and Fitness remains my main motivation for running but I also enjoy the simplicity of it as a sport, it’s you against the numbers and I love pushing myself to get faster and go further.

There’s also no better way to get rid of the stresses of the day, I always come back feeling better than when I went out.

4. What is your best BRC memory?

It has to be last October at the Queen Elizabeth Park 10K; we had gone to this as a mini-team and the camaraderie was great: Terry Allen, Phil Price and Dan Jaycock all socially distanced of course. This was the first time I got under 40mins for a 10K and I’d been trying to do this for as long as I can remember, Terry Allen was screaming his lungs out at the finish line, willing me across the line, he was close to being thrown off the course!

It wasn’t just that day, it was all the months of hard work training, setbacks and come backs leading up to that. I’d trained with those guys and they’d helped me across the line, I couldn’t have been happier.

5. Proudest running moment?

That Queen Elizabeth 10K, I do get a bit obsessed with the numbers and I’d had that sub-40min 10K in my head for a long, long time. But it was also when running changed into a team sport for me, being there as a group, encouraging each other and sharing in the success made me proud to be part of the team.

6. Best bit of running advice you could give or have been given.

“I’m going to have to science the sh*t out of this!” – Mark Watney (The character played by Matt Damon in the film ‘The Martian’).

Understanding the theory, looking at the data and figuring out where there are improvements to be made is part of the fun for me. If nothing else, the placebo of thinking you’ve found a difference is all you need!

Member profile - Steve Birkett.

Member profile.

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This week our spotlight and questions fall on long standing club membership secretary Steve Birkett.

Here is what he had to say.

1. Please Briefly introduce yourself.

Hi I’m Steve Birkett, probably best known to most of you over the past ten years as the Membership Secretary, the man who hassles you for money each year, and who circulates info about the club through Footprint. Believe or not I did use to run a bit. After over 30 years of hockey, I joined the Thrift Green Trotters 25 years ago this September. I know we have changed our name to the Brentwood Running Club, but I still feel a Trotter!

2. What events if any do you have coming up?

The calendar used to be full of races, but my last race was the Billericay 10K in 2017. However these days I get great satisfaction in running the beginners groups, couch to 5K, over the past 3 years, and seeing former non-runners achieve a personal goal

3. What does running mean to you?

That has changed over the years. Initially it was a means of keeping fit in the open air and challenging oneself over different terrains and distances to go faster and further. Looking back now, it was all those things but done in a great spirit of camaraderie, and the joy of running is in the togetherness rather than the loneliness of the long distance runner.

4. What is your best BRC memory?

Wow so many over the years, from the simplicity of the mile loop we all used to run together from the Courage Hall at the start of a Wednesday evening, to the various club marathon trips to Dublin, Berlin and Lanzarote, and coach day trips to places such as Whitstable where Annie would sing her heart out from an improvised stage after a few (too many) bevies. Probably the best memory has to as a Gamesmaker at the London Olympics, helping to marshal the marathon alongside fellow Trotters

5. Proudest running moment?

That probably has to be reserved to my first London Marathon in 2001. Four newbies to marathon running – Barry McDonough, Roger Stevens, Steve Rich and myself – trained for and ran the marathon together with the aim of getting under four hours. Great joy in getting over the line in 3:59:26, but probably the proudest moment was on the train coming home was when a little old lady congratulated me and gave up her seat for me

6. Best bit of running advice you could give or have been given.

The best advice I’ve been given is Steve Rich’s famous line – ‘hooold it back’, but mine would be ‘give it all you’ve got, but enjoy it’

Member profile - Phil Olsen

This week our spot light falls ipon regular group leader and pale run aficionado Phil Olsen.

1. Please introduce yourself.

I'm Phil Olson, currently taking Group B.

I joined TGT/BRC around 2003, I was one of those that thought that everyone at a running club was almost at elite level so it took a while to be persuaded to try the club out. I had already run the London Marathon a few times, but training with the club made it so much easier.

2. What events, if any do you have coming up?

No events entered, but probably some of you know I do the odd parkrun here and there. I'm not the furthest travelled nor have I done the most number of parkruns in the club but I might have done the most venues, currently at 112.

1. What does running mean to you?

Running takes me to all sorts of different places physically and mentally, so for me I find it relaxing .😁

4. What is your best BRC memory?

Best BRC memory has to be running past our drink station at the London Marathon and being deafened by all the cheers. I always wonder what the other runners think!

5 . What is your proudest running moment?

Proudest running moment is split over quite a few years. I remember my daughter running around the living room while the marathon was on the TV when she was about 3 years old saying I've run a marathon, jump forward to 2019 and there she is finishing in a time quicker than most of mine.

1. What’s the best running advice you could give, or have been given?

Just enjoy running, sometimes it's nice to be competitive , but it's also great to chat and listen to the birdsong.

P.s. I did set a Guinness World record a few years back which was great fun (fastest marathon runner dressed as a chef).