If if there wasn't enough for you to get your teeth (running shoes?) into with the Gunnersbury 10k and the Ealing Half Marathon coming up, Ealing Eagles marked their first ever appearance at the Summer League in Dulwich on the 10th of June. We placed 6th out of the 9 participating clubs; not at all bad for a first appearance.

What is involved?

The Summer League is a meeting between running clubs which encourages friendly competition by using a point system. Although the scoring is a bit complex, the basic idea is to encourage club participation as the club with the most participants has the best chance of scoring. We get lots of points for younger and older categories, and a cluster of trophies is distributed at the finish to the top three runners in each categories.

Adults are required to run the 10k or 5 mile race in order to join in the 400m relay later in the morning. There is a tenderfoot race for the kids, and there is always plenty of food and refreshment around for picnics out.

Upcoming dates

Summer League 2012
Metros' (Sunday June 24th)
Ealing Southall & Middlesex (Sunday July 8th)
Morington Chasers (July 22nd)
Serpentine (Sunday August 26th)

How fast do I need to be?

You don’t! The more of these runs you can attend, the more points you score for the club. You will need to finish the morning race in order to attend the relay, though, but as long as you can last the distance, you’re a hit!

Bring an over-energetic 7 to 15 year old with you, and you can double your money (and exhaust them in the process!).

How do I get to each run?

The wonderful Nanda organised our transport for the way over, and there are always lifts up for grabs with Eagles willing to drive to each event.

All in all, each Summer League meeting is a fun day out with opportunities to find out what other clubs are doing, and a chance to share a picnic with fellow Eagles at the finish. It would be particularly good to see some new Eagles joining, using the friendly competition of each event to boost our running over the summer period.

Join us and see!