how "can I join Orion Harriers..." or how do I "join in a training run..." or "what standard do I need to be" or... "DOES MY BUM LOOK BIG IN THIS...? or... ...and so on. Fair questions. As there's seldom much info offered by the person enquiring, a catch-all response email gradually developed. It has helped other people find their way into running with Orion Harriers in our wonderful Epping Forest, so
you could ever need. It's for YOU...maybe? There's about 300+ members in our club - maybe 80 are women and 60 juniors - the rest are men aged from 18-96!) - dunno the split, exactly. (Different people organise our excellent Juniors Section. Click HERE! for Juniors info.) And - when you need it - you can download (for printing off) an Orion Membership Application Form HERE! | if not wholly painless... I think. Just turn up for a couple of training runs - or even guest in a race. See if you like it, before comitting... So when's BEST for training? Depends if you're male or female... MEN'S SECTION: Every Tuesday and Thursday evening in Winter a few senior men go training in the local-ish streets. In summer, we take to the Forest. Same nights. We leave Orion Harriers Clubhouse (BEHIND Royal Forest Hotel, Rangers Road, Chingford 3 or 4 mins walk from Chingford rail and bus station) at 7.30pm sharp. So get there before then - about 7.15, say? There's ALL standards of runners. You won't get left/lost in the Forest or stranded in darkest Chingford. Well... probably not... THE WOMEN'S SECTION: Our flourishing women's section also runs from the club HQ on a Wednesday evening, leaving the club @ 7.00pm. There are different women, running different speeds, someone will be able to help you find if you fit in and where... Many other groups (see below) go out EVERY other day at varying times but Wednesday's probably best starting point for a woman, Tue or Thu for a man. |
(behind the Royal Forest Hotel) and follow the voices... Tell the owners of those voices (who are mostly harmless!) that you want to run. They'll gladly help. If there's any further questions you may have, give me a call sometime during the day... Roddy: 0208 529 5938 or email me: orionxc@aol.com |
There's excellent changing rooms and showers - so bring a towel... oh... and shampoo etc if, unlike me, you still have a good head of hair... sigh. No need to join immediately. Have a few runs and see if you like it. Senior Annual membership is £35.00 (Second Claim is only £15.00!) - and to help cover running costs (no pun intended...) you're expected to pay 50p each + every time you use the club for a run and £1.00 at non-league races. During summer, training runs are in the Forest but on dark winter nights it's all road work... | Some women run with men's groups from the clubhouse on tue and thu at 7.30pm. (I'm slowest of that lot: they sometimes wait for me...sigh, again) Some men also join the women's 7.00pm Wednesday runs and the Juniors also train on a Wed. So it's a wide range of standards: Wednesdays are busy. So busy that there's NO PARKING at the clubhouse on Wednesday evenings or on on race days but there's plenty nearby local parking and good public transport! Women's and men's groups also go out - in the Forest) on Sunday mornings. Every Saturday, all year round, if there's no race on, there's always training runs in the Forest - leaving the clubhouse at 3.00pm |
There's loads of racing, too - if you fancy that! Like Orion, other clubs we compete with have some great running talent - and occasional lack of it. But even 'slow' runners take their place... mostly in front of me... Have a look at our summer and winter fixture lists. | We're now in the Summer season! In Winter, we have all sorts of races or training runs, from 5k to 15 miles, on trail, road, cross country and horse rides in the Forest. In Summer, there's a similar mix of Forest runs plus races on trails/quiet roads in a Summer road race league... which is nice. |