About Handy Cross Runners

We are a friendly crowd, consisting of around 170 people (roughly split 50/50 male-female), comprising of runners of a wide range of abilities from extremely sociable to very competitive. The club was formed in 1978 at the beginning of the jogging boom and has become one of the most popular and well respected road running and cross country clubs in the area.

 We meet at the High Wycombe Judo Centre, Barry Close, Booker, HP12 4UE on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:00pm. On Sundays runs take place on an ad hoc basis from different venues. The information about these is usually distributed by e-mail so please check before you turn up to run on a Sunday.

The Judo Centre is superbly equipped with changing rooms, showers, sauna, conference rooms and a comfortable bar area to relax in after running. In summer the surrounding area offers a wealth of scenic countryside and footpaths to explore whilst in winter there are numerous routes to take along well lit and safe streets.

On Tuesdays you have a choice of what to do. You can either take part in an organised interval training session or go off on group runs of around 6 plus miles.

 Wednesdays are predominately, but not exclusively, aimed at beginners and improvers. All members are welcome to come and run and we encourage our more established people to come along to look after the improvers and take them out on some interesting runs. We have several 10 week Beginners Courses taking place throughout the year and on completion of these runners move on to the improvers group where the mileage is gradually increased to a point where people can comfortably fit in with normal club runs.

On Thursdays we go off on group runs of between 6 - 11 miles. There are several groups, each catering for differing abilities of runners.

On Sundays, depending on the racing calendar, runs tend to be arranged via our e-mail network. We generally meet at venues away from our club house so that we can enjoy running in different surroundings. These runs tend to be of a very sociable nature and we constantly keep regrouping so that no one gets left behind. Distances of ten miles plus are the norm and more if people are training for a marathon. If you would like to run with us on a Sunday, please e-mail mikehick@btinternet.com  first for details of where we will be meeting.

As a club we organise three major road races. The Marlow 5, which takes place in May and the Wycombe Half Marathon and 10k in July. We compete in the Chiltern League Cross Country races on Saturday afternoon’s throughout the winter months and the Thames Valley Cross Country series on Sunday mornings. During the summer, on Tuesday or Wednesday evenings, we take part in a 5k Series of races which are very social occasions with food laid on afterwards. We host one of the Sunday Cross Country races as well as one of the summer 5k Series. Club members are encouraged to get involved with helping out and marshalling at all of these events.

We organise several social functions throughout the year including our Annual Dinner and Christmas Disco. About once a month during the summer on a Thursday evening a group of our members will plan and organise a run with a pub as the venue. These normally feature distances of around 6 and 9 miles as well as a walk of about 4 miles that non runners can come along and do. Afterwards, most of us will visit the pub for a drink and some food. In the winter on Sunday mornings, when not racing, we often do something similar but then the distances tend to be a bit longer as time is not so much of a constraint with the pubs not opening until noon.

As you may have found, our website www.handycrossrunners.co.uk contains lots of helpful information and will give you a good insight of what we get up to and the wide range of running abilities of our members. Please look us up on facebook too. There is a link on our website home page.

Our current subscription is £45 per year and is renewable on 1st April. We allow people to come along for a few times to make sure they are happy with us before we ask them to join. You will get a free club T shirt and information pack detailing the many other benefits of being a member when you sign up with us.

We hope that this will be enough information to persuade you to come and run with us, but if there are any more details you may wish to know then please do not hesitate to contact us.

Whether you are an experienced runner or considering taking it up, please come along to see us and the facilities we have to offer. You’ll find it much more fun than running alone.

Happy running,

Handy Cross Runners.